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Technical Can a 35 Ford PU cab make a lakes roadster?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by jfg455, Mar 20, 2014.

  1. jfg455
    Joined: Apr 22, 2011
    Posts: 171

    jfg455
    Member
    from NH

    It has been stuck in the back of my mind for a while now every time I look at my spare 35 Ford PU cab. It is a solid cab but the roof is mangled badly. Story is it came from TX and was flipped in a tornado (true? who knows) As it sits now the lid is pancaked and off to the drivers side about 6". I have been using it as a spare parts cab for my other 35 Ford PU project. But I look at it and my stash of horded parts (32 front frame rails, A cross members, 40 Ford front end complete with bones and brakes, dropped A axle, 38 Ford banjo rear etc) and wonder if it could make a decent looking lakes roadster. I feel that the body lines on the sides, rear and fire wall area could work but the windshield post are the sticking point. They are WAY too wide to look good and would have to come off in favor of some slimmer ones. So I put it to the Traditional hot rod crowd. Can it be dons and look right (period / traditional) or am I way off base with my vehicle A.D.D? comments encouraged....
     
  2. You asked, so here goes!
    I like period stuff so I think first about the era.- to me very important.
    Start looking at pictures of 35-36-37 Ford roadsters.
    Try to picture what one of these roadster windshield frames would look like mounted raked more than stock and chopped.
    If you are a sheet metal man with enough experience and can remove and finess the door and cowl sheet metal to blend it to an eye-pleasing, factory looking shape, including around the back, Go For it. I think it would be way cool and something you won't see anywhere!
    It sounds like you have enough "bits" to round out the project.
    If not start looking for a rusted out cab with a good roof!
    Good luck
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2014
  3. hellerlj
    Joined: Oct 12, 2005
    Posts: 1,176

    hellerlj
    Member
    from Minnesota

    Here are a couple shots of what can be done, maybe not a total
    lakester car, but a start that could go in a number of different
    directions
     

    Attached Files:

  4. Yea that's the look!
    BTW I have a hood if you need one.
     

  5. jfg455
    Joined: Apr 22, 2011
    Posts: 171

    jfg455
    Member
    from NH

    Thanks Heller and Tony.

    The pick of the roadster pick up was what I was thinking on the windshield frame area. My first thought was like a lakes modified with nothing behind the tub just a fuel tank and suspension tucked up behind the back of the cab. Of course now that I look at the roadster pick up I like that too! But I have to stay on track. I'll probably need to print out a pick of one and play with the diamentios to see if it will work. 1 issue is the stubbiness of these front ends that might make it look funny.

    Tony - I have a hood in my bits pile and a spare roof but the roof section needs to go to repair the botched chop on my other 35 pickup. You don't happen to have any rear fenders do you?

    Still out on a motor trans combo. I had a 59 232 ford six and 3 spd but I sold them. Next oldest motor I have running that isn't a SBC is a 68 cadillac 472. I do have a 50 GMC inlie sx and 4 spd I could rebuild...
     
  6. the-rodster
    Joined: Jul 2, 2003
    Posts: 6,945

    the-rodster
    Member

    Isn't that for sale on cragslist right now.

    Gene's hot rods?
     
  7. No fenders now but I'll keep an eye out, but I like the tank-only look in the rear anyway. and I also like the reversing the bells of the banjo which moves the rear wheels back lowers the car and gives a longer wheelbase. For the front if you are going to use a 32 frame, why not use a Model A front cross. It will drop the front and with the dropped axle you have it will be down good. all this is traditional stuff done way back 40's 50's. If that's what you are looking for. I love Cad 472's and you don't need much to make 400 + HP. but it puts you in the late 60's and your era gets messed up again.(I've never seen a 472 dressed to look like a 331!)
    Inline 6 and you are back in the 50's and that GMC could be hot rodded real cool back in the early 50's, lots of speed parts like Wayne heads dual carb manifolds and split exhausts. And they sound awesome! You can tell I'm OLD!!
     
  8. bigorangetruck
    Joined: Oct 23, 2012
    Posts: 55

    bigorangetruck
    Member
    from TX


    Looks great!
     
  9. Squablow
    Joined: Apr 26, 2005
    Posts: 17,388

    Squablow
    Member

    The one above isn't bad, but I think without the box, it'd look odd. The '35 already has a really big firewall and is wide at the rear, much more than the Model T and early A bodies that usually make up the body of a modified. That one works because it has a hood and a pickup box to help balance it out.

    I think if you just had a gas tank on the back and no hood, it would make the cab look huge and dis-proportionate. That's why I think only a handful of "bobber" trucks look right and most fail. Too odd of a wheelbase without enough visual meat in front of and behind the cab to balance it all out.

    I think it could be done, but proportions are everything.
     
  10. Orrrrrrrrrrrrr...
     

    Attached Files:

  11. jfg455
    Joined: Apr 22, 2011
    Posts: 171

    jfg455
    Member
    from NH

    Squablow - You are absolutely correct that it would need a hood to give the impression of longer and narrower. Without it it would just look like a jumble of parts. I imagine the grille would need to be shortened a little bit to give the hood a slight downward angle. Just a bit not a huge freak show slope.

    Rocky - I like it! Problem is I would want to drop it between the slicks of a FED with a stack injected 331/354 etc.
     
  12. flynbrian48
    Joined: Mar 10, 2008
    Posts: 8,220

    flynbrian48
    Member

    Precisely. I'm trying to figure how to build a lakester on my usual "no budget" plan, and a pickup cab would be cheap, but it's hard not to have one look like a pickup with the top simply lopped off. The one above is pretty cool, but the tops of the doors and cab look a little squared off. Maybe extending the cab a little behind the door jamb, and using a large trunk from an early sedan behind the cab would work?

    Brian

     
  13. flynbrian48
    Joined: Mar 10, 2008
    Posts: 8,220

    flynbrian48
    Member

    Very intereisting…
    [
    QUOTE=Rocky;9605390]Orrrrrrrrrrrrr...[/QUOTE]
     
  14. patmanta
    Joined: May 10, 2011
    Posts: 3,872

    patmanta
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Woburn, MA
    1. MASSACHUSETTS HAMB

    I think Rocky's got something there. The cab narrowed and chopped could work for a modified/lakes coupe look. You could probably get the proportions to work without going that drastic as well.

    Keeping with the narrowing theme, I think rebuilding that GMC L6 is a good plan for a modified type build. Plus you already have it.

    FED slicks sound like they'll be disproportionately big for a build like this, but I may not be picturing it the same way you are.

    Like Squablow says, proportions are going to be EVERYTHING with soemthing like this. Folks do builds like this and I have REALLY liked a few of them that I've seen, HAMB friendly or not.

    My all time favorite closed cab Modified was the one Lancer built:
    http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=611167

    Maybe take some good pix of it and post here or in the photoshop thread if you're stuck for ideas. I think having some rake to the roof line is key to having it look right.
     
  15. jfg455
    Joined: Apr 22, 2011
    Posts: 171

    jfg455
    Member
    from NH

    Patmanta - I wanted to keep it an open top car. It would be with tall narrow wheel and tires on it. The slick comment was just for Rocky's narrow closed cab rendition. I agree the top of the doors and around the rear of the cab would need some attention. Might even need to narrow up the width of the doors to mimic roadster tops. Maybe use a 1" or 1 1/8" round tube to cap the tops. the size and shape would be dictated by how the cowl area was finished off after the windshield posts were taken off.

    Looks like I need to finish my english wheel project so I can sneak this into the corner of the shop...SHHH! don't tell my wife. She trys to keep me focused on one project at a time!;)
     
  16. a bloke
    Joined: Jul 6, 2007
    Posts: 237

    a bloke
    Member


    Very cool, is that yours?
     
  17. You could run no windshield at all just knuckle guards. Or you could clean up the cowl and adapt some roasdster windshield stantions to it or even a hallock style windshield.

    The '35 is still pretty easy to work with, once you got into the more rounded truck cabs it became more difficult, many of them need major surgery to work as a roadster.

    Here is something to keep in mind, many lakes vehicles are hybrids. The arfe not required to look like a stock roadster for instance. Don't try to make it look like an original henry body, remember its roots and go from there.
     
  18. Atwater Mike
    Joined: May 31, 2002
    Posts: 11,625

    Atwater Mike
    Member

    Narrowing the body a 'believable' amount is the ticket. After that, the lines will seem to ask for some massaging, door tops (gunwales) and fairing in of the cowl.

    Tony Martino is right on track here, think '35-'36 roadster around the door/cowl blending.
    After the narrowing of the bucket, some pie cuts allow nice reshaping.

    I recall an article in Rod Action in the '80s where a guy had 'No T bucket, and no prospects'.
    He took a Datsun pickup bed, narrowed & shortened it, formed a cowling and ended up with a cooool lakes modified! Any remember that one? I was surprised...
    Most of these late '30s pickups-turned-roadsters end up as 'taildraggers', too wide, tractor grilles, and absurd wheel/tire combinations. They usually scream "R-- Rod!"
     
  19. koolkemp
    Joined: May 7, 2004
    Posts: 6,005

    koolkemp
    Member

    I remember that it turned out pretty cool!
     
  20. Squablow
    Joined: Apr 26, 2005
    Posts: 17,388

    Squablow
    Member

    What about using a 28-29 Model A or similar cowl (or at least firewall) with the truck cab? Or just narrowing the truck firewall and putting it out 6" forward, then paneling in the cowl to match? T and A bodies are typically narrower at the firewall, then get wider to the hinge pillars, but the truck cabs are pretty much full-width already at the firewall, plus the cowls are a lot shorter.

    Just thinking out loud, might look horrible, might be great and really help with proportions, especially if you wanted to run hoodless. Maybe the issue is not the overall cab width but the look it has with a foot of cowl sticking out on either side of the engine?
     
  21. patmanta
    Joined: May 10, 2011
    Posts: 3,872

    patmanta
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Woburn, MA
    1. MASSACHUSETTS HAMB

    Can you show us any pictures of this cab?
     
  22. jfg455
    Joined: Apr 22, 2011
    Posts: 171

    jfg455
    Member
    from NH

    It is still 1/3 buried in the snow. We are getting hammered with rain right now so maybe tomorrow it will be uncovered enough to snap a pic of it.
     
  23. thirtytwo
    Joined: Dec 19, 2003
    Posts: 2,639

    thirtytwo
    Member

    The 35-37 trucks share very similar lines to 33-34 cars , I would study the 33-34 roadsters for inspiration on windshield And may be round the doors like a 32 and do a 35-36 roadster transition to the cowl Maybe find a bed ... I think the roadster pickup is the way to go
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2014
  24. ImageUploadedByH.A.M.B.1396233081.301217.jpg
    ImageUploadedByH.A.M.B.1396233099.021770.jpg ImageUploadedByH.A.M.B.1396233119.401769.jpg
    The pick ups are just about the same as the cars. Wack the roof off and make new door tops and cowl. Roadster pickup would be rad.


    Instagram @baronsmetal
     
  25. jfg455
    Joined: Apr 22, 2011
    Posts: 171

    jfg455
    Member
    from NH

    Wow! I would say you are "the man"! I like how the top of the door was taken off right to the body line and redone. Makes more sense when you look at the cowl smoothed out. Probably easier to do that then try to make the stock body lines look correct.
     
  26. hammeredabone
    Joined: Apr 18, 2001
    Posts: 737

    hammeredabone
    Member

  27. jfg455
    Joined: Apr 22, 2011
    Posts: 171

    jfg455
    Member
    from NH

    Thanks for the link! Looks like your ideas and Thirdgen's ideas are all in line with what is in my minds eye. I like the long hood. Makes the proportions look better. Not entirely sure I want the doors to be fixed closed. I know it would make the tub stronger but I'm getting older and hopping over the door might just make for some good laughs.
     
  28. hammeredabone
    Joined: Apr 18, 2001
    Posts: 737

    hammeredabone
    Member

    jfg455, This thread shows the car Third Gen designed although A lot of the build pics are missing. Check out page 11. I did a drawing of a 35-6 cab with doors and a model t turtle deck. May be more you direction. I too have a 36 cab and considered this type of build with it. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=489941&page=11
     
  29. jfg455
    Joined: Apr 22, 2011
    Posts: 171

    jfg455
    Member
    from NH

    This would be the doner cab. I do have doors for it (missing the tops as they were used on the cab in my avitar). The extra roof is needed for my truck in the avitar as who ever chopped it butchered the job. I also have a New England version of a 35 cab (read: very rusty) that I could use. I think you can just see it in the first pic. Already missing it's roof. I do have the doors and back of the NE cab too. Again, the NE stuff is very rusty.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  30. pasadenahotrod
    Joined: Feb 13, 2007
    Posts: 11,775

    pasadenahotrod
    Member
    from Texas

    37 roadsters don't have windshield frames like the "traditional" roadsters with separate posts and frames. They are part of the cowl since the cars are cabriolets without rollup windows.
     

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