Making Parts

I had a nice short time job come in this week, a guy is building a 1949 Hudson Hornet and he's adding air conditioning. Since there are no vents in the stock dashboard he & the body man brought me the dash to build a "pod" to put the vents in. They wanted one large main vent across two thirds of the bottom of the dash and a smaller on on the dirvers side to house a vent and the controls.

I got it part way done and thought I better call them to come see how it looks and make certain this is what they want. I think it looks a little big.

Here's the stock Hudson Hornet dashboard. The plan was to mimic the shape of the two chrome pods only make one big one that goes across the whole dash.

I started with a strip of 18 gauge steel and shaped the ends to match the pod shapes.

In order to match the round edges of the stock control pods I decided to start with these pieces of 1/2 DOM tubing.

I welded up one end, then filled them with sand. Next I welded up the other end. This way, I can heat and bend the tubes and they will not collapse and kink.

Here's the complex curves of the stock control pod.

This is one end of the new control pod with the piece of 1/2 tubing bent up to match.

Next, I cut slits in the top of the tubing to create a small shelf where the 18 gauge would sit. This way there's no edges to sand out later. Then I tack welded the ends in place.

Next I added the end pieces and tack welded them as well.

And this is the new pod mocked up in place. I think it's too big, the owner wants to plate this whole thing and put slits in it so air can vent through. Let's have him come in next week to take a look before I finish building this!