Projects 1928 Hemi Powered Chevrolet Roadster - Coupster

I have been on HAMB since 2006 and while I have worked on several HAMB-friendly cars for other people, I have never built one for myself. Don't get me wrong, I have several classic cars and street rods but I felt it was time to build something new. DISCLAIMER*** I am not a professional builder. I use what tools and limited skills that I have the best I can.

I'll start this by saying that I am not a dedicated bowtie guy however they always seem to find me. This car is no different. I have been wanting a late 20's or early 30's roadster that was early hemi powered for about 15 years but never could find the right car for me.

I came across this 1928 Chevy sport coupe in 2013 and knew it was the right car for me in all of its dilapidated glory. I bought the car for $350 but had to drive 3000 miles to get it (Southern Arizona to Eastern Washington and back). Luckily, I arranged to pickup and drop off car parts and other items along to route for fellow HAMBers and a few random craiglist people. Those side trips paid for my gas and hotels along the way. I even picked up a hitch hiker along the way to keep me company for nearly 1000 miles of the journey.

My plan: Convert the body to a roadster, strip off the fenders, transplant a Gen I Hemi, Drop front axle, leave the parallel leaf suspension but drop springs, add juice brakes, manual transmission, and have fun with the fabrication.

I already had a buyer lined up for the axles and what was left of the fenders. Need less to say, I made my investment back plus a little more.

 

I got the project car home and whatever wood that was still hanging on got transformed into saw dust. Thats okay because I am replacing and reinforcing the body with steel anyway.

The coupe sat for several years until I could finish up a few other cars in front of it and finish off a new detached shop......full build is in garagejournal

In 2016, I picked up an industrial 331 hemi (short bell housing) and a A-833 4 speed from a fellow HAMBer in northern New Mexico. I paid $500 for the combo. The hemi was free but needs a rebuild. The A-833 has a blown out gear on the input shaft but otherwise in rebuildable condition.

 

Over the next couple of years, I accumulated parts such as five (5) 16 inch, 6 lug wire wheels that were an optional for 1934 (rare) and paid $120 for all, a dual 4 barrel intake for the hemi (which I decided to not use) for $50, standard valve covers for $50 and a complete front axle from a 49-54 chevy truck for free. I also starting collecting grille shells as I did not know which one I would use (28 chevy, 31 chevy, 32 chevy, and 34 chevy).

The hemi bug also hit me hard as spare rockers, manifolds, pulleys, as well as a complete Dodge 241 found their way into my horde. I gave the guy $400 for the motor for which I have no intended use for. but .

 

OK, let get to the build. In late 2018, I started to really put in some effort. My shop was "finished" so I moved the car in and first thing I did was to strip the the sheet metal, get a small twist out of the frame and put the start to a center X-member in place to get some rigidity back before I start on the body mods. I then made some full length runners out of rectangular tubing to replace the wood that sat onto of the frame. I plan on boxing the frame once the body comes back off.

 

I am going to skip some steps because I want to get to the body mods. I starting by looking at the roadster proportions from a Model A and Model B roadster as well as the stock 28 chevy and adjusted accordingly for this chevy. I set the cowl in its stock location. Removed the windshield pillar, Fabricated new A-Pillars, rebuild the stock door hinges and hung them. This was now my foundation as I worked towards the back. I shortened the doors, extended the quarter panels by inserting what I removed from the door.

 

Cool! I like the non Ford builds. Will be watching...

 

Awww' man ... this looks good.

... and you picked up a 1000 mile hitchhiker ? Wow.

***

Hitchhiker : Thanks mister, how do you know I'm not a serial killer or somethin' ?

Driver : Son .. the odds of 2 serial killers in the same car would be astronomical. Buckle up !!

 

Next, I extended the package tray by moving the cockpit opening forward and I fabricated a new trunklid. I ended up using 1940 chevy trunk hinges for a couple of reasons (kept the chevy parts theme and I thought they looked better than interior hinges). I am using a dodge caravan center row seat as a mockup for right now. That placed the cockpit and leg room clearance.

I also cut down the doors and the cockpit opening as the coupe flared up more than I liked. I just capped off the doors and passenger opening in an attempt to give it a more finished "roadster" look.

 

man, i have wanted a '28 chevy for 50 years. i would build it just like hugh tuckers drag street roadster.

 

I mated the A-833 to the hemi using an adapter from TR Waters. The bell housing is from a 340. I made the motor mounts, placed the powerplant and that gave me an idea on where I wanted to put the center X-Member. I put that motor as far back as I could without going into the firewall. I will put a small distributor "bump" into the firewall. From my measurements, I'll have to move the radiator forward 2 inches. I think this will look okay as I am not running a hood and it'll give the appearance of a stretched out the front end in relation to the body. I knew that the X-member is a critical piece of the frame to support twist especially in a roadster.

 

For the front end, I had the 49-54 chevy truck axle dropped 3 inches and that was done by Nostalgia Sids. I also had new springs made by Saint Louis Springs with reverse eye. I have about 4.5 inches of clearance between the springs and frame so I an anticipating to remove a leaf or two to get the front end down and end up with 3 to 3.5 of frame clearance. I had the drag link reversed since the axle was dropped.

 

Awesome build, nice work.

 

For the rear axle, I really debated. I wanted to stay traditional but I wanted an open driveline mainly because I didn't know how to make the change between the transmission and a closed driveline. I also wanted to stay with the original and traditional 6 lug wheels. I then looked for a 55-59 chevy truck but gearing options, cost and strength was not appealing. I found a 67 chevy c10 truck rear end for free. This has 3.42 gears and was recently rebuilt. I stripped it down to the housing and narrowed it to match the track width of the 49-54 truck. I also replaced the stock springs with new reverse eye and 2 inch drop from Saint Louis Spring. This took the rear end way down and if needed I can still drop the rear shackles, add a short block or remove a leaf.

 

I love those old chevys, you never see them.

 

Where I am at now are the floors. I started with the floor pan under the seat, worked back to the trunk, then to the floorboards and transmission tunnel.

 

I am pulling my youngest boy into the hobby by teaching him to bead roll.... not that I am expert by any means.

 

cool project, like the rascals getting involved, I am a coupester type so that is in you favor...
but, you won me over with the orange duct tape !

 

I had a few options when it came to the dash and since I was going for that roadster look, I eliminated the A-pillars and welded in the dash. Once again, I came across several early 30's chevy dashes. I settled on a 1933 sedan dash but could have went with the original 28 dash (bottom) or a 36 chevy truck dash.

Since I put under dash clutch and brake cylinders, having the gauges over the column was a no-go. The 33 dash was a little more round and just seemed to transition into the cowl so I went with that one.

 

I really struggled with the windshield. The stock window stanchions were hideous in my opinion and didn't scream hotrod so I didn't even bother looking for a set. I really did not like the option of using a ford part for this build but I had limited options. So for now, I grafted a set of unplated 32 ford lower stanchions, 2 inch chop upper stanchions, and an unplated windshield frame onto the car.

The windshield frame was too wide and the bottom curve was a bit off so I re-shaped the lower bar and narrowed the frame to fit. I added .25 plate doublers to the under side of the cowl and tied them into my new tubular A-pillars. The lower stanchion curvature do not quite fit the chevy cowl so I'll have to do something. If I stay with these parts, I'll fab up a steel shim to fill the gap and add it to the lower stanchion. I plan on painting the lower stanchion anyway so it should look okay to the untrained eye.

 

For the steering, I really wanted to put a 49-54 chevy truck column in because I wanted that enclosed shaft and use of traditional parts. I quickly ran in clearance and column angle issues with the Hemi and driver position.

I ended up using a Borgeson side steer box and a series of universals. The box is temporarily welded into position until I blow the body off and can box the frame around this area. I had to slide the box forward to get proper universal angle, clear the starter which is on the drivers side and the clutch fork assembly. This was another reason I went with under the dash pedals......its tight!

If someone has ideas on how to hide those modern universals, I'd love to hear it.

The pitman arm I am using has the wrong taper angle and comes in from the opposite side so I still need to do that so I can make that connection.

 

I also made some changes to my wheels. While I like the wire wheel look, I had to use 1.5 spacers since the drums did not fit into the 1934 chevy 16 inch wire wheels. This meant that the wheels sat outside of the drums both front and rear and I hated that look. I picked up several (9) FREE
6 lug, 16 inch steel wheels and those not narrowed the track width but now wrap the drums like they should.

Of the 9 wheels, 5 were 49-54 chevy truck, I had two 38-39 chevy and two were an earlier 35-36 wheel. Right now the tire on those rims are 700-16 on all corners. I'll likely do a mild big little combo but sure yet.

 

I do not have any great pictures of how I did the under dash pedals but I went with wilwood components as they were small. I build a 90 degree setup like Kugel because I was not going to spend that kind of money on their setup. I build it so the clutch and brake setup would unbolt and drop out if I ever needed to service the item (very likely). I really am trying to stay traditional but some of the space constraints, I just couldn't come up with alternatives.

I think I am going to drill out the pedal arms and I am still playing with the gas pedal location.

 

For shocks, I am going to run 1933 Chevy Delco's (on the left) on the front and 1936 Chevy Delco's (on the right) on the rear. All four shocks seem to be working pretty good so I'll mount them up and then decide if they need a rebuild.

 

Going back to the body dimensional changes because someone asked, I cut 5.625 inches from the door, lengthened the quarter panel 5.625, moved the cockpit opening forward 6.25, dropped the top of the door 1.5 along the sides and dropped the rear rail 1 inch.

 

Great Stuff @mrrilla...Happy New Year and thanks for sharing the Journey...

 

This guy (native american) I picked up was a character. I gave him a ride from Lewiston, ID to St.George, UT. It was about 900 miles and 14 hours. The guy was heading to Vegas from his local reservation just outside of Spokane,WA. He was in his mid 40's and just wanted to see the lights of Vegas. He help me load up an old steamer trunk full of dishes and an old table in Ogden,UT and drop them off in St George,UT. That was part of my plan to pay for expense by hauling other peoples junk.

He tried several times to repay me with Peyote (some kind of cactus drug) and corn meal cookies. At the end of the long day, I grabbed a hotel room and while we spent some quality time together, I wasn't ready to share a bed but I did let him sleep inside my trailer that night. We had an early Dennys breakfast the next morning and parted ways.

By the way, I always carry a firearm for protection but he didn't need to know that.

 

Man looks great!

 

I worked for a few hours last night on the metal finishing aspect. Other than scabbing the cut up pieces back together, I didn't do much past that point. I started at the front windshield and will work my way to the back eventually.

I am still not 100% happy with how the cowl to door to lower stanchions happened but I just couldn't figure out a way to make it look better. I think the door roll into the dash helps with the transition but again, not 100% satisfied.

 

Great job and a hemi to boot.

 

I didn't really talk about the door latch setup either so here is its own post. I debated about using the stock closed cab latches but they were really worn out and like the Model A, a single latch design. I had a spare set of latches from my 1939 Chevy build but the size wasn't good given the fact that I narrowed these doors so I went with a mini double latch claw setup. I thought about leaving the handles at the latch itself like it would have been from the factory but that would have put the latch right at my shoulder. In the end, I fabricated an upper rib stiffener which not only gave the door some strength but also allowed me to move the handle forward. I made a rod that I could adjust with a rod end on once side. Its pretty comfortable when seated and I think it gives the car a little more of a custom touch. The stiffener piece and latch part still needs to be final welded and finished out.