Projects A Speedster Comes Out of the Weeds—Build Thread

Those are springer HD front fenders . 36-48 Th y make re pops .

 

Good to know this horn's pedigree, and that it's of the era. And yes, "sick cow" is a fair description.
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I've seen those Python horns in museums. They are the cat's pajamas, to use terminology of their day. Here's the closest ever I've come across at a sale:

It's a basic brass-era horn, but my wife deemed it worthy of a place on our mantle. Sometimes when I'm working upstairs she honks it to let me know dinner's ready. It's surprisingly loud.

Those fenders are nice--and apparently available. More food for thought. Thank you!

 

Here's a place with those fender repops - some have that snazzy rib on top. http://www.lowbrowcustoms.com/motorcycle-parts/fenders/rear-fenders.html

 

Clark this is another study pic of a Hambers former cycle fendered Hotrod back in the day. I looked for larger pics and came up dry which happens a lot. These pics are rare. Even pics of others with cycle fenders hard to come by...


@3dnsouth's Hotrod
(would love to see this pic at better resolution)
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/my-32-story-part-ii-48-to-60-w-pics.268369/
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...genized-hotrods.1002926/page-33#post-11775280​

 

Those springer fenders are the front fender .

 

When I shortened and narrowed a model T box for my dads servicar I ended up using sidecar fenders on it. One side skirt is deeper than the other so I trimmed the long one on each fender and rehemed the edge so they matched from side to side.

 

Here's another Mercury body.

Look closely at the engine and read the placard

 

I have tons of horns dude.

Sent from my SM-G900T using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Thanks, what a cool engine! Doubt I'll find anything like that in the weeds anytime soon. But a guy can dream.

 

I’ve been immersed in wiring for a couple months now. As with everything else, wiring was something I had to research and figure out as I went. It’s been a series of decisions and small tasks that didn’t seem to warrant individual posts. But now that I can see the “light” at the end of the tunnel, I thought folks would appreciate a collective update.

This is a 6-volt system with the battery in the rear, so I started with some big-ass 00 battery cables.


Next up, installation of the usual firewall suspects.

Replaced the rotten taillight sockets with NOS Cole-Hersee units; made the brackets out of scrap stainless (an old kitchen spice rack).


Gritted my teeth and drilled a hole on each side of the freshly painted radiator shell for where the headlight wires exit the shell and enter the stainless conduit. Didn’t have a big enough drill bit, so finished with a die grinder. Fortunately, grommets cover all sins.


Then it came time to make the wiring harnesses. Again, it’s six volt, so I used 10 and 12 gauge wire fished through asphalt coated loom (I was amazed they still stock that stuff at NAPA). Man, it took a lot of trial fitting to determine where the wires should exit the harnesses. Thankfully I have fish tape from when I rewired my first house (which, by the way, didn’t seem to take as long as this car has). The front harness is high and low beam only. The rear harness is tail, brake, fuel pump and horn.

I’ve got everything roughed in now, as you can see from the extra wire hanging everywhere. After reading a number of HAMB troubleshooting threads, I kind of went crazy on grounds—there’s two straps body to frame, and two straps frame to engine. I ran a separate 10-gauge ground to each light and component. Man, I probably added 25 unnecessary pounds to the sprung weight of the car!


At this point I still need to install the switches and get the under dash routed. Then I should be ready for my Big Day of Crimping.

 

Your getting there! Bet your anxious to go for a ride heh?

 

Clark, everything you are doing looks Great! As far as wiring I hope you mean you are going to Solder and shrink tube the conections, Gary

 

Congratulations on the wiring start, I give up and sell my projects when that is the next step. Get an onboard fire extinguisher placed in the car before you light it. Bob

 

I have wired many cars, you could have asked me. Looks like you are doing well at it.

 

You better believe it. I figure it should be on the road mid-to-late spring. Once I'm finished it's seat, doors, done...until I find a windshield...

Some will get soldersed some will get crimped, some will get both; depends on the application and stresses. All will get shrink wrapped. To be honest, I'm going to call in a favor and have my brother do that part--professional mechanic, he's been doing it for years. Trust me, I understand where you're coming from: When my brother came by to check out progress, he laughed at my old crappy crimpers and connectors with plastic covers and threw them all in the trash. Now I have heavy duty connectors and his set of backup crimpers...he thinks he's getting them back...ha!

One step ahead of you, Bob. I've been trying to figure where in the cockpit to keep a fire extinguisher. And there's a heavy-duty cutoff for the battery, in case the worst happens. I'm not letting all this work go up in smoke. Even though this thing is 6 volt, I added a fuse block. And in one of my rare modern concessions, everything feeds through this:
It's hidden well.

 

Nothing stopping you! Fuses are good! Gary

 

looking good !

 

Totally OT--- but in the 3rd picture on the shelf looks A Lot like a bottle of my wine. White label with gold foil top, and I see you're in WA. Just curious..
I haven't read the entire thread but very cool car. Congrats.
Greg

 

That looks like a nice item. I could take this thread sideways with a question but I wont. Bob

 

Could be. What's your label? Wine making was kind of a thing in my family; Dad was periferally connected with the Associated Vintners group--they were old school Washington winemakers. We wound up with a lot of their castoff equipment.

Mum's the word, Bob. Let's agree that post didn't happen.

 

Clark -- The restored Chevy Sportster owned by GM is pictured in this new thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/detroit-autorama-pictures.1052892/
It's in the 3rd pic.

edit -- I see, after reading through the rest of that thread, that you already saw that.

 

We're just outside of Yakima near Union Gap.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Hey, Late to the Party, thanks for providing that link to the Mercury Sportster at the Detroit Autorama. (Also a shout-out to timwhit, who sent me an alert when it was first posted.)

That reminds me, I also have an update on my quest for the perfect horn. As seen in my January post, the cool old EA motorcycle horn I wanted to use turned out to be a dud, so I went with a big long trumpet style horn—the one Late to the Party very-accurately described as sounding like “a sick cow.” It wasn’t near a cool as the EA, but did the job.

Flash forward a bit, and there I am having a beer in the garage watching a not-very-good football playoff game. It occurs to me I might as well pull the EA horn apart to see if it could be saved. As I suspected, not a hope—guts all crusty and rusted solid. But as I’m sitting there savoring my “thinking juice,” it dawns on me that these two horns were assembled with near-identical bolt patterns. It was one of those "well-I'll-be-danged" moments. I popped them apart, reamed out the holes a little at the back, switched faces, and problem solved.



The end result looks cool mounted to the frame horn. Still sounds like a sick cow, but a it’s a really bad-ass sick cow.

 

That looks much kooler than the long-nose version.

 

Really like these covered cable ends they help prevent unwanted sparks and smoke leaking out LOL

 

How are the fenders doing, can't look at wires too long makes me crazy. Bob

 

12 years after he passed away, I'm now cleaning out my Dad's shop as Mom has moved off the home place and into town. This picture was hanging on the wall in the shop - no notes or anything, just a boattail speedster...

Sorry about the rotation, it's the best I could do with my phone.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I don't own a cell phone, too old to figure out if I know anyone to call. Bob

 

That is a WAY cool picture. We don't often see pics of those cars intermingled with other typical cars of the day. Remember, those Speedsters were built in the 1920's, and those are other 1920's (or maybe late 'teens) cars in the pic. This clearly shows how very different from the norm the Speedsters were. Great pic!

 

Well, just letting everyone know I’m not dead or in a mental institution—and I can now attest that wiring could drive you to the latter. Haven’t had much to report for two months beyond crimp, solder, wrap. The process isn’t especially photogenic, so no posts. Also, I was kind of worried Bob’s head might explode; the 37Kid clearly has a phobia when it comes to wiring. My final wiring report:

Wiring is like wrestling an octopus. Here’s a mid-process shot of the tentacles, not yet restrained. Damn!


Here’s the umpteenth time the dash had to come out; it was like a two-hour operation each time. Maddening.


The dash is finally in for the last time with everything hooked up except speedo. I’m very happy with the look of it. The configuration has changed a little from my initial mockup. Had no room for a high-beam floor switch, so went with Bishop/Tardel method of putting both on a push-pull. This necessitated moving the light switch to a more accessible central location, and filling the original hole with a big high-beam indicator jewel sourced off ebay.

With wiring done I moved on to something FUN: Seats! New post coming soon.