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Now
that all of the push is behind me I can get back to really enjoying the
project. The car is a long way from being finished; in fact I have never had a
car that was finished, (maybe that’s what my wife is talking about). The next project is to build the top. I want
the top to fold down into a boot so I can lower and raise it as needed. To do
this I built my own top bows from 7/8’ outside diameter aluminum round tubing
with a laminated oak header. To make sure that the top would look like I wanted
it to I photographed the side profile of the car with the bows in place and
colored in the top. I took the photo with me to the upholstery shop so that he
would know the look that I wanted but he lost the photo so I got what he wanted
instead. Is it just me, or does everybody have these problems?
I needed to
put a windshield wiper on the car somewhere for those foggy days and nights but
I didn’t want to have it hanging in my face like on so many T-Buckets. One
option is to use a hand-operated wiper but they are a pain to use. I really wanted an electrical wiper, but with
the fourteen inch windshield that I’m using, and a top, seeing some traffic
lights was already a problem without having a windshield wiper motor there too.
After many sleepless nights trying to think of another way to have a wiper
motor, I finally came up with another possibility. I can put it in the cowl!
The thought of drilling a hole in the freshly painted cowl was not what you
would call an easy decision to make, and besides how would I make the
transition from the relatively flat surface to the vertical windshield? I wrenched this over for weeks, but I
suddenly remembered that twenty or so years ago I had taken a pair of
windshield wiper transmissions off of a 49
Plymouth or something like that. So
I started looking and found them in a drawer. (Remember never through anything
away) These parts seemed to be perfect
for the job, but when it came time to drill that hole in the cowl I was
nervous. I spent about an hour and a half carefully laying out the location of
the hole that I needed to drill. I checked and rechecked. I walked around and
around the car. I sat and looked at it. All at once I plunged the drill bit
through the cowl with an electric drill. And fifteen minutes later the wiper was
in and working. Phew!
I
made an appointment with my upholsterer and three days later the top was
stitched up and it looks great
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