NewOldWood

Wow, that's quite the compliment. Thanks!

I've used Interlux, Pettit, Epifanes, and some others with good results. Even tried the West Marine house brand one time and was very impressed. I bought a can of Total Boat gloss varnish recently and will never buy it again. The first thing I noticed was that it was very thin, almost watery, and it dried to something between gloss and satin. Jamestown Distributors is a good source of any of the other varnishes, and many other things as well, but no more Total Boat for me. Spar (type not brand) varnish is what you want, it will have the UV filters that you definately need.

This is my version of a Campbell bodied Power Wagon. The body on this truck when I got it was home made so I did not have an original to copy. The owner wanted a few changes anyway, so I made a few. Cantrell also built wood bodies for Power Wagons, do you have pictures of yours?

From an estate, so pretty obvious why the builder doesn't want it, but was aparantly being built as a promotional tool for a company building EV chargers. Looks pretty close to being complete, why don't they want it. Not around anymore?

The National Woodie Club is always looking for woodie related content for the Woodie Times (the club newsletter). I recently built a wood body on a 1950 Power Wagon, the body on the truck was suposed to have been built by Campbell but Cantrell also built some of the original bodies, there was some discussion about that in the thread. If you were looking for a home for a Cantrell story I'll bet Roddy (Woodie Times editor) would love to hear from you.

Most all marine spar varnishes are Tung oil based and will have an amber tint. The balance is made up of resins, uv filters, etc...there are minor differences in how they apply and dry. I have tried most and have not had a bad experience with a major name brand. One part polyurethanes are very similar to spar varnishes. Two part urethanes will not add any color.

It ran a couple months ago, what's been done to it since then?

Everything on the inside will get painted. I have been painting some of the harder to get at places as I go, you can see green paint in a few places.

Engine hatches are built and deck is faired and almost ready for planking. The cockpit corners need to be rounded but the shape is determined by chrome trim that should be coming back soon. Strut is mounted, so shaft angle is now permanent. Control cables are done. The throttle is pretty straight forward but the transmission is more complicated. The original transmission was all mechanical and the gates and stops were built into it while the current hydraulic Velvet Drive does not have them. I'm not sure how other people have dealt with this problem but this is my solution, works pretty well.

If I want to dig a big hole and don't want to waste a lot of time I usually put this on the angle grinder. It's a high attention level tool but it will turn a board into wood chips in a big hurry! I used it to carve the concave face of these corner pieces. It is actually possible to be fairly precise with it if you're careful

I have a milling machine that I use quite a bit also, but for fitting joints, not for shaping. When I say shape/shaping I'm talking about things other than flat or straight.

Overarm routers are more for production flat work, and a CNC that would do this kind of work would be cost prohibitive in a number of ways. I always start with rough cut lumber, after it is milled to size either the table saw or band saw to remove most of the excess. After that as many of the shapes as I can are cut with routers using a variety of pattern bits and flat patterns. This is usually followed by at least a little hand work, hand planes, chisels etc... I have a duplicating machine for more complicated shapes although it wasn't used on any of these parts. It doesn't get used often, but when you need it nothing else will do. I have a shaper that gets used mainly for finger joints and a few other more common profiles that I have had custom cutters made for. And then there's...........sand paper..... My tool collection is much more antique than it is high tech.

I'v seen those anti foulers too, i'd bet that's what these are being used for. The fitting here is called a street elbow, male on one end and female on the other. You can get them in 45 and 90 degree, never seen a straight fitting though.

I saw an interview recently with Burt Reynolds, he said that he recommended Sally Field for the part and that the execs didn't like the idea claiming that she "lacked sex appeal". Wow, couldn't disagree more, thankfully Burt got his way. Also remember reading something long ago, said that they were shopping for someone to donate cars for the movie and not getting any takers. Pontiac reluctantly agreed to supply three cars. By the end they were down to one, patched together from parts of all three. The jump scene above completely destroyed one of them. They knew they had one take to get that shot. Those cars probably turned out to be one of the best marketing investments ever made! My drivers license was hot off the press when this came out, can't remember how many times I've seen it.

I don't have kits or patterns, do you have any of the old wood? In some cases the wood can be reproduced using the sheet metal as a pattern. It's not easy to do but if you have no choice.... One of my current projects is interior wood for a 39 Ford Sedan Delivery, these are pictures of some of the parts I've made for it, quite a few yet to go. I'm in South Alabama.

One thing about being a one man show is you get to do everything. Or as I like to say, there isn't anything they wont let the carpentrer do around here! This is my answer to how to adapt a yardstick long shift lever to the relatively fragile shift lever on a Velvet Drive transmission.

I've been to the shows...it's all glamour and romance...just ask em!! I occasionally get struck with a job that makes me wish I were scrubbing toilets. I've not just seen how the sausage is made, I've made it!! And, yes, I have to clean my own toilet too............

I have a couple bars very similar to that but with slightly different ends on them. I got them from an estate sale, they look very old. Not much you can't move with them, I've schooched a couple pretty good sized milling machines across the floor with them. I believe it was an ancient Greek that said something like, Give me a long enough lever and I will move the world.

I don't like to borrow things because every time I do they break and I have to fix them before I return them. I don't like to loan things out because every time I do they come back broken and I have to fix them. Maybe it's just me?

Thanks! The exhaust is made of stainless tubing and marine wet exhaust hose. I was hoping to be able to get from the engine to the transom with hose, but even the soft walled hose (some of it has a reinforcing wire, soft does not) wouldn't make the bend so I had to use the stainless elbows. The tank is 33 gallon, a copy of the original.

Come on over, I've got one you can use!

Got the deck framing done except for the engine hatch, wanted to set the engine in first to make sure I didn't have to build around anything. Turned out that my problems were underneath the engine, I did not have room for the steering shaft. The rear mounts that came with the engine were too low so had to source some different mounts. All is good now, have room for everything and have the engine close enough to it's permenent position that I know I will be able to get a good shaft alignment. Exhaust is plumbed and have control cables ordered for throttle and shifter. Fuel tank is installed. I am going to try to get as much done inside the boat as I can before I plank the sides, so much easier to do now.

That's going to depend on which parts you're refering to. At one point or another pretty much every tool in the shop got used. If you're looking at a specific part I could get more detailed.

Right side up again. The process here will be similar to the bottom, replace the framing and then the planking, except that this time I am going to install as many of the mechanicals before the planking as I can, while I stilll have good access. Climbing in and out of the holes in the deck after the planking is on gets old fast, and I'm not as young as I used to be... Still a few pieces of old wood left in the deck, they will all be replaced.

I've always liked the 68-72 GM A-bodies. My first car was a 68 LeMans convertible and had a 72 Cutlass for a while, but a hardtop and not a W-30. One thing about all of the cars from this era, it was after they started salting the roads and before the makers started paying any attention to corrosion resistance. I lived in the Midwest at the time, they used to say that on a quiet night you could hear the cars rust.