Putting a floor in my T.

[Gerry]

Sorry if some of you guys have seen this before as I did cover it on the site when it was in previous hands.

I considered the well know wooden floor but decided that I would rather like the underneath to be as good as the body. I stared off by considering the things I would need to get to, like the master cylinders and the battery. As I have only 2 pedals and no floor shifter in a tight 15 body I wanted as much room as I could get for my feet.

Started with some hardboard sheet and cut it to form the basic floor and kick up, cutting out a hole for the master cylinders and the steering column mount.



Did all the joints and securing with a hot melt gun which can produce some nice fillets with practice. Next step was to put a 'return' around each hole and this was done with some 1/2" square wooden moulding. You could of course use any shape moulding if you wanted to get fancy.



As you can see I stopped short of the brake pedal so I could make the smallest cut out I could. A little bit of cut and try and cut and try without needing to take the whole floor out each time.



I added a return where the cut out for the battery would be and used a bit of plastic drainage pipe to form the prop tunnel. The small white sided angled box in the corner is a mock up of the reserve fuel tank that the main tank drains into.

Now is the time to introduce the moulders wax. This is a wax sheet available in different thickness from 1mm to 12mm, is easy to cut, form and shape. Its brilliant stuff and not very expensive and gives a lot of freedom to experiment and free form all kins of things, but more about that later.

 

[choppinczech]

Thanks for posting this.

I scour the internet for write ups on glassing/molding of anything. I learn new techniques every day.

 

[Gerry]

Not sure I can teach you anything. Just do my thing the way I want.

 

[fletcherson]

Not sure I can teach you anything. Just do my thing the way I want.

Is the molders wax in sheets? Is it rigid enough to form parts, or does it need to be reinforced? Sounds like cool stuff. I haven't seen it before.

 

[Gerry]

Yep 12" X 12" or 12 x24 in the UK. As its wax, I dont know if you could form a big hollow part without it sagging. Its Bees wax so temperature is a factor. Cold it would probably be OK, but warm, I think it would be a problem.

 

[choppinczech]

Here's some sheets.



Waxes | Sculpture Modeling Materials | Palm Beach Sculpture Supplies

 

[Gerry]

Thats the stuff. Wonderful and great value for money.

Next step was to sort out the floor around the transmission. I have hard poly mounts on the engine so it will not move very much and this gave me the freedom to make the trans cover a tight fit in order to maximise the room inside for my feet. I wondered for a while how I could do this without loads of trial and error and hit on the idea of spacing the cover with bits of polyurethane packing.



By this time I had made a cover for the output universal joint which as some thick card formed into a semi circle, glued to the floor and covered it with tank tape.



With the trans covered in bits of polyurethane it was time to make a transformation from this shape to the UJ bulge and so out came the wax sheet and with a little bit of artistic licence a filler was formed with a 'peak' (you will see where it ends when the seat is fitted) that ran to the back of the car. Not needed at all and no one will ever see it but I like stuff like this because in years to come it will show me I made the effort, not just did the quickest thing. The wax sheet is easily cut with a modelling knife when flat on the bench and can be trimmed in situ.





I also ran a fillet between the UJ cover and the prop tunnel to finish it off. The pictures show how I kept the drivers side as tight as I could to give the maximum room available. The passengers side had the shift mechanism to account for and anyway, passengers don't have pedals to contend with.

I have had a steel rolled trans cover from day one, as it was intended to put a full steel floor in, so that was cut and adapted to fit as snuggly as possible over the polyurethane spacer. Lastly I infilled the gap with yet more wax and the drive train became fully enclosed. At least with the wax you can lift it and reposition as needed. If you look at some of the previous pictures you can see where my tie rod end just poke through the floor at the back. Simple job with a couple of square inches of wax to cover them and mould a great shape around them. This would have taken a lot longer with another method. There is also a wax covered protrusion next to the nearest one. This will be the recess (from the outside) for the emergency brake cable to pass through.



G

 

[Gerry]

PS, Is there any chance you could extend the edit post from 10 minuets. I always go back and read through the text I have written and find errors, which I like to correct. Just askin?

 

[choppedtop]

Gerry, I think you would have to get in touch with RPM, to check on upping the time limit to a longer time. Your floor build posts are enlightening.

 

[Gerry]

That's very kind of you but its more a combo of old age and gathering info over many years.

 

[Gerry]

With the bulk of the floor done its was time for some fun and to leave a signature. If and when the T goes to somebody else in the future at least they would know someone called G built the car. As I mentioned the wax can be used for many things including lettering. It can be cut the right way around and simply positioned in reverse.



Looking at the lettering I decided to add the word FAD between the T and the G. I used some plastic moulded lettering mounted backwards on a rectangle of sheet styrene. I think I was asking a lot and wondered if it would come out in the final body but time would tell.



With the seat in you can make out where the 'peak' I did on the UJ bulge comes to. I sort of missed the point that it would be underneath and not be seen anyway, but ho-hum, I had already done it. With everything done I PVA'd the whole lot 3 times and then waxed it and waxed it and waxed it.



Called my buddy the laminator and a couple of days later we took a trip to pick up all the glass, resin etc from one of his contacts. We gave the floor a final wax and he set to work. It was dark by the time we finished. Just a wait till the next day to see what would come out.









Gerry

 

[Gerry]

After a days wait, I persuaded my better half to help me move the body from the chassis to a set of A frames on the lawn. Full of excitement and ready to see that smooth floor looking at me in the sunshine I started to remove all the structure I had so meticulously prepare....

Thats starts a new story of things gone wrong. EVERY bit of the original 'mold' stuck, like a piglet to a teat. It took me most of the day just to get this stuff off. I have no idea why, as it was PVA'd, waxed and waxed again, but it had stuck like it had been glued. I used scrapers, chisels, screwdrivers and sometimes with a hammer to get them through the gap. I tried beating the mold, heating the mold and eventually swearing at it. Finally I threw a glass of Merlot at in, just in case the lubricant I use for life, worked on the floor of my beloved T Bucket. Guess what, it laughed in my face and stayed stuck.

To say I was pissed, would be an understatement and I remember just throwing my arms into the air in disbelief. I am not a fan of swearing but this really was a Mother Fu***r of a problem.









So looking at what I had in front of me the next question was "what do I do with this crap"?????????????

 

[golddredger]

Yep something went south. Not sure what so I dont have an answer for why. But now you just need to grab a flapper disk on a 4.5"grinder 36 grit and a good mask get smoothing this bottom out. Good news is it is the bottom. So you do not need absolute perfection. Pick a section and get it smoothed out. This is a couple of days setback thats all. And you must look at this as just part of building your car. Crazy things happen to all of us when building. When you get done you can proudly say "I built my bucket" and you earned it! You know what it took and the ups and downs that go with it. Your car looks great. You have a speed bump here and it will take a few days to fix. Smooth it up. Bondo any flaws. Sand smooth and use a good high build primer sand it out and get back to the next project in the build. And keep up the great work!

 

[Gerry]

Wise words, my friend, wise words, as we shall see.

 

[tfeverfred]

Man! You can't leave us like this! Did you try compressed air?

 

[tfeverfred]

Yep something went south. Not sure what so I dont have an answer for why. But now you just need to grab a flapper disk on a 4.5"grinder 36 grit and a good mask get smoothing this bottom out. Good news is it is the bottom.

Smooth it out? Isn't the body stuck in the mold?

 

[golddredger]

No its not. It just has a couple if chunks the brown spots still stuck to it. Hes got the bulk of it off. You can see this as the little emblem logo he cut to mold into the back of the body is now exposed. See it? He got 95 pecent of the mold off. Just the few spots of fiber board left to grind off.

 

[fletcherson]

I can relate to your frustration... Sometimes the harder you try, the worse things go...

 

[tfeverfred]

No its not. It just has a couple if chunks the brown spots still stuck to it. Hes got the bulk of it off. You can see this as the little emblem logo he cut to mold into the back of the body is now exposed. See it? He got 95 pecent of the mold off. Just the few spots of fiber board left to grind off.

I couldn't tell, thanks. Crank up tunes and the grinder and all will be well.

 

[Gerry]

And there it was, the next morning. Sitting on the front lawn looking at me and with an air of defiance. Go get the grinder: No, too vicious and would probably do more damage than good. Armed with a newly sharpened 1" wood chisel and a small 'tappin' hammer I set to work getting the remainder of the mold off the body. It took hours to remove all the bits of fibre board and that still left me with the masking tape that had so thoughtfully decided its home was on the body not in the trash as I removed all the structure I used to from the floor.

With all that I could do, done, the body was moved to the garden at the back of the house and I turned my attention to cleaning up the front lawn which had now become a job in itself. I eventually used a vacuum cleaner to get rid of all the bits of crap that had settled in to the grass. I know its over the top but why should I leave it as a refuse tip and piss of my neighbours.

With the body transported (thanks to my brilliant wife, who gave it her all) to the back of the house it was time to attack the resulting mess with a plan. As I am old and silly this came down to a 40 grit paper stapled to a bit of 2" x 1/2" wood and a lot of hard work. I wanted to get everything as straight as I could from the Get Go and in my mind and past experience set about the floor with much sanding, sweat and Merlot as I could muster.







Funny thing is, this was a really hot summer in the UK, as you will see later. It may be time for a cold beer, what do you guys think???