I have way too many 3800 parts in my hoard that I will likely never need. Since I am a hoarder, selling or scrapping them is out of the question. Instead, how about an art project? I've always thought those engine coffee tables were neat. I've always wanted to build one and my man-cave is kinda lame. However, I hate ruining parts that are still good. Therefore, I'm taking a slightly different approach. This whole thing can be disassembled and repurposed If I decide that it's tacky. Who knows. Maybe I'll even need the parts for cores! Besides, the whole welding connecting rods to the block deck method is sort of basic and over done anyway. I want to make this my own.
I really didn't want to block sitting directly on the floor for the blocks sake AND the floors sake. I measured the oil pan bolt holes.
1/4 - 20 is quite tiny and weak for the amount of weight it's going to have to support. Hopefully it'll be fine distributed among eight legs. Off to Amazon I went. I ended up getting 8 studs, union nuts and rubber feet.
Yes, I'm keeping the crank in it unless I decide to build one of those stupid lamps. In fact, I'm going to have heads and one of my RWD converted intakes on it too! I have my old painted valve covers from the Camaro to slap on when it's all done. Since the block and intake are hot tanked, a little paint on the cylinder heads should make this look really nice. Don't mind the all thread, I was hoping to make supports for the glass like this, but I couldn't pull it off without it being both weak and ugly.
So I decided to utilize the heads instead. Each corner will have a bar bolted to it like this.
I wouldn't be doing any of this if I was going to have to spend a bunch of money. This means I wouldn't just BUY a piece of glass. I had that sitting around too.
Odd shape and super thick right? This piece of glass has an interesting history. My great-grandpa worked for Electromotive Diesel from 1934 to 1974, and at some point along the way he acquired this windshield. He ended up using it as a bar top with some cool old pictures of an Aerotrain and crew who built it sandwiched underneath. I wish I had pictures of that bar as it was originally built because it was pretty cool. My dad ended up building an entirely new bar around it so all that remains to be seen are the doors and the inside. I couldn't convince him leave it alone, but I at least have the glass.
No. This windshield is not from an Aerotrain, although that would be a pretty awesome conversation starter. For those who don't know, An EMD Aerotrain is a very rare and futuristic locomotive that was built in McCook, IL. The workers took a lot of pride in this project.
From the research I've done, there's only one series that this windshield appears to have come from. While the Streamliner was not a very rare locomotive, it was still a classy and pretty iconic design.
If I'm being honest, I wish there was something cooler I could do with it that would reflect its locomotive roots, but at least it's sitting on top a fellow quality GM product? It's also much better than collecting dust in a closet! Anyway, before I continue on with supports, I figured it would be wise to build the windshield frame first. I'm doing this out of angle iron from my scrap pile.
It looks like shit, but you won't notice any of the rough parts when it's all put together. I figure I'll have this part done in another few days.
I'm still not sure how I'm going to build legs from the heads to the frame, but I figure it will be a lot easier to measure it by mocking up the frame instead of the massive chunk of glass. I'm thinking it will just be four more bars of one inch box tube on their respective necessary angles to center the frame. Hopefully I'll have glass suspended over a 3800 by the end of the week.
I really didn't want to block sitting directly on the floor for the blocks sake AND the floors sake. I measured the oil pan bolt holes.
1/4 - 20 is quite tiny and weak for the amount of weight it's going to have to support. Hopefully it'll be fine distributed among eight legs. Off to Amazon I went. I ended up getting 8 studs, union nuts and rubber feet.
Yes, I'm keeping the crank in it unless I decide to build one of those stupid lamps. In fact, I'm going to have heads and one of my RWD converted intakes on it too! I have my old painted valve covers from the Camaro to slap on when it's all done. Since the block and intake are hot tanked, a little paint on the cylinder heads should make this look really nice. Don't mind the all thread, I was hoping to make supports for the glass like this, but I couldn't pull it off without it being both weak and ugly.
So I decided to utilize the heads instead. Each corner will have a bar bolted to it like this.
I wouldn't be doing any of this if I was going to have to spend a bunch of money. This means I wouldn't just BUY a piece of glass. I had that sitting around too.
Odd shape and super thick right? This piece of glass has an interesting history. My great-grandpa worked for Electromotive Diesel from 1934 to 1974, and at some point along the way he acquired this windshield. He ended up using it as a bar top with some cool old pictures of an Aerotrain and crew who built it sandwiched underneath. I wish I had pictures of that bar as it was originally built because it was pretty cool. My dad ended up building an entirely new bar around it so all that remains to be seen are the doors and the inside. I couldn't convince him leave it alone, but I at least have the glass.
No. This windshield is not from an Aerotrain, although that would be a pretty awesome conversation starter. For those who don't know, An EMD Aerotrain is a very rare and futuristic locomotive that was built in McCook, IL. The workers took a lot of pride in this project.
From the research I've done, there's only one series that this windshield appears to have come from. While the Streamliner was not a very rare locomotive, it was still a classy and pretty iconic design.
If I'm being honest, I wish there was something cooler I could do with it that would reflect its locomotive roots, but at least it's sitting on top a fellow quality GM product? It's also much better than collecting dust in a closet! Anyway, before I continue on with supports, I figured it would be wise to build the windshield frame first. I'm doing this out of angle iron from my scrap pile.
It looks like shit, but you won't notice any of the rough parts when it's all put together. I figure I'll have this part done in another few days.
I'm still not sure how I'm going to build legs from the heads to the frame, but I figure it will be a lot easier to measure it by mocking up the frame instead of the massive chunk of glass. I'm thinking it will just be four more bars of one inch box tube on their respective necessary angles to center the frame. Hopefully I'll have glass suspended over a 3800 by the end of the week.
