Well, I wanted to post a build thread on this car back when my son and I started it but unfortunately I never did. So I did one a few days ago but with the crash it was lost. Anyways here is the photos I did manage to get while we were building the car and from the day I got it from Jesse Coots of Old Soul Hot Rod Shop in Leroy, NY. This build is a 1928 Model A Roadster that was built specifically for the 2017 Race of Gentlemen through the inspiration of the Roadsters that ran the Dry Lakes back in the late 40's- early 50's just like the Oilers C.C. wanted for this event. So to start it off we first intended to build a Track nose style car until I spotted the photo of the #435B Black Roadster with Red flames of Charles Clark with it's crazy barrel front end and number so close to the one we use on our other race car which is the #425 and we wanted to run 425B this year anyway so it was destined to be. The next thing came was to establish the look of the car in our own style so we decided to run Black & Yellow which I am not a huge fan of Yellow I thought it would be an eye catcher if done right. So I photo shopped the car and came up with our own style font for the number, then while I was doing this we talked about the engine and I told my son I want the Flattie in this car to run good but sound Miserable like it was mad at the world. So that came led to us calling the car Mr. Miserable! in the beginning and then it seemed to fight us throughout the build. So this led to me coming up with the character on the grille cover to give a face to the name. So after all that my sons and I with the help of friends from time to time basically did everything here at the garage. I first mocked the car up on its stock chassis to get an idea of the ride height that we wanted for this particular build . This was pretty easy in the beginning but required us to step the rear of the chassis and sent the stock Model A front axle out to Andy Kohler to get a healthy drop in order to keep our ride height and we used stock Ford wheels with 5.60x16's up front and 6.50x16's in the rear. The chassis consist of the stock model A chassis up front from back of the doors and the rear end was made from the front section of a 1948 Ford F1 rails flipped around in order to use the gradual step they have. We stacked the chassis then welded them along both inner and out edges about 12-14 inches long and after that we plated the area to assure structural integrity. The rear cross member that we used was the rear one from a 40 ford. This was used because we ended up using the 40 Ford Banjo rear and spring behind set up. The center cross member that we used was the OG one out of the 1948 F1, this helped out drastically because it gave us the correct trans mounts and pedal assembly we needed for the build. We also salvaged the steering box from the same truck along with the front engine mounting section from the F1's chassis. After we got all that figured out we put the body back on and began to start coming up with the sheet metal work on the floors, firewall and front nose of the car. So my son Lorenzo was a huge help in making all these components he learned to use the bead roller while helping me to create the floors and firewall sections. Later he and my other two sons Geno and Demarco helped by making the hood and hood sides. Demarco and Lorenzo helped to cut and form the hood and sides and then later Geno and Lorenzo went with me to fellow club member Justin's house to use his louver press to punch some well deserved louvers into the top of the hood. this completed that area of the car Then we moved onto the drive line in which Lorenzo and I tore apart a 46 Ford side shifter trans and gutted it out to use the internals into and early 39 top loader. We then had to come up with a linkage set up for the clutch for the car. This was made from a few different pieces that we repurposed. Then we moved on the mounting the F1 engine mounts that we removed from the old F1 chassis after trimming them up to fit into the model A chassis so we could mount the Flattie into it and proceed with mounting the trans in order to figure out how much we needed to cut from the drive axle and torque tube. After removing 22" out of this section we welded it back together and mounted everything back into the chassis so we could move to the next area. This was figuring out where to put the F1 steering box onto the model A chassis. In this case we used the section of the frame we cut out of the old F1's chassis that had all the factory holes in it for the box and welded it on top of the model A's chassis along both side including plug welding it where we had drilled holes to help it be stronger and then after this we boxed and gusseted it similar to how they did back in the day. After we tackled this section we kept moving forward to the front area and mounted the freshly dropped axle in the car which was easy except for the fact of us using the stock Model A spindles. In doing this we had to heat the arms and raise the upper one up and drop the lower ones in order to have clearance for the tie rod and drag link. This pretty much summed up the chassis build section. Then we moved on to the interior are after the body was back on to the chassis. In this case we kept it very simple being it was just a race car. We decided to run very minimal gauges so in this case we ran an oil gauge, two water temps and a dummy light for charging system. There is NO key it is a toggle switch and push button. The seat is an OG Bomber seat with the original seat belt that I purchased from a friend out of Cortland, NY and to keep the theme there I cut down a steering wheel to emulate an early airplane wheel. we put a single bar in the car to help with the look and if it ever decided to flop over. My wife sewed up the make shift canvas tonneau cover. After this it was pretty much it other than wiring which was also very basic. Now we finally are on to the paint job of the car which was done Satin Black and Yellow flames and white striping and hand painted the character on the grille cover. Well I hope that you guys enjoy our build and here are the pics we were able to get. Thanks
It's such a cool build! And to do it with your sons, it doesn't get any better than that. Congrats to you sir.
Here is a nice in action photo of me getting loosen the beach that I got off line. I can't remember who took it by whoever did Thanks!
Mo_Junk, Thanks I wish I had taking more build pictures and transferred them on my Laptop. I have tons of stuff on my Instagram including our next TROG build.
I would also like to share these screen shots I captured from a short film called The Normal People that a gentlemen by the name of Daniel Soares did on the Race of Gentlemen and it can be seen on his Vimeo page. It is pretty cool if you guys/gals want to check it out. He had us go out in the sand with the Mr. Miserable and do some doughnuts to use in his film and to our surprise he captured the car a few other times. throughout it. One of my favorite shots was of me racing against Joshua Shaw in the Offy powered sprint car. I was nervous as hell when he pulled up next to me but I got him and most likely because he missed a shift . But that's racing and I got lucky that time. The thing about TROG for me is just being able to have a car there and run it down the beach and having my family down there I was already winning internally.
I have stored my cars in a cattle barn in the past so I know how those floors can be a hassle. Bill Rinaldi and I are driving to TROG in June, we hope to see you guys and your fine mochines there! jim32
We are going to have shirts made up if anyone here is interested They will be offered in Black, Grey and Tan T Shirts.
If you can get on Instagram my account is jlockwoodmetalarts I have been taking orders there because I am very active there and reply back on there asap. Thanks .
Thanks I really appreciate it. Yeah Instagram is way easier for me to post up all my stuff Thanks for following me on there as well.
Great build. Awesome cars. I’ll see you at trog this year! Find me a roadster or coupe body your way and I’ll come visit
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