Projects How to win some beer... the roadster buildoff

I'm working long nights so it's tough to get updates. I'll have a good one this weekend when I get some time for sure.

Unfinished cars are not an option!

 

I started working on the firewall while waiting on the door skins to come in. It looks like the firewall was tweaked sometime in the past on the passenger side. This firewall didn't originally come with my car so it'll take a little fixing to get into place. Here are a few pictures of where I'm going with it:

 

After waiting a couple of weeks and not hearing back from Brookville, I decided to give them a call and see what was up with my order. Turns out they wrote the wrong shipping address and email address so I didn't know it had already been shipped out and that it wasn't going to the right place. Got it all figured out and they showed up the next day.


The original skins were on there really well. I had to grind down some spot welds and spend lots of time with a hammer and dolly straightening out the lip it all folds over on.

speaking of hammer and dolly, my forearms are going to be massive after all the work it took to get the lip to fold over from the skin.



I plan to get the other door done tomorrow and start putting the body on the subframe this week. It should start looking like a car again by the weekend!

 

Looks like the new competition to have body's on by the weekend I'm planned to be there by Friday bud!!!


Wanted!!!!
28-29 model A lower firewall

 

Sent you a PM about a 28-9 firewall

 

subscribed! I too am building a 28 roadster on 32 rails with a hemi. Ill be a the round up so ill be interested to see both of your cars in person

 

Not only is it cool
That you Have a build off, and it seems like you are getting along, and helping out!

And now the HAMB comes to the rescue.

 

Monday night was spent getting the other door skin on. It took some time but now I have two perfectly skinned doors.



I also blasted my lower firewall and did some small detail work last night. Nothing worth photographing really. But she is getting closer.


The next few days will be spent attaching the subframe and panels all together. We are starting to look like a car now!

 

Nice-almost a car body, like your progress as it is moving at a nice pace for what you have.
Earl

 

Well I have been steadily going on this thing. I am going to work forwards to back. After getting the lower firewall in place I had to attach it to the new subframe. In order to get it in there just right, I used my trusty friend, the ratchet strap.



I also got an awesome present to myself in the mail from @BAILEIGH INC . This baby should make fixing these quarters in time for roundup possible.



I am also waiting on the right screws for the hinges to come in the mail so I decided to tackle some patches on the quarters. it'll need a little lead to make it exactly right, but its way better than what was there, or lack of what was there....





And I did a little work on the frame to make the yoke clear the bracket for the rear bones.



Hopefully I can get the hinge screws in pretty quick and mount these doors so I can keep mounting the body on the subframe. 74 days left….

 

I don't think I've ever seen a stock A gas pedal linkage flipped up side down like that, nice feature. Bob

 

Yeah it's one of the many hidden gems on this car. I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with it yet...

 

Make this interesting. Pitch for a case of STELLA ARTOIS. Good roadster owners are special people with discriminating tastes.

 

Digging it!
Good luck!

 

Yeah I was able to snatch a few twin blues from dreddy a while back. I'm currently on the hunt for some 3/4 sweep temp gauges. Thanks for the heads up!

 

Alright time for a week’s worth of updates!

I got to a point where I needed some very important hinge screws to continue on the body. So I decided to get to work on what I could without that stuff. I tackled the rear shocks. Nothing special but I snapped a photo for y’all anyway.



I then got to work on converting the Buick 45 fin brakes to my ford spindles. I searched and searched and searched about info on the subject. Let me tell you, it’s overwhelming! I want to use the buick drums, hubs, and backing plates all together on the ford spindles. I couldn’t find anyone who had used all three components at the same time onto ford spindles so I hope my take on it works. I plan on doing a full tech write up on it so I won’t go too into depth here (especially since I don’t know for sure if it’ll work) so be on the lookout for that when tech week rolls around. Anyways, here are some pictures to wet your whistle….




And I ordered my radiator since it will soon be time for that stage of the build. Boy, walker sure knows how to pack ‘em!





Finally my hinge screws showed up, so I slapped the driver’s door on to see what I was dealing with. Fit like a glove!



The passenger side, not so much…



I think I found the culprit. I totally didn’t see this screwed up when I had the skin off, but now it needs to be fixed.



After beating on it for the good part of 30 minutes, I realized I should just pie cut it, put it in place, and weld it back up. So out comes the cut off wheel.



And now that the doors are somewhat where I want them, I can move on to the quarters. (since I cant figure out how to rotate pictures, you'll just have to turn your head, lol)



67 days left…

 

No time for rest, only 67 days left, back to work.

 

Man oh man! I can't wait to drink this case of beer you're going to have to buy me at round up!


In search of 28-29 front subrail extensions

 

Fixed it for you Save the picture to your desktop, right click on it and then choose rotate in whatever direction you need.

 

Good progress, keep the updates coming. 67 days! I can't wait to see how both of these cars turn out.

 

Sorry for the lack of updates. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. I have been jumping around from area to area on the car so I keep myself occupied while parts arrive and to keep me from going insane on some of the different problems that come about. I have all of my brake parts in from the local Napa and about half way done. I also figured out some of the body issues. I spent at least 2 hours looking for these buick adapters too. Turns out, they were in the last place I looked!



And now back to the body…I tell you, someone really did a number on this thing. I ended up having to fab up some mounts and got everything squared up to the subframe.



When you don’t have any extra help around, you get pretty creative with ratchet straps.



Thankfully @krkx93 and a buddy came up for the weekend to help me get this thing on the frame for the first time with the body installed to the subframe. After a few strategic cuts with the cut off wheel, she fit like a glove. Not bad for eyeballing most of the frame and body locations!



I hope it all starts coming together pretty quick at this point. As of right now, I will be driving to roundup in 54 days…come hell or high water!

 

Nice job, I just got a Walker radiator as well, what bitch to pull out of the box! They should consider instapak pillows instead of blowing it in. My rants over....
Keep up the pace, that a hellava goal.....

 

Ha ha, the Buick adapters would have been in the last place you looked even if you'd looked there first. Who keeps looking after they've found it?

Lookin' good, stay on it.... 2 months isn't very long.

 

I started working on the subframe a little. Just trying to make it look good and function like its supposed to. Unfortunately, most of this work won't be seen since the transmission tunnel will cover it.






sidenote, let it be known that the @BAILEIGH INC shrinker/stretcher is worth its weight in gold. there is no way I could have fixed this subframe without it!



now on to the rest of the pictures...






I also started working on cutting down the dash. It’s taken a lot of thought to make the right cuts and not have the whole thing lose shape. The dash also has a nice curved line at the top that doesn’t like it when material is moved. This forces me to make multiple cuts versus on big one. I also had to take a couple inches out from the left of the steering column to make the cutout fit where it needed to be.







And then I ran out of argon for my tig. Looks like I'll have to finish the dash once I’m able to run to the welding shop and get some more.

 

Any updates?

 

@wesleyoldham thanks for the interest in the build. Here's an update for yah.

Man it’s been a crazy week full of bipolar weather, sickness, and busting butt. I spent most of the week working on the dash still. I unfortunately got extremely sick with a stomach bug on Thursday so that limited the amount of work I could get done. Here are some photos of what I had to do:





(sorry for the crappy panoramic photo, its the best I could do late at night on a weekday)

And then I mocked up the steering box. I am using an f-1 box and wasn’t sure exactly where it would mount given the 32 frame, the model a firewall, the 51 buick dash, and the massive elephant of a hemi I have to snake around. Its going to work out I think though. I still have to dimple the frame a little to get the box to mount flush though. I am going that route versus cutting the flange off the box and rewelding one on just to take the guess work out and keep it simple. In my mind, a kid in the 50’s would have dimpled the frame, not made a new mounting flange on the box. I decided to take the sector shaft out to make mocking it up much easier.





And then I had to see how it felt of course!



And this is the last time the car will look complete before roundup….



The tear down has begun.



It will be a lot of sleepless nights from now on, especially as I run into problems, which is inevitable I've come to find out.

 

just awesome....Keep at it man..

 

Looking great! Keep Rollin!

 

Thanks fellas. It's going to be a struggle from here on out, but so worth it when I pull into Austin with this thing