Matt/Mike, I discovered the channel a few months ago and, rather than ignoring all of the previous videos and jumping to present day, I have been binge watching when I get home from work and on my days off. With this video, the good news is that I am now up to date. The bad news is that I can no longer sit down and binge watch 10 videos at a single sitting. Watching the metal fabrication from your videos (and Halfass Kustoms) has really inspired me to get back in to hot rodding. I haven't picked up a welder since I was in shop class as a 12 year old. I will be retired by the end of this year and will be moving to Thailand with my wife. While I doubt that I will find many Model T's or Modal A's there, I have no doubt that I can find something sitting in a junkyard or rice field that I will be able to dedicate some time to bringing back to life. I have no doubt that I will receive my fair share of criticism for the mistakes that I make, but, I know that I will have fun and will eventually create something that my wife and I can drive around and take pride in. Thanks for restoring my interest.
WAY BACK IN MY YOUTH (1953 OR SO.) THE IN CROWD OF CAR GUYS USED THE AFTERMARKET CHROME FLARED END EXHAUST TUBE AS A WAY OF CUSTOMIZING THE STEERING COLUMN BY PUTTING THE FLARED END AT THE STEERING BOX AND PUTTING A BEARING AT THE UPPER END TO SUPPORT THE SHAFT
Always had the seating in place before finalizing the steering wheel height and had the future driver in place to obtain the most comfortable placement. Nice column drop. Might need to borrow your design on that one.
Totally agree. As impressive as this is, is it too early to judge since the seat is not in place? I would have done the seat first then made the column "come to me"
I already sat in the car with the height that is comfortable and all. Small confines for the seat to change much. I know the way I do things isn’t how everyone else does it but that’s the great thing about this stuff is that there’s no rules really as long as you get to the end goal and are happy.
Good decision, and execution, on the column drop. Some of the early, hard-chopped coupes (Fords & Mercs). looked real goofy w/ their large diameter st. wheels. back in the 50s. (No such thing as a column drop!) The top line of the wheel would be Directly in the drivers line of vision, and if you were over 5' 7" tall, required a hunched over position to keep your head from bouncing off the roof! May have looked cool to some on cruise nights; on road trips, not so much.....
Matt, can't believe I'm giving you a suggestion(Lol), you mention your seating issue, why don't you install a U joint at the floor, then put the steering wheel where you want it, you are replacing a good part of the steering shaft anyway....should have waited till the end of the video to comment, the steering wheel with you in the car looks just right...Nice job Matt!!!
With the placement of the wheel to the door opening, it would almost be easier to get in from the passenger side, and side over...Always liked the look but as you say, never thought on the "mechanics" of entering and exit. Most photos from the day didn't show many "big boned"(fat) owners of these cars...LOL
Yea definitely a process sliding in and out of these cars! Moving the wheel back will Make the car a lot better to drive since I won’t be hunched over to reach the wheel and can recline back a little
Ah to be young and flexible. Nice job and neat look to that column drop. Shows off your skills if folks will take the time to look. Most won’t and just focus on the bling. They really miss out on what you have done. Larry would be proud.
You'll need to keep that roof open if Mike wants to ride along! Just cut a tractor seat-sized hole in the floor pan and sink an old 8N seat pan into the floor! Then you could use a Ford seat pad as a cushion. Oh, yeah, there's that "period correct" problem - this is an East Coast style, not a Midwest style..... ;-)
That steering column came out bitchin' Like a true old school period chopped hot rod. I hope eventually you do a full custom paint job on it. With flames on course.
I like the drop down. To show off your tig welding, I would free hand a old ford V 8 emblem (8 in the middle of the V) in the middle of the drop down. It would add class and show off your welding abilities a little.
In NZ you would have to get a whole steering shaft made to custom length out of one piece, we legally not allowed to weld any cast or forged steering parts.
For you really low-buck guys here's another place where Chevy G-van parts can come in handy. Factory the steering column has two U-joints on it that let the thing make about a 90' bend. Up to about 93 they're exposed under the hood, which is okay in the south but I had one stiffen up on me on a driver that saw road salt. This must have been a known problem because 94 and 95 (maybe 93 too; the years they could come with an airbag) have a rubber boot over the under-hood portion. This segment is also a little longer on these years. They also have a collapsing section that has several inches of adjustability in it - it just slides together with a little spring plate. All of this stuff has regular GM small shaft splines on it so it's plug and play with a lot of other GM steering boxes and steering column upper sections. Some of your 50s Buick, Olds, Caddy have a fatter steering shaft, not sure how late those run, maybe right up to when they went to the column interlock.
That steering wheel is awesome. I know that you have to set it up for you, but if I was building it for myself, I would shorten it and get it a little closer to the dash. I realize that will make leg clearance a tight fit, but I'd deal with that. I really love the way you build your cars Matt, you take your time and do it right. Another excellent hot rod bro. Great video too, you really talk & walk us through them so we learn as you go. Thanks Matt, hope the rest of your day is a good one. 👍
The lengthened column is because I will be reclining the seat back to make it a little more comfortable to drive thus pulling your upper body and arms back in the car. When I’m sitting in the car with it all set up it works pretty well.
I'm loving this car! You might have to put in floor "tubs" to get the seats low enough! I would love to see a nice paint job on this one...not show quality, but nice.
Looking good . It's great to see you bringing these old cars back to life with out replacing everything with new reproduction parts . I was a teenager in the mid 50s so i remember the cars well . When you say you are going to put them back like they were if possible , you do it well . Many others change things more modern so they are not the same . Even i did that on my 35 Chevy but i don't claim it is build like they did in the 50s . I like you show because you let us watch you do the work that makes the changes . A lot of shows just show the before and after , that's not interesting , just like looking at a picture album .
I have used round stainless steel downpipe, (from commercial building sites) to make column shroud just slice lengthways and close to the diameter you need then clamp or Tig, the lengths you need would normally be free as it is always just thrown away on bigger building sites
Since you are asking... my suggestion is to build the car to a standard higher than a rat rod. Not a custom show car but as if a shade tree hotrodder from back in the day was doing his home-spun best to make the car look sharp. That would include "nice" paint and interior but with the inevitable flaws a budget conscious backyard hotrodder would have had back in the day. That would not be a high standard for you to meet and doing so would provide great entertainment. I think anyway. For inspiration, you could look into the many vintage hotrodding mags you have.
@@IronTrapGarage You can build it however you like, I just made a suggestion for one way to do it. I get the impression you weren't going to do much on the cosmetics in the near future. The current term for that kind of treatment is rat rod. Maybe you don't like the term but that's the only one I know. My hotrod days were in California in the late '60s and though I was into more modern late '50-60s cars, in my peer group, we often couldn't afford to make them show cars. Or anything close. But we did the best we could. For some guys, that was pretty darn good. For others it was not so hot... but we all tried to make 'em look a nice as we could, even if that was a paint job in the back yard that didn't bear close scrutiny (or a hard rain ( : < ). I was just suggesting adopting that sort of a theme. Maybe like Larry Schroll would have done it in his garage (you know more about him than I do). Again, it was just a suggest on how to think about it, not criticism.
Why not get some bus seats and modify them to fit? They use some decent tubing and plywood for the base and back, so you could cut to fit, and make an inexpensive base that you could attach foam and upholstery to.
Looking good. The seats will be a challenge to fit in place. Will you have to make from scrap or modify some existing ones. Perhaps some old front VW seats or something like them. We all enjoy your videos.
1970 I made the seat for my channeled 32 5 window , 1 inch tube frame, lawn chair webbing seat and back , with 3” pads , worked for me, when I saw the car in the 80s someone had changed over to mustang buckets seemed to compromise headroom
What a pretty morning that awaited you outside that garage. Shots of the sun raining down upon your garage and its walls .. rules !! Once again, great work !!
Nice work on the steering set up but if that's you sitting on the floor, how'r you going to get your legs under it when you put in a seat? Still think that hard channeling is going to be the cause of more problems down the road. "Ergonomic" might come to haunt you or any average-sized driver.
A little discomfort is a trade off if you want to look cool in a channelled car. If not, you could always drive a 40's or 50's Chrysler sedan! And if that doesn't work, you could always go to a surgeon to see if they do a 3 inch chop on your legs and spine!🤣
That steering wheel looks so cool I mentioned in a previous video about aluminum aircraft seats I’ve seen Jesse James make them for a car like this one he was having the same issue and his came out awesome 😎!!!!!!just an idea 💡!!!!????
If you care to mod that column for power steering. I did my 59 apache with a electric pwr steering mtr from a 2010 corolla. It wasn't very hard and worked great. be glad to share the info. Bob A
Hi guys! That steering wheel look very good, I don't know if the driving position is very comfortable, but with a beauty like this it's also worth being a little uncomfortable😂💪
Matt/Mike, I discovered the channel a few months ago and, rather than ignoring all of the previous videos and jumping to present day, I have been binge watching when I get home from work and on my days off. With this video, the good news is that I am now up to date. The bad news is that I can no longer sit down and binge watch 10 videos at a single sitting. Watching the metal fabrication from your videos (and Halfass Kustoms) has really inspired me to get back in to hot rodding. I haven't picked up a welder since I was in shop class as a 12 year old. I will be retired by the end of this year and will be moving to Thailand with my wife. While I doubt that I will find many Model T's or Modal A's there, I have no doubt that I can find something sitting in a junkyard or rice field that I will be able to dedicate some time to bringing back to life. I have no doubt that I will receive my fair share of criticism for the mistakes that I make, but, I know that I will have fun and will eventually create something that my wife and I can drive around and take pride in. Thanks for restoring my interest.
That’s awesome you wanna get back into it! Congrats on your retirement and the future move!
Seats: throw pillow velcro'd to the floor!! That channel is nuts. I'd look like Herman Munster in that thing.
WAY BACK IN MY YOUTH (1953 OR SO.) THE IN CROWD OF CAR GUYS USED THE AFTERMARKET CHROME FLARED END EXHAUST TUBE AS A WAY OF CUSTOMIZING THE STEERING COLUMN BY PUTTING THE FLARED END AT THE STEERING BOX AND PUTTING A BEARING AT THE UPPER END TO SUPPORT THE SHAFT
Yep! Wish we could easily get the flared scavenger pipes still!
Love the mint and jade green on that wheel, be sweet to refinish the whole car in those 2 colors!
Always had the seating in place before finalizing the steering wheel height and had the future driver in place to obtain the most comfortable placement. Nice column drop. Might need to borrow your design on that one.
Totally agree. As impressive as this is, is it too early to judge since the seat is not in place? I would have done the seat first then made the column "come to me"
I already sat in the car with the height that is comfortable and all. Small confines for the seat to change much. I know the way I do things isn’t how everyone else does it but that’s the great thing about this stuff is that there’s no rules really as long as you get to the end goal and are happy.
@@IronTrapGarage agreed.
@@IronTrapGarage Was just worried for you Matt. I'm a big fan of your work and strategies.
Make a recess for your feet's and behind, every inch count traveling down the road.
First thing I thought of
@@johnbreadsell1401 yup
I enjoy following your projects. Like the subtle changes you are making, but keeping the soul of the car. Your fabrication is tastefully done.
Thank you!
Good decision, and execution, on the column drop. Some of the early, hard-chopped coupes (Fords & Mercs). looked real goofy w/ their large diameter st. wheels. back in the 50s. (No such thing as a column drop!) The
top line of the wheel would be Directly in the drivers line of vision, and if you were over 5' 7" tall, required a
hunched over position to keep your head from bouncing off the roof! May have looked cool to some on cruise nights; on road trips, not so much.....
Old school steering wheel looks good, nice job fabricating the column as well.
Matt, can't believe I'm giving you a suggestion(Lol), you mention your seating issue, why don't you install a U joint at the floor, then put the steering wheel where you want it, you are replacing a good part of the steering shaft anyway....should have waited till the end of the video to comment, the steering wheel with you in the car looks just right...Nice job Matt!!!
Looks great Matt! But I'm learning there's probably no way I'd be comfortable in a hard channeled car like that.
Looks great, but I'd need a small crew and a doctor standing by to help me get into it ! Love what you're doing with it, Matt.
With the placement of the wheel to the door opening, it would almost be easier to get in from the passenger side, and side over...Always liked the look but as you say, never thought on the "mechanics" of entering and exit. Most photos from the day didn't show many "big boned"(fat) owners of these cars...LOL
Yea definitely a process sliding in and out of these cars! Moving the wheel back will
Make the car a lot better to drive since I won’t be hunched over to reach the wheel and can recline back a little
@@IronTrapGarage As long as you can reach the pedals
LOL. Me too Bob.
Ah to be young and flexible.
Nice job and neat look to that column drop. Shows off your skills if folks will take the time to look. Most won’t and just focus on the bling. They really miss out on what you have done. Larry would be proud.
You'll need to keep that roof open if Mike wants to ride along! Just cut a tractor seat-sized hole in the floor pan and sink an old 8N seat pan into the floor! Then you could use a Ford seat pad as a cushion. Oh, yeah, there's that "period correct" problem - this is an East Coast style, not a Midwest style..... ;-)
The steering wheel is nice looking and good job on the column and bracket.
That steering column came out bitchin' Like a true old school period chopped hot rod.
I hope eventually you do a full custom paint job on it.
With flames on course.
To get more of a cast look on steel parts I use a needle scaler to add texture before blasting. It adds some small dimples to the surface.
The "keytar" solo @ 18:00 was worth the wait. Thanks for that. Nice work Matt!!!
@11:00
A set of bomber seats would set that off nicely!
I like the drop down. To show off your tig welding, I would free hand a old ford V 8 emblem (8 in the middle of the V) in the middle of the drop down. It would add class and show off your welding abilities a little.
I like those 56 Ford style steering wheels
In NZ you would have to get a whole steering shaft made to custom length out of one piece, we legally not allowed to weld any cast or forged steering parts.
You need a column like Mike on his 1930 Coupe from This Old Hot Rod that adjusts up and down to get out easier.
For you really low-buck guys here's another place where Chevy G-van parts can come in handy. Factory the steering column has two U-joints on it that let the thing make about a 90' bend. Up to about 93 they're exposed under the hood, which is okay in the south but I had one stiffen up on me on a driver that saw road salt. This must have been a known problem because 94 and 95 (maybe 93 too; the years they could come with an airbag) have a rubber boot over the under-hood portion. This segment is also a little longer on these years. They also have a collapsing section that has several inches of adjustability in it - it just slides together with a little spring plate.
All of this stuff has regular GM small shaft splines on it so it's plug and play with a lot of other GM steering boxes and steering column upper sections. Some of your 50s Buick, Olds, Caddy have a fatter steering shaft, not sure how late those run, maybe right up to when they went to the column interlock.
Looks great!
Just a thin seat cushion base and a seat back in there and go!
Beautiful workmanship Matt. Always a pleasure to watch and learn from your craftmanship.
Take care and thanks
Donnie
That steering wheel is awesome. I know that you have to set it up for you, but if I was building it for myself, I would shorten it and get it a little closer to the dash. I realize that will make leg clearance a tight fit, but I'd deal with that. I really love the way you build your cars Matt, you take your time and do it right. Another excellent hot rod bro.
Great video too, you really talk & walk us through them so we learn as you go. Thanks Matt, hope the rest of your day is a good one. 👍
The lengthened column is because I will be reclining the seat back to make it a little more comfortable to drive thus pulling your upper body and arms back in the car. When I’m sitting in the car with it all set up it works pretty well.
I'm loving this car! You might have to put in floor "tubs" to get the seats low enough! I would love to see a nice paint job on this one...not show quality, but nice.
A 60 Tbird steering column moves towards the passinger for ease of entry.
Steering in the right direction. Looking good. As always.
Looking good . It's great to see you bringing these old cars back to life with out replacing everything with new reproduction parts . I was a teenager in the mid 50s so i remember the cars well . When you say you are going to put them back like they were if possible , you do it well . Many others change things more modern so they are not the same . Even i did that on my 35 Chevy but i don't claim it is build like they did in the 50s . I like you show because you let us watch you do the work that makes the changes . A lot of shows just show the before and after , that's not interesting , just like looking at a picture album .
Dang man you have a great eye for collecting parts, and building. The Schroll 32 is going to be awesome when done!!!!
Thank you!
Steering column is awesome. Your attention to detail amazes me. Good video.
Can see a set of old original bomber seats in there
You beat me to it !! Bomber style seats, mounted directly to the floor, minimal upholstery (as in not too much foam, cloth of choice. Job done ✅
I have used round stainless steel downpipe, (from commercial building sites) to make column shroud just slice lengthways and close to the diameter you need then clamp or Tig, the lengths you need would normally be free as it is always just thrown away on bigger building sites
Incredible Job Matt!! Incredible Job! 👏👏👏 What a Talent!!!
Matt that column looks great!
Matt it keeps getting better every video. Thanks for sharing. Kevin
Since you are asking... my suggestion is to build the car to a standard higher than a rat rod. Not a custom show car but as if a shade tree hotrodder from back in the day was doing his home-spun best to make the car look sharp. That would include "nice" paint and interior but with the inevitable flaws a budget conscious backyard hotrodder would have had back in the day. That would not be a high standard for you to meet and doing so would provide great entertainment. I think anyway. For inspiration, you could look into the many vintage hotrodding mags you have.
So I can’t build the car too nice but can’t leave it “old”? Narrow vision to stick in..
@@IronTrapGarage You can build it however you like, I just made a suggestion for one way to do it. I get the impression you weren't going to do much on the cosmetics in the near future. The current term for that kind of treatment is rat rod. Maybe you don't like the term but that's the only one I know. My hotrod days were in California in the late '60s and though I was into more modern late '50-60s cars, in my peer group, we often couldn't afford to make them show cars. Or anything close. But we did the best we could. For some guys, that was pretty darn good. For others it was not so hot... but we all tried to make 'em look a nice as we could, even if that was a paint job in the back yard that didn't bear close scrutiny (or a hard rain ( : < ). I was just suggesting adopting that sort of a theme. Maybe like Larry Schroll would have done it in his garage (you know more about him than I do). Again, it was just a suggest on how to think about it, not criticism.
Why not get some bus seats and modify them to fit? They use some decent tubing and plywood for the base and back, so you could cut to fit, and make an inexpensive base that you could attach foam and upholstery to.
You should be very proud of yourself. You do an awesome job
I saw a similar car that the owner had used the hood from a modern car with the bulge for carbs or blower to fill the hole in the roof. Looked great.
Looking good. The seats will be a challenge to fit in place. Will you
have to make from scrap or modify some existing ones. Perhaps some
old front VW seats or something like them. We all enjoy your videos.
All custom made.
1970 I made the seat for my channeled 32 5 window , 1 inch tube frame, lawn chair webbing seat and back , with 3” pads , worked for me, when I saw the car in the 80s someone had changed over to mustang buckets seemed to compromise headroom
Looking forward to seeing the next steps in your build your friend Rob from Canada 🇨🇦 ✌
that drop is sweet. cool how you add your personal touches but keeping the feel of the original build. the column looks cool with the wheel too.
Nicely made column support!
matt, my 34 truck is channeled hard (not chopped) and in the 50's when it was done the owner/builder used austin healey seats. they fit well.
That is a great looking steering wheel for the period, awesome. How about investigating bomber style seats for the build, just a thought. Cheers
What a pretty morning that awaited you outside that garage. Shots of the sun raining down upon your garage and its walls .. rules !! Once again, great work !!
Nice work on the steering. Love this coupe.
A pair of bomber seats would look good in there and they'd sit pretty much right on the floor
Love the stg wheel / column, but most importantly it must be comfortable for you.
mornin matt commin along great likin that wheel
Awesome! Greetings from Brazil! I hope some day I can build something like this.
Hope you will be able to reach any switches on the dash. Coming along nicely.
Nice work on the steering set up but if that's you sitting on the floor, how'r you going to get your legs under it when you put in a seat? Still think that hard channeling is going to be the cause of more problems down the road. "Ergonomic" might come to haunt you or any average-sized driver.
Excellent choice on the wheel.
Looking awesome
Hey matt for seats why don't you try old fighter plane pilot seats ,they are very low all steal and have that aged look,maybe they would work.
You can probably use a back seat out of some 40/50s sedan since the channel so crazy! :V
Hey Matt
Another great video !
It is a pleasure to watch you make your ideas a reality.
The coupe is coming along nicely.
Be Safe and Well
Nice progress
Fantastic job for what it is, with the tools and knowledge your going in the right direction. Thanks Matt for the video
beautiful steering wheel, looks great in coupe
A little discomfort is a trade off if you want to look cool in a channelled car. If not, you could always drive a 40's or 50's Chrysler sedan! And if that doesn't work, you could always go to a surgeon to see if they do a 3 inch chop on your legs and spine!🤣
That steering wheel looks so cool I mentioned in a previous video about aluminum aircraft seats I’ve seen Jesse James make them for a car like this one he was having the same issue and his came out awesome 😎!!!!!!just an idea 💡!!!!????
Looks great. More small victories. Yaaay.
Great video, Matt! The column and the steering wheel "work" nicely in the Coupe! Thanks for sharing! Be safe!
are you building bomber seats for it? Column looks good. its amazing how much work there is in these hidden details
Great video 👍 If put a press fit sleeve you could Pin it together so in case of impact the pin break's and slides inside the sleeve.
Consider splines, D-flat or double-D for a sliding fit whenever possible. All are hidden inside the column tube.
Incase of serious impact just bury me in the car
Way to go Matt just loving the steering wheel setup. You so awesome in fabricating part for you builds.
It looks great! I hope mine comes half as nice as that! Great work! Love the video,keep up the good work!
If you care to mod that column for power steering. I did my 59 apache with a electric pwr steering mtr from a 2010 corolla. It wasn't very hard and worked great. be glad to share the info. Bob A
Nice work and the results looks great. Stay safe.
Great job as usual Matt 👍
Looks good someone will be proud
Some more great stuff Matt 👍🤙
She's really looking good, Matt! Are you sure that coupe wasn't built with someone shorter in mind?
Hi guys! That steering wheel look very good, I don't know if the driving position is very comfortable, but with a beauty like this it's also worth being a little uncomfortable😂💪
Cool stearing ... like the cast colum part you built very good craftsmanship. Steering will is killer, turn signals ?? Or analog human arm signals?
Awesome work
How about a joint to lower the height ? Hide it closer to floor
that looks really nice...
Love the steering wheel I want it 😂
Is it possible to make a recess into the floor pan to basically become the pan for the seat bun foam to rest into?
Looking good.
Can you drop the seat bottoms down below the frame rails?
Looking good Matt.
Are you going for bench or bucket type seating?
Thin Bench
great choice in music
everything is awesome.... good job
For the seats you going with a bench of bucket style?
Looking 👀 really nice 👍
good job on coupe not a cobble job like some
In the next video show what the peddles and brake set up is
Nice work! Do you know where to get 34 ford p/u guages? Speedo, amp, oil. Even a good aftermarket ?!
Love the look nice job
Great look keep it up.
Looks great
Wheel looks cool ut a conversation on it till the car is done or it will be black by then
Nice work 👍