Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

Thank you! That has been my goal for just about every project I take on. When it's finished, I'm hoping it'll look like it's been together for at least 60 years—if not longer. I'm excited to check my mailbox in the coming weeks.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the book and I'm looking forward to following your roadster and shoebox projects!

Thank you! That means a lot. I know the 'banger is going to be a ton of fun, but the ultimate goal is to drive this machine across the country—but that's a long ways off. This setup is going to be a blast around town. I've been enjoying your T build and all the detail work that's gone into it. I'd love to see more of the story telling on it too!

Very similar indeed!

Thank you! I have never seen one of these on a hot rod, so I think it'll work out well. I feel like the Gaz would make a pretty neat mild custom. Maybe slammed with narrow whitewalls and Astros?

Don't worry, the 'banger is sticking around for the time being. I'm excited to get this thing to stage 1.5 with the speed equipment!

For how much I've driven them, I really like the fours. I love old speed equipment in any capacity, so souped up bangers, flatheads and overheads all sound good to me!

 

I was out of town this weekend, but I did manage to do some hot rod homework. What did that entail? Making phone calls.

First, I reached out to the previous owner of the body to see where exactly the top came from. He said it was off an old Model A roadster (hot rod?) that he bought in Sacramento more than 30 years ago. No more details were given.

Next, I called the previous owner of the chassis to ask if he saved the phone number of the guy he bought it from. Why? I wanted to get a little bit more history on it—more specifically if anything was done to the bottom end of the engine. "No, no," he told me. "He's long gone." I thanked him for his time and that was that.

Finally, I chatted a little with E—the man with the Gopher Motor. He's looking to sell his Model A speedster chassis with a fully rebuilt 'banger, new tires and a bunch of other quality stuff for a really good deal. I don't have any photos of it, but I can get some if anyone is interested. Send me a PM if you're looking to build a 'banger-powered hot rod on the cheap.

I also talked to Yama and he says he'll have the next installment of our Mazi Moto adventures edited soon. Once it's finished, I'll add it to this thread.

Other than that, I think I'll have a few odds and ends waiting for me when I get back into town. Some of the brake parts were on backorder, so I'm going to try to check some other small things off the list as I wait for those to come in.

Since I don't really have any pertinent pictures, here's one that I recently added to the "inspiration" folder. I usually don't go for splash aprons, but I think this car is just about perfect. Does anyone know who built it?

 

You're too good to me. Don't worry, the light was gutted sometime in the past 60 years, so no proprietary information will be divulged. If he was listening to the noises in my garage, I wonder what he would think of my custom mixtapes?

I just got back from Truckee and, as I'm sure you know, it was getting pretty snowy out on 80 tonight. Regardless of fitment, I'm excited!

Nice! Wow, that car has been cool for a long time. It has progressed a ton!

Great shot! I'd love to take my roadster to the Hill Climb once the world becomes a little more normal.

 

I'm back in San Francisco! When I walked up my front stairs, I was greeted by a pile of packages (some of which I'll talk about tomorrow). That being said, I want to share with you the latest installment of the roadster project doc series, which was shot and edited by my friend Yama for his YouTube channel.

This latest video tells the full story of my "Gopher Motor," the mysterious E and a whole lot more. You can check it out below:

The video is a neat recap of a very memorable day. I can't wait to see where the rest of the project takes me.

 

Thank you. We had a ton of fun that day. I'm hoping to work with E on a future article about some of his photo collection from the '40s/'50s.

I love it. I'll try to convince Yama to make it happen! We have to finish his Shovelhead chopper first.

 

Lots of great stuff coming through the door! This is a mix of thoughtful Christmas gifts, items for future articles and tools for the roadster. The Jardine Headers sedan logo has long been a favorite of mine, and the hat ties back to 1993—the year I was born. You may very well find those Kodachrome slides in a future issue of The Rodder's Journal.

As for the roadster, I'll be breaking out the tubing cutter for the fuel lines. And what about the tub of Lubriplate? That'll be for all the moving brake components. I'm still waiting for some of the backordered brake parts. They should be here soon!

 

Very cool group of cars and display! I was able to check out the build on Instagram as well. A great machine for sure. Believe it or not, it's now running a 4-71-blown Cad!

 

Right before lunch, the doorbell rang. It was the postman, and he had dropped off a large, padded envelope addressed to me. I thanked him, scooped it up and carried it back to the kitchen. "Ah," I said. "It's from @Six Ball!" I grabbed some scissors and cut the package open. It didn't take long to see that it was an old Model A valve cover. Then, I flipped it over and my jaw dropped. "Nooooo wayyyy!"

I'm still processing this. I can't believe that I now have an early CRAGAR cover for my car. I can't even imagine the places this has been. This is one of the most generous gifts I've ever received, and I can't wait to bolt it on once I start hopping up the engine. (It's looking like that process will start in February).

I never dreamed I would have anything like this to put on this car. With the intake, carb, header, custom linkages and now this cover, I'm thinking that I might keep the hood off for awhile. Vintage Hoss-Power!

 

Thank you! I'm considering polishing it up a tiny bit, but I'll make that call once it's on the engine.

So so cool. Like I said before, I don't think I've ever seen one of these in person. It's a real treasure that I plan to keep forever. As I was organizing the garage tonight, I realized that I already had a fresh valve cover gasket in stock. It was meant to be. Thank you again.

Every single day I am amazed by the generosity of everyone on the H.A.M.B. This truly is an incredible community we are in. Long live traditional hot rodding!

Oh wow. That is some high-level stuff. Last fall I drove a car with a Riley OHV conversion and it was extremely cool. I'm going to be happy just to safely hit the street with my mild hop ups!

 

No major updates tonight. Brake parts are en route, as are the internal pieces of the taillight. I was finally able to carve out the aluminum trans cover before it go too late to use power tools. I'll be bending in Yama's sheetmetal brake tomorrow.

I also removed the windshield frame so I can start creating my template for the glass over the weekend. I have a discount at Eckler's and I found a local glass shop (recommended to me by an industry friend) that can trim it down for $35.

With the top and the windshield frame off, I figured I would try to address the oversized hole in the top connection point for the passenger side stanchion. In a perfect world, I would simply weld it shut, re-drill and tap. Well, since it's at least 15 miles to the nearest place I could weld it, I figured I would try the same thing with solder. That obviously didn't work! I'm just going to leave it be for now. Interesting to note that out of the whole car, this area is just about the roughest. Don't worry, I'll address it once I get everything mechanically sorted out.

Little by little, things are taking shape.