So for a while now, I've wanted to do a build thread, but I never felt like I spent enough time working on my car to make it worth while. Now that I have a decent job that pays me money, I actually have enough time and money to work on my car and hopefully get it done in the somewhat near future. It's been a long time coming with this car. I got the body from the hot rod shop I worked at in high school, which is actually the same hot rod shop I just started a few weeks back with. It's a Spirit Cars 27 fiberglass roadster body. My parents bought the car for me for my high school graduation in 2008. It's safe to say that I'll probably never sell this car. I've always loved the look of the 27's. Two of the main reasons why I never made much progress on my car was money and motivation. I would spend a good couple weeks working on my car every night, then let it sit for 6 months because I didn't feel like working on it. Pretty lame. Now I finally have motivation, time and money to get it done. Two of my good friends have been coming out to our house at night and on the weekends to help me work on it. We're making some good progress. The plan is to have it drivable by the Lonestar Roundup in 2015. Pretty feasible. Anyways, here's some detaild on the car. It's got a 322 Nailhead with 6 Holley 94 carbs, a 350 trans and a 9 inch rearend with Radir slicks. For now I have Torque Thrusts on the rear and ET gasser wheels on the front. I'm not totally sold on the front wheel. I may end up running something different by the time the car gets finished. I'm running ladder bars and coil overs in the rear. They're fully adjustable shocks, so it should give me some decent tractions even for having no weight in the rear.
Yea it should be pretty cool. I'm hoping to bump up top a 401 or 425 down the road and someday a blower. Blown nailheads are one of my all time favorite motors
Here's this weekend and into next weeks project. I got one of the Corvair steering box kits from Gas Alley Street Rods that allows you to mount the steering box under the dash and come out of the side of the cowl. I originally wanted a Schroeder style box but they cost an arm and a leg. I'm going to bend up some metal tubing the follows the bend of the inside of the cowl, one right up against the firewall and one right behind the dash, then weld tubing between the two, essentially making a cage. This'll serve as a mounting point for the steering box as well as being bolted to the frame to serve as another body mount. When it's fiberglassed in place it should at quite a bit of strength to the cowl area. After that I've got to make a steering column. That'll be the fun part.
Here's a couple photos of the intake I plan on running. I've always loved these things. I picked this one up a couple years ago from Eelco for around $330. I dig it. It's going to look pretty cool I think mounted up on top of the nailhead.
Gotta do what you gotta do sometimes haha. We've got more cars than jack stands in the shop right now
Bitchin' engine setup. Working on a '26 right now. Not sure I like the front axle pushed out front so far, but I'll be watching to see where this goes.
Understandable. I like them both in front of the crossmember and below. My next project I'd like to do a 27 on 32 rails. I like that look the best.
Looks like a great start. I have plans for a '27 on the back burner. What's the Spirit body look like, as far as quality goes?
Well I work there so I'm going to say great haha!! But in all seriousness, they're not too bad. There's a few things I changed on mine, mainly adding more metal support. The body won't take too much body work to get it smoothed out. I feel they're a pretty decent body for the price.
Great looking T roadster and I like your plans for the build, its going to look killer...... well it does now !!!. One thing you will need to do sooner than later is sort out the angles of your steering arms. Do a search on Ackerman or I can explain it to you if you like. Will watch this with much interest. JW
Yea that's something I need to get sorted out on this. I've been reading up on it. I would obviously prefer to run the tie rod behind the axle, but there's just not enough room. It'll run right into the frame rails even if I drop the steering arms a little bit.
That's cool, you will get it sorted and what neat car. Did you make or have any part in the making of your body? JW
I think I may try to get the front end geometry done this weekend. I didn't really know a whole lot about the Ackerman geometry since this is my first car, so I'll try to get that straightened out. I did a little bit on it, that was before I even knew it was mine haha. I was in charge of shipping there and couldn't figure out what happened to the car after it was done. It disappeared. Turns out my parents picked it up after I left so they could take it home and give it to me after graduation a couple days later haha.
I haven't been able to spend a whole lot of time out in the shop these past couple weeks. I've been trying to get caught up on my pinstriping/signpainting orders and get ready for the Roundup. As soon as I get home from Austin, I'm going to be working on my car pretty heavily and try to make some good progress. Meanwhile, I want to post a couple of cars that have really been a big inspiration on my build. The first is Piero's "Live Wire" coupe. This car is probably one of my all time favorite hot rods, and I think I tell Piero that every time I see him at a car show. To me, everything is perfect on the car. The paint is what really hits home with me. The second car is Aaron Kahan's T coupe. Ever since I saw the car on Rides, I fell in love with it. My roadster is going to have a lot of influence from both of these cars. The most noticeable thing is probably going to be the paint. It'll definitely have a lot of influence from the Live Wire car.
So I haven't updated on here the progress I've made in the last few months. I ordered some new steering arms with a drop in them so I could put the tie rod behind the axle and fix my Ackerman angle. I finally have gotten my frame finished and ready for paint. I went through and added fishplates to the kickup to make it stronger. I also added some double shear brackets for my rear ladder bars. I figured it probably be wiser to build this car for a far more powerful motor than I have versus under building it. I was originally planning on doing a cowl steering set up, but the more that I researched it here on the HAMB, the more I decided to go ahead and just use side steer. I'm going to be mounting the reversed Corvair box onto the framerail. I figure that'll be plenty strong for what I want to do with the car, which is more than likely a whole bunch of burnouts. One of the big things that I've changed on my car is the stance. I originally was going to build it with the rear tires even with the decklid. One of my buddies came over to help me work on the car and we decided to jack up the rear. My adjustable rear shocks came in mighty handy. Here's a photo of it after. Needless to say, I think it looks a whole lot better the way it is now. It's got a bout a 6" rake to it. I may mess with the front spring to adjust that. I've got a reverse eye spring now, so I may change that to a standard down the road. I think the car looks a whole lot better. I've been into the 60's style drag roadsters as of late and this kind of ties in with that. I've also been doing quite a bit of pinstriping lately for a customer who pays me with car parts of which I'm in desire of finding. He hooked me up with a set of Tri Five fenderwell headers. They're old and obviously won't fit a Buick Nailhead, but it gives me a good starting point to build my own. I'm going to redo the collectors, which have a little rust, and rework the tubes to fit the Buick flanges. I know a lot of people don't care for fenderwell headers on open wheel cars, but ever since I first saw Bob Bleed's roadster and the Model A roadster Jordan Graham built, I've wanted a set. They're loud, obnoxious and make a mess, perfect for a hot rod. I was also on the hunt for a set of vintage lowback bucket seats, something similar to a flat bottom boat barrel seat. After searching Ebay, Craigslist and any other source I could think of including my Facebook friends list, I walked out into my parents garage and saw a set of bar stools with the exact seats I was looking for. I immediately stole the seats before my mom could figure out what I was doing. They totally fit the style that I'm going for. I'm going to get them redone in a diamond stitched pattern with door panels and kick panels to match.
Yesterday was a productive day. A couple buddies came over and we got my frame primed and painted black. I think it came out pretty nice. Now I can start assembling it. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
The Jalopy Journal
