Hot Rods The Wag-Tag Special

This is a project I bought the body of for my dad for christmas in 2012.
The body is a 1926 ford model T coupe that at some point has had the roof chopped off. the doors are from a sedan so they are a few inches shorter (I forget how many) we cut the subrails down in the front and moved the cowl back a few inches to meet the doors and give it more roadster-like proportions.

The frame is a mix of model TT truck (front) and mid 30's chevy rear framerails (rear) and all custom crosmembers.

The plan is a late '60's style hot rod with some twists and modern things hidden.

Heres the body as we got it.

A quick trip to the sandblasters..


And a fresh start to a hot rod!


I started to play with some cardboard (and the posibility of a hallock style windshield)




And my dad getting a feel for the seat..


Then it sat for nearly a year.


The winter of 2013 rolled around and we decided it was time to make some progress.

So we mocked it up on the TT framerails, and some wheels (not for this, another project) to get an idea of how it would look . I mocked the rear end up in cardboard, with the tailights we will be using, '52 buick peices that dad had squirreled away for just such a project.



And then, it sat. for almost a whole winter. then we had a buddy that offered to help us build the frame, and that started the ball rolling, we did a bunch of figuring, and measuring, and some educated guessing, and came up with a plan to have a pinched, tucked, kicked and bobbed frame.
We also picked up a vintage dropped axle, a three deuce setup to put on the mockup 327, and a full set of chrome steelies!


We are running 15x5's in front and 15x8-Reversed in the rear. They are from wheel vintiques (highly recommended- great service) and the rears are reversed to the max of 2-1/2 inch backspace. thats almost 6 inches of dish!
Here is the car once we got the frame back under it... I dont know why I didnt take pictures of the frame by itself, it looks killer!


We decided we wanted to do an -I-beam-spring behind-with hairpins. just to make our lives difficult. as no one makes anything like that. So we did the only logical thing... bought a set of mounts for a tube axle, and then convinced a buddy to machine us a set of these nifty little teardrop shaped things with the taper built in.


Here it is all set up in front. ride height mocked, and teardrop plates tacked in place with 7degrees of caster built in. we then built the front crossmember to fit.



here is the rear kick in the frame.. 36ish chevy rear framerails and the s10 rear axle we are using.


We made the big push thanksgiving weekend to have it a roller before christmas, and this is the stance we were aiming for.


We got back at it the saturday after thanksgiving and after a hard day of work and lots of tacking at 5:20 we had done it! We rolled it outside on 4 wheels! the feeling of that I won't soon forget.


This shot made me think of a weesner drawing.



I was so excited I even jumped up on the tire of my Volksrod to catch this birds-eye-view.


So the next day it was nice we rolled it outside to check it out and get some good pictures.

This was the money shot for me, I am a stickler about profiles. and I wanted the car to look as good from far away as it does up close. I feel we nailed it.



Then the talk ensuded of ideas and how to tackle the steering, and seating.. and then we got back to taking pictures..



I like this shot, from down low in the rear. it shows the rake well.


The rear suspension is planned around a set of very heavy duty hairpins and a set of coilovers (not mounted yet)


Then we decided to pull out the latest windshield plan, the top half of a modelT style window, and see how it looked.


And one more shot of the profile.


I have 2 weeks off in december for Christmas, so we should have more updates to share as we move along in december.

 

Lookin good man!...lots of other cool shit too! Love the racing barstool! That white wagon is sweet too is that a rambler or Chevy 2 , ?I can't quite tell

 

As you can see in my avatar I'm a "T' fan, and I love this. Exactly right!

 

Thanks guys! The wagon is my buddy Mike's daily. Its a rambler with a sbc in it.

 

Da' thinkin' hats have been on for a while I see.....I like the rear kick up frame choice. I've never seen that. It worked pretty damned neat. Sure is looking like a great start sir.

 

Always like T builds we need more, looking good. Please put the tie rod behind the axle.

 

Cool Project Man!

What are those green wire wheels for the "other project" from?

Good Luck!
Tommy

 

Thanks! the rear had to be angled up to make that big of a kick but we just couldnt have a sharp boxy kickup in such a sweeping frame.

 

Now this is a Grand-Opening-Project-Starter-Post !
Looks like it won't make it over any speed bumps, but it sure looks bitch'n !
The Chrome wheels are a Perfect choice.

 

I have always liked model T's, and they are in my price range, so it worked out well. I am trying to fix all the things I usually see wrong with T coupe- turned- roadsters.
sadly the tie rod will not have room to be run behind.. but it will be bent down and out to have the correct Ackermann angles.

 

For the longest time I had no clue what they were, but they are cragar starwires. they had been painted (poorly) over the chrome long ago, so I sandblasted them before repainting them with etch prime.

 

Thanks! Its been a fun journey so far, I wanted to wait until we had some stuff together before I put up a build thread.
It actually will have 3-1/2 inches of clearance in the front with nothing hanging below the framerails.
The wheels were something my dad allways wanted, he would allways say he wanted a car with "chrome reverse wheels" on it.

 

Nice roadsterification of some coupe body pieces. You have a genuine hot rod there. Watching for progress shots and the final installment.

 

They say stance is everything and you nailed that

 

The top half of the T windshield looks decent, but the Hallock style would be perfect.

 

Thanks! Im trying to make it as roadster-like as possible.

Many hours have been consumed making sure we were on the right track with the stance. the wheelbase has been shortened like 3 times from the first mockup..

I still may do the hallock style, but i would have to cut the cowl down.. 6 of one, half dozen of the other..

 

The stance is perfect!! I'm following this one. Good job!

 

I really like how your project is coming together, nice work and cool cars in the background also, neat stuff, keep us posted.

 

Thanks!

Thanks! I couldnt be happier with how it's going.
as for the other cars, I have not known a time in my life that we have not had custom cars. dad always had his custom trucks and my daily is the bug.

 

Well a small update.
We started mocking up steering, it will be a vega box mounted on its side. so we had to mock dad up in the seat with a temporary steering column to get the box position correct. so we threw on the newly widened windshield for a photo.

But the biggest news is an important package showed up!



A brand new 260hp 350 chevy crate motor! Boy this is gonna look good once we doll it up.


I should have another update wednesday night or so.. took a trip to speedway today to get parts for the steering.

 

Thats a no apologies, true blue, honest to God Hot Rod right there.
Just goes to prove you don't NEED to follow the herd if you have a good eye and some common sense.
I'm really looking forward to watching how this build unfolds.
For me, its one of the most interesting to show up in a while!!!

 

Thanks Bill! We have been putting a bunch of thought into making something thats will stand out in a crowd.
After all, thinking doesnt cost that much!

 

Well a week off for Christmas helps to get stuff done on the T!

we started the week off by taking the body off the frame. (a very seductively shaped frame if you ask me.)

the body fit very well once we stood it on end.. small space to make it work...






Note in this view you can see the kicks and pinches and curves.



Those big, good lookin wheels. killer.



Even the motor mounts are handmade. the outer peices were stack cut with a plasma cutter, and then ground down by hand for about 6 hours to get them each in the same shape, then the inside edge touching the frame was milled flat, and then me made the center peices and milled three holes in them. they will get bent slightly to match the front of the side peices and then fully welded and ground down.



More to come.....

 

The Main reason we took the body off was so we could make the steering box mount.

It is a chevy vega box, turned on its side, so we can do traditional style steering.
so the mount was gonna have to be very.. interesting. so out came the cardboard and soon we were plasma cutting the mount.


We started with a standard speedway mount (no need to reinvent the wheel) and added to it. below is the same peice cleaned and tacked with the corner peice added.


With the final peice added. it goes all the way to the bottom of the framerail. (the front rails will be fully boxed.)





And from the rear. Most of the mount will be hidden by the body.



And with that done, we moved on to shortening the drag link, and dry fitting everything together on the front end.

We had a set of old ford spindles that someone had welded on in the past. we designated them for another project when a freind brought these chrome ones over.. As Mike says "chiny! Cause they are from china AND shiny!"



We had already bought a speedway kit for non-bolt on steering arms, and so we had to shim things together (dont worry its only temporary) but it is together! sorta.



More to come. Next episode is making a Steering Column!

 

Where did this end up? Finished? Shelved? Sold? @BigJoeArt

 

I'd like to know too , looks pretty cool

 

I need to update the thread, but it still isnt done..

it has changed quite a bit though.

Wag Tag Special by BigJoeArt posted Oct 12, 2022 at 10:11 PM

 

What are those chromed valve covers?

 

I dont know exactly, early aftermarket covers, probably cal custom or something along those lines. Dad has had them forever.

 

Looks like its all good.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
Glad to meet ya.