Projects Pounding out a T roadster

You're killing it with the doors. I really like the method you used to make the inners. Not how i would have - your's is much simpler. Great job!

 

Hate the firewall mounted master cylinder but there is just isn’t much room for anything in this thing. Remade the front of the seat pan to clear the trans. The engine/trans may be able to drop a little but not much. Lowered the grille a half inch as I found a shorter radiator. Maybe I can get the chassis a little more together this weekend. Also a picture of he approximate driving position.

 

That grille shell does need to come down to look right, needs to be lower than the cowl! Great metal work and you want to make sure that doesn't detract from the rest of your hard work.

 

It runs down hill to the shell now. The driving position picture has a model A hood laying on it just for a length reference that day. As I am building this roadster to ultimately give it away for charity, budget is a concern. I need to use as many off the shelf parts as possible and a custom radiator would dig deep into the budget.

 

This may be a better picture after lowering the grille. I may be able to take a little more out yet, and it definitely needs to get chopped.

 

View attachment 3756605

 

A few of the pictures I saved for inspiration. These kind of show how hard it is to get around the optical illusion of the hood line running uphill If I could find a radiator around 20” high that would fit the grille shell it would make life a lot easier. Any suggestions? Inexpesively .

 

Great car! T's are TINY, make great one-seaters. Not much room for pedals, good thing you've got the slush box.

 

I’ve got 3 pedals in my 27. Tight fit even with that much room.

 

Your doing great !! Most guys wouldn't even try this level of project

 

Long day at work and I didn’t feel like messing with it much tonight. So I just bent up the pieces for under the turtle deck to start fitting them and taping up the hood line a little better. The grille is actually 3/4” lower than the cowl. I think the angle on the doors magnifies the running uphill look. Ride height will be 2” lower than where it’s at right now. That’s as low as my jack stands would let me mock everything up. The banjo needs to make way for the 8”. If I was keeping this car, the banjo would stay.

 

Good on you for doing this for charity, that definitely affects decisions on parts usage for financial reasons! To my eyes it looks like the grille shell would look better if it was at least another inch lower, but I fully understand why you are doing it the way you are doing it.

 

Here is the end of the story on the grille placement. This is the shortest radiator I could find. There is no more I can do to lower it anymore. I have modified the crossmember as much as I can to get the radiator as low as possible. There just isn’t anymore room short of a custom radiator.

 

I wish I had stock in the company making the tape

 

Sharpies would be a better investment. I haven't even used a whole roll of tape but my Sharpie collection seems to have wanted to dry up all at once. I am down to only about a half dozen good ones now.

 

4 1/2” out of the grille makes much better proportions on the T. Cheated and used a Speedway insert already chopped saves time

 

I was searching EBAY looking for small radiator for my Dad's Modified project. Check out some of the tuner cars Fabbed aluminum radiators.....As an example the Acura/Civic 50mm (3 core radiator). Overall height is 18.1 inches, width and 14.7. The three core is only $65....A lot less for a 2 core. Inlet/outlet are correct for SBC. If the motor is mild it might be enough...

 

All I could find were 1 1/4 hoses. I will keep looking but likely going to run the radiator I have as it’s here and paid for Thanks for the tip for future reference.

 

Fantastic metal working skills!

 

When I built my ‘26 track roadster pickup I made a plywood pattern of the space claim for a radiator. Drew dotted lines defining the maximum height for each tank and where the hose bibs and fill neck needed to be. Took it to my local radiator guy and turned him loose...and he made it out of brass. It cooled the Nova 4 cyl. fine and probably would have done a small small block.

I do recognize that local radiator shops up to the task, or not even up to it are getting scarce almost everywhere.

 

I forgot the before pictures, but spent a little time today straightening some model A hood louvers to cut down for hood sides. Not perfect, but way cheaper than another set of hood sides.

 

Also spent some time rolling a bead around the turtle deck like was stock. Now I have to fix the rest.

 

I need to check in to the hamb more often. This is a killer T

 

It's justabeater 23... I really hope I can live up to everyone's expectations for this car. Starting to second guess whether I should have posted this up here for scrutiny or not.

 

Why? You could quit right now and still be in the top 10 for tech threads.

 

I am a pessimist/perfectionist. Nothing is good enough no matter what anyone says. I hate it, but that's who I am. I fight it every day. 40+ years of never seeing the positive in a compliment. As this car is being built for charity, there is a very solid deadline of May 4th to get this done. Starting to feel the heat now. I also am funding this all out of my own pocket as several donations have fallen through. That means my own projects are on hold for a while.

 

Dont bother Howells. Buy your Howell parts from Snyders. You will get real people quickly, great service, prompt delivery and returns if needed

 

Not much for progress but finished up getting the bead around the Turtledeck . I wish I would’ve decided to do this in the beginning instead of after the fact. The fiberglass body did not have that bead, but if it’s going to be steel it may as will be closer to stock right?

 

you are doing awesome work

 

Thanks, I need to get my welding skills better so I can end up with a nicer end product. I am thinking of taking some classes next year to try to figure out the errors in my ways.