[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

All the front seat base, back, pillars and doors are fitted. The left door gave me a bit of grief, but I found it was the pins on the hinges that were worn so once I built them back up the door worked well. 
rebuilding the back corners. 
The old tool tray was rusted out so I made a new one of them also. 
with just a bit of work to finish on the B pillar panel all the front will be done and now onto the back. 

[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

Shouldn’t you be out in the shed Doug working doing something constructive. 

[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

1 hour ago, nearchoclatetown said:

Matt, just watched a documentary on a platypus. I think you should have one as a pet for the shop. Cute little devils. 

Haha I’ve told the grandkids there is a crocodile 🐊 in the dam. I drive them over in the gator to see if we can see it. They are totally shit scared of going near the dam. I’ll tell them when they are 25 that there’s not really a crocodile in the dam it was a platypus. 😂
They have nasty spurs on their back legs to I think, that hurt if they get you. 
That dog of mine is in so many photos. 

[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

Got the front door on this morning ad then fitted the B pillar up to it. I had to replace the bottom 5” of the B pillar panel. 
It’s been glued into place with epoxy and screwed together. Came up very solid which I was happy with. Even used the correct screws to keep the coppers off my back. 😂Onto the next side and I’m in the middle of replacing the timber stile that hold the hinges on the front door. 

[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

Thanks Norm

1.2mm / 16g cold rolled sheet. 

[Restoration of Victory Six sports roadster.]

Some better pictures. 

[Restoration of Victory Six sports roadster.]

12 hours ago, 3Eagles said:

Do you have any detailed pictures of the top hold down brackets? I have some repro's but have no wood and no idea how they mounted. Also did you by any chance make patterns of measurements of the wood top bows? I have a stainless repro set of irons and a cast set of hold downs but no luck on the wood for many years. Thanks. Chuck

Gidday Chuck. Yes mate I have a set of hood bows and I can take some pictures of the hood rests for you also. 
What measurements do you need for the hood bows.

[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

Got the other side welded on and cleaned up. I have bolted the cowl back onto the chassis so I can start putting the body back together with all its new timber. 

[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

New legs are made. I have patterns for these from making them previously. I plasma cut them out In 3 sections and fold and weld them up. Cutting out the old one and replacing the bottom 6” of cowl. I use masking tap to get a nice straight line with the grinder. I will use the old piece to make a cardboard pattern to cut a new one out. Not much left of the old girl. Rust has certainly got into it. 
 

I use magnets to hold the cardboard onto the tin and then run the plasma cutter over the cardboard. I machine the end of the plasma cutter nozzle so it runs along the edge of the cardboard. It cut’s about 1mm to the edge. 
This gets rolled a folded to match the old piece before trying to fit it. 
new leg and panel fitted. I sat it on the chassis to make sure everything was lining up ok. Onto the other side tomorrow. what a mess all this old rust makes. 

[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

I managed to get a start on the body today. 
There is quite a bit of work to do on it with the timber and panel work. 
My first job will be folding up some new cowl legs. As we know they all rust out badly. 
I’m lucky to have all the timber there to cut new pieces out of it. The boaters must of moved up the wheel arches after gobbling up the spokes. pulled apart ready for new pieces to start going in. cut some new Timbers to slide up into the new legs. Used a bit of spotted gum to give it a good solid base. 

[Club coffee car project.]

The whole car is amazingly good Doug. The guy we got it of thinks the milage is close to original. 47,000. He thinks something happened to the engine at that mileage and it was parked up into a shed and left. Looking at the condition of some parts I think he’s not far wrong. 

[Club coffee car project.]

We had a Saturday working bee on the car today. Grant and Rich came over and we got stuck into pulling it all apart ready for sand blasting. 
Got the chassis up on the hoist so us old bastards don’t have to bend to much. 
Grant giving the Diff a hot wash. 
we gave the gearbox a good clean and it is In unbelievable condition so it got some fresh oil and will be buttoned back up. 
Dukes inspecting the chassis to make sure we got everything of ok. This is also in great shape and after a sand blast it will be painted. No repairs needed. All the chassis parts. 
we gave the hinges a good soaking of MDW40 and they were freed up by the afternoon. 
Our sandblaster is pretty busy so hopefully he squeeze us in soon. All the guard’s ready for blasting. The need a bit of repair. 
I will make brand new running boards. 

[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

52 minutes ago, Minibago said:

Did that cover linings to Matt?

Yes mate that was the complete job. 

[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

7 hours ago, Minibago said:

Did you bond the linings Matt?

No mate I got Victorian brake company to do them. They do an excellent job I’ve been using them for years. 
$560 for all four which I thought was pretty fair. 

[25 Dodge tourer restoration]

Back onto the chassis today and fitted up the new rear brakes. These are bonded linings and not riveted. I was able to take a light skim off the drums on the lathe to clean them up. 
I used an old hub and machined it perfectly true and then bolted the drum to it so I could hold it in the lathe properly. 
I couldn’t believe how true these old drums were after 100 years. 
Wheels are back on. 

[Rebuilding wooden spoke wheels.]

Thanks Norm. I make them about an inch long and then cut them off just under the outer rim surface. Makes putting them together a hell of a lot easier. Having a short dowel trying to get them in on an angle they can tend to fall out. 

[Rebuilding wooden spoke wheels.]

Final coat of clear and we are all finished. 
 

[Rebuilding wooden spoke wheels.]

Hubs are pressed in and bolted up before the last coat of clear. Holes drilled on a drill press to get them perfectly vertical. 

[Ron’s 1928 DB Senior Phaeton]

Some pics of Ron’s new hood that he had Grant White do here in Melbourne. 
I haven’t seen it in person but it looks fantastic from the pictures. 
I did see the car at our club day a couple of weeks ago and you’ve done a beautiful job of restoring her Ron. I failed to see a Phillips head screw though as hard as I looked. 

Doesn’t look like much work going on there with the chairs parked behind the car. They would be still warm I reckon  Feel free to say whatever you want about Ron, Doug because he can only look at the forum and not reply. He doesn’t have his computer with him. 😂

[Rebuilding wooden spoke wheels.]

7 hours ago, nearchoclatetown said:

They look like a new penny, Matt. Impressive to see how it's done, with no Phillips screws in sight. Is the head supervisor still there?

Yes mate he’s still wondering around Victoria. Staying at Auntynorms hassling him about the Phillips screws being used. 

[Rebuilding wooden spoke wheels.]

13 minutes ago, Machinist_Bill said:

I've been watching this thread, and being a machinist, I have seen all kinds of machinery. But I have to tell you that I have been to 3 whorehouses, 2 County fairs, and one Hog butcherin' and have NEVER seen anything like this!

Your creative use of an old lathe to make a vertical boring mill is very impressive! Nice work!

 

Bill

Thanks Bill. I couldn’t bare to see that big old lathe all go to China to be turned into a BBQ. Some of it had to go but it was nice to save a little bit of it. 

[Rebuilding wooden spoke wheels.]

Wheels are all together and stained with one coat of clear. 
Before the last coat of clear I will press the hubs in and drill the holes. 
I like to get a coat of paint over all the Timber before bolting it all together. 

[Rebuilding wooden spoke wheels.]

Thanks fellas it’s all about trying to give a little back to everyone that has helped me so much here on the dodge forum. Hopefully it’s shown a few techniques of putting them together. 
Spokes could definitely be made on a normal wood lathe and a thread press that was shown earlier. 
I should be able to get onto the refinishing of them over the next couple of days. 

[Rebuilding wooden spoke wheels.]

Machining the faces and centre hub hole.

I built this facing machine from an old lathe I saw at a scrap metal yard. It had about an 8’ bed on it and I got the cross slide and tailstock for about $60. Stuck a motor and table on it and welded it all together. 

 

 
I use a small router over the top of a spinning table which is attached to the cross slide. Rear of the wheel faced to accommodate the drum. 
when facing the front I use a ball bearing to get the felloe as central as I can. Generally I try to get the felloe to touch in about at least 3 evenly spaced spots around the outside. They aren’t exactly very true, normally within 2-3mm or a bit less. Basically face the front of the same as the back but have it true for machining the centre out. I use the same router and just lower it down and turn the table slowly by hand. 
wheel finished ready for the hub to be pressed in, drilled and painted. 

[Rebuilding wooden spoke wheels.]

Pressing the spokes into the felloe’s. Angled ready for pressing. I use a plate top and bottom. I press them a little passed centre and let them spring back. Pressed ready for machining the front and rear face.