balthazar

In some pics the car looks fairly clean & interesting, but in others, not so much. Could've done without the 'trying too hard' fender 2-toning. That a 'cuda in the background?

A '54 Kaiser Manhattan, looked real solid & complete, was sitting awkwardly in front of an old brick house's garage... the type of house that looks like a 90+ yr old guy has been living there since the '40s, and this car was just pulled out of the garage after being in there since the '60s. There was a dumpster behind the house... I will have to stop in tomm & see if I can figure out what's going on there.

^ Average national price of regular today is $3.38. In order to put $110 of 3.38 in a truck, you'd have to pump 32.5 gal. My F-150 with dual tanks had 37 gals onboard. A tacoma only has a 21-gal tank. I doubt any small truck has anywhere near that sort of capacity. 20 gal @ 3.38 is $67. Let's not get all crazy. I never understood the whole idea that it costs $X to fill a tank. No one (but me) carries cash anymore- so it's not a matter of pocket change. Sure- the price gets high but 'I can't afford to fill my tank' is ridiculous; you're going to burn X gas whether you fill the tank (on credit) half way or all the way. The people running out of fuel on the side of the highway when gas was $4 were complete idiots.

You've got the beefy white-letter radials, Olds Super Stock rims, the Olds 4-spoke sport wheel & a T-grip shifter, even the 2-tone job which breaks up the bland bodysides, PLUS it's a relatively clean coupe bodystyle.... then you get around the the 'phone-it-in' FRT & RR fascias and no engine under the hood... and it all sags like a pin in a balloon. Jeers

You can use masonry bits in a non-hammer drill, but it will go very slow... or hit a rock and just spin. You can try a masonry/stone 'star' chisel... ...but with 3 inches of concrete, you're going to vastly prefer a hammer drill.

Yep- retractable hardtop:

^ Therefore the judicial use of the word 'limited'. IMO, building more than 2 is 'limited production', esp if they were sold. Not 'regular', but limited. Kinda like the threshold for a serial killer (more than 2 victims). Of course Hudson, you have ID'd the car correctly. • • • BTW, if anyone cares, the woman is Gloria Vanderbilt. She was 17 yrs old in the above pic. Rather attractive in her early youth. The gentleman bears a strong resemblance to Rock Hudson, but Rock was a year younger than Gloria- guy above doesn't look 16 to me.

The woman was an accomplished designer. The car was a limited-production, aluminum-bodied sports car. In it's day it saw national exposure. What is it?

Aso the best one you can think of.

Ooops- my inbox was full. :duncecap: I cleaned it out try again if you have a pic. You should be able to weld both sides of the bolt and get good penetration if the welder is up to it- what's it's capacity? You said security, as opposed to structural, so penetration might not be as crucial. You'll see it in the steel if it's done well. You can always pre-heat the metal with a torch to aid penetration. Yes- you'd have to cut heads off (not sure what quality threaded rod you can buy)- but the weld will fill the hole; no worries there. Parallel pipe drilling calls for a milling machine with a feed table to achieve perfection, IMO.

No ideer on the PM scenario. Drilling thru fast-growth, green wood sucks, esp PT. Plenty of opportunity for deflection. Nice, dry, slow-growth wood drilling is a relative pleasure. Of course, I'm just assuming wood is involved here; you didn't specify. As for the studs- I would drill the holes & weld them thru the stock, but you'd have to devise some sort of either (2) right angle to clamp them to, or washers/a sleeve to keep them perpendicular. A bit tricky without a dedicated jig. Ideally, you'd build the studded steel piece first, then drill the holes they'd go thru second.

Age of the platform is completely irrelevant in light of safety, performance & fitting the need of the vehicle's mission. IOW, if the current Corvette was cranking out the numbers it does on a chassis from 1956: hallelujah!!

All those totally non-production-ready designs tend to look pretty snazzy. 24" rims, wheel openings cut down to 2" off the pavement & 9" side glass = Fun-Town!

^ Hmmm, that would suggest a '54 body there....

There goes the neighborhood...

^ R U saying they can't be driven, or can't be driven enjoyably? It's just the I6 thing, isn't it?

I seem to recall Chrysler published an engineering report that their '57 fins aided in cross-wind stability....

Just sketching it out: mark out your 7/16" hole, drill 1/8" holes at each 4 corners, then drill a 7/16 hole dead center (step it- but watch avoiding the edges of the 1/8" holes until the 7/16th bit- might have to do a test hole here. 1/8" hole is negotiable, only has to accept the rounded corners of the carriage bolt- but smaller here is better than larger). A sharp 3/8" wide square file will knock off the tiny bits left after the 5 overlapping holes are drilled. Sized just right & test-fit; you may be able to hammer the bolts in with zero filing. Shouldn't take all that long with 8-10 holes in 1/4" stock.

Yea- just in looking at the scarcity of the bits, no way was it going to be affordable. Dude, I could absolute converse on this.... if I had a semi-accurate idea what you were doing. Can't you weld the 6-8 first (get 'em dead perpendicular) then drill the holes on-site to line 'em up? "Driven in"... ? Is this thru wood? Can't torque 'em tight enough to call it 'secure'? Throw me a bone here.

That IS rough. I looked over a '54 @ an auction a few years ago- wasn't quite as incomplete as this but still a monster project. But that price is mad insane: jeers on the price.

Porsche is putting fins on the next boxster???

First vid doesn't illustrate it well, but it's the same principal. Based on the Reuleaux triangle, apparently you need a special chuck that allows the bit's center to revolve on a circle rather than on one point. This shows it: In poking around online, I've seen mention for drilling in wood & AL, but could not find steel bits available retail anywhere. Actually, I couldn't find any of these bits retail. Would still be interested in some sort of illustration- can you weld studs on the metal? Otherwise: 5 holes per hole: 4 corners & one center. Watch the overlap.

Ask & ye shall receive: Actually, I ran across this question & link elsewhere last month: • • • Otherwise, at the scale you'r working with (7/16), I would be tempted to drill the corners, then the center hole- not as much material removal as straight grinding into the corners... but still a lot of work. Hopefully the bit above is available somewhere & reasonably. How about some project pics on this, SAm?

This car was already built, but MUCH slicker: MK-R is still in my top 5 concept designs of the last decade.

Bah humbug !! Thanks, my wheeled brothers. And B-K; I won't tell if you don't!