I'm glad that i'm not the only young guy building on the century plan, looks good. Keep up the progress.
Thanks for all the good words fellas. Since the car is a couple hours away right now I'm left to work on little stuff, but progress is progress. The headlights I'm using came off a late thirties big Ford truck and they were converted to sealed beam ages ago. The problem was the mounting studs were made to go through a big standoff mount thing, through the fender, then through the brace, so they were way too long and only partially threaded. A little action with a die solved the thread problem. And I just cut them down in the lathe. I've seen guys cut them off and weld them before, but this seemed way easier. I also will be making a tubular cowl support and rollbar. I've always wanted a chrome single hoop rollbar in this car. The chrome will have to wait, but I'm going to use the bar to add stiffness to the body. I made some templates in preparation for the bending party later in the week. Barely worth an update, but I'm trying to post progress weekly to keep myself accountable. Big things are coming next week...
Really glad to see this finally make it on the board. I'm still in disbelief that its been 9 years since we started down this road... The build looks and reads great Joe, can't wait for the new weekly writings!
Thanks man. I just had to double check my math/autobiography skills because 9 years sounds crazy, but it all checks out. Maybe we'll finally get to take them for a drive together within the next year or so...
lowtruck, that was a great read, thank you for sharing your build with us. I really like the direction of your build. You put a lot of thought into each step and you're methodical. I think you and I were cut from the same cloth. Every step is important as it affects the next. You look familiar, were you on an episode of Chasing Classic Cars with Wayne Carini?? Looking forward to more updates.
Your car is looking good! Keep working on it and it will get there! I have been working on of and on for 5 years now.. Where does the time go!
Thank you , and thanks for reading. Methodical is a polite word for what I am. (And yes that was me on tv. Kind of a weird deal.) Thanks! I wish I knew where the time went. Hopefully all the anticipation will make the first drive that much better.
Used to be an old junk yard in the trees ... on the north side of 370, if you are traveling from Papillion to Bellevue, it's just a few ticks from the latter. Glance between the fields, and look for a big tree break. No clue if it's still there, but was a neat stash when I was there 88-95. Studebaker Larks, old Chevys/Old Fords. Great build so far ... dig it !
I've gotten some work done over the past couple weeks. First, I finally wrapped up the rear suspension/torque tube/wishbones. Even though the wishbones were meant to go with that rearend and torque tube, I still had to pull them into place and heat them with the torch to relax them. Weird. Violet helped. Then there was a bit of a change of direction. You may have noticed that in every picture and doodle of this car it's been sitting on top of the frame. My belief was that a Model A was too "thin" below the beltline when the fenders were removed and that the visual thickness of the frame below the body was needed to even everything out. This was only reinforced by all the super low channeled sedans out there. It's as though there was a meeting (that I wasn't invited to) and the decision was made that every channeled Model A tudor had to sit flat on the ground. This can be done well, but it's not the look I'm after. Then I asked myself a question: what would it look like if I channeled the car but gave it stance, not just dumping it on the ground until it looks like something was broken? Here's the answer... I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. It looks a bit like a baby '32. While that's not exactly what I'm going for, it's not a bad place to end up. While it was all together, I started to figure out the pedals and steering. The '40 pedals required the usual heating and bending, but I think they will work well. You can see that I also started mocking up the F-1 steering box. I'm trying to raise the box up above the frame to reduce the uphill angle of the drag link and gain myself a bit of foot-room under the column. I'm not totally sure if this is going to work without looking stupid. Has anybody else done this without going to full-on cowl steering? Getting the steering right is my next focus. Hopefully I can get the steering and pedals dialed in soon and then finish welding the chassis.
Looks good man seeing those videos of Ryan's T has both lit some fires and set the bar impossibly high for some of our sedan projects haha. Looking forward to seeing this come together
I dig it. It looks like it's going 200 MPH standing still. That noise you heard as you left your garage was your sedan whispering, "Bonneville"
Only advice I can possibly offer is scooting the body back a small amount to make the rear fender cutout of the body concentric with the rear tire. It may already be there, and the angle of the photo is throwing it off slightly. Really liking the plan on this one. That '32 windshield header is awesome. Some really nice tasteful choices on this channeled sedan build. I'll keep watching!
Awesome build so far. I totally understand trying to do the hot rod thing with little children "helping" it can be lots of fun. Love the direction you're going and who knew all those times I drove through Norfolk what was hiding in that town its usuallu just a pass through and stop for gas when we go through the there a couple times a year to visit family.
A clamp is an interesting idea; I'll have to look for that build. There's a lot of force on the output side of the box and I would worry a bit about it wanting to move around(?) Thanks for the tip!
Thanks! The photo makes wheel/wheelwell relationship look screwy, it's actually pretty close to centered. It's going to move a smidge when I stretch the body to flush-fit the doors, then I'll line it up again.
Joe check out tucks Instagram, he did the clamp on either his truck or the roadster but I recall seeing a bunch of photos showing it
Good stuff. Don't worry about taking a long time for your project. I've had a few that just sat as long as you've been working on yours. The picture of the steering box looks like you're going to have exhaust routing problems. Don't ask me how I know. I really like the channel you came up with. Looking fine.
The Jalopy Journal
