Rogillio Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Rebuilding the roof of my 1926 DB Coupe. This is 4 quarter rough sawn cherry from trees I fell on my property and had milled into lumber and kiln dried. Takes a lot of work to plane it down to finished, dimensioned lumber but it's a good feeling knowing it came off out property. Still a lot of work to do but planing the lumber and glueing up the blanks is the 'work' part. The rest will be fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC5 Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Nice stuff! How will you shape the contours? I'll eventually have to make the wood pieces that go along the rear top rail of the touring car so any photos, tips, etc. are welcomed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 Nice stuff! How will you shape the contours? I'll eventually have to make the wood pieces that go along the rear top rail of the touring car so any photos, tips, etc. are welcomed. I will use a router or shaper to make the curves on the four edges. I'm not sure how I'm gonna do the ribs. They are bowed slightly. I thought about cutting them with the arc in them but I may just soak the wood and put the bow in them. Once they are tied to the side rails they will be good an strong. Right now I'm dead in the water. My planer died. I've spent 2 hrs working on it and it is still jammed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgedh2 Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 To produce the curved ribs, you would need to steam the wood and place on a form. It's not difficult to build a steamer or bend it at all. Try a google search on building a wood steamer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 (edited) I will build a jig to form the ribs. I will try simply soaking the wood first as there is very little deflection - like about 1" total on the longest rib. I think I can get that with just soaking the wood. If not, I will try steaming it. Edited June 15, 2015 by Rogillio (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 http://www.van-vliet.org/dempseywoodworking/michael-rogillio.docx This is some of my woodworking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billstewart Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Boy, you are real good at woodworking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 Thanks. I've done woodworking for 30 years. I was getting kinda bored with woodworking so I bought a Jeep to restore. I learned a lot but am not really into Jeeps so I sold it and then I saw a 1926 Dogdge on CL and fell in love with vintage cars! So now I am learning how to paint and do body work and mechnical work......not very good at it yet but I am enjoying learning as I go. I recently bought my 2nd 1926 DB Coupe and have started restoring it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JACK M Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 That desk is awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trimacar Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Soaking the wood in an ammonia solution will also allow you to easily form to the arc you need. I won't go into the process here, there's lots of information on the Internet. Ammonia makes the wood very "plastic" and workable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cahartley Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 NOW I understand what you mean the rest will be FUN.Amazing work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 16, 2015 Author Share Posted June 16, 2015 (edited) Hmmm. I thought only the ribs were curved. This will be a nice challenge for me. 1/2" deflection on the sides.Found the problem with the planer. 3 hrs to find broken sprocket. $8 part $10 shipping. Edited June 16, 2015 by Rogillio (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC5 Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 That desk is a knockout for sure. And all the better since it was from trees on your land. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 16, 2015 Author Share Posted June 16, 2015 (edited) Hmmm. The longest rib has 0.55" deflection.,,,,but NOT at center. I can do better. No telling how long this thing sat with no roof. Presumably the max curvature would be I the center.Thought about cutting it cross grain but that wod be really weak. Need to go with the grain and persuade it to curve 0.5" at the center. Edited June 16, 2015 by Rogillio (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Zetnick Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 My '29 sedan was originally finger jointed in a couple of places along the length (I opted for 3 laminated thicknesses to get the curve) I did do a string line from front to back at the roof corners (also side to side) and then measured from stringline up to edge of roof every 12" to get where the maximum curvature was along the length. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Zetnick Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 BTW, your desk and 2 coupes are beautiful!...I, too, think it's very cool you got the wood from cherry trees on your land! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 19, 2015 Author Share Posted June 19, 2015 (edited) Probably a good thing my planer is still not working as it has slowed me down. Notice the mortises are angled to account for the fact the the side rails are splayed. Lot harder cut than if the mortise was orthogonal to the edge. Edited June 20, 2015 by Rogillio (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machinist_Bill Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 Beautiful Wood work Rogillio!After several years of collecting Dodge Brothers parts I have finally purchased a wood top from a Coupe from a Street Rodder. The wood is in very good shape so measurements can be taken on all pieces. I am currently drawing it up in AutoCad. To handle the parabolic curves I also purchased a CNC Milling Machine. Once programmed I can make perfect copies every time. I never cut wood before so I might need help from the experts about grain direction and types of wood used. The plan is Ash (If any left in the States) After being a Machinist for 40 years what do I do? I buy machinery to play with during retirement! (4 years, 10 months, 0 days to go!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 20, 2015 Author Share Posted June 20, 2015 Beautiful Wood work Rogillio!After several years of collecting Dodge Brothers parts I have finally purchased a wood top from a Coupe from a Street Rodder. The wood is in very good shape so measurements can be taken on all pieces. I am currently drawing it up in AutoCad. To handle the parabolic curves I also purchased a CNC Milling Machine. Once programmed I can make perfect copies every time. I never cut wood before so I might need help from the experts about grain direction and types of wood used. The plan is Ash (If any left in the States) After being a Machinist for 40 years what do I do? I buy machinery to play with during retirement! (4 years, 10 months, 0 days to go!)Wow! That is awesome! The CNC will make child's play out of the compound cuts. I will cut one face on the bandsaw and then tape the scrap back to the blank, rotate and cut the adjacent face. Taping the scrap back gives a flat base to work from. I've done this with making cabriole legs. I would much rather have a CNC machine.My old wood has rotten ends so I will have to measure the car too to get a good fit. Keep us posted when you get started building the frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 Finally got planer fix so restarted this restore. First if 5 blanks being glued up. I would have done all 5 but the viscosity of this glue is bad. I will get new glue tomorrow. Might have to scrap this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 26, 2015 Author Share Posted June 26, 2015 4 more blanks being glued up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 27, 2015 Author Share Posted June 27, 2015 A few more picturs. This is a lot more technical than I thought. Turns out the compound cuts if made were not really necessary. The side pieces are bowed but the the bottom is shimmed to make the bottom flat. I cut the bow in the sides.....bot top and bottom. Now I have to cut the shim to bring it back to flat. I should not have cut the bottom bow. Oh well, next one I will know better. Still a lot more work tunning the boards to fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted June 27, 2015 Author Share Posted June 27, 2015 About 8 hrs so far after the blanks were glued up. So about 11 hrs so far. It's getting tight. Will work on the ribs and continue to fine tune the frame. It's curved side-to-side and front to back. I am an experienced woodworker and this is a nice challenge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machinist_Bill Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Nice work but I will be able to drink Beer while my pieces are being machined! It's nice to be lazy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 I am almost finished with the roof. It was a lot bigger job than I thought it was gonna be. I put about 30 hrs in it. A labor of love. It it looked any better someone else would have had to do it. IOW, I did the best I could. It is not perfect but that just reminds me I did it myself. I could have paid a professional to do it but where is the fun in that?! If I wanted a perfect car, I would have bought one. :-) I have to clean up the trim (the people I bought the vinyal and padding and trim from shorted me the tacks so I used a couple of staples to hold in place temorarily. I also need to trim the vinyl a little closer after I finish the trim. I used right at 900 staples. 750 of that was on the chicken wire. I found that every staple I used it pulled the wire just a little bit tighter so I stapled all the rails and ribs. It was tight as a drum. Next up is the wood floor and wood back dash....think I will stick with the cherry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylormade Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogillio Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 Looks great!Thanks. It has its flaws and I am my own worst critic. I know all the flaws.I might redo the rood on my other '26 someday. I learned so much doing this one I feel I could do a better job next time. I know now where all the land mines are now.....but more importantly I learned a lot of technique. e.g. I soaked the ribs for several hours in my swimming pool....and then I bent them on my bench and dried with a heat gun....but when I took out of the form it lost 1/2 of its bow deflection. I found that I could ankor one side and the bow the board and cut the other end to fit the bowed piece. Not sure that is clear...if you want more discription, IM me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete K. Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Machinist Bill; There's tons of Ash trees up here in Mass., so I'm sure some lumber yard could get enough for top bows or wood wheel spokes, etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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