Hot Rods 1931 Pontiac build - 22 years and counting

A few days ago I had a request from clem of New Zealand to post a build thread of my '31 Pontiac Sport Coupe project, so I will attempt to show this 22 +? year project.
I started this build in 1999 with a pretty complete car with a lot of rotten wood. The vision was to build a traditional '60's style hot rod , although a Pontiac of this vintage was not a normal starting point for this style. As disassembly progressed , we (my brother and I) decided to replace the wood body structure with wood and found an Olds J2 to power it.
We removed the parallel-leaf front suspension and installed a Ford crossmember and drilled I-beam axle.
I will try to stay in chronological order, but it may not be 100% because so much time has passed since day 1.

 

Hold on guys. This is gonna be good. I have seen some pictures of this car.

 

I have a love ,hate relationship with wood !!!
MORE , MORE !!!

 

After bracing the body it was removed to work on the frame. Major improvements were done to reduce flexing as much as possible so we modified a Chassis Engineering 'X' to fit the Pontiac frame and then added 1/8" boxing plates with lightening holes in front of and after the 'X'. Also added the mount for a Vega steering box.
Chrome reverse wheels (15 x 6 front and 15 x 8 rear) and tires were added to mockup stance and fender clearance. At this early stage of the build, Pennsylvania still required fenders, so my original plans were to meet the state requirements. Several years later the laws changed to allow fenderless hotrods and my plans changed accordingly. The rear had already been narrowed for fenders, so they could be added later if one would want to.
The rear I chose is a '57 Pontiac housing with a '62 Pontiac 3:08 posi center section. I'm a Pontiac guy so that period Pontiac/Olds rear was a perfect choice.
Pete & Jake's ladder bars were used as part of the rear suspension, as were the Aldan Eagle coilovers.

 

First engine installed, a 1957 Olds J2 with a Turbo 350 modified to fit the Olds.
Next we chopped the top, 3" at the windshield and 2 1/2 " at the back window.

 

We removed the body and old wood after the roof chop. First pic is the body wood kit (not including wood for the doors) from Jim Rodman . Before I began assembly, I coated each piece with 2 coats (3 coats on the end grain) of clear epoxy to stabilize the wood from expansion and contraction from humidity changes.
After making sure the frame was level and square, I assembled the wood structure for the body starting at the bottom.

 

What year crossmember did you use to use the transverse spring and front axle ??

 

Very cool build! The Olds rocket mill is killer. I’ve never really seen how much wood is actually in the body of early GM’s. Thanks for posting all the pictures.


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1932 Ford crossmember with a 4” drop 47” axle.

 

Holy crap that is a big project. Nice to see something different being built.

 

Have a 33 chev ,thinking of using a transverse spring and axle in it . Chev dropped axle is just way to much money to ship to and from SIDS.
Also a 34 crossmember somewhere among my junk , LOL

 

Thanks ! ( I just knew this was going to be neat ).
I saw hints of your workmanship, chassis etc, in other photos that you posted, but had no idea about the wood frame. (And I guess that you had to chop the wood to suit the roof chop).
There’s a lot of work and dedication there.

 

Wow, the wood replacement looks awesome. Actually the whole car looks awesome.

 

Thanks for the comments. I actually did not chop the wood myself, Jim Rodman made the affected pieces to accommodate my dimensions.

 

The Olds J2 and Turbo 350 had been mounted when a friend informed me that he was selling a '69 Pontiac 428 out of a Bonneville and I couldn't resist getting it. After trying for over a week to avoid redoing all of my work to install the J2, I decided that my Pontiac should be Pontiac-powered. I had a pair of RA III exhaust manifolds from a '69 Firebird that fit inside the frame but had to fabricate new motor mounts. Also designed and built the A/C bracket.

 

Very cool! Will be following along!

 

Near disaster struck in Feb. 2014 when a major snowstorm collapsed a good portion of the roof of my building. Luckily a non-load bearing wall stopped the progression of the collapse before it got to my car, but I couldn't work on it for 6 months while the structure was being rebuilt.

 

Back on track! Engine rebuilt, bored 30 over, #068 cam, low compression heads, Offy dual quad intake with Carter 500's, and NOS 1961 Weiand valve covers. About 400 HP. A Pontiac Turbo 350 was also rebuilt and a new driveshaft ordered from Inland Empire.

 

Nice!

 

Repaired some rust and splits on the cowl and added a recess for servicing the distributor (with a lot of help from my brother). Next we nailed the cowl to the wood structure.

 

We built an upper and lower baffle to optimize cooling by preventing air from spilling around the radiator. Picture also shows an early headlight bar mockup.

 

Post 6 is great. They are indeed horseless carriages with some sheet metal tacked on. Great job and looking forward to more info. A cousin of mine in Iowa has a couple of Oaklands of that vintage.
Cheers.

 

Now it was time to put the body back on the wood framework. We removed the rear wheels and starting from the back, slid the sheetmetal forward onto the wood until it was positioned correctly, and nailed the whole perimeter of the body to the wood. Sorry, I have no pictures of the process, my hands were full.

 

Very cool car. Thanks for posting this.

 

Quite the woodwork craftsman,awesome work!

 

With the body in place we addressed the poor fit of the rumbleseat lid. Adjusted as much as we could, then my brother removed a sliver of sheetmetal to make the gap more uniform.

 

Time to deal with the doors. We removed all the original trim, hardware, upholstery and all the remaining nails holding the metal to the wood frame. Then we opened the crimp around the door skin to remove it to gain access to some blind fasteners when we assembled the new wood structure. While door skins were off, I coated the inside with POR-15. Also chopped the doors at this time. In order to make the doors fit properly, we did a thin pie cut on the skin and also modified the top hinge so it would line up perfectly with the other 2 hinges. A lot of time was spent to make the doors look right and operate correctly,

 

I tried to improve my original front upper shock mount design. First picture shows 1st style, second picture shows updated version.
Also added a bolt-in crossmember connecting the motor mounts to strengthen the frame, but still enabling access to oil pan if necessary.

 

I wanted electric windshield wipers but I couldn't find a direct replacement to fit a '31 Pontiac, so I adapted a a New Port Engineering Ford Model A wiper setup and mounted it as high under the visor as I could.

 

I chose a 1965 GTO automatic shifter and used a Shiftworks conversion to make it work with the Turbo 350. Made a few cuts and modifications to make it fit where it felt right.