Hot Rods 28A-roadster - the long winding road build !

Its been 9 yrs since I took a fibre 28 body ,some 32 chassis rails , a 283 block an t350 and 4 wheels to Blackjack eng in kaukapakapa -up past the big smoke of Auckland and said "build me a rolling chassis".an insurance payout had given us a chunk of money ,I was busy on the farm and I was already stalled on a fibre model a coupe project so I thought this would get me on the road a lot faster.
He did a great job and within 9 months - I picked it up and bought it home but life got in the way and it was parked in the corner with the coupe while I went thru a midlife crisis and got into motorcycles- adventure riding on a bmw 650 Dakar and then road touring on a Suzuki 800 marauder.
Fast forward a few years and I was out of motorbikes , sold the fibre coupe project and bought a jigsaw puzzle steel 30A pickup project and sold the fibre 28A body and bought a steel one.
So, as of today - the farm is sold , i'm semi-retired (working part-time as a fabricator/mechanic) and the pickup is finished, on the road and the roadster is being worked on again.
some pictures of it patiently waiting

 

Great looking pile of parts to start with. I see the basics, what kind of colors you thinking? Tim

 

This is look'in good! I like the wide whites.
What steering box are you planning? I'm replacing the cheap no name Vega style box on our roadster with a quality box. Just wondering ...

 

Thanks - the plan is to paint the chassis and running gear - probably black and leave the body till its been on the road for awhile.
the steering box is an hz holden box - very common here in New Zealand and similar to your vega box .

 

Looks good. Shouldn't take long Brakes ,steering, wiring cooling. Do you have the title worked out?

 

I love 28/29 ford roadsters

 

Is that why you bought a 30?^^^^^^

 

been working on the 283 mtr. I built the short block 7 yrs ago and wrapped it in plastic and just before xmas pulled it out of its wrapping and finished assembling it.
its bored 40 over , has flattop pistons , 10/10 on the bearings , new cam bearings and 350hp gm cam and anti pump lifters.
when I took the plastic off it was in great condition with just a little surface rust on one head face which polished off.

 

decided to go with 305 heads and so took them into a head shop and had them checked and reco'd with new exhaust seats and springs. also had a smallbase 2cg Rochester reco'd as this is what I will run it in on and use to get on the road and legal and then will change to a 4 2-barrel setup.

 

Had the tyres mounted with the whitewalls out on one side and hidden on the other - not sure which I like at the moment. Won't be buying any tyres until its nearly ready to go the road !!

 

looking good

 

when I took the bits to the chassis builder I supplied a smblk and t350 to help him set it up properly .
when it came back and was sitting in the dead project corner I had another t350 sitting on the floor, so to make myself think I was making progress I decided to get it fully rebuilt with extra clutches etc etc - whatever the transmission wizards say you need!!!
well prior to this xmas -after finishing the build on the new 283 , I decided to swap the old set up stuff out with the new mtr/trans and get the driveshaft built . So ,job done and measurements carefully taken -came home with a new driveshaft and went to fit it up .BUGGER BUGGER BUGGER
Who would have thought there were different length t350's ????????????????????????
I supplied a short shaft t350 and I rebuilt a longshaft t350 --women are right -- a couple of inches makes a big difference.




2 steps forward - - - 8 backwards !!!!!!

 

I'm getting there slowly!
titles are a bit different over here and it will go thru a certification process which basically makes it a new car without a lot of the hassles eg emmisions/crushzones/etc etc.

yip, I'm with you there but unfortunately I also like a lot of other cars too.
my little collection !!!

thanks.

 

still working on this an catching up the photos to where I'm at now.
found the short shaft t350 that was used to setup chassis - it was in one of my storage containers. pulled it out and apart from the chrome deepened pan having some scratches and dents, it looked alright and the oil smelled fine.
So I pulled the pan -everything looked fine - put a new filter and gaskets and panelbeated the pan and bolted it back up and then painted the case and installed it behind the motor. should be good to go hopefully.

 

Started doing the brakes.
Using a Subaru vacuum servo and a new holden master cylinder , so there was abit of fabricating to do to make it fit. the Subaru had 4- bolts holding the mastercylinder on and two were in the right place but too small and the other two were hacksawed off. Drilled out the smaller bolts and replaced with the right size and checked out the rest of it - reassembled it and its good to go.

 

Looking good Mark

 

thanks mate - whats happening with yours? have you been sidetracked by that 2-wheel tractor and that other project.
if your not careful ,you'll end up like me with too much going on and nothing happening !!!!

 

Been running the brake lines today. an interesting job that's not to difficult as long as you take your time.
Still have to sort out what I will use to hold the piping to the chassis rail but happy so far.

 

So , we're up to date and this is how it sits in the garage now. next plan is to pull the motor/box again and drill the holes for the brakeline clamps as well as the fuel line and battery cable clamps.

 

That A Model body looks to be in great shape! Amazing.

 

thanks - I was lucky to find it and only appreciated it after seeing on here how bad some of the bodies are!
even the fuel tank is in great condition and I will be using it again.

 

Great looking build keep the pic's a coming.Roger

 

Looks great. That body is in really good nick

 

Any chance of an update, please?

 

things are abit slow on the roadster front. I wanted to get into some bodywork with the floors and panel around the back seat area so decided to practice on some mismashed panels I had lying around , that would become a modified and have now become engrossed with finishing that off. I must say i'm easily distracted !!!

 

Testing photos on my old thread.