year old hot rod chit

Let's start the new year by blowin out the cobwebs,

I've got 80mb of memory and need to make space!

My old buddy Mario had acquired a clean 30 coupe,

and bought a repop 32 frame.

Of course those two don't go together automatically,

as model A's have a flat frame.

After 100's of texts and not helpful pics,

I figured what the hay let's do it.

Lotsa rusty metal cutting,

most of the rear subfloor and notches.

The body dropped maybe 1.5",

almost a cheater channel,

 but basically flush on the sides,

sucked in on the rear and forward ends.

Voila!

All done right?

Ehh not necessarily...

The wheel well had gaping holes and no structure.

Hmm...

That's the time to step back and do other stuff,

let the old computer chip make a plan...

A flathead was desired,

so mounts were whittled...

Firewalls were hacked,

bulges were flattened...

Finally I had a plan.

The first was to trim the body along the frame,

then to pinch the inner metal in a bit.

A mounting lip was welded on the inside,

(those little white caterpillar welds)

which gave the rear it's needed support.

Reveals were refit and rust was patched.

Now to fill in the gap.

There were times when I questioned my sanity.

Why spend all this time on an area covered by a tire!?

The trick is to keep moving forward.

Finally the result resembled what I'd imagined,

minus the dozen hours I didn't plan.

The good thing is the other side was half the time.

All done... Yay!!

Nope...

The inner subframe was needed,

he wanted a lip to lay in wood floor panels.

Effin guy...

Then the rumble seat mechanism was welded in,

the first time it had actually worked in 50 years.

The gaps were close enough at this point,

since the body would need shims when bolted down.

During this time the shiny frame 

didn't stay shiny.

If you notice this was before the big shop move 

of January/February 2016.

Jaxon spent a lot of the early summer sanding away,

preparing for some rattlecan black.

Good ole child labor...

There were a ton of other things done,

Vega steering box mount,

trimming grille shell to fit,

modding headers to fit,

some crossmember framework to fit the t-5 transmission...

Boring chit of necessity.

Now it's relegated to the "where are they now" files.

Hopefully Mario will get on it soon.

TP

Gas Monkey meets the Barrio

Wow this happened in March!

So Jason had been trying to flip 

his green '23 t bucket for months.

eBay, craigslist etc.

No bites...

Out of the blue comes an offer,

from the guys at Gas Monkey Garage!

Weeks later instead of a quick pick up,

they agreed on shooting a tv episode.

Cool!

3 months after they barraged the barrio...

We had tried to clean up the yard,

and positioned all the hot rods in a maze,

before the crew showed up.

They ate it up.

I may get lucky and have an intro part,

but ya never know with editing.

Ole Chief will get some face time though!

For a reality show,

the skit is unscripted,

and there is some on the fly repetition,

which Jason handled perfectly.

The director and crew know their formula,

and know they're not dealing with actors.

After 5+ years,

the host Richard Rawlings 

can BS for the camera,

and smoothly led Jason's dialogue.

Near the end he actually pulled a fast one,

and bought a second car on the fly,

bringing Jason's dad Mickey into the mix.

The crew was as surprised as anyone.

So yeah it was a trippy experience.

They said 6-9 months which is after September,

we'll have to find someone with cable!

TP

Hot Rod Alchemy

So there's this 1930 ford pickup back in the shop.

Ya may remember it from a summertime post.

t's a compilation of 2nds and 3rds,

the parts that are borderline castaways,

usually needing extra time to massage into place.

The end result is coming out pretty cool.

Another builder Tony did a good chop, some cool pipes,

and a slew of mechanical feats.

 I got it and have been trying to get it 

on the road for James,

balancing efficient time with the parts at hand.

More of a form follows function build.

As long as it doesn't break.

The clutch linkage was also reworked.

Much better.

James had scored a deal on an early mallory distributor,

and we found out why it was cheap.

The advance assembly is attached to this oval plate,

which had loosened up over time.

The quick fix was making a D slot,

matching the shaft to a welded up hole.

Please work...

After some grease monkey magic,

we got the flathead running smoothly.

Hopefully it will make Mooneyes in 2 weeks!

TP

Greg's 29 A-V8 - pt 1

This summer we finally woke up 

the longest hibernating project,

temporarily nicknamed the Sharpie Roadster.

Can you figure out why?

I couldn't believe parts for this

were collected back in the Ventura era,

over 7 years ago.

Greg has been more than patient,

watching other projects take precedence.

The body was unplanned yard art.

The kids think it's normal to have these lying around.

Finally the time had come.

Why did it take so long?

A 7-8 year patina had aged earlier work

to match the body.

It seemed like yesterday 

when these boxing plates were welded and slotted.

Our house yard seemed empty without this.

First thing was to organize the infrastructure.

The shop is a crude work space,

and each project dials it in a little bit more.

Jaxon hung up a chain hoist.

Good thing he doesn't mind heights.

Now the body could be lifted and dropped singlehandedly.

Rumor had it a framing table was coming,

so in the meantime the body was hammered out.

The passenger side is a little squashed.

Now this is the lap of luxury.

No more jackstands and crouching down.

A heavy duty monster!

Definitely worth the wait.

Now where to start?

Up and down the body went.

Measuring and remeasuring,

the table made it easier to square up the rails.

This front crossmember had been waiting a long time!

One of the first versions whittled from 2x3 square tubing.

A model A crossmber will be used out back.

This will have 1936 wishbones,

adding 8" to the spring distances.

I went for a 1" shorter than stock 1932 wheelbase at 105",

a couple inches longer than a stock model A.

The track nose will fill in that length.

This framing table better be straight!

Out came the mockup flathead 

and 1949 overdrive transmission.

Basically the same running gear in Chief.

Now for the exciting part.

I had modified a '48 Ford front crossmember 

for the center x-member in Chief.

An idea was sketched out to mimic production styling,

but not look like basic tubing.

You can imagine how long this took,

but it's almost exactly what I was hoping for.

The tranny mount pad 

has a thicker reinforcement plate,

and open space to bolt straight through.

The rectangular tubing has a tendency to warp when cut,

so bolts and nuts were used to keep it's shape.

The crossmember was trimmed to fit,

and only tacked in to place.

There will be front and rear diagonals added,

and big holes cut out of the open area,

so it may be necessary to remove it later.

Next up are the front motor mounts,

firewall...body mounting...radiator...

Stoked to make some progress!

TP