Project WidowMaker - The Build Thread

[The WidowMaker]

Best deal going Tim!

seriously. i spent a ton of time looking for one of those coupons though.

i didnt get much done today. i started welding up all the relief cuts in the drivers side fender, but some of the welds decided to move a little. i spent the day making it all work again.

here are the pics of the harness bar. i will get better pics once the installation gets a little further.

[Ron in SoCal]

.0000005 lookin good, as usual Bro!

[scottysimp7]

I dig the harness bar. Is that custom? cant wait to see more!

[The WidowMaker]

.0000005 lookin good, as usual Bro!

ha. to much time doing what filler could do in 30 seconds. i'll have a better idea of how far i need to go when it comes to the next car.

I dig the harness bar. Is that custom? cant wait to see more!

its a custom deal. im still trying to find new car test criteria and running some numbers to see how much force it needs to withstand. so far ive found numbers of ~1700lbs when 3000lbs is applied to both the chest and the abdomen at the same time. a lot less than i would have expected for a total of 6000lbs. that 6000lbs is what a 200lb driver would see in a crash from 60mph that stops in 3.5' with .5' of belt stretch. 30g's! even hitting a solid wall, the 3.5' would be the front of the car crunching. im not sure a seat belt would save any of us in a crash like this in our old cars.

maybe an engineer can shed some light on the forces.

[The WidowMaker]

well, im still working on the gapping. never in a million years would i have expected it to take this long. if i can keep on my current schedule, ill be done with the sheetmetal in mid may. thats about 2 months behind schedule.

ive been looking into seatbelts some more and i am trying to narrow down my choices. i would really like to just call up morris classics, but he repackages belts into kits that fit our cars. since i dont need a kit, most of the pieces and a lot of money would be wasted. so ive found a few options that are still made in the USA.

what im trying to decide on right now is which buckle im going to choose. i originally wanted a more modern buckle, but after looking at all of the website pics im now leaning towards the chrome "lift latch" style. i would brush the chrome to fit the rest of the car. the problem is that all of the vendors seem to sell the same set, and im not a fan of the male portion of the buckle (see pic). i would either need to fab us some kind of cover, or find a manufacture that has one already done. there is one other choice that is more modern and all black.

what do you guys think?

here is the non retractable version that shows a good pic of the latch. i dont really like the male end. it just seems as if something is missing.


here is one with a cover. not what im looking for, but im not sure why there isnt a cover on the lift latch.


here is what i would consider a more modern latch. it may have the red "push" button that im not a fan of though.

[Flash68]

I like that bottom one.. agree it has a much more modern feel to it.

[The WidowMaker]

youre right it does. im still wondering how the lift latch would look brushed though.

the other problem is that the ends are going to be mostly hidden anyways. the fronts will be next to the seat and the rears arent going to be that long.