Body Begins

The following post on the MTFCA site gave me a start on this effort http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/29/47541.html

Using a steel firewall, how would I build a cowl that would attach to the firewall, and also the wood body.  What I decided to do was utilize the wood firewall I already had as a wood spar, and then make a duplicate, but slightly bigger spar to support the dash.  If you look at the vintage speedster photo, we are not looking at a significant amount of weight or metal to support.

Using a compass, I set the width to be slightly wider than the points on the firewall where the brackets mount. I then traced this same pattern onto the wood firewall.   Using a bandsaw, I then cut out this pattern.

Ack!  The steering column!  So I stopped, mounted the steering column onto the wood firewall so that I could then get the diameter of that mount, and cut it out,

Off to the bandsaw I went.

Here is the result, with and without the coil box mounted to test fit (Yes, I know that is not a 1922 coil box.)

Seats

The project came with several pieces of the Lang's speedster kit, including aluminum speedster seat shells.

I took two layers of 3/4 inch AC plywood, glued them together, and painted them - black of course. 

Traced the outline of the shells on each.   I then realized they were asymentrical so they came out seriously off center.  What to do.  I looked at them a while and determined nothing could be done, so traced them as-is.   Cut them out, then drilled holes around the shells, inserting machine screws into the side every 6 inches or so to attach.
I debated what to do about seat belts.  A Model T with seat belts - how silly.  But I have kids so I wanted to have at least the option to add belts later.  So, I cut slots as shown so that I could build the base with a cavity to store the belts, and to put the out of sight when the car is shown.

Next, I had to do something about the sharp edge of the shells.  My local O'Reilly auto parts guy came to teh rescue with a flexible plastic door edge protection material.  It has a U channel, but you really have to press down to open up the U enough to grab.  Once installed, it is tough to remove.  I think you will agree it was an outstanding solution.  Note how well it conformed to even complex turns

I took a router, rounded over all the sharp wood edges, then covered the edges with black Gorrilla tape as well.  Here they are, ready to go to the upholstery shop.

Sandy and the gang at Country Corner Upholstery in Powell, WY took the project to a new level with what they did next.  I gave them a color and a general set of guidelines and they did the rest.  They did outstanding work.  Just look.

Polarity

When the T first arrived, I put it on a battery charger and left it overnight.  The next day, the starter turned over weakly.  I was really excited by this, because that meant at least the wiring worked!  Soon after, it quit turning, so I put the charger on again.  This time, I could hear the charger clipping.   When I felt the cables they were hot.  I checked everything, thinking I had a short to ground, but everything looked OK.  Took the battery to a local auto supply store.  They put it on a tester - result; the polarity on the battery had gotten reversed.  Negative was positive, and vice versa.  If you looked at the battery, there was a very slight hump in the top of the case.  Only thing we could think of was 1) I messed up hooking up the charger, likely 2) or the battery froze after having sat so long in CA, then in the sub zero trip here, more likely.  Anyway, I am out a new 6v battery the prior owner had purchased.   Now that the slate is clean, I am considering converting to 12v, so that I can run coils without magneto.  I am sure that will warrant comments from T purists.  We shall see - still vacilating on that one.