Projects A Speedster Comes Out of the Weeds—Build Thread

Very cool project! Always watching and waiting for updates.

 

Not sure how these will come through... they are jpg's so you should be able to save them to your computer and manipulate them with picture programs. As discussed, from pages 52 and 53 of the Jan. 69 edition of Hot Rod. You will note that this one was dropped and had the cycle fenders. 0 to 60 with the Fronty equipped Model T was an extremely impressive 20.2 seconds. Whoever drove that thing to a top speed of 82 mph (with 2 spd rear) with stock T steering and 20's era brakes had a death wish!

 

Clark , I just found your thread. Great job so far. I admire your learn as you go attitude.
Keep up the good work , listen to he wife!

 

whtbaron, Thanks for the post !!! Great Article................. Jeff

 

That is very cool. Thanks for taking the time to scan and post that article, whtbaron. I really enjoyed it.

 

As an insignificant aside, that was the very first rod magazine I ever purchased. I was 11 years old and must have read it a million times. I guess if I still remembered what was in it, it must have made an impression on me.

 

Great article! Thanks or posting it.

 

Anything green with yellow wheels makes me think the owner is a John Deere fanatic.

 

According to Johnny cash there is 40 shades of green, according to my wife there is 50 shades of grey.
There is always a ligther shade of pale, or a lighter shade of yellow in this case.
And before it all fades too black, it should be possible to make it look nicer then a Deer on the run, pun intended.

 

You are one heck of a scribe to come up with that one.

 

Fantastic thread, don't know how I've missed it 'till now. I'll be watching here, and around town...

 

Perhaps we can discuss it over a cocktail in the Tiki room? Don't know if you recall, but me an my bother came by and bought a set of wheels from you a few years back. They're under his Model A now.

 

I went to the Puyallup Swap Meet last weekend and now have my taillights. Actually, I was already half-way there—I found a light bucket in Portland a few years back that I thought would be perfect if I could just find its match. Well, I finally found it in Puyallup; the guy was from Montana and said he pulled it off an old trailer. Here they are:


They’re '37-'38 Plymouth I believe, though I may be wrong. I like them because they mirror the cool Guide headlight buckets that came with the car, as you can see here:


I realize this is a later look that might not appeal to the purists, but I think it’s going to work well with the vibe of that big LaSalle hood. And here’s how you know you’re living right: two aisles down I found a pair of NOS Lynx-Eye replacement lenses:



But the BIG Puyallup find—which I did NOT buy—was a guy selling a Winfield head, intake and S-carb. Yowza!



I actually grabbed Matt (aka Hitchhiker) out of his booth to go over and take a look. There was no serial number, but the head had very small chambers—Matt speculated it was an 8:1 that had been milled. WAY too much for my little stocker, but very cool to see. My quest for a yellow head continues…

After the meet, my wife and I swung into Tacoma to visit the LeMay Museum—I should emphasize this was her suggestion for a Valentine’s Day outing, since we had never been there. The high point for us was their Auburn Boattail, which I’m pretty sure is the same car that inspired my car’s original builder in the early ‘50s.





That last image is almost like looking at my avatar...OK, not really.

 

Sure thing. Funny thing is that I remember the visit, but I can't recall the wheels. I guess having a bar in the garage will do that to you.

The tiki bar is always open, but I'm out of the country until later this year. Theres gonna be a big shindig when I get home though...

 

I call dips on the bathtub or the back seat of the sedan for a bed.

 

No problem there. By bathtub do you mean the actual bathtub, or the phaeton? The former may be a good choice, earlier decisions withstanding. There's also the most comfortable couch in the world, in the Tiki room.

 

haha. not your real bathtub the phaeton of course @RainierHooker

 

Cool stuff here. Subscribed,

 

just found this, went thru all 7 pages in one read. Fantastic save! Cant wait to see more!

 

Sorry for the radio silence, everyone. An intense work phase had me sidelined for a while. But I’m back in the saddle again.

After Jim Ford very kindly did some work on the commercial shell he sold me—moving the neck and filling some holes—I finally got it in place and mocked up. To make it fit my standard A radiator, I had to tweak the radiator’s support brackets a hair (cut, bend, tack) and also file a couple slots into the base of the shell. My “custom” radiator support brackets had to be extended 3/4" to fit this wider shell. So the long hood got even longer!




If you look close, you can see I put an old Motometer on there, just to dress it up for the photo. When painted to match the car, I think this will look more "speedster utilitarian" than the stainless passenger shell I started with. I’ll strip the shell this weekend, and also take care of a few other things. Progress!

 

That hood & shell combo really looks nice! Bob

 

Looks Great! Gary

 

Looks like it was made for it. Oh it was. Looks great.

 

Awesome build, would love to find a body like that for my A chassis I am building.

Looking forward to watching the progress, great job!

 

Any Update on this very cool ride?!

 

Well, I’ve been plugging away on the speedster. The progress has been slow—even by my standards—but steady. It’s mostly been the kind of stuff that’s really necessary, but not especially sexy. Nevertheless, here’s some pictures to catch everyone up.

The radiator shell is now good to go thanks to Scotch Brite and the miracle of molasses.


The marine plywood floor pieces are now fully trimmed and varnished. Five coats.


The seemingly endless tedium of small parts painting.


And, finally, lots of finishing touches to the bodywork, using All Metal.


The car is all apart for paint right now. After going around and around on it, I decided to run in epoxy primer for the time being. Yeah, I know. My wife’s disappointed, too. But I figure proper paint is at least a couple years down the road. I actually received the primer from Eastwood yesterday. Now I’ve got to sand off the phosphoric acid residue and degrease everything. (And here I thought small-parts painting was tedious…)

 

This is so great, I love updates!

That hood and grill looks so good! Any chance to get a picture where it's possible to see the full length of the car?

Wooden floors and misc small items, is a lot of stuff, but also the kind of stuff that makes it possible to be in the shop on you own humming and making engine sound and not have unnecessary comments about it!
Nice work.

Any dissuasion on the fenders?

 

Glad you like it! The car's apart right now, so a full-length shot will have to wait until it's back together and I can roll it outside. My camera (phone) can't get it all in the garage, and in rainy Seattle you don't roll bare-metal cars outside in any month other than July or August.

You're right about the small projects--I joke about them being tedious, but it's really part of the fun.

As to the fender question, it's tricky. When I mock it up with fenders, I think it looks really good. Then I take the fenders off, and I think it looks really good. For now I will run fenderless, because I'm eager to get the car on the road. Eventually I'm pretty sure I'll add fenders and splash aprons--I saved the homemade aprons it came with, and have some ideas for adapting them into something I like. Louvers may be involved, like in this image:


By the way, I think my wife envisions striking a similar pose.

 

^^^^^ Bugatti Queen Helle Nice and her GP car, the right side spare tire strap is seen on the top of the cowl, very few cars ran with dual spare tires. Bob

 

Great project!