"Sound My Own Horn"

     When I bought the 32 it came with various parts which were not installed on the car.  Two of those parts are the chrome horns that mount on the headlamp bar.  I really like the look that it adds to the coupe.  Both of the horns had several small dents in the bugle portion of the horn.  I was able to remove these to my satisfaction with the use of several different sized wooden dowels.  When I took one of the horns apart I discovered that it was missing the sounding diaphragm and it had also been cut and shortened about 3/4 of an inch.
     The search was on, after about 2 weeks I located one on CL (craigslist) in Penn., I bought it and had it shipped to me.  It too had several small dents which I was told about prior to buying, that's alright, what's life without challenges?  I removed the dents, it was complete, and after polishing and adjusting, I was able to "Sound My Own Horn" X2  They are going to look great on the car!
     In my opinion the Internet is one of the greatest resources a person can have.  I hadn't really worked on horns before and I really didn't have a good working knowledge of the way that they operate.  I found a company (Vintage Noise), located in Australia, they had copies of the original Delco-Remy service manual for the horn.  Vintage Noise makes and sells brass horns and horn bulbs for antique cars, check out their website at www.vintagenoise.com.  The horns on the 32 and even modern horns are an  electro-magnetic device that vibrates by interrupting the magnetic coils circuit many times a second.  This causes the sounding diaphragm to hit the core of the magnet making a tapping sound that we hear coming from the horn.  If properly tuned that tapping is happening so fast that we do not hear any interruption in the noise being emitted.

One of several dents to be removed.

By using this large dowel, I can push and rub from the inside to remove the dents.

Almost gone!

Dent removed and horn polished.

Final assembly, adjusting and testing, BEEEP--BEEEP!

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"MAKING DO"-----"TIME AND MONEY"

     Sometimes you don't have any other option than "MAKING DO" with the materials that you have on hand.

Cross drilling and tapping.

Test fitting the threads, one more to go!

Welded, grinding done, and polished, where's the tank?

Other times it is the lesser of two evils, by that I am referring to "TIME AND MONEY".  For myself "TIME" is usually more available than "MONEY"  and I enjoy the challenge of creating what I need.  In order to expedite things I will sometimes opt to make an item that may not be readily available at the moment.  The fuel tank strap TEE BOLTS were just such an item.  If I ordered them it would be at least two weeks, they were on back order.  I decided to use two long threaded bolts and two larger bolts to fabricate the needed TEE BOLTS.  I cut off the shaft of the large bolt, located center, drilled and tapped it to receive the smaller threaded section.  I then assembled the two, welded, ground and polished the bolt.   As you can see from the pictures they turned out fairly well.  Now if I can get my fuel tank back from powder coating, that part of the job can proceed.

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The Discovery Process!

New bumper eyelet bolt installed.

Old bumper eyelet bolt.

Big difference!

Making nut extension for new bumper bolt.

Welded two nuts to a washer, cleaned up welds, worked great!

     It takes a lot of searching, most of the time to find the parts that are needed to replace all the missing pieces.  The more repairs that I make seems to turn up a few more missing items.  I repaired the two horns that came with the car, first I removed all of the little dings and dents to the best of my ability.  When disassembling the horns I discovered that one of the sounding diaphragms is missing and the wrong bolts were use to assemble the horns.  One of the mounting brackets was also missing, lucky for me these parts are available from various sources.  I also realized that the front bumper eyelet bolts were wrong and they were also available.  The Internet turns out to be an indispensable tool for finding most all of the missing pieces.  More ordering and more waiting for UPS to arrive.

     Not always do things go as planned.  The bumper bolts turned out to be too short and or something was amiss.  A lot of head scratching and I figured out a way to use them, they were a lot nicer than what I already had.  It seems that restoring an old car requires a lot creative solutions.  Parts may be right for a particular vehicle but through the past 80 years items are lost or broken and replaced with whatever is handy.  Sometimes a person thinks that he has discovered the answer, when indeed it is only part of the answer.  I really don't mind all of the searching for answers, that is part of the learning process and it is what really cements all the tiny details into ones memory.  It is part of the creative process that makes the car a part of me.  One thing that I was pleased to Discover, is that there are a lot of people that are much more knowledgeable than myself and they are more than willing to help.  I appreciate their willingness to share their knowledge and experiences with us less fortunate.

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A Real Learning Experience!!

     I worked in the automotive business most of my adult life.  That being said, one would think that based on some 30 or so odd years of experience there wouldn't be too many surprises.  Our predecessors had a great wealth of knowledge pertinent to their occupations and the era in which they lived.  Of course I knew that old cars had wood in them, I just didn't know to what extent it was used.  I was reading an article about Fisher Body, whom manufactured thousands of bodies for a multitude of manufactures prior to selling to General Motors.  After being purchased by GM, they became the only corp. that Fisher Body could build bodies for.  Fisher Body and GM jointly owned in excess of 250,000 acres of forest land, of which they used in the manufacture of their cars.  They also purchased sawmills, created and patented special tooling and jigs for their production process.  The two corporations had such a tremendous investment in wood, tooling and craftsmen that they just couldn't abandon the use of wood in their cars.  Wood continued to be a very vital part of their process well into the late thirties.  Holding on to certain practices can make a very big difference in the cost factors related to the product being made.  When Ford changed over to lacquer paint, they were able to paint a car in 6 hours instead of 6 weeks.  Older paints, varnishing, preparation methods, drying times, re-coating times made a huge difference in the time it took to complete a vehicle.  The net result, a less expensive automobile.

     Because of so much wood being used, Chevrolet used step bolts, much like carriage bolts but with a larger and flatter head diameter.  These bolts were less likely to compress the wood fibers, special tee nuts were used to anchor into the wood, and nut plates that could be nailed to the wood to prevent them from spinning when the bolt was tightened.  For Chevrolet this production system fit nicely with their experience at carriage making.  Some of this hardware is still in use today, just not to the degree that they once were, and certainly not in the automotive industry.  For example very large step bolts are used in telephone poles to aid the lineman in climbing the pole.  Ah, history and to think it was one of my least favorite subjects in school but I find many aspects of it very captivating now.

Nut plates, small holes for nails.  Broken bolts removed, thanks WD40!

Old regulator felt washers.

New felt washers installed, nylon wasn't invented yet.

Drivers door window regulator.  Notice the use of tee nuts.

Selection of needed carriage bolts.

Last trip to The Filling Station.

New flocked channel for the windows.

    I took all my interior garnish moldings to a powder coating company today, the ones that I had pictures of earlier in my blog.  What do you think the Fisher brothers, Henry Ford, or Mr.Chevrolet would think of  this process?  SPC (Salem Powder Coating) is a rather small company, they are whom I selected to do this.  The parts should be ready in a couple of days, more about this later.  I decided not to go through the headache of tracking down all of the step bolts that I needed for reassembly of the car and use carriage bolts instead.  The carriage bolts are available at my local Lowe's store just down the street.  If I were restoring the 32 back to original I would be more concerned, it is a hot rod ya know!

     My partner and I made another journey to The Filling Station this past weekend.  More parts, more information and another bill.  For those of you unfamiliar with this business, they are a vintage Chevrolet parts supplier.  A great resource for parts and information!  Why is it that the size of the parts bag is always disproportionate to the size of the bill?


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While I Was There!

      I still haven't made a trial fit of the parcel shelf.  Since I removed the rear 1/4 windows and the rear window, I decided to go ahead and make new wood for the window regulator, rear window, both 1/4 windows and connecting pieces.  While I was in there, I thought that I might as well take care of everything now, instead of regretting it later on.  Trial fitting some of the new wood gives one a sense of making progress.  To properly fit the pieces I am going to need several of the metal reinforcing braces, time for priming and painting them so they will be ready when I am.  I removed the window regulator which was held in with four 10/24 screws and tee nuts.  The factory tee nuts have very small locking dimples on the wood side of the nuts flange, also used elsewhere there are tee nuts that have two or three holes in the flange, they are for small brads to lock the nut from spinning when tightening the bolt.  This type was new to me, but guess what?  While at Lowe's getting stainless tee nuts, low and behold there was the same tee nuts as the original Chevrolet tee nuts, not so uncommon after all.  It is interesting how many of the items we use today actually have a very long history of use throughout various industries.  I sometimes question myself as to the value in what I am doing, then I look at Brookville's website or EMI experi-metal Inc."s full body build or Down's Industries and numerous other suppliers, a smile and a chuckle seems appropriate.

Rear window rain gutter.

Both 1/4 window and rear window trial fitting.

Rt 1/4 window wood.

L 1/4 window wood.

Fresh Primer & Paint!

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The More I Do The More I Need To Do!

Removing seized carriage bolts.

 I had just finished the new parcel shelf and was going to give it a trial fit.  A rusted carriage bolt and a cracked spacer block told me otherwise. I removed the rear window regulator and you guessed it more dry rot.

 

More dry rot to deal with.

 The rear window really could use new channels anyway, out with the glass and old channels.  Remove all the wood surrounding the rear window and back to the shop.

Great tool, compact air hacksaw.

Hot melt glue holds dry rotted pieces together.

I am amazed that I already didn't have this air hacksaw, a very very useful little tool!  And speaking of good tools the hot melt glue gun has been indispensable in holding together dry rotted pieces.

Some really good patterns.

Something that we don't always have, good pattern pieces.  I always try to mark clearly the new part that I am making with layout lines and shade the areas to be removed.  Even then mistakes can happen!

Clear layout lines make cutting easier.

One side and now the other.

Custom built Honolulu Lulu and Little Lulu

One done and the other one fully marked ready for the saw.  The finger joints appear to be original.  From what I have read they glued all the joints at the factory and then installed the metal, these joints have no trace of glue.  They are snug fit and screwed together and with the bodies flexing, expansion and contraction of the seasons the fingers with cross grain split and broke.  No surprise, it is a situation that you should try to avoid.  Every time I talk with family or friends, they casually ask about the 32 and want to know if I am making any progress.  You know the old saying one step forward and two steps back just comes to mind.  With all the wood that Chevrolet used in their early cars, wouldn't you think that they would have produced lots of woody wagons?  I searched the Internet and really only found one 32 woody wagon and that was a custom build that sold at Barrett Jackson in Scottsdale, AZ.  Someone custom built a woody wagon (rod) with matching trailer and it sold for $53,900, can you imagine?  I am sure that there are more, I just haven't been lucky enough to see them yet.

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Time Can Be A Friend!

Hidden behind the dash, connects both door pillars together

Pillar and dash support, test fitting

Layout and installing upper hinge

Drivers door pillar

     As time passes some progress eventually happens.  I am more and more coming to the realization that Woody owners and enthusiasts are WOOD lovers at heart.  Who else would work for years, yes years on a car project?  Of course lots of guys and even gals build cars, sports cars, muscle cars, antique cars, resto-mods and , well you get the picture.  Woodies are different, the painstaking recreation of rotted wooden parts so one can have a template to use for making a new part for the project.  That is if you are lucky enough to have an old part.  If not, then by what ever means, through hours and hours of pattern making and refining, the part eventually gets made.  Even with the part rough cut it still has to be final shaped and fit into it's particular location.  But nothing brings out the wood junkie more than the selection of the WOOD.  It has to have just the right color, a pleasing grain configuration, and make all of these small and large pieces flow together so as to have a harmonious look.  People are odd creatures, most all of us when viewing a beautifully crafted wooden object just can't help ourselves, we have to feel that object.  It is as if it brings us together, it must have a clarity of finish, not even very small but barely noticeable scratches will do.

     Enough time cutting, shaping, scraping and sanding has to be spent and a glass like finish goes on,to

Autowood Restoration makes this and other kits

protect and to preserve all those hours in the shop, usually alone, with just the sound of time passing.  I have never owned a woody, but I have built different pieces of furniture and I can see the devotion and caring and craftsmanship that goes into building a wood bodied car is not any different.  All the pieces must fit just so and have a fine touch to the hand, there is not just a visual but a visual and just maybe a spiritual aspect in creating some thing from WOOD.  A once living breathing creation, that once felled, harvested and shaped, it is still pleasing to observe.  Surely isn't the skeleton that resides on the inside of my 32 Chevy make it a woody at heart.  Most likely it will only be seen when repairs are being made but it is there just the same.

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Setup and more trial and error----Picture Problems?

     I'm fairly sure that it has something to do with how I am loading the pictures.  The problem that I am experiencing is that after I load one picture, (all goes well) then when I try to load another picture it seems to lock up.  I just keep getting the working symbol.  Also does anyone know if the pictures can be placed in different locations throughout the blog?  So far all of mine load at the beginning of the text.

Clamping the work piece.

Notice the miter gauge, it allows for the end of the workpiece to be cut on various angles.

A hodgepodge of joints, some good some not so good.

More of the same!

      Enough of the trivial, here are some more pictures of the joints and finger jig that I made.  Hopefully!  Make a liar out of me, maybe the pictures install wherever you place the cursor?

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Try and Try Again !!!

Incra Fence with the two sets of scales installed.  Also notice the Micro adjuster to the right.

Multiple tries and lots of scrap wood, is the secret???

     As you will see by the pictures that I'm going to post, perseverance is the key to learning.  At least for me repetition seems to be the best teacher, but even then I sometimes wonder.  I gain confidence in the creation of an acceptable fit for the joint and in just the next try it seems as if I have learned nothing!  Does this sound familiar or is it just me?  Things just weren't going all that well and I kept searching for answers and finally like a bolt of lightening I realized that I was using a thin kerf blade not the standard 1/8" kerf (saw cut) but 3/32" instead.  Now that may not sound like a big deal but let me tell you that when making multiple cuts that little 1/32" adds up to quite an error!  So, change the blade and go through the trial and error again and again, finally better results.
     When I first made my finger joint sled I was indexing it against my regular fence, which I had always had great results with.  Of course the thinner blade was on the saw and of course that ended up being part of the problem.  In order to obtain more precise settings and better control for all the cuts needed to make one half of the finger joint, 9 in all.  I decided to install my Incra Ultra Fence on the table saw and see if that would help to remedy some of the trouble that I had been having.  Through the use of slide in templates that have precise spacing over their 16" length I felt sure that this would be a big asset.  To make it even more precise the Incra fence has a micro adjustment incorporated within the assembly.  The micro adjustment will allow you to make 1/64" adjustments left or right of the index marks.  Using a 3/8" box joint template, the table saw blade set to 4 degrees of right tilt and a blade height of 7/8" on the highest point of the saw blade's tooth.  A joint blank properly marked I attempted another cut, aah finally progress.  More practice joints and I had it fairly well dialed in.
     On the top of the Incra Fence there is room for two numerical templates and two spacing templates.  This feature allowed me to use one of each of these to make a set for cutting one half and another set for cutting the other half.  During the making of the joint one must cut all the finger across the board and then turn the board 180 degrees and make the angle cut for the opposite side of the finger.

More later from---Beneath The Bark

The first two photos are of the finger joints that I am trying to duplicate and of course the last picture is of  my 32 Chevy.

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New To You, and New To Me !!

     This a new thing for me, blogging, hopefully it will be fun and informative, for myself and anyone that happens by.  I am now involved in the repairing of a 1932 Chevrolet 5 window coupe which I purchased a couple of months ago.  The repairs started out to be rather minor as things go, but things started snowballing on me.  You know how that goes, just a small thing here and there and the next thing you know you are in up to your eyeballs!  At first it was just a few mechanical issues, a new shift lever assembly and a emergency brake lever with attaching parts.  I knew that the rumble seat floor pan was in bad shape but in reality it was missing altogether.  There had been a 1/4 inch hardboard makeshift floor installed, so the search was on.  I found a fellow in Ohio that makes all the floor pans for the coupe and I promptly ordered the same.  As I kept digging I found dry rot in several places, you see the folks at Chevrolet were as much carriage builders as car builders.  There is a complete wooden frame glued and screwed together before any sheet metal can be attached.  In a way that is why I am now blogging.  I found several other blogs that woody wagon builders are writing, and it dawned on me that this might be a great way to share my experiences as well as garner some information.  The need to make several finger joints for the wooded skeleton of the 32 has had me searching the net high and low.  There is a lot of talk about the joint but very little meat and bones of the how to of the joint.  As time marches on and hopefully progress with the project I will post more information in regards to my accomplishments and hardships.
     I would like information on companies that manufacture finger joint cutters, not the big elaborate production machinery but something more for the home shop.  These joints are of the structural nature, that is,  they are 7/8 " deep.  Most others are a maximum of 1/2" in depth which is sufficient for joining two boards end to end for the purpose of lengthening the board and consuming short cutoff lumber pieces but not for structural purposes.  Nor is  it in keeping with the original methods of construction.  It is also not to be confused with a box joint which is commonly referred to as a finger joint.  The box joint has rectilinear (square or rectangle) fingers and the true finger joint has long tapered fingers.  These long tapered fingers provide much more long grain gluing surface and they also wedge together to create a very strong structural joint.
 
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