Hot Rods 28 Roadster 32 Frame Hemi Build Thread

I have had this car and a lot of ideas for it rattling around in my head for a while. I started collecting parts around 8 years ago and now it is finally moving forward and I figured I would share some of the progress here. As I write this the rolling chassis is for the most part completed. I will try to continue to add updates as things move forward however progress will likely slow through the cold Wisconsin winter.

First thing first, a plan.



Here is the frame as I got it from my buddy Josh in Spokane. It had a hard life and was pulled out of a river bed near Spokane.





After several more years collecting parts and getting things cleaned up it was time to head up to my friend Johnny’s (johnnyboy76 on here) shop, Weldco Custom Fabrication in Sparta Wisconsin and start building a roller. No way could I have built this chassis without Johnny’s help!

 

Everything unloaded in the shop.



Rails in the table! Pretty easy to see how twisted they are now.




Luckily Johnny happened to have a roadster body to use to get our dimensions set.

 

Shop foreman Hachi making sure we don’t fuck anything up.



Got the rear end and front end in place.

 

Johnny built this Flat front crossmemeber to get things low.




Tapped some tube for the hairpins. Front suspension uses a V8-60 axle, 33-4 front spring, Old Bell Auto batwings and Round back spindles.

 

Stiffening things up by double walling/boxing the frame in.



Got the engine and trans mocked into place, ready to figure out mounts. Using a 53 331 Chrysler Hemi backed by a 37 Packard trans.

 

Motor mounts cut out.



Moving to the back. Used some later 40 Merc rear kick ups to bring the ass end down. The same frame donated its X member. 36 Rear end and bones with Model A spring and cross member.

 

I cut out the parts to locate the front of the bones and Johnny welded everything up. Using Pete and Jakes adjustable rod ends.




Lots of grinding and its starting to look like something.

 

Back home for some glamour shots. Got my Body placed on the frame and now it’s ready for many hours of body work. I will try to update as I move forward. Again, Could not have done this without Johnny’s help and experience, really happy with how it turned out so far.

 

What a great start, love the quality of workmanship!

Rich

 

happy to subscribe

 

Wow, what a great start to a real Hot Rod!

 

Very cool! Looking forward to what’s to come

 

Cool hot rod.

 

Thanks everybody, feels pretty good to finally start moving on this project.

 

Some quick work by your friend, cool project.

 

Nice work youse guys....carry on !

 

Subscribed. Looking forward to more coolness!

 

This is thing is going to rock! What kind of headers you thinking?

 

Any update bitchen build

 

I am going to use the big truck hemi manifolds but smooth them out and have them chromed. They are oversized from the passenger car version and dump out in to 2.5" pipe.

Just many hours of trying to fix all the junk body panels I thought were a good idea to buy. Its slowly taking shape but I'm no sheet metal wizard.

Built some clearance into the firewall for the engine.
Went back up to my buddies and we adjusted the spindles for tie rod clearance.
Tires are some cheap rollers I got ahold of, fronts will come down a size eventually.
Thanks for the interest guys!

 

I believe the proper pronunciation is “oh fuck yeah”


Looks awesome man

 

Oh man that thing is mean looking! Nice work, keep the updates coming

 

How’s the roadster coming along?

 

Are you going to leave the holes on the left rear corner of the panel under trunk/rumble seat showing it’s a true 28? A single tail light mounted to the body.

 

The Panel under the decklid is a repro part I got used off ebay so I do not think it has all the correct holes for 28. The whole body has been pieced together so realistically it is a little 1928 and a little 1929.

 

I have still been plugging away on the body work. The quarter panels have been a headache. I bought both quarter panels on line sight unseen and its easy to tell why other gave up on them. Both had been cut out for pickup beds many years ago and the passenger side looked like a bag full of walnuts and had a poorly done lower patch installed.

 

The Subrails I had where pretty crusty and after setting on them on the frame I did not like the way things looked and flowed. Nice thing about starting with junk is you don't have to worry about hacking it up. There is not a lot of original subrail left at this point.

 

With Subrails somewhat in place I began bracing and squaring up the body. I also cut out some temporary wood floorboards to get an idea of what it will look like. Still a lot of welding and grinding to be done.

 

Here it is as of yesterday. Still a ton of body work to be done. Haven't starting fixing the doors yet and plenty of hammer and dolly work to do. The body will come apart and go back together many more times but at least it resembles a car

 

Looks awesome and some killer fabrication