Above 1200 Sq/FT Restored 1930's Auto Shop

[ZRX61]

There's a guy here who has a street legal Lotus 19*, often see him at the RockStore.

At least I think it's a 19, looks just like that but painted BRG.

 

[BB767]

Rick, can you even imagine driving a Lotus 19 in street traffic?!



Look at how low that thing is! The tops of the doors are even with my knees! You sit just barely higher than if you were in a go kart!

Thomas

 

[mybigwarwagon]

That's awesome. The Lotus is beautiful.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Truck drivers see a lot, but even for them, that was a rare sight lol

 

[rjcsandiego]

The one seen at the Rockstore was probably a Xanthos, which is a copy of a Lotus 23. They look very much like a Lotus 19. but are a bit smaller and have a more modern rear suspension. There was a guy in San Diego importing them a few years ago. This Lotus 19 has a 1960's aluminium Buick V-8 (which was the first engine type installed in this particular chassis. HP is not it's problem, Right Thomas?

 

[MG David]

Street legal is an interesting concept. I know some US states don't require a front plate but I hadn't realised Illinois didn't require a rear one!
Being able to drive your competition car on the road makes development and testing much easier. I would be reluctant to compete in anything other than a road going class.

 

[APEowner]

Street legal is an interesting concept. I know some US states don't require a front plate but I hadn't realised Illinois didn't require a rear one!
Being able to drive your competition car on the road makes development and testing much easier. I would be reluctant to compete in anything other than a road going class.

There's also street legal in states that don't do any inspections. If there's nothing obviously illegal about a car and you don't do anything to attract attention then anything you can register can be considered street legal.

I drove my Camaro on the street for several years as it became more and more of a race car. Once I put the number decals on it and started racing slicks I stopped. That seemed like it might attract too much attention. I'm also simultaneously too old to be climbing in and out over a roll cage regularly and too immature to be entrusted with a 180 MPH street car.

 

[BB767]

........This Lotus 19 has a 1960's aluminum Buick V-8 (which was the first engine type installed in this particular chassis. HP is not it's problem, Right Thomas?

rjcsandiego​

Here is the aluminum Buick engine in the Lotus as best I can show it. Quite right Roland, Horse Power was not the issue with the Lotus. As I recall, when Vince came in after a practice session, we asked him if he wanted you to change the gearing to give him a bit more speed on the straights. He asked how fast the car was at present and when we told him he was clocked at over 180+ mph he immediately said, "Oh No! It's fine just where it is"



Street legal is an interesting concept.........

MG David​

David, it all comes down to a matter of loose interpretation and intent. We interpreted the rules that the car was road legal and it was our intent to drive it just a little bit and not bother anyone. Kind of a no-harm, no-foul concept if you will.

Thomas

 

[rjcsandiego]

We do not want to over state the speed Thomas, the gear chart said 173 MPH. The lack of a rear plate is due to it falling off going through the empty roads in the vast corn fields around there.

 

[Lyndon]

Thomas

You've lightly touched on a subject that has been confusing the daylights out of me for years....

When watching cable TV here (called Foxtel here) my preferred shows are the automotive ones, and at the end of a restoration there are always the shop owner driving the new (but unregistered) car on the road to test it. What are your regulations surrounding that? I understand every state there is probably different.

Then there's the Outlaw Drag show where full drag cars are racing on the streets, at night. What's the go with that? Wiki seems to indicate it's done with state permits, but the show puts a big emphasis on how illegal it is.

Over here if you even try to take an unregistered (therefore uninsured) car on the road you would get the book thrown at you..... The Compulsary Third Party insurance is a component of the registration fee here, so no registration, no CTP, therefore the public aren't protected in the event of an incident.

Lyndon

 

[BB767]

We do not want to over state the speed Thomas, the gear chart said 173 MPH. The lack of a rear plate is due to it falling off going through the empty roads in the vast corn fields around there.

Quite so. Thank you Roland for stating it better than I did. The plate never did show up, even after harvest.

Thomas

 

[rjcsandiego]

And beside that Thomas, as I recall that was just on the driveway to the farm.

 

[TimeWarpF100]

Oh my.........................in that case it looks like I have no choice in the matter!

I sometimes don't like to post about projects until they're completed but here's a sneak peak at 3...





...different projects that the welding portion is done. I'm waiting to get these............wait for it...........surprise, powder coated! I've got them set aside in the lumber room to keep them out of the way for now. Rick and the crew are backed up a bit so you'll have to wait on more details.

And, since you brought it up, glad to hear you all understand that, just sometimes, rather than spend a few hours putting a post together on here, I'd rather CWC (Canoodle With Chris)!! Especially if it's by a fire! Thanks everyone.

Still love struck Thomas

I Still follow along but very seldom post.

 

[Grizz1963]

Merry Christmas to you and Chris Thomas.

Have a wonderful day with family and friends.

 

[Lyndon]

Thomas
Merry Christmas to you and Chris. Have a great day!

Lyndon

 

[BB767]

It's Christmas Eve and out in the old shop...



... not a soul is stirring...



... not even a mouse!



Chris and I want to take this opportunity to wish all our many friends here; those that we've met and those whom we've yet to meet, a very warm, safe and joyous holiday season. May you be as blessed as we are. Now please excuse me, I've got some CWC time coming up this evening!

Thomas and Chris

 

[Sweet Old Bill]

Thomas & Chris,

The flag at attention really sets out your beautiful home. Merry Christmas & thanks for sharing your adventures with your internet friends.

 

[old salt racer]

" Merry Christmas to all and to all good night" ---------Lou----------

 

[TR6SR650]

Wishing you and Chris a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

[Lou's Garage]

Merry Christmas!

Your picture of the Jeep on the lift made me pause. It all seems to come together right there!

Lou Manglass

 

[BB767]

All righty, here's a small project that's finally all done for the old shop.



It's always handy to have various sized scraps of wood available for variety of reasons in an auto shop. This isn't to be confused with scrap wood in the wood shop. In the old shop, my scrap pile...



...wound up being piles on either end of Mr Johnson's cast iron bench.



Here's that cast iron bench shortly after I bought the shop. Mr Johnson had used it to do brazing. The bottom arrow pointing to the bench and the top arrow pointing to the Wilton vise.



Here's that same bench a couple of months later in 2005, after I removed all the "stuff" around it that had buried it.

I was never happy just having random piles laying about so I finally did something about it.



I fabricated this rectangular box, seen placed on end here, to store my scrap wood for the shop.





Nothing fancy...



...I did make accommodations for small Blickle casters on it.



It has 2 lower shelves that are fastened with self-taping sheet metal screws and for the top piece I tapped the frame to install 8-24 metal screws. I finished this last October but I stored it in my lumber room, waiting for Rick and his crew to powder coat it along with several other items. Rick was ******* for over 3 months doing a massive order for a company that involved over 50,000 pieces, but I was willing to wait for them to get caught up.



Here it is powder coated and the...



...shelves too. The shelves are made of 12 gauge sheet metal.



The casters are smooth bore, no ball bearings, to help keep the cost down. I don't expect this storage unit to be rolled around very much.



Here are the 2 lower shelves installed and the top...





...was installed using...



...stainless steel button head, 8-24 screws. I used button heads to keep the screw head profile low and less obtrusive. I envision at times, the top of this unit could be used as a work platform to place items on, much like a service cart, so you wouldn't want a large screw head sticking up in the way.



The scrap piles were removed and organized...



...into the new storage unit. The unit was sized...



...to fit neatly under the overhang of the cast iron bench.



So there we have it...



...all neat and organized. Another little shop improvement project competed that I'm confident Mr Johnson would approve of.



I have several more projects coming this way including some more dovetail work if you'd like to check back. Thank you all once again, it's been a fun journey so far!

Thomas

 

[Old Man Roger]

Those little scraps of wood come in so handy so often.

 

[Grizz1963]

Thomas,

if you see the wood, steel, plastic offcuts I save, stored in some order, you will know that I totally get you.

 

[Jayman17]

Looks like you have a huge stash of wood in the woodshop, in a nice storage rack too.
I like the chain added to prevent spillage. I’ll be watching for the dovetail work...

Jay

 

[rlwhitetr3b]

I have one question about your project. How do you clock a trox head screw?

 

[DennisK]

T at 12 o'clock, O at 3 o'clock, R at 6 o'clock, and X at 9 o'clock

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Dare I say it...




Nice rack.

 

[kbuhagiar]

Thomas,

Greetings from Escondido, CA!

A fellow GJ member in another thread was asking about an old-style in-ground single-post lift
(https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/single-post-ramp.493043/#post-9432986)
and I immediately thought of you. Then I realized I hadn't seen any updates from the COTU in many months (even though I am actively watching this thread), and I got a little worried.

It appears my concerns were unfounded, must be a GJ gremlin. Glad to see you are alive and well.

Carry on!

 

[BB767]

Greetings to all, I'm still here! Let me post about a follow up to a visual enhancement to the dust collection system in the wood shop. Also, you'll get to see some of the old shop equipment and tools being used.



A couple year's back you'll recall me setting up the cyclone for the collection system. Note the unfinished 2 X 4's that I stated would be covered with hardwood to finish it off and make it look more presentable. Here's the steps of that little project.

Since this is a working shop, I decided to use some miscellaneous, not perfect but still nice, cherry wood that I had. It was rough sawn, 4/4 thick (1" (25mm) in the rough).



First step is truing up one side...



...and the Yates American 16" jointer is the perfect machine to do that with. Note the little pile of chips under the jointer........I forgot to turn on the dust collector for the first pass! Opps............



With the first pass completed...



...I'm siting the board to see how much twist was left in it.



With the boards now all flat on one side...



...I took them to the planer to plane them to proper thickness.



I run the boards through on a diagonal to the cutter head. That helps minimize tear out and it allows me to use the whole width of the knives so they don't get dull in only one spot.



This way they wear relatively evenly across the whole knife.



Checking to see that they are the proper thickness, 3/4" (19 mm)...



...I then looked them over to decide how I wanted to orient them, sides vrs front, top vrs bottom etc.



Now a test fit and to get the correct dimensions.



A friend of mine had purchased a Porter Cable dovetail jig and had loaned it to me, so I decided to try it out on this project.



After a couple of test cuts with some scraps I found it worked pretty well.



To keep it square while being glued up, I just temporarily clamped it in place on the dust collector.



To clean out excess glue on the inside corners I used a chisel.



To even out the sides with the front, I put my great grandfather's old Stanley #603 plane to good use.



This plane was made in 1910 and is a pleasure to use.



With the piece all cleaned up a test fit before putting a finish on it.



I used natural, Watco Danish Oil, just as I did on the fireplace mantle.



As you can see, cherry darkens up, even without any stain for grain enhancement.



With the trim piece installed...



...I'm happy with the results.



It's big improvement over just raw 2 X 4's.



Normally you wouldn't use a dovetail joint in this type of application. I did it, well.......just because I like the decorative touch and I like to look at it!

So the Yates American jointer and planer at 78 years old each and the Stanley block plane at 112 years old all preformed admirably. To use them is part of the fun for me to work in the shop, just as working with the old equipment in Mr Johnson's old shop is extremely rewarding.

I had a friend shoot some video's of the jointer and planer in use when I made this trim piece and there's also a video of the planer operating with the side cover off so you can see all the pieces - parts of the machine interacting with each other. It's a pretty cool video. I'm working on getting those video's posted on You Tube. I'll post a link once I've got them on there. I bet you'll find them interesting.

Once again, you all have my heartfelt thanks for your interest and encouragement over the years. More to come.

Thomas

 

[TwoBytes]

Normally you wouldn't use a dovetail joint in this type of application.

Normally, most people wouldn't trim their dust collection system with cherry!

But strewth, I'm glad you did!

And I'm even more glad that you shared it with us!

Great attention to detail Thomas, truly magnificent work, as always.

 

[jbmatth]

Nicely done Thomas, as per your usual.

JB

 

[BlueBomber]

Indeed, Thomas, your level of craftsmanship and finish are inspirational to all of us "good-enough" jockeys out here to put just a little more into our designs and applications.

 

[zmotorsports]

Very nicely done. Excellent craftsmanship Thomas.

 

[BB767]

Success!! I got the video showing the Yates American planer and jointer uploaded to You Tube:

The 1st minute of the video shows the planer with the side cover off and operating. It's fascinating to see old school machinery in action. Take a look and see if you can figure out what's driving what. Here's a starting hint: The electric drive motor is direct drive to the cutter head on top of the machine.



The end of the cutter head opposite the drive motor is seen on the side facing the camera. From there trace the belts and pulleys and chains. It's a very simple and elegant design in my opinion, yet it's very robust. It's about 78 years old and operates as good as new. All I ever did in 1980 was basically take it all apart, clean, polish and repaint it. They literally don't make 'em like they use to!

For those of you who are long time followers, this might be a treat to actually see and hear both of these wonderful machine in action. The video's were taken as I was preparing cherry material for my last trim project seen in my post above, # 12,629. Tell me what you think.

Video director, editor, casting director, sound engineer, actor, script writer, lighting director, key grip, best boy, and having fun, Thomas

 

[jar944]

Nice Yates(s).

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Video director, editor, casting director, sound engineer, actor, script writer, lighting director, key grip, best boy, and having fun, Thomas

I hope your pay is commiserate with your responsibilities.

 

[BB767]

"I hope your pay is commiserate with your responsibilities."

Oh you bet it is, just ask Chris! Tell you what, have your people contact my people and we'll do lunch.

Gone Hollywood, Thomas

 

[mybigwarwagon]

My people all quit citing a hostile work environment after one of them was lost in the eternal NC mud thelast couple of years.

 

[BB767]

Did you ever do a project just because it was going to fun to do? That's how I started this project...



Dad had bought numerous Jorgensen wood clamps soon after he returned from WWII when he was setting up his first wood shop.



He made these brackets to hang them on the wall.

When he and I started to enlarge our wood shop in the late 1970's...



...he bought just a few more smaller one's, but he never got around to making a bracket to hang them on.



As long as I had some scrap cherry material left over from the little trim project a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a smaller sized bracket for those clamps.



After the pieces were cut fairly close to size, the 2 outer boards were dado-ed to receive the center board that the clamps would hang from.



He used only 2 flat head wood screws that were counter sunk, one per side, to mechanically help hold the boards together along with gluing them.



After the pilot holes were drilled and counter sunk, the 3 pieces were glued and screwed and clamped together.

While those were drying...



...the outline of the shape of the wall bracket was traced onto paper, then scanned into my computer and reduced about 10% in size since this bracket was going to be slightly smaller in size to accommodate the smaller wood clamps.



In turn that design was traced onto the newly glued bracket and using his 1948, 14" Delta bandsaw they were cut to shape.





With them glued, cut and sanded it was time to drill the mounting holes.



He had used carriage bolts and...



... notice the angle that he installed them. That provided a clamping, squeezing pressure to more securely mount them on a wall. To duplicate that angle...



...I used my great-grandfather's sliding bevel square. This tool dates from around the turn of the century making it well over 100 years old.



With the angle established, I transferred it to Dad's old Delta floor drill press, by tilting the table. He bought that drill press in about 1936. With the table locked...



...the bracket was clamped to the table. To aid in clamping...



...this block was fabricated decades ago, to provide a nice surface to clamp to since there are casting ribs under the table.



That block has always worked perfectly for us through the years as you can see. Simple, but effective.



The drill point was centered punched. I drilled a smaller pilot hole first and then enlarged it to the final size.



That tilted table worked nicely so next step was to...



...create spacers with angled counter bore holes for the washers and nuts. Look closely and you can see that it is angled.



I selected a small block of walnut for my 2 spacers and used the 20" Delta bandsaw to cut it to proper thickness.



The spacer was clamped to the drill press and using a Forstner bit...



...the angled counter-bore was drilled. Then the bolt hole was drilled.



With both ends of the walnut block counter-bored and drilled, I then cut them apart on the bandsaw. I had initially left them together in one piece so I had a larger piece to work with while drilling.



The idea behind angling these spacers is that the side of the spacer next to the wall will be parallel to the backside of the wall when the brackets are installed.



Last step was to relieve the area for the square shoulders of the carriage bolts just a little bit. I used a small chisel for that.



So there are the carriage bolts installed. Once the bracket is installed on the wall and the bolts tightened down, the bolt heads will draw down into the bracket a little bit more, but not a whole lot.



This is how it looks with the small wood clamps...



...in place.






So...



... this one's for you Dad. I miss you every day, especially when I'm in the wood shop surrounded by your presence. Every tool I use of yours or great grand-dad's, I think back to our time together over the years. I am grateful for everything you taught me, and how to use and properly care for your tools and equipment. Even though you're no longer here, know that it was and still is an honor to be your son.

Thankful Thomas

 

[Adaylate]

Thomas,
What a beautiful tribute to your father, grandfather and great-grandfather!
Floyd