BUILD ON HOLD

Body on frame @ Mercury Charlie's garage

At the risk of driving myself crazy, I'm holding off on spending for the roadster while we get the Tall T closer to being on the road. I simply can't divide my spending in two directions and expect to finish anything. So until such time that the T is a running and driving period hot rod, you'll see very little movement on the A build. That said, here are some current progress shot of the T.

On its way to the secret bunker in Austin following a 4-day, 100-hour thrash. Engine is a 425 Nailhead backed by a Turbo 400 transmission and 9" Ford rear. Gears are a 3.50 which should put the motor right in its sweet spot -2,600 RPM--at highway speeds. 

Any similarity to Charlie's original Tall T is purely intentional.

DARK ABALONE PEARL FOR DASH INSET

In researching drum wrap materials, I came across a source called jamminsam.com. Typically, I started looking at the samples on his site and found a dark abalone drum veneer that was listed as discontinued.

A quick call revealed that while Sam didn't have enough left to skin a drum set, he did have two remnants. I bought both. Nice guy, and a wealth of information on how to properly attach the material to my dash. While I can't lay claim to inventing this idea since SoCal Speed shop has offered Fender pick guard dash inserts, I doubt you'll ever see this color used anywhere else. I'm thinking of combining this material surrounding repop Stewart Warner Greenline gauges I wrote about in my prior post. More on this once the material arrives. If you're looking for something similar for your car or drum project, give him a call. Contact info is on his website through the link up above.

SW GREENLINE GAUGES (PLAN B)

Just when I thought the instrument panel plan was coming together, I found out that one of my favorite all-time vintage gauges, Stewart Warner Greenlines, are being faithfully reproduced by the manufacturer. So suddenly I have a decision to make. Continue with my plan to restore the set if International gauges I bought at the Loveland Good Guys show and probably have as much or more into them as a new set of Greenlines, or buy the SW reproductions. Also I recieved the abalone veneer in the mail that I was thinking about using on the backs of the International gauges and didn't like it. So I started researching drum kit veneer and have included a couple shots below. I'm definitely interested in using this material in my gauge cluster.  

6"X15.5" is the amount of material I would need to reface my gauge cluster.

http://www.drummaker.com offers an excellent selection.