Projects Early Chevy Roadster build

Picked up a 28 Chevy sedan cowl , a pair of 29 Chevy coupe quarter panels , and 33 Chevy dash board , and decided to build a roadster body . First thing was to make rockers to tie them together . Went and grabbed up a front inner bumper support off of a new car and cut it in half , long ways . That gives me 2 matching boxed squared tubes with a nice arc to them . Perfect for making sub frame rocker panels . A couple of nice heavy fence stakes cut and welded between them to hold them square . Notch them to fit the cowl . Square up the cowl and weld to sub rails . Trim the dash to weld into the top of the cowl . Next , Cut out 1/8 steel plates to use as door jamb and weld a piece of 1" angle to the back of jamb for reinforcement . Then weld jamb into cowl to make an A pillar . The B pillars are 2 more 1/8" plates with an inner rocker support welded in between the A and B pillars to keep everything square and strong .

 

Nice work, good luck with your build. Should be a cool project.

 

Next , I need to cap off the top of the A pillars and change the sedan cowl into a roadster cowl . By cutting down the upper corners of the dash and curving the ends . Then make filer pieces to tie the dash sides into the top of the A pillar . Then making the curled back top of the A pillar , till I get the shape I want . And fill in the hole left by the sedan windshield pillar .

 

You might want to take a pie cut out of the top of the cowl- sedan cowls are a good bit wider in the back than roadster cowls

 

Thanks for the suggestion Mac The Yankee , But I decided to set the Quarter panels wider to match the back of the sedan cowl . A couple of more inches shoulder room in the car is a good thing .

 

Next , The seat riser support that connects the 2 B pillars together and keep them nice , straight and sturdy . Then comes the lower door jambs and the outer rocker panels . Making sure when I make the outer rockers , that I get a nice following arch with the cowl , And I get the correct spacing at the rear , to line up with the quarter's door jamb offset . After the rockers were welded in , It's time to test fit the quarter panels , to check the fit to the B pillars . And give me an ideal of what it is going to look like .

 

Looks good- can't wait to see how this progresses!

 

I like it so far, looking forward to seeing it "whole".

 

Next , I had to slice and notch the back of the sub rails , to fit inside the quarters and around the wheel wells . Then cap off the hole in the back . then make the floor sections and the seat riser and weld into place . And make the filler pieces between them . I like to make a cardboard template to make pieces , so I can just turn it upside down and make one for the other side that matches .

 

This was a local car until sold a few years ago. Great fun ride until he decided to get into a closed car.

 

Time to remove rotten wood from quarters , make and weld trunk lid hinge mounts in top of quarters and weld them to B pillars . Then to connect the top of the quarters together , I used the lower windshield filler panel off of the top of the sedan cowl . laid it on it side , arched to the rear trimmed to fit and welded in . It makes a nice curved shaped back of the cock pit . Then I used an old hood inner structure as a seat back support , from the back of the seat riser to the top of the quarters . Next I filled in between the top of the seat back and the outer body surround . Now it is time to make the coupe quarters look like roadster quarters , and finish off the rear corners of the cock pit .

 

nice pics, thanks for sharing, keep them coming!

 

Ok , Now that the quarters are set and I know the width of the trunk opening . Next I can make the main trunk floor and tack it in . Next , take an old hood skin , bend the edges , shrink the flanges around to fit the shape of the quarters , to make the trunk lid skin . Next comes the rear panel below the trunk lid , to tie the back of the quarters together . Ok , Now the rear body is coming together and it is starting to look like something . But a lot more to do .

 

Excellent! My favorite type of build.......making something from almost nothing.
Nice work and great creativity. Keep the pics coming!

 

Time to make the inner panel to connect the trunk floor to the lower rear outer panel . And the filler panel to extend the trunk floor forward and to connect to the back of the seat riser . Weld them in place and start making inner body supports .

 

Time to mount the deck lid . Chevrolet has external hinges . The original hinge halves , I made metal pockets to mount them , after removing the rotten wood from the quarters . Now take the deck lid skin and notch the corners to make room for the other hinge halves . Cut a piece of 1/8" , to use as the hinge , and weld into the notch of the lid . Cut out a piece of metal for a triangle gusset and box in around the hinge plate for support . I always try to run the bead roller across inner structure pieces , to make them nice and strong , No matter how small the piece is . Now mount the deck lid and check fit . Fits good and opens and shuts just fine . Next , I will have to decide how I want to make the inner structure of the deck lid .

 

This is great stuff man! I'm impressed!

 

Looks Great . Great metal working skills .

 

cool project. I might just steal your idea of using a bumper support for rockers.

 

Really like your post keep it coming. RogerRoger

 

Nice work! But did you really have to use fence posts for the rails


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inerliner2318 , What's wrong with using fence post pieces for supports . They are a metal , pressed formed channel , with drain holes already stamped in them , strong , and available every where . So why wouldn't I use them ?

 

Cool. Keep us updated.


"Insert Epic Quote Here"

 

Finally back on the Chevy Roadster . Time to make doors and figure out how I'm going to hang them . First I figured out hinge lengths . Cut 2 inch strap to length and some 1 inch heavy 1/4 " tubing pieces and made hinges . Used a 1/4 " rod to them up and welded the hinge halves to the cowl . Then welded the inner door hinge plate to the other hinge halves . Inner door plate is made from 1/8" plate , Just like the body pillar plates . Now with the hinges set , I can notch the door skin to fit around them , and finish shaping the door skin to fit the jamb . Layed the door in place . Not to bad . Now I got to figure out how I want to build the crown on the front edge of the door to make the lines flow down off of the cowl .

 

this is a chevy, that might give you another idea how to make the dash/cowl flow into the door.

 

Thanks for the pic , 1928chevycoupe . This is how I did the crown on the front of the door on my Ford Roadster pick up .

 

Back on the Chevy Roadster door . Time to make the inner door structure and weld the door together . Had a pile of upper door pieces left over from another job . So I laid them out to see if I had enough to make the inner doors . Welded the door skin to the inner hinge plate . Sliced and diced the leftover door pieces to length and welded them together to make inner door frame . Then bent up a stepped door bottom and welded that in . Trimmed and refitted the door to the car . All I have to do is make the crown for the front of the door to meet the top of the cowl and decide on a latch . Now I need to build the other side , just like this one .

 

Looking better all the time! I save all my non-corrigated cardboard for templates like you do, and I'm also a fan of sourcing sheetmetal from wherever I can get it instead of just buying it in big sheets. The cost of that stuff adds up.

 

Back on the Chevy Roadster . Working on solid welding the seams and some finish work . Finished the passenger side door crown . Finally made a cardboard pattern that I was happy with , so I made the pieces and welded it up . Check it out and let me know what you all think ? Now I got to make the other side look the same . All most finished with this body . Need to have it loaded on my trailer before Sept . 30th , to head for Carlisle swap meet , to sell it . If anyone is interested in this body , It will be at Fall Carlisle and Fall Hershey Swap Meets , beginning of next month .

 

Rolled the body over and finished welding the bottom . Added a couple of rear tail panel braces and some drain holes . I should be done under here .