Projects The Brooks Special - louisb’s 29 lakes roadster build

Tore down the 59 today. I managed to break the rotating assembly loose earlier in the week so it came apart pretty easy. Course it helps that someone else took out the valve train already. Even the water pumps came off nice and easy. But I did leave the head studs in to let the machine shop deal with. Speaking of machine shops I will be shipping this boat anchor to Dan at Hilltop Performance in Tejas next month for a full rebuild.



Thanks,

—louis

 

I'm diggin this man! Keep goin!

 

Great build keep the updates coming

 

Looking Great!! You are going to have one sweet Ride! Thanks for the up Dates..

 

No updates for a couple of weeks since it has mostly been scutt work. Painting springs, removing head studs and cleaning up the garage. (Couldn’t find any tools.)



Lifting the car up on jack stands so I can start installing the suspension. When you ware right solo you have to be creative.



My ‘32 wishbone has a slight bend in it. Tried straightening it out with a bottle jack but it is going to take some heat. Picked up a new heat wrench Sunday night and will give it another go this weekend.



Flop also got my grill shell back to me and I had to mock it up. Real happy with it.



Now I can set the grill height and order a radiator.

Thanks,

—louis

 

Looks like progress! Looking forward to the next update.

 

Had a bad case of the Hot Rod Fever this morning so called in sick and made some progress on the roadster. A couple of days ago I set up my wishbone straightening/decapitation device, made by ACME Inc, fired up the O/A torch and poured a bunch of heat into the bent arm of the wishbone. Then used the bottle jack to straighten it. Actually went a bit to far so the wishbone is about an 1/8 off side to side. Decided that was close enough and bolted it all together. Today I got it bolted up into the car.



In this last two pics you can see the shock mounts I had welded on when I sent the axle to Kholer Kustom to have the arms dropped and new king pins installed. He also did some repair work to the axle boss that was out of round. Great customer service and he is one of our own from the HAMB. Great customer service and highly recommended.
.

You don't know how relieved I am to see that front suspension bolt up. Even though I measured dozens of times every way I could think of I wasn't sure I had the frame dimensions right until now.

Thanks,

--louis

 

Congrats. It’s a good feeling for sure!

 

Well done! Big milestone there.

 

Lump’s in. Makes it sound easy right?



I want to give another shout out to Paul Jennings (svm99t on instagram) for rebuilding the trans. Should have sent it to him in the first place and I will for all future rebuilds.

Next up is installing the rear suspension and getting all the motor parts reads to send to Dan @ Hilltop.

Thanks,

—louis

 

Looking Good!! Moving right along..Great Job Louis!!

 

Got the rear suspension in tonight. Whipped up a home made spring spreader to make life easy. Well worth the effort of modifying the ‘40 rear spring so I can run the ‘36 rear bones. My friends say the only reason I built the ‘32 chassis was to run those bones. Lies I say, lies.





Looks like my dog snuck in there too. He’s a full bred Attention Hound.

Thanks,

—louis

 

@louisb that 1945 plate looks very fitting on your Hotrod...I can only hope your state allows it...I won't say any more. She's comin' together...big thumbs up...

 

@Stogy thanks for the comments and Florida does allow antique plates as long as they are no longer in the system.

Man there is so much stuff to get done on a hot rod when your shooting for a deadline. So many things to coordinate so everything happens at the right time. Need to get my flathead to the builders but first I have to get the motor mounts in, figure out the steering and exhaust routing. Heads need to be repolished (started on that today) and detail (read paint) the accessories. Ordered my radiator but they need to know how much of a chop, so cut 2” out of the ‘32 shell and check the hood line. But can’t really do that until the suspension is in and she is sitting at ride height. It can get overwhelming just figuring out what to do next. Sometimes it just helps to play dress up and bolt shiny shit to the motor.



Thanks,

—louis

 

Louis...your doing an inspiring build here. I have never done such ground up turn key projects...you have made strategic decisions along the way...but yeah good on you and I am always amazed at your and so many others taking it to the finish line. That's where your headed and I'll be there with the others for the haul whatever it takes......thrash gets used a lot around here and that's where your at...I certainly understand the desire to drive...I chose to buy into it...but feel no lesser...I still have plenty to wrench but take it in slowly...

Go Louis Go...and thank you for sharing your vision.

 

Looking good Louis, you have made a lot of good progress. What deadline are you shooting for? Everything always takes me longer than I think it will! Loving what you've done so far, and during the Florida summer to boot!
Aaron

 

You're making great progress! Please be sure to get the slope of the hood to be right before ordering a radiator.

 

@Aaron D. Hey man, you settled in Oregon yet? Trying to get this bucket of bolts ready for TROG next year. I think the deadline for entry is around February or March. Need to have it running, stopping etc for the application. Still got six months but that is not a lot of time when you are a one man band. You know how it is.

Thanks,

—louis

 

I know I quit setting deadlines when the wife observed that if you multiply my estimate by 6 and add a day it was often a more accurate predictor of the target.

Looking good @louisb!

@Aaron D. - I see you’ve updated your location. Hope the move was a success for you.

 

@brEad sounds about right for house projects. My wife has finally gotten to the point where she suggest we pay a professional anytime I start talking home improvement projects. Only took 22 years to get her that way.

Thanks,

—louis

 

See you guys give all these compliments and it goes to my head. Then I go an f’it up.

Decided to shorten the torque tube. Should be easy right? Measure, cut, shut and weld. Except for that whole measuring thing. Fortunately it’s only metal.







It’s a boy! I am so proud.



WTF? How could I be off by that much?



Oh well, easy fix. At least if you don’t run out of glue for the hot metal glue gun. Time for a trip to welding supply.



Honestly, measured that sucker half a dozen times and tripple checked the math. (I was even sober, though that may have been the problem.) Only thing I can figure, other than I can’t read a tape measure, is when I took the measurement the car weight was on the rear spring. I had to then lift the back of the car so I could line up the pinion. Must have changed when the axle rotated. As a wise man once said, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing twice.

Thanks,

—louis

PS: If you’re not reading @pgan ‘s new blog you should be. Reminds me of when I would take stacks of Hot Rod and R&C to school in my backpack. Still one of the best.

 

Louis/brEad, We're here but not settled yet. Still opening boxes and setting up the house/garage. Hopefully i'll be able to get back to normal life in a couple of weeks. I think the new two car garage will work fine for me. I can't hardly wait to get back on the Coupe.
TROG would be so much fun! I hope you get in and have a blast racing up the beach.

 

Needed a quick and easy win today so I installed the front upper shock mounts. I had previously modified these F1 mounts for an A frame Tardel style.

Also, I now seem to have a garage rooster. He hung out with me for most of the morning.



Thanks,

—louis

 

Looking great Louis! If it ain't done twice, it ain't done right!

 

Cocka Doodle Hotrod...that's funny......how y'all doin...

 

I decided to use an F100 box since it matches the stock 32 steering but provides an upgrade. Previously I had sent @NealinCA my box and pinion for rebuild and got one of his weld on flangs . Yesterday I ordederd one of his new custom shafts, 1932 length and steering wheel mount but using an F100 worm gear. The cost was competitive with modifying and rebuilding a stock column. Here is a pic he sent me of the shaft being machined.



Thanks,

--louis

 

Nealin does magic with steering boxes.

 

Louis:

Very cool and you are moving along nicely. Before you finalize the location, check it by sitting in the car to see how it fits you.

Doesn't seem like it would matter, but with the F-1 box guts being on top of the sector does impact the over angle the shaft comes into the cockpit and, ultimately, steering wheel location. I would advise having the wheel on the shaft and sit in the car with the seats you are going to use before finalizing the location.

'28/'29 Roadsters are tight and every fraction of an inch you can gain by moving things around is a bonus.

Here is another little tid bit I pick up with my build. If using a '32 frame with a K member, it may help to use '33/'34 pedals on a '32 pedal box.

The '33/'34 pedals are an 1" shorter. This does two things: You don't have to cut the fire wall for clearance and (if you have average sized feet) keeps your heel on the floor while braking.

Don't forget to mount your windshield when fitting all this as well. You don't want your knuckles banging the glass when you turn.

It all works. Just take very little tweaking of the '32 pedal box to make it all fit. Thanks to Zach Suhr for this little tidbit.

Good luck. Maybe our roadsters will meet up some time.

 

Agreed. Neal is a wizard.

 

Looks awesome man well done, just picked up a massive box of rivets myself to do something similar.