Project Schism - another offbeat '23 Ford T

[toddshotrods]

I was in my office working yesterday, and started hearing things clinking, and then the whir of a right angle grinder. I listened for a bit, and recognized the types and patterns of sounds I was hearing - it was Kez working on the roll cage. She just quietly popped in and got busy. It's funny that I know some of my Team by the sounds of their work. She got the left side front bar close enough to start the right side; then she'll tweak them to match.



These are close enough now for me to start working the body back into the picture, which leads the way to Schism finally starting to come together as a complete car. Most of our work, up to this point, has been building the parts that make a car. Soon, we transition into combining all those parts to form an actual car.

The ShopBot failed miserably on the air cut of the window frames yesterday. It ended a whopping 7-inches away from the original origin! They need to send a tech out to fix what the last tech f'd up.

[toddshotrods]

I figured out how to trick the ShopBot into cutting the last of my foam cores, the window frames - with perfect results! This colorful collection will soon pave the way for Schism's rag top to finally become a reality. I've been drawing and rendering those rag tops for almost three years now! 61 pieces, counting one (that gets sliced up to use sections of) for the windshield that's not in this pic.


The jagged edges are just because I haven't trimmed them yet. I didn't run final cutout passes to trim the bottom edges on the machine because I was purposely giving it as little opportunity as possible to screw up my cores.

[toddshotrods]

I have been working on some of Schism's aesthetic design cues, so while running errands today I decided to pop in Woodcraft and get an up-close-and-personal view of different species of exotic wood. When I'm imagining and sketching the parts, I kind of know what they should look like, but couldn't put my finger on what specific wood would work.

I found it but, typical of me, it's one of the more expensive varieties. It's called Ebony Black & White, and it's absolutely perfect for what I want. It has a *built-in* aged and weathered look that you know isn't really old - exactly the point of this whole project. I am purposely designing Schism to look like the old, buggy-style, horseless carriages, but *rendered* with modern materials and techniques.



Wait'll you see what I do with a few hundred bucks worth of this stuff!

[toddshotrods]

Snipped the corners of the cowl to fit over the front cage tubes, snipped those dumb doors out, and started gluing the ribs and stringers together. There is a LOT of work left to do, before we can begin skinning it with fabric.





I have a small dip to fix in the rear rib. I didn't use screws when I glued them, this time, and left them standing on end to dry - it slipped out of place a little before the glue set. Easy fix.

I'm also making changes and adjustments as I build the roof, to make the original CAD design work in reality. CAD/CNC was to develop the basic shape, and produce the critical surfaces. The goal from here on is to make it look like an artistic swipe at a rag top, that was dipped in carbon fiber and (flat or satin) clear.

[toddshotrods]

If your name is Todd Perkins, this is how you retrofit a touchscreen, digital, gauge panel into a hyperactive, artistic, interpretation of a turn-of-the-20th-century, horseless carriage - a CAD/CNC, custom, housing.


The inspiration was a vintage Olds (I think) gauge panel I saw on eBay. Why buy and modify it when I can make it, right? Actually, I doubt it would have worked, even if the overall dimensions were close enough, because I changed the shape to conceal the digital panel.

This is will mount to the steering column, with a bracket that extends up from it. There is also a lot of detail left to add in face panel, around the touchscreen. A momentary switch, and probably a couple idiot lights, go on either side of it, and I will add some organic curves, and recess the screen a bit. I want a removable, bubbled, old-TV-style, glass cover for the touchscreen.

[toddshotrods]

I've been working on the pedal assembly. I'll be moving around working on different areas to make sure that I don't miss anything, or underestimate anything, in pursuit of this $500 plan. I needed to know for sure that the pedals would work with the master cylinders relocated up front. I also decided, while I was in that area, to see if the dual-function throttle pedal idea was going to work; even though I won't have electric power right away.



Yup and yup! I have a lot of work to do to adjust the height and spacing of the pedals, but I can't really do that until the seats are actually in place and the floorboard is in. In this tight space, driver position means everything for exactly where components are located, as there's almost no such thing as repositioning one's self. Making adjustments is a simple matter of bending and/or cutting and welding the levers. The brake and clutch pedals also have a lot of adjustment in position with the push rods - they're actually at the end of their adjustments, back about an inch too far, in these pics.

I am going to lower the throttle pedal. The stirrup is supposed to be just off the floor. The reason it's so high here is I changed the design. It was supposed to be longer, but when I started working out the design for it I realized that if the pivot point was too high on my foot the motion was unnatural. The original design had the pivot point in the ball of the foot, but we actually pivot at the ankle.

Hold your leg straight out, toes pointed up, and put your heel on a thin edge, then point your toes forward - natural motion. Now, point your toes up and put the arch of your foot on the edge, and point your toes forward, rocking around that edge - unnatural; you have to actually lift the heel off your foot, and you should feel muscles working that didn't the first time. I actually want a tiny bit of resistance, so that summoning the electric drive requires a purposed effort. If the pivot was all the way at the bottom it would be too easy to ride around draining the batteries, with the electric drive working when it shouldn't be - like a highway jaunt, where your muscles tend to get a little fatigued and mind a little lazy.

I worked pretty much blindly, off my new design and instinct, making patterns, cutting, forming, grinding, welding, and grinding, steel, all day yesterday (still have more grinding to do... ). I didn't stop until it was in the car - then I walked away from it. Today, I contorted myself under the fragile foam roof framework, and into position and put my foot in the stirrup.

First impression, it's surprising how natural the stirrup feels. Secondly, the pivot point is perfect. I had to try to hold the unbolted assembly still but both motions are very natural. The only stress on my body was from being doubled over trying to hold the assembly while working the pedal. I think after a couple hundred miles this will be completely intuitive, and a helluva lot of fun!

[toddshotrods]

I finally have the pedal assembly far enough along to move on to the dash bar. I lowered the throttle pedal (cut-weld-grind), adjusted the spacing on the clutch and brake pedals (hammerformed), and shortened the push rods, so the brake and clutch pedals are pretty much in place now. I have to get an 8mm die to thread the clutch rod a little deeper, and need to buy or fabricate a new push rod for the brake, with a high-misalignment pivot ball - it works but has a little bind in it where the current ball hits its limit. The clutch pedal is a little under an inch from the firewall at the end of its travel, and the brake will be about the same. I still need to finish grinding the welds on the stirrup then, someday, invest countless hours to grind all these parts into artwork.




I contorted into position and took them for a test drive again, and it's really nice now. Narrow driving shoes will be mandatory for when things get serious. My Nike sneakers' wide soles require a little thought and effort to hit one pedal at a time, but comfort and practicality are not Schism's forte.

Next I start on the dash bar, to set the stage for the steering. If Kez is able to make it in tomorrow, to finish the right side cage front bar, I will get started on the dash bar. If not, I will finish the front bar, and hopefully get to the dash bar by the weekend.

[toddshotrods]

Moving forward to the dash bar and steering, I stuck the Honda steering column in the car to get an idea of how it's going to fit and mount. It's stripped down to just the steel underpinnings, and is being used to capitalize on Honda's height adjustment mechanism, which I always liked.

It became painfully obvious, really quickly, that the 13.5" steering wheel just wasn't going to work. In fact, I don't even think a 12" wheel would fit, so I am not going to waste my time making a mock-up, or money buying one. I did some parts shuffling, and swapped the 13.5" wheel into the Model E, and it's little 10" wheel to Schism. The funny thing is I purchased the 10" for just this reason - in the initial mock-ups of that car I knew I couldn't fit anything larger. Now, Model E has grown, and Schism has shrunk and the wheels needed to be swapped. That was a purposed thing. I have purposely been removing as much of "me" from the Model E as possible, over the last year, and that 10" wheel was 100% Todd.





With that wheel, I am also reclaiming my chunk of Maple burl, and resuming the process of making that steering wheel. It's actually going to be even better on Schism, because I am not trying to incorporate hidden control buttons in it. I have a perfect little piece of 6061 bar stock to carve a hub, will machine spokes on the ShopBot, and get Curt to TIG it all together for me. The hub is going to be a ball and stem to match the shifter, e-brake handle, and planned switch knobs.

I just have to come up with a plan to make the Maple burl work with the Ebony Black & White accents I have. I'm thinking Ebony B&W inlays in the burled rim, and then maybe some burl inlays in the Ebony pieces that will follow, but I'm not set on anything yet.

More on the rim and hub coming. The CAD madness is about to happen, and I will resume machining the burl rim soon, but the actual hub, spokes, and weld-up, may be a little further down the road. I am mainly trying to lay the ground work, so I can set the steering column accordingly. I also want the rim to be cut and settled long before the rest of the wheel is finalized and cut, so I can make any necessary adjustments to suit how it chooses to end up.

An update on that process, for this site: the block is machined a little and allowed to settle. The newly exposed wood gets time to acclimate itself to the environment, re-balancing the moisture content. If it's done correctly, it won't fracture into a bunch of worthless scrap wood. When the final machining has been completed, the rim will be allowed to sit for a while, in a fixture, but could actually change shape a bit. That's fine with me, because it would add to the vintage "flavor". The hub will be designed, machined, and fabricated to match the rim. Normally, over time, the rim would change shape and the support structure would prevent it from moving freely, causing the large cracks and chunking you see a lot with antique wheels.

The ten-inch wheel is an absolute necessity to fit in Schism's impossibly restricted interior. I was able to contort my way in again and it feels perfect. It kind of completes the ridiculous feel of the car, from the driver's seat, and should be quite an experience with 1-1/2 turns lock to lock - can you say overgrown kart?!

[toddshotrods]

Getting the basic direction roughed in.


There is a lot more detail to come in the rim, where the spokes land. I have a few ideas, and haven't decided which route I'm going yet. That is where I think the Black & White Ebony inlays will be...

The aluminum rim section, and spokes would be CAD/CNC, the hub would be lathe-turned, and everything would be TIG'd together. A Wilwood quick disconnect hub would be machined, for aesthetics, and welded to the base of the hub.

The main point here is to develop the overall dimensions, and process I intend to follow, so I can have the steering column set to accommodate this wheel. I hope to be able to simply pop it on in place of the Grant, when it's ready.

[toddshotrods]

Back to work, machining the steering wheel rim. Machine a little, let it sit, machine a little, let it sit... Hopefully, at the end of the process, I won't have a floor full of cute little Maple Burl chunks.




I cut the original dash out of the body today, so I could get my dash taped in place.




This old foam plug is pretty beat up but I think the original models and CAM files are locked up or lost in my coffee-saturated external hard drive. I may have to protect this with my life, and fix it up.





This is all in preparation for doing the dash bar. It's cut and sectioned because parts of how it's going together might be extremely difficult/impossible to do on a bender, and because I had the old roll cage main hoop just sitting here, doing nothing, with the perfect curves in it. Chamfered and plug welded, with inserts at the joints, it should be okay.




I was inside again, for another "test drive". It is soooo tight in there! Making everything clear and work is going to be one helluva challenge, but I think I'm up for it. The first casualty might be the Honda steering column. That adjuster will interfere with the clutch work, as it is. I also cut the opening for the shaft in the firewall way oversize, to give myself room to experiment. I am going to give it a try before tucking my tail and stringing a plain piece of tubing through there.