Any thoughts on these mods to the EXPRESS....?

[Budnicks]

:happy1: interesting

 

[dieseldazzle]

Glad I could get you the headlights turn signals and the c chrome randy! Gonna look sweet

 

[Brandy]

You know with the fenders squared off and the grille unit going straight across it's going to look great, cant wait to fool around putting in place. I do have a question or two though. What do the cases rotate on? There must be a fitting or something that fits into the holes on the ends. I'm going to have to research this some more. I guess the "motors"?

Glad I could get you the headlights turn signals and the c chrome randy! Gonna look sweet

 

[Brandy]

Express update..

Hit a milestone today, I have the tail lights set up. I wont do the welding of the extensions until I can afford the Super Alloy 1 brazing rods. I did not end up using the bottom lip of the trunk lid to fill in between the lower extension ends. It had the lock hole in it and was pretty bent up. So I fabricated two pieces and then stitched them together in the middle. All of the trim mounting screws are not in and the extensions are just hanging there so it's still a bit uneven and the trunk back edge is unfinished still. After some fine tuning of the shapes and curves and a bit of filler here and there it will all line up dead straight. Here's the pics.

 

[Budnicks]

Looks good ghostrider
just like I said in the other tread...LOL

 

[Brandy]

Yah, trying to spread it out so people find it...

Looks good ghostrider
just like I said in the other tread...LOL

 

[Brandy]

Hideaway headlights ideas.

Okay, bear with me for a minute. This will sound weird. For those of us who like to re engineer stuff, for various reasons, we often try to make a 40 + year old system work with todays more reliable and way cheaper parts. So I was sitting here in front of the fireplace thinking about 1966 Charger hideaway headlight buckets and the archaic method of their operation. I occurred to me that I might be smart enough to re engineer this system to my benefit. I propose to use a new power window motor to drive a gear reduction that moves a gear welded to a crossbar that is fastened to the inside end of each bucket. This will turn both buckets at the same time and rate as they open and close. The system relies on limit switches to stop the motor when the window( buckets) reach the fully open/closed position. The worm gear teeth on the motor can not be "driven" by the other toothed gear due to angle. So they reach the desired position and stop and stay. All I would need inside the car is a rocker window switch on the door or console with a one touch feature to operate in either direction. The buckets being fastened together insures that they remain lined up. I can get window motors out of doors in the local salvage yard all day long for less than $ 20 bucks. Since the motor is not "lifting" anything and is instead rotating a balanced unit there is almost no load on the motor and it should last a long time.

What say you?

I intend to test this theory on Monday. I'll rig up an aluminum bar with a vertical stick attached to each end and push the switch to open the window circuit. It should rotate the bar and the sticks around to the opposite position and stop when the limit switch is tripped. It should stay still as the worm gear will hold it just as it does for a window in any position. The only issue I see is fastening the buckets together in a balanced way and what to use as a bearing on each end for the outer side of each bucket to rotate in/on.

 

[jeepers007]

Okay, bear with me for a minute. This will sound weird. For those of us who like to re engineer stuff, for various reasons, we often try to make a 40 + year old system work with todays more reliable and way cheaper parts. So I was sitting here in front of the fireplace thinking about 1966 Charger hideaway headlight buckets and the archaic method of their operation. I occurred to me that I might be smart enough to re engineer this system to my benefit. I propose to use a new power window motor to drive a gear reduction that moves a gear welded to a crossbar that is fastened to the inside end of each bucket. This will turn both buckets at the same time and rate as they open and close. The system relies on limit switches to stop the motor when the window( buckets) reach the fully open/closed position. The worm gear teeth on the motor can not be "driven" by the other toothed gear due to angle. So they reach the desired position and stop and stay. All I would need inside the car is a rocker window switch on the door or console with a one touch feature to operate in either direction. The buckets being fastened together insures that they remain lined up. I can get window motors out of doors in the local salvage yard all day long for less than $ 20 bucks. Since the motor is not "lifting" anything and is instead rotating a balanced unit there is almost no load on the motor and it should last a long time.

What say you?

Those motors are generally well protected from the elements inside the door. Exposure risks by the grill opening?

 

[Brandy]

I thought about that, perhaps the only bit that need be exposed to the elements is the worm gear itself. Also, I have no intention of driving it year round or in the rain if I can help it. I could also place a housing around everything including the center connecting bar and have both ends of that bar exit out of said housing so the entire working mechanism would be shielded from anything.

Those motors are generally well protected from the elements inside the door. Exposure risks by the grill opening?

 

[747mopar]

You might want to check out the motor they use in the new Dart's, if I remember correctly it opens an air duct? My brother fixed a totaled Dart and I was eyeballing that motor just waiting for him to turn his head haha. Very slick little motor with built in limits I would imagine, worth a look.

Tail lights came out sweet!

 

[Brandy]

I will, I need to get some more parts off of the Audi A6 and it has small window motors on all four doors. I'll get all four for peanuts. I'm going over there tomorrow and see. It's only three miles away. Thanks! I like them too. Still a few bugs to work out like wiring and some fine tuning to do but they came out ok I think.

 

[onephat66]

Ghostrider, I'm liking the tail lights! It's going to look awesome when finished. The head light mod sounds very do-able and should work with a little trial and error. I look forward to how that'll work out.

 

[Brandy]

Ran out of welding wire so I started fooling around with the door panels. The Audi doors won't work as is so I'm taking them apart to use what I can so it all blends in with the dash. I worked out the '67 armrest base/ 2002 door pull handle situation by hollowing out the 02 arm and handle body and trimmed the 67 base to fit inside it as well as slicing 3 inches out of the base. I pulled the top section of the door apart and it's going to work out i think. I can fasten it to the door along the bottom edge which will be covered by fabric. So here is a mock up of what I have so far. I might add the CD controls and flip out storage along the bottom of the door, i have to put the glass back in first to work out any interference issues with the crank and frame. I like how the old opening for the post cover makes a perfect space for the wing window handle. I might try to do some fiberglass panel work to blend in the speakers and the rest of the elements on the door. I also need to decide what to do about the way the upper section ends before the end of the 67 door.

 

[Brandy]

Header mock up.

So I had some thoughts....lol. I made this header panel for 4 reasons, 1. the shorter hood length will be easier to lift forwards, 2. the front edges of the hood lip will never be out of alignment with the fenders, 3. I can now use cheaper hinges because the hood will lift up and clear the back of the header panel no sweat where before I had to have expensive street rod style double scissor hinges to lift the whole hood up first and then open so as to miss the grille top, the overhang of the hood bottom side where it drops down in front of the radiator support, and 4. nobody gets to see that space.

Thoughts?

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[Budnicks]

Interesting ideas, cool concept