Jim's Build Thread

[33fromSD]

We engraved ours with a Cricut and I was thinking of a similar placement on the firewall. The official State of Michigan VIN sticker is on the chassis next to the steering shaft.

yup, SoDak puts their official sticker on the door jam (see PIC the day I got it in May of 2021) for "ease of visibility" as the inspector noted. The sticker is formality anyway since the DMV has the VIN in the system, I just wanted the VIN on the date plaque FFR provided permanently attach to the firewall in case down the road the state's sticker ever fell off or got damaged, or the car was repainted, etc.

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Jim

[33fromSD]

My wife surprised me with a coffee table book of progression photos she had made for the 33 Hot Rod I built a couple years back (boy, it doesn't seem that long ago already).

She said she'll do something similar for the 55 F100 I'm working on.

Still digging out from the big winter storm we got, I'm hoping to get back to the 55 F100 this weekend.

Jim

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[Just 1 More]

My wife surprised me with a coffee table book of progression photos she had made for the 33 Hot Rod I built a couple years back (boy, it doesn't seem that long ago already).

She said she'll do something similar for the 55 F100 I'm working on.

Still digging out from the big winter storm we got, I'm hoping to get back to the 55 F100 this weekend.

Jim

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Thats cool

[33fromSD]

Finished up the the 55 Ford F100 this weekend (for the most part, couple minor things left), also installed the new rims / tires.

Now all I need is some nice weather so I can start the driving it / tweaking on it / rinse & repeat. Since this was a complete frame off restoration from the ground up, there is bound to be some stuff here or there that needs tweaking.

Jim

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[JimLev]

Very nice Jim.
Love the exhaust exits in the running boards.

[33fromSD]

Very nice Jim.
Love the exhaust exits in the running boards.

Thanks Jim, It took a long time to find exhaust tips that were the same thickness as the running boards, but it paid off. The look is good and the sound is great.

it was a fun build considering it started out like this (pics).

Jim

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[peterh226]

Which 4 post lift do you have? I'm debating what to do and if I have room...

[33fromSD]

Which 4 post lift do you have? I'm debating what to do and if I have room...

Hi Peter

I use Eagle 4-post lifts sourced from Eagle Equipment, they are out of Greensboro, NC so when I order one I can get it in a few days shipped direct to a local hub who will load it on my trailer and off I go. I have 5 now in total (one at our home garage & 4 our shop/storage facility) and have never had any issues with any of them. The oldest one is the one with the 55 F100 on it and that one is going on 10 years old.

Lot of debate between 2-Post & 4-Post lifts, both are good in my opinion, I just personally prefer 4-Post cause I can use them for storage of vehicles in the winter (double stack vehicles) as well as I can use them for pretty much any work needed on any vehicle.

Link --> https://www.eagleequip.com

Jim

[FF33rod]

On the lift topic, a couple of months ago I purchased and installed a mid rise 2 post lift. Love it. Two features sold me on this approach: 1) the posts are portable, bolt them in place for use or unscrew them and wheel them to the corner out of the way 2) I have a low ceiling in the garage so mid rise works perfect, I can sit on a stool under the car no problem. Works great in my tiny "2" car garage....
https://www.babco.ca/MaxJax-M7 (I have the M6)
Steve

[progmgr1]

I have a Max Jax low rise 2 post lift in my garage. Due to a wonky back and knees, I couldn't have built my car without it. That said, a full size 4 post lift would have been easier to use and provided better access to the car, but I just didn't have the vertical space available.

Keith HR #894

[33fromSD]

I have a Max Jax low rise 2 post lift in my garage. Due to a wonky back and knees, I couldn't have built my car without it. That said, a full size 4 post lift would have been easier to use and provided better access to the car, but I just didn't have the vertical space available.

Keith HR #894

Yup, I should have mentioned that. To have a fixed 4-post lift or even 2 post lift you need a minimum 10' ceiling height if you want to be able to stand under a "car". For a truck you'd need min 16' foot ceilings.

I have 10' 6" ceilings in my home garage so I can lift any of our cars and stand under them easily, but the for the 55 F100 I can only lift it about 4 feet which is plenty for a rolling stool to work under the vehicle comfortably. In our shop we have 24' ceilings so no issues on any vehicle.

Jim

Jim

[TxMike64]

Sorry to threadjack Jim... (maybe we could ask for another sub-thread for tools, lifts, general garage stuff)

I like the idea of the 2-post mid-rise MaxJax and have seriously considered them. What are yall's thoughts on a mid-rise scissor jack?

[peterh226]

I just ordered an Advantage DD9000HD 4 post. It will be nice to work underneath and not deal with the jack stands. Guess this means I'm gonna do some more builds in the future. Guess I need to finish this one first!
I decided on the 4 post as I can roll it around and don't have to worry about any concrete issues.

[33fromSD]

55 Ford F100 is done and on the road.

Now I need to get the 33 out of storage.

Jim

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[JimLev]

Great job Jim.
Last week I sent you a PM about your 250 Lb rear springs, did you see it?
If you still have them and want to sell them let me know, I’ve got 300 Lb in the rear and want to soften the rear up a little.

[33fromSD]

Great job Jim.
Last week I sent you a PM about your 250 Lb rear springs, did you see it?
If you still have them and want to sell them let me know, I’ve got 300 Lb in the rear and want to soften the rear up a little.

Sorry Jim, I missed that PM (rarely check it). Let me check if I still have them, I think I do. I need to run out to the shop Saturday anyway, so I'll look then.

Jim

[peterh226]

Referring to post #182
I also learned that you need to get the steel correct, and the door skin will follow. That small bend on the door beam makes a huge difference.

[33fromSD]

Referring to post #182
I also learned that you need to get the steel correct, and the door skin will follow. That small bend on the door beam makes a huge difference.

Yup, many want to blame the fiberglass door shell (not saying those are perfect by any means) but you need to tackle the steel work first before touching the fiberglass. On mine I found 90% of my alignment / fit issues was the metal work twisting the door shell out of shape. After I reshaped the metal work, the other 10% on the fiberglass corrected pretty easy.

Jim

[JimLev]

Sorry Jim, I missed that PM (rarely check it). Let me check if I still have them, I think I do. I need to run out to the shop Saturday anyway, so I'll look then.

Jim

Jim,
Did you get a chance to look for those springs?

Thanks, JimLev

[33fromSD]

Jim,
Did you get a chance to look for those springs?

Thanks, JimLev

Pretty sure I have them, at least I saw a bunch of sets of springs up on the shelf. You're talking the 8" 250 lb springs right?

Jim

[JimLev]

Yes, 8” 250 Lbs.

[33fromSD]

Yes, I physically have them in my hands as I type this, my son ran out to the shop and got them. PM me your address and I'll try to get them shipped out this week sometime.

Jim

[33fromSD]

Hey All

I've been enjoying the 33 quite a bit these past few weeks. It's running very well (definitely solved my vapor lock issue) and it seems like folks really enjoy seeing it out an about in town. Most kids call it a hot wheel. Most adults are either waving / giving thumbs up or asking "what make is it" or "where did you buy it" or "can you pull into a parking lot so I can look at it". Those conversation are great, especially when you tell them them you built it yourself and then it turns into a whole other level of conversation with tons of question / curiosity. It's been really fun.

Actually had one lady when her husband ran inside the gas station for something ask me for the FFR info so she could research it, she was thinking a 33 HR would be a great birthday present for him and since I was in town she asked if she did order it and he if ran into issues when he started building it if I would help. I said yes, so we exchanged contact info. Turns out they only live a few blocks from me.

I don't have the hard top so excessive interior heat is not an issue but one thing I discovered / fixed which may help everyone is I noticed there is a ton of heat the pours into where the fiberglass tunnel cover and the firewall meet. When wearing shorts you could feel hot heat on my knees. After looking deeper into it the area I noticed that was the culprit.

To fix this, I bought some DEI BOOM mat shielding meant for trans tunnels and firewalls (link below). I covered the underside of trans tunnel as much as I could (got about 80% of it), and then where the trans tunnel meets the firewall I did a double layer of this stuff about 1" up on the firewall wrapping it down around to the trans tunnel about 5" on the trans tunnel so I'm completely closing off any gaps between the firewall & the trans tunnel.

The difference is night and day. I no longer feel any excessive heat on my knees or anywhere for that matter. May sound odd, but I also noticed I'm getting better air flow through the vents I installed on the side panels since some of the heat is no longer escaping into the interior and being forced out the side vents.

Figured I'd let folks know in case they have not addressed this area yet, may help the folks with hard tops a lot.

Link --> https://www.summitracing.com/parts/dei-050509

Jim

[narly1]

Re the trans tunnel I was looking at that and was thinking how it isn't much of a heat barrier compared to the sheet aluminum-insulation- sheet aluminum "sandwich" used in the current HR variants.

Your observations confirm this and reinforce my thinking that I will need to do some insulating in that area.

Earl

[33fromSD]

Hey Earl

Don't let the sheet aluminum-insulation-sheet aluminum set-up lull you into a false sense of thermal protection. I keep my registration/insurance info in a plastic bag under the seat cushion and prior to doing anything besides the sheet aluminum-insulation-sheet aluminum set up, I was melting the plastic bag to the seat cushion due to the excessive heat coming up through the floor panels.

After discovering that, I put DEI acoustic / thermal BOOM mat on the underside of the floor panels (which by the way really quieted down the noise inside the car) as well as 2 layers of muffler wrap around the FFR mufflers, and a layer of the DEI tunnel wrap on the underside of the floor panels along the whole exhaust route (on top of the boom mat). Since then, I have no more melting issues on the seat.

The sheet aluminum-insulation-sheet aluminum alone is not sufficient.

Jim
Jim

[narly1]

I'm planning on setting up the layers as follows:

passenger compartment

interior carpet
sound damping matting
inner aluminum panel
homebrew lizard skin made from a mixture of glass microballoons & self etching aluminum primer
FFR insulation
homebrew lizard skin made from a mixture of glass microballoons & self etching aluminum primer
"outside" aluminum panels
self etching aluminum primer
Rhino bed liner

road surface

From your experience it sounds like I should be adding 1 or more layers of the DEI BOOM mat (or similar) as well. The question is where? I haven't checked yet, is there enough room between the lower and upper aluminum panels for the BOOM mat to fit in as well as the FFR provided insulation? And/or a 2nd layer between the inner panel top side & the sound matting?

Earl

[33fromSD]

I'm planning on setting up the layers as follows:

passenger compartment

interior carpet
sound damping matting
inner aluminum panel
homebrew lizard skin made from a mixture of glass microballoons & self etching aluminum primer
FFR insulation
homebrew lizard skin made from a mixture of glass microballoons & self etching aluminum primer
"outside" aluminum panels
self etching aluminum primer
Rhino bed liner

road surface

From your experience it sounds like I should be adding 1 or more layers of the DEI BOOM mat (or similar) as well. The question is where? I haven't checked yet, is there enough room between the lower and upper aluminum panels for the BOOM mat to fit in as well as the FFR provided insulation? And/or a 2nd layer between the inner panel top side & the sound matting?

Earl

The insulation panel's FFR supplies fills up that cavity to the top, so unfortunately there is no room to add a layer of boom mat under the aluminum sheet. It sounds like from above you should be fine. with everything you're doing. My only point is the sheet aluminum-insulation-sheet aluminum alone is not a good plan.

Jim

[Guy G]

Jim
Gotta say I’m blown away with your build. Short of power plant, I’m pulling the trigger on that same car on Wednesday. I’m doing a factory tour, since I live about 1 1/2 hours away in NH. Your thread is LOADED with good points that I will put to use.
The funny thing is, your 55 F 100 is very similar to the 53 I built in 2001! Brought back many memories.
Just for the record, and full disclosure, I plan on stealing a few of your ideas! I love the side panel vents! ( hope you’re ok with that)
I’ll probably start a thread of my own when it gets here. I’ll keep you tagged.
Thank you for the info.
Guy

[33fromSD]

Jim
Gotta say I’m blown away with your build. Short of power plant, I’m pulling the trigger on that same car on Wednesday. I’m doing a factory tour, since I live about 1 1/2 hours away in NH. Your thread is LOADED with good points that I will put to use.
The funny thing is, your 55 F 100 is very similar to the 53 I built in 2001! Brought back many memories.
Just for the record, and full disclosure, I plan on stealing a few of your ideas! I love the side panel vents! ( hope you’re ok with that)
I’ll probably start a thread of my own when it gets here. I’ll keep you tagged.
Thank you for the info.
Guy

Absolutely Guy, feel free to use whatever you feel is useful. Congrats on the 33, it's a great project.

Jim