It was so nice out when we got back that I pulled the tractor alongside the garage in anticipation of protecting myself from the Winter wind as I intend to get to this from time-to-time before Spring. Ever since I built this thing I’ve been procrastinating gearing it down. It’s really just too fast to work with - even in first – so I’ve continually debated between either adding an offset jackshaft or installing a tandem transmission. The offset jackshaft will allow me to work with the compact 10″ span between the trans and the rear without having to change the rearend setback, but the second, inline trans is really the way to go from a functionality standpoint.  Whichever option I commit to, it’ll get done this time around since I’ve already started tearing back into it.

The ’36 has been getting it’s fair share of attention, but it’s been a repeat performance on the driver’s side door of work that has been done to the passenger side door. So far on this side since my last posting I’ve:

1. shaped the lengthened door to its opening:
   
   
2. built the inner structure such that that it was stable enough to remove from the opening. This let’s me continue shaping and finishing it at a more comfortable height and flip it over to get to otherwise hard to reach areas, etc:
   
   
3. started on the hinge pockets for the suicide treatment:
   
   

 
I’ll be keeping at it as time allows after family and other priorities so stay tuned.

As I’ve already mentioned to one friend, we get more out of doing this as a family than we could ever possibly give away.

The term “Cracked and Contact” refers to the throttle and the engine’s ignition switch positions. ”Cracked” means no more than a pencil width open on the throttle. If the plane won’t start with this much fuel, I’m not about to fly it.  “Contact” refers to having the ignition switch made.

This is no game and many people have been seriously injured (and killed) doing this incorrectly. Standing straight-up in front of the prop and bending forward to “flip” or push the prop down places your head directly in line of the next blade coming ’round. That’s bad. Grabbing the prop – fingers over back edge – usually sends digits flying in various directions if/when the engine kicks back much the same way a kick-start motorcycle jams your leg instead of starting on the first try. Also bad.

The safe and only continuous way to prop is to place your hands flat on the front surface of the blades, keeping your fingers from wrapping over and thumbs tucked snuggly against the sides of the hands. It may not sound like you’ll get enough grip to start an engine this way but remember the prop is pitched and you’ll have plenty of downward force.

Here’s where you commit. Keeping your right leg straight, lift it across and in front of your left (opposite for Russian engines) in such a way that you’re entirely off balance and actually falling away from the blades and to the right. Pull down and through with your arms as you go. No hesitation allowed once you start.

Doing it this way uses your body’s momentum to keep its upper section away from the spinning prop, and moves you away from standing directly in front of the shredder should the plane lurch forward because said pilot had the controls “slightly more” than cracked or had his foot slip off the brake. Continue in the direction of the fall, away from the business end of the plane, go around back, and enter the cockpit as usual.

I took the video by putting the camera on a fence post near a grass strip in Delaware and letting it run. When I got back from a couple of hours poking various shaped holes in the sky, I picked-up my camera from exactly where I left it and put it in the bag.  Here’s 13 secs from the original post, reformatted since it quit working when we transferred from the old FlyingMelons website. 

Enjoy!

When planning the work on the ’51 I knew that I wanted to pancake the roof.  This is because of the “turret top” style roof.  The story is that the old vehicles had tall roofs so that men could drive them with their hats on.  I don’t know if there is any truth to that story.  I do know that the high roof crown makes the truck look top heavy; this look is accentuated as the glass area is reduced when chopping the top.

 When I built the concept scale model of the truck I had a great deal of difficulty with getting the roof to look right.  I tried to blame the problem on the out of scale thickness of the plastic model.  In my heart of hearts I knew better and the result was that I entered the roof modification phase with some trepidation.

When I cut the roof apart for the top chop I knew that the roof area would grow lengthwise and so I cut a large “sun roof” area out of the middle.  I also was planning for the increased roof area brought on by streching the cab four inches.  The entire roof is some 5  1/4″ longer that stock through the middle above the doors.  Interestingly I lost about four inches of roof length when I took out the two piece windshield and replaced it with the curved windshield.  The resulting roof is only about 1  1/2″ longer overall; due mostly to the top chop.

I also had to deal with the additional metal that needed to be inserted due to widening the front of the cab 6  1/2″.

My plan was to use the original cab for about 8″ into the roof and then cut a panel from the spare cab roof that was large enough to fill the remaining hole.

There also was the little issue of the holes in the roof edge caused by streching the cab.  I cut patch panels from the original roof skin that was left over from the “sun roof”.

 The side pieces were pretty straight forward in that all I needed to do was run the patch panels through the slip roller until the curve matched the roof and then weld the parts in.

The center fill piece turned out to be more challenging in that it needed a bit of a compound curve to transition from the right side to the left side.  Remembering what I had seen demonstrated in the metal working seminar that I attended a couple of years ago I determined that hammer stretching would get the job done.

After finding my anvil (it had hidden it’s self) I commenced pounding on the center of the patch panel.  I had carefully laid out a grid to use as a guide and didn’t pound too hard.  Nothing happened.  Then I started pounding between the grid marks.  Then I started wailing the living daylights out of the part.  That actually worked pretty good; well enough in fact that the patch panel fit on the first try.  I didn’t even put any extraneous dents in the panel.  My very first on purpose compound curve.

In order to reduce the roof crown I simply rolled the roof edges down until the roof thickness looked right.  This turned out to lower the roof (pancake it) around 1  1/2″.  I had to cut slits in the cab corners in order for them to make the compound curve at the corner of the roof.

 Eventually I had a continuous ring of roof that was about 8″ wide.

At this point things started to get interesting.  The first thing was that the top of the windshield opening is an arch that matches the cowl arch.  The back window has no arch.  The factory roof follows the shape of the back window and so the roof is essentially flat across the front with a cut out for the windshield.  I have looked at literally hundreds of these trucks and never noticed that before.  To my eye it made the front edges of the roof look like they had shoulders.  Or a little like Frankenstein’s forehead.  I took pictures of the front of the roof from every angle and cannot see the bumps in the pictures.

Naturally once I saw it I couldn’t see anything else.  So I cut the roof corners apart and took another stab at it.  And another and another etc.  I realized where the project was going when I lost track of how many times that I had cut the corners loose, moved them around and then welded them back together.

I eventually got one side looking pretty decent and so moved to the other side.  When I got that side done it was so much better that I had to go back to the first side and redo it.  Rinse and repeat, I heard somone say.  I made several rounds with that.  Practice may not make perfect but it sure improves the situation.

Now I have a problem; the front of the roof has an arch and the back of the roof doesn’t.  This is going to result in the roof skin having to make the transition; very scary stuff for an amateur metal person.  Added to this is that I am wanting to put some sort of third brake light in the back of the roof.

In order to see if the roof skin is even possible I made a test model out of heavy paper.  I arched the paper and taped it to the kitchen
counter.  The arch simulated the front of the roof.  Then I cut a series of slits in the back of the paper and taped it down.  In theory this will work.

Meanwhile back at the junkyard I am looking for some sort of scoop to put into the back of the roof to put the brake light into.  After finding and rejecting several candidates I found a ’62 Ford Falcon hood.  It had the fake scoop that I wanted for the brake light and the scoop was fared into the hood making the transition that I needed between the arched front and the flat back.  How cool is that?  The hood was also big enough to cover the roof without any additional patch panels.  Hopfully the Ford restoration crew won’t come after me with pitchforks and torches.

After getting the hood home I proceeded to skin it.  I used my grinder to cut the skin where it was folded and spot welded around the edges; very similar to a door skin.  After getting it cut away all the way around I found that the putty that the factory put between the frame and the skin was holding the skin on solidly.  I was afraid to pry too hard on the skin for fear of damaging it so I got out the propane torch and heated up the putty spots.  This worked amazingly well as it only took a few seconds for the putty to pop loose.  I didn’t even scorch the paint.

The skin is really floppy and loose at this point and so I just set it on the top of the cab to see where I needed to trim to make the parts match.  After trimming I adjusted the cab edges to meet the new skin all the way around without any pressure on the skin.  I figure that there will be enough stress on the skin due to welding and I don’t want to add any additional stress.

I found that the Falcon skin is made of thinner sheet metal than the ’51; no real surprise I guess.  My initial plan was to butt weld the parts together like I have with the rest of the truck.  Finding the dirrerence in thickness resulted in a change of plan.  When I had trimmed the opening I had left about 1/2″ overlap around the edge.  I simply laid the new skin on that overlap and tack welded it down.  I expect that I will be able to blend the welds down and then use filler to smooth the transition.

After looking at the photos that I took when cutting the roof off I found that it has been a little over two years since the truck has had a roof.  Time flies when you are having fun, I guess.

So now I have several yards of finish welding to do.  After that I will have to decide what part needs to be done next.

Norm

Side streets:

I changed jobs, again.  In the process I reduced my commute by 80% and I am hoping that the reduction in driving time will equal more time in the garage.

Jack and David received their Bushido Sei Shin Jitsu Blue Belts in this ceremony but since there were so many proud moments, I tried to capture everyone involved in the video.