Last year I bought the start of a '26 roadster project. Once home and evaluated, I decided the turtle deck was out range of my limited sheet metal skills. Sold the turtle deck parts and decided to make a modified. Got the modified to a rolling stage with suspension in and engine and trans mounted. Came across a decent pair of turtle decks sides cheaper than the going rate. Bought them to flip, but as they were sat in the garage next to the modified, I had a change of plan. Build a roadster! So sold the modified frame and straight 6 Chevy engine and start over. Bought various bits of roadster/tourings to get some better pieces. Now to put it all together. The front subrails are touring and the rear subframe roadster. Had to mate them together. Marked out a centreline and the body mounts on a 8'x4' sheet of MDF, using Wescotts frame drawing. Discovered some of those dimensions are wrong, Bugger! Rethink. Bolted the firewall to the front of the subrails to establish the correct width. Mounted parts of the turtle deck to the rear subframe. Assumed the B posts were in the same place on both cars. Had stubs of the posts still on the touring rails, so cut the post/bun panel to match. pushed to two halves together. Needed some trimming but got there in the end. Pieced together the cowl from bits of 3 different cars. Used the best firewall and a good dash to line them up. Dug parts out of my collected stash. "35 front suspension, '40 rear turned round with an A spring and the wheels and tyres from the modified. Ended up with 106" wheelbase. Perfect for the longer engine bay I needed. Its getting a Chrysler flathead 6. Started with a 218 but found a 251 out of a '61 big truck. Mocked it up as a roller. As the body was slid back on the frame 7", it means the frame rails are further out nearer the body. I like the look. So that's were I'm at the moment. I'll keep you posted. Cheers, Stewart.
Ain’t it a bitch when this stuff doesn’t just bolt together? Nice work, and it’ll be a cool hotrod when you’re done with it.
Up to your normal good work I see. Lots of familiar looking parts there. I’m also working on the ‘28 rpu I started a few years back. I made the passenger cabin about 6” longer with intentions of lengthening the doors. I decided in early March to order the rear part of the cab and quarter panel so I could do the doors. Two weeks per door. Lock down in Michigan got me fired up.
Looks great! Not to steal your thread but I took my 230 flat six powered single seater out yesterday. I've only had it up to 62 mph. Even being a stock motor it pulls good in the light car.
Now that’s a classic example of a Frankenstein rod. Looking good. r Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
The 218 I bought was out of a truck. Using the truck bellhousing and Langdon's adapters redrilled the bellhousing to accept a Chevy transmission. With that done bolted the 251 engine to the transmission. Set them in the frame so it loaded the springs. It has the rake I was aiming for. The engine needs to go back another 5/8", which means I can move the radiator back the same amount, putting over the axle. Lots of measuring and planning paid off! Cheers, Stewart.
I'll share this picture from mid-1990 (pre-digital for me) of what became my track roadster pickup. I bought this cad hanging on the wall in a barn about 25 miles from home. Was having a couple beers with some guy one Friday night and the question was asked what was I gonna build nextso I outlined the idea. One of the guys said he knew where one was not far away. I had a phone number the next day and bought the day after. ]
Moved the engine around a bit. 1/2" lower, 5/8" further back. Swapped the fan and gained 3/8". Every little bit counts! The bellhousing is really heavy, but in its favour it has mounts for the brake m/c, and the pedals. Fitted the m/c that came with the bellhousing but its a 1 1/4" bore. I'll switch to a Ford m/c. Wanted to use a F1 steering box, but it wants to share the space as the m/c, bugger! Rethink. Was going with F1 box and '32 spindles. Now going with cross steer and square back spindles. Planning out crossmembers next. Cheers, Stewart.
Frustrating weekend. My 251 engine came from a big truck. The bellhousing and flywheel from a 1/2 ton pickup. they bolt together fine. The 251 has full oiling with the filter direct mounted to the block. Went to install the starter, can't get it in with the filter cannister on. Because the big truck flywheel is larger, the starter sits further away from the block. So I'll need to change to a remote cannister. OK no biggie. Went back to trying to get the F1 steering box in. Steering geometry and my aesthetics are making this hard. Years ago Gray Baskerville wrote an article in Hot Rod about tidying things up on cars. Make 1 bracket do 2 things instead of 2 separate brackets. Make things line up so its easier on the eye. An example of this is the front radius rod frame mount. Gray made the point that the frame mount should line up with the firewall/hood line or the front edge of the door. I agree. Cars just look cleaner. So this means I'll be cutting my radius rods so the frame mount is directly under the firewall. Steering geometry dictates that the pitman arm/drag link intersection is as close as possible to the radius rod mount. My initial plan was to mount the F1 box through the frame at the firewall. Trouble is the bellhousing has these big "wings" on the side that act as mid mounts and mount the M/C. Too much stuff trying to fit into the same space. So go with cross steer. Mock that up with a length of tube. It hits the distributor cap. Give me a break! Still its the lesser of the 2 evils, so I'm going to stick with the cross steer. Cowl steering would be the answer, but after reading Pete Eastwoods thread on cowl steering, I'm not so sure. Oh well, back at it. Cheers, Stewart.
The middle crossmember has to be moved back in the frame to make room for the straight 6. So as to make it still fit inside the frame rails it needs to be widened. The hump in the crossmember needs to be raised to clear the transmission. With the remains of a previously cut up crossmember, I was able to modify it, yet still look like it came from the factory. With that done and the crossmember slid in between the rails, the transmission cradle was next. The car will sit '40s era high. The engine and transmission sit low in the frame (the floor will be flat, no transmission hump) so I didn't want a bulky looking cradle. I also wanted it to look like it was stamped by some factory. So I thought about how the factory would have made it. I then looked through my assorted leftovers and crossmembers. Using parts of a '30 front crossmember, '28 front crossmember, and sections of '27 frame rail, I managed to piece together something that I think looks stamped in some big press. Next up is making the arms for the crossmember. Cheers, Stewart.
Glad I found this thread. Similar to the 26/27 I've been working on. Nice work! https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/just-picked-up-a-27-roadster-body.1136677/
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