I think I'll work on the car this weekend

jaybee · January 01, 2010, 10:48:52 PM

I've been up to a thing or two in the garage lately and decided it's time to post about it. The first pic is one of the wooden wheels I've built for the '57 as I get down to business with it. These are made of ¾" plywood in the sizes I'm panning to use for the finished car, 245/45 16 on the front, 265/45 17 on the rear. If you can see the circle that's marked in pencil that'll be the sidewall height. That portion will be painted black to help visualize what it's going to look like finished. The thickness of the ply requires the drums to be removed. That brings up the reason the wheels aren't already mounted. Can't get the front drums off even after grinding off the rivets. Is there a trick to that on tri 5 Chevs?

http://www.roddingroundtable.com/forums/download.php?id=8160

The other reason they aren't already mounted is because I wasn't comfortable with them when I put the first one on. It was too flexy, and though plywood is by nature more springy than a steel wheel I had visions of one snapping while I was underneath. To fix it I cut 2" wide rings from my remaining plywood and glued them to the backs. It doesn't sound or look like that much, but believe me it makes all the difference. What looks like expanding foam coming out from between the layers is actually Gorilla Glue. I squeezed curls of it on the back of the ring, set it in place on the disk, rotated it just a bit to "smear" it, and applied weight to the top. I had no idea this glue would expand like that but I feel very comfortable now that there are no voids between the ring and disk.

Also visible in this pic is my last project, a welding cart built from an old gas grill. The arms that used to hold shelves on each side were turned to the center and trimmed to length. The top is an aluminum table saw top that's attached to some sheet angle with machine screws. The angle is welded to the gas grill frame. As you can see the small bottles fit nicely underneath and the top is offset to one side making room for a container of welding rod to sit right where it's handy.

http://www.roddingroundtable.com/forums/download.php?id=8159

This pic shows a front wheel and a back, along with some cribbing I built to set the car on. How many times should you measure before cutting? There are three penciled circles on the rear (right) wheel to indicate sidewall height. There's a reason why I double check everything I mark before doing anything I can't undo. The tire you see is a 205/75 14, and the plywood wheel is just a bit shorter.

The cribbing is built from lumber that was just taking up space in the garage so I'm happy to have a place where it can be useful. It's assembled with spiral cut, galvanized nails that are long enough to go through 2 layers of 2x and into the third. These aren't coming apart.

http://www.roddingroundtable.com/forums/download.php?id=8158

This last shot is a combo of the wooden wheels displayed so you can get size comparison, the smaller wheel up on the cribbing to give an idea how high the car will be off the ground, and even one of my ramps to show that the car will be about 2" higher on the cribbing than it would be on the ramps. I have enough lumber around to go another 1 ½" higher, am considering doing that. Obviously I'll also need some cleats to block the wheels so it doesn't roll off, too. Once I get it up in the air I'll use some allthread "shock absorbers" to lock in my ride height, drop out the gas tank, and start cutting out some rusty tin.

http://www.roddingroundtable.com/forums/download.php?id=8157

jaybee · January 01, 2010, 11:00:52 PM

Sorry guys, mingling text and pics doesn't seem to be working too well for me for some reason.

river1 · January 01, 2010, 11:49:51 PM

Quote from: "jaybee"Sorry guys, mingling text and pics doesn't seem to be working too well for me for some reason.

seemed to work out to me

nice progress

later jim

enjenjo · January 02, 2010, 12:08:50 AM

Use Mag whell lug nuts,m then they will fit with the drums on.

Put one more layer on your cribs, back side only, then screw the wheels to the top layer.

Charlie Chops 1940 · January 02, 2010, 02:05:02 PM

Good work. Certainly lends a new looking to the skinny tire concept.

Charlie

57larry · January 02, 2010, 08:20:43 PM

I don't get the plywood wheels

UGLY OLDS · January 02, 2010, 09:24:51 PM

QuoteThe other reason they aren't already mounted is because I wasn't comfortable with them when I put the first one on. It was too flexy, and though plywood is by nature more springy than a steel wheel I had visions of one snapping while I was underneath.

Sorry Jay ...Plywood wheels are neat for mock-up & "chassie" roll around on early fenderless cars....... PLEASE DO NOT work under that car with those "wheels" as the only thing holding it up......

Your late model body & chassis is heavier than you think....

"Team Smart" does not need new members THAT bad...

Bob.......

Danimal · January 02, 2010, 09:47:53 PM

Don't be an unwilling memeber of Team Dead, either.

34ford · January 02, 2010, 10:36:23 PM

Quote from: "UGLY OLDS"
QuoteThe other reason they aren't already mounted is because I wasn't comfortable with them when I put the first one on. It was too flexy, and though plywood is by nature more springy than a steel wheel I had visions of one snapping while I was underneath.

Sorry Jay ...Plywood wheels are neat for mock-up & "chassie" roll around on early fenderless cars....... PLEASE DO NOT work under that car with those "wheels" as the only thing holding it up......
Your late model body & chassis is heavier than you think.... "Team Smart" does not need new members THAT bad...

Bob.......

Totally agree with Bob. I picked up my coupe from yogi's and it had plywood wheels (only good for one burnout

) and it wasn't all that stable. Really bad with the motor in it.

bob

jaybee · January 02, 2010, 11:23:18 PM

Hmmm, worthy of some consideration. At the moment I've no drivetrain, interior, or glass. There's not a huge amount of weight in that condition and my intent is to get it locked in at ride height so I can replace rockers and some other early work for the project. Still, if it's going to be too much I don't want to be under it.

I did screw a cleat to the top of each cribbing assembly per Frank's suggestion. If I don't put regular wheels under it (everything I have now is mismatched) it not only provides a place to screw the wheels into but my jack stands sit neatly over the top should there be occasion to use them in that manner. In fact I already did, long enough to put fresh U bolts on one end of the rear end. Steady a a rock and the cribbing is several inches larger than the stands in every dimension.

jaybee · January 03, 2010, 05:28:38 PM

I slept on it and woke up with a decision to research the strength of plywood in order to prove/disprove if these wheels are adequate to hold up a stationary car in the shop. Nothing doing, I can find nothing to tell me in any concrete numbers the strength of ply in any of the directions that it would be stressed. I will say that when I jacked up the left rear it skated the right rear across the floor a bit with no ill effects. A suggestion has been made to go to a junkyard and p/u some used temp spares. Might just go that direction. My biggest concern is that none of the wheels it's been sitting on match, with a 205/75x14 on the rf and a 15" truck tire on the lr for example. Maybe I'm being overly cautious but I'd like the thing to be level before I start cutting things apart to make sure any twist doesn't get registered into my work.

Carnut · January 03, 2010, 06:05:18 PM

I think one of my concerns with the plywood over and above the overall strength in stress would be in the actual lug nut area.

Unless you use some gawd awful big metal washers under the nuts against the plywood I'd think the nuts would just pull right thru the wood with any stress at all.

Heh, heh, would you believe I was actually hired as a Quality Control and Design Engineer by Pizza Hut corp when they were having problems with plywood bench seats breaking thru from overly massive customers?

Heh, heh, the seats had a support beam of a 2x4 glued and screwed across the bench under the plywood and some began failing in the stores and thus some lawsuits came about.

So, I studiously spent a large amount of time and effort checking into the properties of various woods in both tensile and compression stresses.

Here's something somewhat detailed just on the properties of plywood

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn059a.pdf

I think the jist of it is compression on edge is pretty good while tension in support is something to be desired.

Also the type of wood and even the the particular forest and the wood comes from makes a big difference in strengths of the wood.

In the Pizza Hut case it was determined that Southern Yellow Pine 2x4 as the strongest wood to use as support under the seat as long as the design was gonna rely on the 2x4 support.

Heh, heh, come to find out that the original design had specified a full 2x4 support under the seat, but an enterprising 'Puchasing Agent' found a lot of trailer construction 2x3 studs at a good price and had bought those for the supports, thinking he was saving a bundle of money.

Heh, heh, there is quite a bit of difference compression strenght of studs verses the tension across the bottom a seat structure.

I was amazed the guy was never even reprimanded.

Anyhow going back to stronger 2x4 southern pine wood, some brackets for more secure attaching solved the problem for even the most avid pizza eaters.

I'm sure you all really needed this story.

Wayne will be along later with a more comprehensive analysis of the plywood wheel problem I'm sure.

kb426 · January 03, 2010, 06:35:00 PM

Good story, George.

rumrumm · January 03, 2010, 07:43:46 PM

Quote from: "34ford"
Quote from: "UGLY OLDS"
QuoteThe other reason they aren't already mounted is because I wasn't comfortable with them when I put the first one on. It was too flexy, and though plywood is by nature more springy than a steel wheel I had visions of one snapping while I was underneath.

Sorry Jay ...Plywood wheels are neat for mock-up & "chassie" roll around on early fenderless cars....... PLEASE DO NOT work under that car with those "wheels" as the only thing holding it up......
Your late model body & chassis is heavier than you think.... "Team Smart" does not need new members THAT bad...

Bob.......

Totally agree with Bob. I picked up my coupe from yogi's and it had plywood wheels (only good for one burnout ) and it wasn't all that stable. Really bad with the motor in it.

bob

Kinda gives a whole new meaning to "light 'em up", huh Bob? lol!

jaybee · January 08, 2010, 11:25:08 PM

Well, got the car atop the cribbing on its (rubber) tires. I never really stopped to consider how much a floor jack swings the car as you raise the wheels a foot in the air. Took a fair amount of jockeying to get them centered under all four wheels. I need to decide how I want to go about making solid links to replace the shocks, that's my next project.