A Hole Lot of Fun

I know there are many smart people out there and even many smart people reading this blog. I also know that most of you would not put holes in a perfectly good floor. I also was very reluctant to put holes in a perfectly good floor because unlike many other floors this one took six months to build, but we did and we like it! I am sure you are curious on what I am talking about. There are seat posts for the seats to go into the floor and they all have to be cut out for the plate and then cut all the way through most places for the seat leg to go into. Here is what I mean...

This is what it looks like after it has been cut out. We made a jig. As a side note for you Jim, you want to cut all of the holes in the floor before putting any of the fenders or the hump or anything else in. Believe me when I tell you it will make your life easier. We have all of the right measurements when you get to that point.  

This is what it looks like with the plate in it. The bolts that are in there are not the ones that will be there permanently, it was just to make sure it worked.

Underneath the car is a clip for the seat leg to go into. This is to allow the seat to be removed when needed. The fronts of the seat legs are hooks so you hook in the front and push down the back to hook them into place.

My Grandpa has often made the comment that most of the modern conveniences of cars can be found in a model A. Here is one of the examples right here, removable seating. Didn't realize it had been around for so long did ya?

Rails, Rails, Rails

Some random piece of trivia, the station wagon was very popular for the railroads to use. Because of the seating, it allowed the railroad to move more passengers more efficiently to various destinations. In light of this silly piece of trivia I have another story about rails. These are our roof rails...

A special shout out to my awesomely hot wife who assisted in this picture. We have already talked about bending these but this is a good view of seeing the bend. The bend happens right over the door pillars between the front and rear doors. There is really not much to the rails themselves it is just a 3/4 inch piece of wood. It slopes from where it bend form the front of the car and also towards the back of the car. We first cut one so we could get all of the angles correct and then with the router we cut the remaining 5 to match. Then like everything we seem to do lately we cut holes in a perfectly good piece of wood...

There is 7 holes on the board with a total of 8 bows that will go across. Those of you who can do math notice that there is not enough holes. The eighth one is glued to the rear board on the roof along with to the sides. Because of the added strength by gluing it to the rear it is not necessary to have a hole for the eighth bow. Here is what it looks like on the car...

Stay tuned to for what the roof will look like!

A Place for My Feet to Rest

Once upon a time there was a hole in the floor. It wasn't a big hole, it wasn't a small hole, it was just a hole. The problem with this hole is that it is in the wrong spot. For I the great driver of this car had no place to rest my feet (although if we do leave the hole it would make for an awesome flinstone car). like everything else on this car the piece that goes on the floor under the passenger and driver's feet is also wood. It interfaces with many different parts so there was a lot of cutting, fitting, and sanding to get it to fit. I started with this...

So after I made this pattern I cut it out of 1/2 in birch plywood which is the same plywood that is on all of the doors and quarter panels. You can add another bag of sawdust to your count. It took a little convincing to get the final piece where it needs to be. I unfortunately do not have a final final product, but here is what it basically looks like...

There will be 2 more cuts one for the battery which will be on the left hand side of this picture, and since we are putting in an overdrive there will be another holes right behind the emergency brake. Now that leaves us with only one more hole to fill in and that is under the front seat.