EdwardB’s 35 Hot Rod Truck Build

[edwardb]

OK, I lied. Had some time before we drive away so decided to dive into the doors. Won’t get too serious until the body is mounted and I actually start fitting them. Which by all accounts is interesting. We’ll see. First up was modifying the provided hinges. Have read some accounts about this as well. Not sure exactly what unobtainium they’re made from. But not very friendly material. I followed the directions for the most part. Appreciated that FF provides templates. Cut the one side using the Milwaukee portable band saw mentioned before. Slow going but worked fine and cleaned the edges on my disk sander. Then drilled all the 1/8” holes. Worked with lots of cutting oil. Enlarging them and tapping the one hole in each with the kit provided tap also went OK. Again with lots of cutting oil. My challenge was with the very large countersinks. I didn’t have any that big, so picked up a 3/4" Ryobi high speed steel one at Home Depot. Only thing I could find quickly and locally. Worked OK for a while, but then just wouldn’t cut any more. Even watching the speed and feed rate, and again lots of cutting oil, it lost the battle with the hinge material. Tried sharpening it but didn’t help. Shopped around (McMaster, etc.) to see if there were better options. There are, but many times more expensive than the $10 Ryobi pieces. So back to HD, took their last two, and was able to complete but pretty much doing those in too. Kind of an expensive exercise but still cheaper (and faster) than ordering up something better. I don’t know how anyone would do these without at least a drill press. Wouldn’t be fun at all.



Then onto the doors. Dug out the frames and related parts and found they wouldn’t fit through the opening without some trimming to the opening. The doors in general are cut decently. But the opening was irregular. I hate making fiberglass dust in my shop. But fortunately, it was 50 degrees outside today. So out on the drive and cut and cleaned up the openings and overall a bit. With that started mocking up how the pieces go into the doors. Again, Factory Five provides templates for the hinges and latch. Nice touch. I marked all the locations but haven’t cut anything yet. Want to double check against the locations on the frame. That’s about as far as I got.



But leaves me with some questions for other truck builders who have moved past this part.

1. Did you find the hinge and latch templates were accurate? I’m a measure twice (at least…) and cut once kind of builder and really hate having to make repairs when I mess up.

2. With the inner frame set into the intended locations, there are some gaps between the frame and where it meets the inside of the door shell. Especially on the hinge sides, where the hinges are on the outside against the fiberglass. I would expect a tight fit or they’ll starting bending things when tightened. I cleaned up the inner fiberglass as much as possible. But it’s just not perfectly flat. I’m thinking of bedding the frame ends in HSRF when finally installed to fill the gaps. Your experience or suggestion?

3. Finally, is there any reason I can’t permanently mount the frames now? Once I confirm the right locations? It looks like everything else that needs to be added (door handles, power windows, etc.) can be installed with the frame in place. What do you think?

On the parts front, still waiting for my power brake system. Back and forth several times with the supplier this week and frankly I’m running out of patience. (Not a forum vendor or a company I’ve seen anyone else mention. So no worries there.) They’re still waiting on the MC from Wilwood. They’re main response this week is I can cancel the order if I want. I’m going to wait until we’re back home on the 15th. If no progress, going to look for plan B. It’s a hard time I know. But that MC is available in multiple places. Summit, Amazon, Speedway, etc. Even offered to send them one for a credit. But they insist on getting it direct from Wilwood.

Onward.