Over the last year I've been building a 1927 T roadster with a difference. Now finally all the parts have come back from the paint shop so the final assembly began today. Why's it called the Babushka T ? Well it's a reference to the Russian dolls which stack inside each other. The smallest going inside the next larger one and so forth. This Model-T however is like Babushka dolls only the other way round. It's a small '27 roadster body sitting on a 1947 Mercury chassis with a 1957 Buick Nailhead engine and a Chevy aluminium Powerglide transmission. It all fits though. So here's the frame. It's a shortened and narrowed 1947 Mercury frame. The outside rails have large lightening holes cut in them and they're sandwiched inside the 1932 Ford outer rails which have also been shortened. The rear crossmember is Model-T. The front crossmember is from Shadow rods. The center box section has been reversed to move the wishbone cup to the rear. You'll see why later. There are 102 rivets holding the frame together and it was painted before and after riveting to ensure rust doesn't eat away at the sandwiched sections.
Next up is the side crossmember which mounts the brake servo and master cylinder. These are from a tiny Smart car made by Bosch and there's small and light.
Now it'd be a shame to throw out that lovely '47 front crossmember so I didn't. It makes a great OEM looking engine mount. It also mounts the Panhard bar and the steering box. I'll add those items next week. (Still waiting on the Panhard bar.) The crossmember was narrowed a bit and a few holes were cut to lighten it a bit.
Up front I fitted original type shock absorbers which came from Stipe Machine Co. The arms and hardware are reproductions from Macs. Behind the shocks are the '47 Merc brake hose tabs. These are a favourite of mine and although these are originals I notice Bob Drake repop them now. The light stands are the popular ones from Speedway everyone seems to use. Sorry I wasn't very inventive there
Love it! Builds like these always make me wanna watch..... Re purposing parts that "don't" go together or normally wouldn't be used together is genius! It shuts up the 1-800 crowd and makes a bold statement. Can't wait to see more!!!
The front wishbones are from Speedway and came with the holes already cut. They mount to bosses welded into the outer frame rails.
Remember I said the brake servo came from a Smart! Well so did the brake pedal. The Smart has a floor mounted pedal with a very Early-Ford like round pedal pad, making it ideal for this application. The whole assembly is available from junkyards for a lot less than a of the shelf solution and is made in Germany not China. Nuf said.
The exhaust is hard mounted and runs through the chassis. The exhaust is connected to the headers with 2 foot lengths of flex pipe like 1920s race cars. This makes hard mounting the rest of the system possible. This was the first time I'd welded stainless steel and I was surprised how easy it is. I was expecting a learning curve but it's easier than steel! Just bought a roll of stainless wire and a bottle of pure argon. I used pre bent sections which are bent better than I can do it on our exhaust machine. So each pipe is welded up out of loads of pieces to get the end result. The stainless welds grind down really smooth and then the pipes were polished a bit.
This is how it looks at the end of day 1. Tomorrow I'm going to get the axles mounted. And maybe the fuel tank. I'm expecting a delivery of parts on Monday so until then I'm on stop for a few things.
Hey I follow you build on the very nice and classy rod that now is your avatar. And I liked it. And I got a feeling I would like this too!
Looks good, I'm very curious to see the front brake lines routed through those tabs, my roadster has a piece of coat hanger wire keeping the lines from rubbing on the steering and I could use a nice clean solution to that problem. I'll be watching as this comes together.
Really like the looks of her so far. Are you building this one for yourself? Keep up the great work, I know I'll be tagging along!
very unique, to say the least. your "Russian Dolls" concept is much better than the no thought process of "a belly button" build. Thanks for posting
I like your build; very nice. Are you at all worried about the brake rod flexing if you jam the brakes hard?
To answer a few of your questions. I'm building it for a customer who's over 6 foot tall. The brakes are Bendix drums all round. And no I'm not worried about the brake rod. The angle of bend is very minimal and the brakes are servo assisted so they'll be little resistance. If it is possible to bend it once the system is pressurized I can always add gussets later. I'll keep an eye on it.
I only got to work on it 4 hours today so didn't get much done. This is the rear axle going in. It's a Winters quickchange fitted with Torino rear brakes (new from Speedway as are the drums too). T he lower triangular link is a modified 1940s Ford/Merc front wishbone fitted with gigantic tie rod ends. Ford F5 or something like that. These are also used on the top links, so six of them in total. The front of the wishbone sits in the stock Ford mounting on the center box which is reversed. The spring hangers on the axle are from So-Cal.
The car sits quite low so the parking brake cables had to go through the frame at a rather obtuse angle. I didn't want to cut a long hole in the outer frame rails so I made this feature. The Morris Oxford parking brake lever is the type with the cross rod to serve independent cables so I found, with a little trial and error that two 1957 Ford convertible front cables worked best. The front cables have the long threaded rod at one end and the ball at the other. The only thing is, they don't have a return spring so you have to twist one on. The rubber boots where the cable goes into the frame rails are 1950 Ford firewall grommets.
Next up - the front axle. This is a new forged axle from Speedway. It's dropped the nice way so you can use original 1937-41 spindles and drop the original steering arms. Many of the repro I-beams force you to use bolt on arms which I avoid if possible. I'm going to have to replace the front U-bolts. They're too long for this application.
Finally for today, the gas tank was fitted. This tank is from Tanks Inc and fitted the available space perfectly. The gas filler protrudes through a hole cut in the trunk lid and as luck had it, the hole matched perfectly one of the factory holes in the inner skin!
Today I got a call from my blacksmith. He'd finished adjusting the Model-T rear spring. (It needed bending a little). He also straightened a bent '32 heavy axle for me. Hubert Hunstein, the smith, is huge and has a smithy which looks like nothings changed in 100 years. He lives in a three house village under the shadow of this medieval castle. In this little settlement: which you reach by crossing this rotting wooden bridge. and this railway line...
The Jalopy Journal
