Hey Mart, I really like that little bicycle you have hanging from your wind screen! Or is it riding across the decklis?
I like your reference to the "locamotive" look, Jay, but for very different reasons from yours; few machines can put a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes as quickly as the Pacific Daylight Limited, a definitive expression of power and performance. Having ridden the Daylight -- and the Sunset Limited as well -- as a youngster makes me feel especially blessed. Now, let's get back to hot rods . . . As with other major elements of hot-rod design and engineering, front suspension schemes deserve more attention than they often receive. I agree in part that there have been some unattractive spring-in-front cars built over the years. There have been some signifincant stunners built with their springs located ahead of the front axle as well, however. Two of my favorite hot rods from the way-back are Don Ferraro's pure AV8 and Topper Chasse's Deuce-framed '29 roadster. Both of these car featured spring-in-front suspension and were well honored for their appearance as well as their performance. Don's AV8 held its own in beauty contests against Bill Neikamps first AMBR winner and Dave Mitchell's super little AV8 RPU. Don also logged some El Mirage laps in the 120s in the early '50s. Topper's roadster ran in the high 130s at Elmo when it was owned by Charles Scott, better known as "Scotty" of Scotty's Muffler Shop. Topper changed the character of the roadster when he bought it in 1948, changing out the front suspensiion for the spring-in-front scheme, blending a '40 dash into the cowl, and fitting it with one of his signature monster flatheads. For Topper, a streetable motor measured 7/16 x 1/2 over stock. During Topper's ownership and reengineering, the roadster was never beaten in a drag race, by anything! Just as important, the roadster was the sweepstakes winner at the very first LA Autorama in 1949. That was also the only time the car was ever entered in a beauty contest; that just wasn't Topper's style. Topper sold the roadster in late '59 to purchase another car that had caught his fancy -- a new 356 Porsche coupe. He immediately immersed himself in racing the Porsche and caught a wonderful fever that took over his life from that time onward. Topper is one of the founders of the POCA -- Porsche Owners of America, organzation president/president emeritus, super-succesuful POCA racer with track records that still stand, and a thriving consulting business for Porsche racers and teams.Pretty impressive for an old SoCal hot rodder. The only pics of Topper's roadster are scans from a feature story that appeared in HRM, September 1960. It was a bogus story, attributing the great vision and work on the car to its then-current owner, a student at Art Center. The car featured fenders which it never had in Topper's time, plus a really ugly windshield located midway between the '40 dash and the rear edge of the hoot. When Topper massaged the roadster to his own vision there were no provisions for a stand-up windshield. As he built it, and as he intended, he drove the roadster with his prescription glasses covered by a pair of tanker's goggles pulled down over a Navy watchcap. It was a great look, kind of manic, this intense warrior out in the wind in the cockpit of a killer and absolutely stunning SoCal hot-rod roadster. I'll share a couple of images of Topper's roadster scanned from the HRM story. Please edit out the hideous windshield and its grinning author. He was probably a very nice person; it's a shame he wasn't honest about the provenance of the car.
Another angle . . . This is another source of my inspiraton for shiny outside exhaust systems and polished louvers, details shared by Ferarra's and Chasse's roadsters in spite of them being so dissimilar.
[ QUOTE ] I'm glad you fixed that hood line C9. It sure as shit looks broken in that second pic! [/ QUOTE ] Me too Brootal. Only trouble is the radiator went to a cross town Deuce roadster whose owner is going to pop a couple more bibs in it and run a flathead. Now I gotta dig up another one. Not a problem though, I'd rather have a car that didn't run and looked right than one that ran and looked strange.... Mike, a lot of interesting things going on in the roadster in the pic. The added bit of history was a decided plus. Seems just a short while back someone was trying to determine the make of the windshield on that car. Roadsters went some interesting directions in the good ol daze, but there's only a few that were classic and led the way for others. One thing I really like about the last roadster you posted, it has bobbed and cycle fenders. Which I'm planning on with the new car. Highboys are ok - more than ok in fact - and I'm not bothered by the lack of fenders, just that I think the 31 will look better with them as well as being a little different from todays highboys. Not to mention the construction of brackets etc. will be fun. As for the Daylight ... I don't want to highjack this post so look for another in a bit....
would have liked to see the pic's of the metal work around the windshield posts in green's roadster to fill in so he could do the duvall.... pretty sweet metal massaging there thanks for the dagel link!!!...i've been looking for the right frame...wanting certain things from it...i think i've found my baby!
I guess ill ask my question again, you guys seem to know your "A's" and "B's" I set the 31 coupe body on the 32 frame today. Its obvious that the frame at the firewall could be pinched for a neater appearance. It looks as though even if it was to be pinched the cowl mounting holes still wouldnt be on top of the frame. How do folks fix this? Mart do you have any close up photos of your frame with the body mounted to it? Im just trying to get an idea of what needs to be done. Thanks. Pete-
Pete, it may not need to be pinched. What you may be comparing is the inset area of where the hood lacing goes and once you factor in that the hood sits out a bit and even with the body, it's a perfect match. Granted, the holes don't match, but it's easy to make new body mounts. The one you see in the pic - as well as how the body/frame fit goes - is a piece of 1 x 2" x .120 wall with one of the flat sides sawn off making for a very nice piece of channel for body mounts. The white stuff you see is UHMW plastic. It may get a 1/8" piece of neoprene added if there is a vibration problem. I don't expect there to be. I'm running the same stuff - UHMW - for motor mount cushions in my 32 and there is no vibration emanating from that.
Ahhhh, C9, thats the money shot! Thats the photo I was looking for. That very photo also shows how much the lower reveal on the cowl sticks out beyond the frame. It looks as though you just extended the model A's original cowl mounts. Yes? Looks great, thanks for the photo. Clarity at last.
Look close, Jay, and you'll notice that the body has no character lines on the rear quarters. It's an interesting and very difficult detail to pull off in a well-finished car. Topper was always quick to point out that Scotty was responsible for the work. It's one of the details that appealed to Topper, prompting him to buy the car when Scotty put it on the market to go racing in a bellytank. Topper's big 7/16 x 1/2 motor -- about 312 cid, was massively ported by Topper himself, was fitted with big Smith heads amd an Edelbrock four-pot manifold with Topper-massaged '97s. Topper built his own exhaust system with 1-3/4-inch runners feeding into a pair of '33-'34 torquetube housings. Ignition was provided by a large Pounden-modified aircraft magneto that stuck out on the front of the motor so far that the radiator had to be split to provide room for it. I've long felt that if Tooper Chasse had been more of a trophy hound or publicity seeker he would have a prominent place in the pantheon of our hot-rodding gods. As it turned out, he carved himself a very special place in the ranks of folks who are serious about racing Porsche motor cars.
[ QUOTE ] It looks as though you just extended the model A's original cowl mounts. Yes [/ QUOTE ] Yes. The ugly weld you see is the opposite side of where it was welded. That little bit will be gone over again from the front. As well as a triangular piece on the body gets added to put a little more strength in there as well as give it a more finished look. The car has several of the three sided rectangular tubing mounts welded to the frame. Ten in all if I remember right. Here's a pic of one that has double stacked UHMW cushions, the top one trimmed flat on the edges so as to fit into the bodys reinforcing floor channel.
[ QUOTE ] Not a problem though, I'd rather have a car that didn't run and looked right than one that ran and looked strange.... [/ QUOTE ] I like the way you think C9. I should save this post too as this is the combo that I plan to build (one day...)
I didn't notice the lack of character lines on the body. As you say, tough to pull off, even more so with a black car. The Pounden aircraft magneto you mentioned reminded me of the oil company electrical generation plant where Dad worked. There were six very large engines, OHV straight 8's, about 20 x 20" bore & stroke, maybe 24" long rocker arms, 8' diameter flywheel. The engine sat down in a pit a ways, but you still had to climb up a short stairway to access the valve train. Overall the engine was maybe 16' long on the block and head. It ran on butane if I remember right, but the interesting thing was the pair of 8 cylinder Scintilla-Vertex magnetos on each engine. They were timed similar to the dual magneto setup on aircraft engines. Which is to say, spark lead - or timing - was pretty mellow number wise. Mellow at least as compared to a car engine. Since you're lighting off a couple of flame fronts not too much ignition lead is required. Plus, one usually leads the other, maybe 2 degrees or so different. The interesting part was, the magneto's weren't so large they couldn't have been used on a hot rod V8. In fact, 2-3 of them were sold to an airplane owner. The oil company went to commercial power from Edison and the engines were sold to a right coast outfit and most of them ended up in tugboats. Your Daylight comment prompted me to write this little off-topic piece yesterday: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB1&Number=221966&page=2&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=14&fpart=1
The Jalopy Journal
