A friend and I decided that we would hot rod around all summer, and blow our cars apart for paint in winter. At this point, I'm not in a rush to paint it though. So, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. However, even if I was painting the car, the wheels would have been painted too. I'm not too big a fan of red, especially red wheels. I plan to repaint the engine to get rid of the red there too. Haha! Thanks! Most likely it will end up being Black. I'm working on catching up to you. Only about 298,400 miles to go! Haha!
I've got a few changes in the works for the roadster which I'll post about soon. In the meantime, enjoy this video a friend put together after we messed around with his drone.
Neato...Stunning scenery, Hotrod and some serious planning...was that Captain America and Billy on the side of the road?... By the Way...Happy Birthday @cretin...
Haha! Whoever it was, it looked like they were making a pee break. Thanks for the birthday wishes! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Well, I was planning to update this thread this weekend, but now the update is much different than I had in mind. I had made a few small changes, and was about to make a couple more on Friday, then was going to drive the car to the Ventura Nationals on Saturday. The universe had other plans. I was cruising at about 70 mph on the freeway when suddenly a rod decided to leave my engine. There was no warning, no weird sounds. The car was running great till in an instant, it wasn't. The engine immediately locked up and sent me sideways. As I went sideways my passenger side frame horn took out the hubcap and tire of the car next to me, and peeled back said frame horn. I continued spinning to do a full 360 and ended up facing the correct direction in the number 1 lane. When I was straight enough in the right direction I had pushed in the clutch to try to get to the shoulder, but couldn’t get there fast enough and the car behind me couldn’t stop fast enough, and rear ended me. I saw the car that hit me before I saw the back of my car, so I thought the damage was going to be much worse. The car looks pretty fixable, and most importantly everyone is ok. It could have been much worse, so I'm glad it wasn't. But, at the same time, this roadster was my getaway/therapy for dealing with the garage burning down, so it's kind of another punch to the gut. However, just like the garage, it is what it is, so I've got to just push ahead. So, the plan is to go through the insurance process and start repairs as soon as I can. Hopefully the garage building process will be happening soon and I'll have a good place to work on it. As for the engine, due to how things are going in normal life, and the garage process, money is a little tight, so I can't afford to build another flathead. I do have a Cadillac 331 that is apart, but was free, and I have made a deal on a Cadillac 390 before this happened that came out of a running car. So the next version will almost certainly be running one of those. That's it for now in my saga. Hopefully it won't be terribly long before I can update this thread with something positive. Here are some photos of the aftermath. The last photo is the car that rear ended me.
That is half way to the Rolling Bones look, without the use of tools. Glad you and everyone else involved is OK. That is one well built car. Best wishes. Bob
Definitely sorry to hear about the accident. As Bob said I’m glad there were no injuries to you and the folks involved. Looks like your Roadster took it pretty well based on the car that got you from behind. Best of fortunes moving forward.
Oof. That's a lot of bad luck all at once. But you are right, it could have turned out a lot worse. The front horn looks like an easy fix, and hopefully the backside of the body wasn't pushed forward. Sorry to see you going overhead with the next engine, but I wouldn't loose sleep over a Cadillac.
Ugg. Sorry Bud.Let me know if I can help on the Caddy stuff. It will be a better car when you are done.
Wow, so sorry to hear this. My best wishes for getting the roadster back into running condition. I hope everything works out OK with the insurance and you come out of this in a good place.
All Thing's considered... I'd say St. Christopher was riding shotgun! Damn that could have Gone so much worse on Soo many levels!
My avatar has been rear-ended and with a stock fuel tank. But I was lucky - I heard the scream of tires and I took my foot off the brake. No one was in front of me as I was popped some 20 feet. No leaks, everything still worked, broken motor mounts, the 5-speed made a lot of noise and I was 500+ miles from home. Since I was going to a show a 100 miles from the accident in Mass where all my buddies would be there with all kinds of knowledge and could check things over, I took my time and drove to the show. We jacked it up right at the show grounds and found no major problems. I then drive it to Long Island for an unexpected funeral, then to Binghamton NY to visit an old friend of mine and then home. You too can survive being rear ended with a stock 32 gas tank …. and with a little bit of luck, survive …… Btw, the 2008 Honda Civic that hit me was totaled and I drove my roadster almost another 800 miles before getting home - go figure!
I finally had the chance to dig into the flathead a little bit to try to see what went wrong. I pulled the pan, and there was just about everything that you would not want to see in an oil pan in there. Then I pulled the intake and heads. Cylinder #7 was almost completely gone. Next, I pulled all the shrapnel out of the pan to look it all over. My best guess is that there was a cylinder wall failure. The engine had a significant bore at .125" over. I also realized that cylinders #7 & #8 were both sleeved. There is also a crack on the inside of the block side on cylinder #8, but I'm not sure if that happened after #7 let go. It would seem to me that the wall failed, let the piston loose, and things just came apart. The piston is obliterated, but the rod is still there, and moved over to cylinder #3. The cam broke into at least 5 pieces, so some lifters fell, and one got jammed up on the piston on cylinder #2. A bunch of the block is busted up, and the center of the center main cap busted out too. So, it was quite the event. Unfortunately, the fact that I still don't have a garage back makes the possibility of getting the car repaired quite difficult. I wanted to try to get it into a friends shop, or to work, but both of them are too packed for me to fit right now. Hopefully I can get it and my garage situation figured out soon. Here are some photos of the carnage.
NICE! Are you good with plexiglass? I see a coffee table Christmas gift for some high roller Hollywood car guy. Bob
I echo the thoughts of the others regarding coming out of this chain reaction of chaos with your life...scary shit really...That engine blowed up real good however this Hotrod could not be in better hands for being resurrected. May all the tweaking fall into place smoothly going forward @cretin
Wow Kyle maybe its because Im an optimist and maybe because I've not been through what you have even though I really empathise, just that it was a good outcome when you got spun around at 70 and didnt flip the car with resultant outcome, this thread may have finsihed in a very different way. Just a thought, that being said it looks like that 390 caddy came into your life at just the right time, front frame damage looks relatively simple fix with a new frame horn and the rear of the body looks like you could drive it as is until you get time to pull it down properly in the future, making a great story in the interim. Maybe a weekend tharsh for you and some mates to fit the caddy engine under a harbor freight shade? Might be a great thing for you in many ways, thinking beer, pizza, friends and your car getting a lot closer to being back on the road. Good luck with it all no matter what you do!
Wow! I started reading this and your thread has taken us from the highest of highs of enjoying your new roadster on those beautiful California highways, to the lowest lows of destruction and near tragedy. The roadster looks better than the Toyota does though! I'm so amazed you didn't flip it in that wild ride and that flathead looks like it was running a full load of nitro at 200 mph the way it grenaded. Maybe for now someone could just give you a "loaner" flathead to just get you back on the road while you get your garage up. You could swap it out pretty quickly with some help. One thing, every car has a story, and yours has one hell of a story in the short time you've owned it and you'll never forget this car!
Apparently, I'm pretty good at having a story with classic cars. I've had a different bad thing happen to all of them. But I live to fight another day and tell another story.
Sadly, I don't have any progress to report. Since I am in the permit process for my garage, obviously, no construction has started. No garage has made repairs a bit challenging. However, Troy was kind enough to clear a spot at the shop for me so I can work on repairing it there in the meantime. So, on Sunday, I was finally able to get the roadster over there. I'm sure I won't be able to get anything done on it till after GNRS, but at least it's there, and will be ready to work on in February. I'm looking forward to getting started on version 2 of this car. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it back on the road for spring. And hopefully, it won't be too much longer before the car has a new home back on my property.
That sucks,ive had two go out like that with a bang,in both i worked out for different reasons the sump filled with fuel. johnny evolution takes hold.....goodluck
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