For a solid board dash I recommend a lot of coats of an oil finish, like teak oil or tung oil topped with paste wax. Be sure to do both sides identical so the board won’t cup. Problem with a high gloss varnish on solid hardwood boards is that the moisture changes from summer dry to winter moist will cause the board to expand significantly across…[Read more]

Mounted master cylinder and proportioning valve with all of the brake system plumbing. Now have brakes, clutch and throttle pedal all mounted and working. Soon will take first drive around the driveway. (wiring will be faked just enough to start and run).

I’m trying to use the Mustang seat bottoms since so many of you complain about dead butt syndrome. Had to cut the back outside corner off of each one to fit the body.

He should be proud of the polish job, but I never would have shown the before pictures when trying to sell the car.

You mean the rear splash pan being about4 inches to far back?

To diagnose whether this is a starter, or bushing, or battery problem try this:remove plugs when cold. Turn engine by hand and try to get a feel how hard it is to turn.Do the same when engine is hot and starter is dragging.If it feels the same, then it is a starter motor or starter bushing problem. If it is hard to turn when hot, then you have…[Read more]

I have the entire bright red interior that came with the kit. It’s in just-bought shape. 26 years old and it looks like it was packaged yesterday. My wife, however can’t stand red interiors, so I am pondering selling the interior kit to one of the folks here and going with a light gray, about the same color as the interior is painted right now.…[Read more]

Body work and paint on the main body! It’s what I’ve always called gun-metal grey.

Try these guyshttp://www.rivetsonline.com/You may also consider Rivnuts (a threaded insert) because they are removable, as opposed to Pop Rivets, which need to be drilled out if you need to make any future repairs. Harbor Freight has a Rivnut installer tool.PMOSSBERG2013-06-24 14:05:47

Was your original rod put in backwards? It would make more sense from the same side you put your PVC rod.

FYI, 165/80-15s are 25.39 in diameter. If you know your gear ratio, you should be able to calculate RPM to MPH not considering tire slip. If your gear ratio were 1:1, then that would be 75.5 MPH per 1000 RPM. Take 75.51 and divide by your real gear ratio and that would yield MPH per 1000 RPM. For example, if you ratio is 3:1, then you would have…[Read more]

Whenever painting vinyl, prep is everything. Use a really good degreaser or a volatile thinner. Well prepped vinyl will hold vinyl paint without flaking off. This goes for upholstery as well.

You can carefully mask over it, or just remove it temporarily. To mask it, I would use 1/2 inch tape, once per each edge, not trying to roll it over, and then just pinching the two halves together.

You should select your shock absorber so that the shock travel length covers the suspension travel. Monroe has a table of shock lengths.http://www.monroe.com/assets/downloads/english/08_MountingLengthSheet.pdfThe way to use this is to figure out how each end mounts and then look through table that has those ends.

My kit came with a fiberglass pedestal upon which to mount a seat. The pedestal is about 6 ” tall and the seat would be another 4 inches. That’s 10 inches or so. I had access to a real 1953 TD last week and measured seat height. Seat bottom is 7 inches tall in front and 4 inches in rear (or about 5 inches tall where your butt sits). The seat sits…[Read more]

My tank will have a marine flip top outlet connected to the neck in the tank, with the two connected by a rubber marine grade filler neck hose. This is done on boats all the time. You may consider this instead of trying to weld a filler neck to make it shorter or longer….. See my build stream for Alfred under My Projects.

To answer Paul about six posts above, my car has no title. I’ll have to go through a full inspection and tow it to Glen Burnie to get a title. At that point, the car will need to be 100% functional.

BTW, here’s the door check on the 53 TD seen from the top and from frontview….

My race car builder friend looked over my creation and suggested that I needed a diagonal cross brace across the back and two vertical diagonals to make the rear really tight. And here are the vertical diagonals….

As a starter, here is a spare tire rack from a 53 MG TD…