1933 Chevy Cabriolet

[themoose]

Tom

I always enjoy looking at the quality of your workmanship..... Impeccable as usual!

Moose

[EDNY]

A textbook build!

[TFoch]

I decided to paint the inside of my tail lights white as Moose suggested.  While doing it I first left them both silver and put a #2357 bulb on the left and a #1157 bulb on the right.  The #2357 was slightly brighter than the #1157.  Then I painted the one on the right white inside and used #2357 bulbs in both.  The white did seem brighter.  This was by no means a scientific experiment but just out of curiosity.  I may look into the Ron Francis Brite Bulbs.  I found the attached chart and added the Ron Francis info to it.  Thanks Moose for letting me know about this.

[logride]

Hey that's interesting.

Are Ron Francis's bulbs led?

I'm looking for bright bulbs with low heat for the 32s plastic lenses.

Thanks for posting the pics.

[TFoch]

The Ron Francis Bulbs are not LED.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/rfw-b1077/overview/

[themoose]

Tom

I used the Ron Francis bulbs in mine  and you can definitely see the difference.

Moose

[TFoch]

Finished my tail pipes. Just need to fabricate a hanger that will attach at the rear of the frame and then paint and install them.

[TFoch]

Started with the piece of black walnut that was from a tree I had to take down to build my garage.  We planed it to about 1/4" thick.  Then I modeled what I wanted in CAD and my friend Clayton cut it out on the milling machine.  Here is the piece sanded and ready for polyurethane.  I test fit it on my dash and cut the extra holes that I needed.  Tomorrow I hope to get the dash painted and poly on the wood.  Then I can finish the assembly and continue to wire the car.

[streetrod37]

That dash panel is a beauty
Good job

[cocobolo]

Tom, that is a truly excellent piece of workmanship. 

I just finished a small dash insert for a friend of mine and I used bird's eye maple for it.  When I did the poly, it had a tendency to leave a few very tiny bubbles in the surface.  I ended up sanding and re-coating a dozen times, which shouldn't be necessary.  Three or four coats should do the job as long as the bubbles are kept at bay.  It didn't help that the workshop was only between 60º and 65º, which is really too cool to apply polyurethane.

Don't forget to poly the back side of the insert, that way you will avoid any warping.

I spent a good number of years in the wood boat building business, and when applying clear epoxy to a wood surface it would bubble all the time.  The instant cure is to fan the surface with a heat gun...but not too hot of course.  I'm fairly sure this would work with the poly finish, except that I left my heat gun at my old house. So I couldn't use it here.

To give you a bit more info, some woods will offgas and this will actually cause tiny bubbles to appear before your eyes.  The remedy for this case is to pre-heat the wood with your heat gun - again, not too warm - and then apply the poly immediately.  The wood will commence to cool right away and there will be no off-gassing.

[TFoch]

That dash panel is a beauty
Good job

Thanks Streetrod37
Cocobolo, Thanks for the info.  I'm practicing on the scrap piece left over from what we cut out.  I'm going to play around with that until I get the results I want.
Tom

[cocobolo]

That dash panel is a beauty
Good job

Thanks Streetrod37
Cocobolo, Thanks for the info.  I'm practicing on the scrap piece left over from what we cut out.  I'm going to play around with that until I get the results I want.
Tom

Yep, that is absolutely the best thing you could do. 

[TFoch]

I got the polyurethane on the dash panel and I'm happy with the results.  I tried a couple of cans I had around the house (not sure how old they were) but didn't like the results.  I stop by my local hardware store and talked with the owner that I went to grade school with and he recommended Minwax Helmsman Interior/Exterior so being in a Cabriolet I'd have UV protection.  After trying a test piece I liked it.  Five coats later here are the results.

[EDNY]

Very nice...nice and clean!

[sammons]

Yes, very nice indeed.  Two questions,  was the original gage cluster on '33's wood and is the dash panel the same as the 34 standard? It looks the same.  I'm using a combo of std & master. Looks like we have the same taste in gauges (auto meter?)  I vinyl wrapped mine, didn't think about building it from wood. Might rethink that though.