chocolate & cheese roadster - 4 day thrash

It's crunch time over here.
24 hours left to get as much ready for the Big 3 swapmeet friday.

Here's where I'm at.

chocolate and cheese
1927 ford roadster

Here's how it's got there...

SUNDAY

frame scrap

sunday was a slow start.
The main goal was to get the engine totally mounted.
Thought it would be easy,
 but of course I had to use the old frame pieces.

cut n grind

They were to perfect not to use.

custom K-member

Than some wings were made to hold the transmission.
I found out some early transmissions have an 8" hole to hole and some are 10".

K-member
1927 ford roadster
1928 AA frame

To wrap up the night,
I tried to fix the smashed in cowl.

firewall repair

MONDAY

mondays goal was to get the front end figured out.

splitting '37 front wishbones

The wishbones needed to be split,
so I cut the axle hanger and rewelded it up.

lining wishbones up

It was a gamble but it was going to work.

side view mock up

After looking at the side view,
it was obvious that sharp angle at the kick-up had to be smoothed out.

smoothed frame

Much better.

1940 wheel and brake swap

After a quick birthday dinner for my Dad,
a friend Spinner came by and welded the frame up for me.
Thanks!
We also swapped the mechanical brakes/hubs for some 40 hydraulic units.

first suspension load

That night the roadster was on it's front wheels for the first time.

TUESDAY

Tuesday I was lucky as Spinner didn't have work,
and after some gathering materials,
we started the thrash.

weld bungs

First was mounting the front end.
I've had these weld bungs for probably 15 years.

rear crossmember gussets

While Spinner welded the bungs up,
I cut some plate to gusset the rear crossmember.

completed rear crossmember

Spinner laid down the fat bead,
while I swapped the transmission to an enclosed shaft 40.
Thanks to Shinya and Ayu!

custom engine pads

Some trick plywood engine pads for a 3/4" rise.

engine/tranny mounted

Now that the engine and tranny were centered,
the rearend could be mounted.

torque tube

I did a quick cut and weld to get the torque tube to fit.

perfectly machined base

First was to cut the base off.

modified torque tube

The frame was a perfect jig.

planning the split wishbone mount

With the rear end placed,
I started the mounting points for the front wishbones.
Meanwhile Spinner came back and worked on the radius rods for the rear.

mounted split wishbones

A 1/2" thick plate was welded in to reinforce the tie rod hole.
Should be strong.

1937 ford split wishbones

They came out better than I expected.

completed rear end suspension

Meanwhile Spinner had knocked out the rear end radius rods.
Looked easy but there was alot of grinder engineering.

headlight stand

To wrap up the night I really wanted to get the headlights on,
so shiny chrome model A stand was donated to get it done.
Maybe a little high but at least it has a face.

WEDNESDAY

I was dragging wednesday.
With the frame basically done,
my goal was to try to get the body cleaned up a little.

patch panel

With so many places to messed up,
this missing gap was the easiest to start.

gap

I was lucky as again Spinner came over after his worked and helped a bit.
He knocked out a bunch of dents in the back quarters,
and then welded up the patch panel I made.

Meanwhile I tried to knock out this rear panel a bit better.

rear '27 panel

This panel was hammered.
This was actually after some hammering.
It needed a beating.
Spinner took over and worked his magic placing the panel
and squaring up the rear,
while I tackled some swiss cheese.

swiss cheese

This part is always rotten.
I made a crude patch panel and a little bit later we both had finished up.

tidied up rear end

It was a big difference with the holes filled.
I was left on my own,
but had enough momentum to try to figure out some more of the puzzle.

1935 steering box

This 1935 steering box was the perfect unit for the project.

steering box plate

A mounting plate was cut out from some 1/4" steel

Than the steering column and shaft were shortened.

pinned

This may seem sketchy,
but it should be strong.
The shaft is a tube, (holds the horn wire)
I cut out a section,
cut down a long 7/16" grade 8 bolt shaft,
than pinned it both sides with 2 1/4" grade 8 bolts.

pinned and welded

It should be strong.

centered steering shaft

Most importantly,
the end is centered in the now shortened column!

steering box mount

The steering box was placed,
and the mount was welded up.

cross steer

The steering box fit perfectly,
however the steering arm could be heated and bent upwards a bit.

Steering!

It's a tight fit but there's not too many options.
Still need to do the column mount on the dash.

wednesday night
1927 ford roadster project

So this is how it sits now.
There is a ton to do,
but at least it's not a basket case.

1927 ford roadster project

I've got 24 hours,
what am I doing on this computer!



Now it's time to get back to the shop!

TP

twisting the knife

RED DOT II
the last paso 2006
1929 ford roadster with hallock windshield

My buddy Danny dug out some old clips from his stash.

DynoDanny's Garage: The Red Dot II lost footage!

RED DOT II vs CHIEF
the last antique nats at LACR 2006

Chief and I smoked good ole Pigpen driving the Red Dot,
but I also broke out and he got to keep racing.

The pictures gave me a little lump in my throat,

but these videos really twisted the knife.

Man this was probably the sweetest driving and sounding flathead ever.
The headers were like cannons.
The neighbors must have loved me,
I'd rev this thing back and forth up main st. tuning it up.




Thanks Danny and Lucy!
You made me hit the bottle.

TP

idiot proof

I'll admit that lately I've been running on fumes.
There are a couple simple things I've spaced out on.

CHIEF
1929 ford roadster pickup

Nothing major like walking around with no clothes on,
or forgetting to wipe my ass.
It's little things that have the potential for bad consequences.

ford 8ba flathead

Yesterday I decided to drive the roadster pickup to the shop.
It was a nice day and the light drizzles of the week had stopped.
Well I go to start it up,
and notice immediately the ignition switch was on.
HOLEY CHIT...

chief on dash

I'm not a big fan of keys,
so there's a series of toggle switches to start the car - fuel, ignition ...

The other day when I was screwing with the 40 engine fiasco,
I had noticed what I thought was a cracked spark plug.
It was easy to throw it on the pickups wire and crank it to see if it worked.
Of course I forgot to shut off the switch.

mallory ignition system
cheesy spark plug wires

The ignition is an old hot rod setup,
a Mallory dual point distributor and a Mallory BEST coil.
Anyone that's done a genius maneuver like this,
will know that something burns up - coil, points, condenser...

charging dual 6-volt optimas

This is a 6-volt system using dual Optima batteries,
and this wasn't the first time I've killed them.
so I wasn't too worried about them coming back.

The nagging worry all day yesterday was hoping I didn't ruin the ignition system.

chief lives

This morning I went out expecting the worst.
(I had already imagined cutting up the coil and putting a new 6-volt one inside.)

I got lucky.
It ran!
What a relief.

TP

whiskey in the jar

Here's a little update on the 27 roadster thrash,
now nicknamed the "chocolate & cheese roadster".

donor steel scrap

Keeping with the "shop cleanup"  theme of the build,
this piece of scrap rectangular tubing was the perfect donor.

rear crossmember humble beginnings

I've whittled out a fair amount of these crossmembers.
First was to pinch it to fit the spring.

widened and dropped

After the drop was cut in,
a piece of the AA crossmember was used to widen it a bit.

about right

With the rear crossmember fitted,
it was time to square up the frame.

frame jig

This one of the flattest sections of floor in the shop,
perfect to build the frame.
After many measurements - diagonals, heights etc.
it was time to weld it up.

frame

The frame was set to the correct spring heights.
High!!

ford AA crossmember

Next was the center crossmember.
I really wanted to use the stock AA crossmember,
as it had a neat curve.

modifications begin

After widening it a bit,
I had a shot of "old grand dad" whiskey and an arizona peach tea chaser,
and came up with a plan.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




whiskey in a jar - clancy brothers

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

metal whittler

I wasn't expecting to get this detailed,
but there was no stopping.

center crossmember

The crossmember was fit to the space of the flathead/39 box combo,
but with the possibility of modification to a later transmission.

center crossmember

There was still alot of work to be done.
First I needed to see what it was going to look like.

27 roadster mock up

I'm contemplating using the 32 truck grille.
It will save time since the track nose isn't finished,
and more importantly it's already orange.

high boy

With no weight on the suspension,
this is as high as it can be.
Looks like a farm rig.
Or an armageddon vehicle with that "large dog" clearance.

prewar armageddon vehicle

Okay well it doesn't really look like a farm rig.

With the tall stance obviously too high even for a prewar jalopy,
the plan of attack was to Z the frame,
front and rear.

contemplation

After realizing the simple top to bottom Z wasn't going to work,
the plan morphed into an even simpler kick-up modification.
A friend Spinner came up and layed the fat beads.

kicked up frame

The frame was also shortened 3".
The stock model A wheelbase is about 103.5",
and I wanted to stretch it a little to about 108" or so.
It didn't look quite right.
Than I found out a stock model T wheelbase is 99".

Later on I'll try to soften up that angled "broke" look.

rear kick cut lines

The precision mathematics calculated a 4" drop.
The same angles were used in the back.
Both kickups may shorten the frame another 1.5" too.

caulk block

Of course the floor first had to be cut out.
Sad it had lasted this long for nothing.

rear kicked up frame

A friend Matt dropped by and helped a bit.
Just like old times,
we were able to finish off the old grand dad bottle,
while getting shit done.

acceptable hot rod rear

With the kick-ups finished,
the project was looking like a real hot rod.

motor mounts

I was on a roll,
so cut out some quick front motor mounts out of the frame scrap.

until tomorrow

With the front engine mounted it was time to call it a day...

TP