HM2034 build ...another Texas Hurricane

[Bruce N]

Looking great, Bruce!   I may have to come out Sunday for the initial start up!

Sorry Bob. Just saw this. I actually got her fired up Friday night. Made a few laps around the pasture Saturday. But your welcome to come by any time. Just give a call

[Bruce N]

So made some progress this weekend. Got it fired up Friday night and made some test laps around the pasture Saturday. Other than a few small leaks all worked out well! Seems to drive and steer pretty good for tape-measure alignment and drive shaft angle set. I'll try and post some video tomorrow.

Had to do a bit of redneck engineering to get the drivers side header off the foot box. Anchored rear of car down with one truck and connected some straps and 2.5 ton chain hoist to another on the front. Was able to get it about 3/8 in off the foot box. That's about where the passenger side is so hopefully it will work out when I get the body back on.

Came up with some brackets for electric brake switch. Really did not want to use a hydraulic on brake or clutch safety switch. 

[Greg K]

Sometimes redneck works...Hey y'all watch this! 

[Bruce N]

Well I could not put it off any longer. Was a nice cool day today for grinding glass Got all the wheel openings and such trimmed and cleaned up. Quite a few air pockets that will need fixing First time Ive had the body on with wheels. I could have fit another inch in front and two inches in rear! Maybe down the road I'll change them out. I'll tackle the hood, trunk, doors tomorrow. Hopefully I can get them all lined up as I had them!

[Bruce N]

Made some good progress over the last few days. Got all the panels back on and aligned. Still some final gap work to do. And as expected. Things did not go back on exactly the same as the last time. And I made the mistake when putting the body on the first time of not putting in all the rubber seals. So of course when you put those in it changes things up a little. I wanted to get all the exterior parts drilled and installed before starting bodywork, so been working on all the lights, mirrors and such. Hopefully have all done today and can remove those items and start bodywork over Thanksgiving. Think I will mold the scoop to hood as opposed to riveting it on. May start on that this afternoon.

Starting to look like a Cobra

[Bruce N]

Spent the night figuring out these struts. Bought a $15.00 set with another $12.00 for brackets and worked out great! Will need to add some support under the fender lip but other than that a pretty straight forward install. They literally lift the hood by themselves after you pull the hood up about 10". Mounted to the hood with rev-nuts and just bolted to fender with 10-32 screws.

[Bruce N]

Worked on support brackets for the struts today. There was quite a bit of flex on the fenders when closing. Ended up placing 1" flat bar 3/16 thick and 16" long directly under lip. Used 10-32 screws in front and back and of course the strut screws in the middle. Welded a small 1" piece of bar at 90 degree with a tube on it to place 5/16 bolt threw the inner fender aluminum. Put that right behind where the struts mount. Thing is solid as a rock.

If one was to put these on while in the build process they could probably just use a piece of angle iron and bolt to the 1x1 square tube that fits under the fender.

Now. On to figure a way to modify those wonderful door latches I'm thinking I might need to get a new drivers door If you look at how far forward the jam part of the door is, It is over an inch in front of the lip on the rear of door opening. When trying to use the supplied latches, you have to extend the bracket into the actual door opening to get it to latch. That is with door moved all the way to the rear on the front hinge adjustment. Not something I can live with

[Redstang69]

What's the exterior gap like with the door bring moved as far rearward as you can?

[Bruce N]

What's the exterior gap like with the door bring moved as far rearward as you can?

I trimmed with it all the way back so gap is good. They had trimmed to much off the bottom and I had to build the jam up to close the lower gap.

So really only way to fix would be to shim the hinge back an inch or so and then add edge to the front to close that gap. Lot of work and I'm not liking the idea of shimming the door back that far.

[Bruce N]

My solution to the jam issue. I'll need to wait on the latches to come in and see what I have to do to convert to the Bear Claw before I put them back together. The passenger side was not as bad as the drivers side but was still an excessive gap. When all said and done they should be pretty much perfect.

[Greg K]

I think this is a first, never seen this done before. Will be interesting to see when done.

[Bob Worley]

Wow, Bruce - you're sure not afraid of cutting stuff apart!    I'll be interested in seeing the results of this.

I think all the Hurricane driver doors are off.   My striker plate had to be offset way inboard into the opening, compared to the passenger side. 

[Bruce N]

Wow, Bruce - you're sure not afraid of cutting stuff apart!    I'll be interested in seeing the results of this.

I think all the Hurricane driver doors are off.   My striker plate had to be offset way inboard into the opening, compared to the passenger side. 

LOL. Fiberglass is easy to put back together! I looked all through the forum in different areas and I think your right. Most look the same as ours. Drivers side gap way bigger than passenger side. Having said that, Jims up in McKinney, looks a little better. My body is actually a couple years old. One they had some gelcoat issues with. So maybe they have done something to make it better. Regaurdless, I just couldn't live with that clunky bracket sticking out into my door jam I have them trimmed and mocked up now and have the jam right up against that lip. Could probably just go with that and use the supplied latches now but figured I would move it into 2021 and make operate a little smoother with some modern latches. Should be able to post some completed pictures this weekend. waiting on latches

[Bruce N]

Hers a couple pictures with doors in place with the jams mocked (duct tapped) in position. Like I said. I think the original would fit much better but am still going to go with some modern functionality.
But you get the idea of how much better the fit is. Looking at bottom gap but not sure that will be much of an issue with weatherstrip in place. I'll try that tomorrow.

[Redstang69]

Bruce, is it only the inner skin of the door that needed extended? The outer skin was ok and you didn't cut and move it?