I had it in my picture file, I've kinda got a thing for old Brit racers. No there's no details on it and it is greener in the book, my scanner just made it look blue. If that sort of thing interests you, google: '750 club racing U.K.' That is kinda their equivalent of our SCCA and they still have a class for old Austin 7s. Takes a little searching but you should be able to find quite a few pics. like these:
Sorry for the poor quality scan, but it is from an article that I photocopied from a news letter. Here is a potentialy low cost steel T build. This car is made from a 26-27 roaster cowl and doors and a 26-27 coupe body and turtle deck. The big advantage here is that the coupe body has more room so that you can move the seat back and gain @ 6"-8" in length inside the tub. You get the look of the roaster cowl and door without all the work of trying to shave the coupe doors and cowl.
If you haven't been over to Metal Meet .com, there's alot of roadster bodies and such being built there.
With a little patience and some diligent digging around, You could get what you need for under $1000. The roadster cowl and doors will probably be the hardest parts to find. I think I saw someone in the HAMB clasifideds selling one cheep. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=298035&highlight=roadster It is more work then a glass kit tub, but you'll be happier with it!!!!!! .
Well since I plan on building my own body patience and diligence are things I will soon have if not already. I don't think I could even afford 1000 dollars. I need to be really cheap.
Moldy I like your plan and admire your enthusiasm. Can I throw something in on a tangent? If you said no, too bad, it's getting typed anyway, that's the beauty of message boards The first decade or so I did projects there was NO money to be found, and my projects showed it. Somewhere along the line I figured out that project funds could be generated in the same workspace that had to be kept anyway for the projects. (maintaining that infrastructure is more expensive than most think) I tend to be more mechanical than fabrication, but will literally tackle anything that looks like it's got potential for profit. There's the occasional starter or brake job on somebody else's car, but for the most part prefer to buy a blown or crashed project, cause I control the pace, and the parts versus labor balance. We're not talking high roller stuff, usual scenario is a car with KBB over $4000 for around $1500 out of pocket As tight as you say the budget is, imagine the windfall from a $2500 deposit in the hot rod fund. That'd go a LONG way. I really don't think it'd be hard to make that much (or more) patching up an old ford body, and you'd undoubtedly learn valuable lessons for your own build. Good luck
After my skill's improve a little more I plan on doing the same thing.I have put some thought into it.There would be couple of different way's you could do it.You could buy the body and take a flex pattern and some contour gages.That would give you the information that is needed to complete your project.You could also make a wire form buck off it to give you something to clamp your panels for welding. 500 dollars is expensive here at my house,I would first try and find one at a swap-meet that some one has given up on. If I were to buy a body to do this.The first thing I would do is set it up on some saw horses,grab me a beer and study it.Try and figure out where would be the best places to put my part-lines on it.After I decided that I would take a flex pattern off of the whole car,then make some contour gages.Then over the flex pattern I would lay out my part-lines with some tape. Like I said this is a expensive pattern so let's get all of are money's worth.If you take a hole saw and drill some holes in the center of your part-lines you can use it as a buck as well.The holes would be for clamping to the body. This would be a great project if you do it please keep us posted.
Check out this thread from the land of OZ, started with a cowl and worked from there. Craign is now working on an A model body, all hand made. Skip the marjority of the comments, is this where you are heading. http://www.ozrodders.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=13591&start=0
That is awesome, the proportions are MUCH better than a normal roadster. Thanks, this gives me a few ideas.
I was just in Lazz's shop the outher day. Picking up a bead roller. He had a fiberglass three window in his shop to pull patterns off of. Also I looking at some pictures on the wall of a 40 Willys they were building and they were fitting all there pannels off a fiberglass body. If the shape of the body is what you want it could be a good buck. Scott
The worst 32-34 Ford body you ever saw would still cost 10K to buy. He's trying to do this on a budget. I like the idea of getting a random cowl, should be able to score something for $50. Then build the rest of the body. If you're going for a speedster look, try mating a 40's car hood to the backside for a boat tail look. People have done it before. Your hood and cowl could probably both be had for $75, and you'll have to make doors and fill in the gaps. I've heard of people making Model A roadster doors out of VW bug doors since they have a similar beltline shape. Just have to cut them down and make a new inner structure. If you had a cowl, a pair of bug doors and a hood you could form the rest. If you're on that tight of a budget, just focus on the body for now and build a tubing frame to fit it when it's all in one piece.
I did some nosing around last night and found enough sheet metal to do the roadster/coupe build for @ $500. Is that cheap enough? It would take a lot of elbow grease to make the stuff presentable.......but isn't that why we love this place? What better way to learn? P.S. Don't ask me where I found the stuff, I have given up too much as it is.
Just to keep the record straight: 1. Not all fibreglass cars are "shitty". 2. Not all T buckets have the steering column coming up through the floor just in front of the seat cushion. 3. The T roadsters, and not just the 26-27 ones, were the basis for the bulk of all early efforts in the hotrod hobby, have a stellar record of popularity and race records for decades. Those of us who look down upon the T roadsters wouldn't be happy if they found a young Elizabeth Taylor in their bed one 'cause they're probably hoping for Tom Cruise.
What about using a model. As in the common glue together scale model? Are these thing accurate enough to use to scale up?
I'm thinking about doing something similar with my RPU build. Use a scale model to build a prototype. I'm a CAD guy too so that will help the design part. I'm thinking about finding a 28-29 cowl and going from there. Either building the body out of wood or steel or both. A woody RPU. Then I can adjust the size as needed to fit what I want out of the car. A little more room. Storage space. I like the looks of one of Vapheads cool model A frames or maybe a '32.
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