Projects Shade tree Model A speedster kind of thing

Thank you!

 

Just read it all, this GREAT Speedster kind of a thing thread...Remindful, inspiring!
All the stuff, from a '24 DB front axle & spindles thru '27 Chevy rails, to a '36 Ford banjo rear and some '38-'39 boxes, in one side of my shop, other stuff in my shed. Have numerous steering boxes to choose from, but the only 'banger' is from a 1965 car...Great little single overhead cam, 2 side draft Weber 40s, on factory aluminum split intakes. Old friend Dema Elgin ground me a cam, and I lightened the flywheel...Even found an old Mallory distributor, with a 4 cyl. crab cap! This mill is a Bavarian made road racing item, the cam cover heavy cast aluminum. Nice 4 speed behind it, all fresh.
The 3 raised cast letters could be removed with a Vixen file...but maybe I'll just tape over 'em...
Need some 18" '32 Ford wire wheels, then make the body. Early Dirt car look...but faster.

 

Build it Mike!!
I'll find you the wheels!!!

 

If that banger is what I think it is, there would have been a pair of Solex 40PHHs on it originally. Are the DCOEs a direct replacement?

 

Nice work!

 

" and I don't want to froo-froo it up to the point of ridiculousness."

I really like that quote.

I really like the car too. I've enjoyed following this one.

Mart.

 

Well, so much for not updating this thread any more. I have been pooting around in this thing quite a bit, and recently rode along with one of my daughters driving.



You can see how much fun we were having. Being a passenger is a completely different experience, though. The little handle on the dash is nice, but on a left turn, it doesn't really help much. I decided to add one more handle, which also serves to brace the driver's seatback. The edge has a tendency to flex a bit when I'm hopping (climbing?) in and out. Hasn't busted again since I added that reed edging a couple of pages back, but...
Anyway, this is about as iffy as anything I've done on this rig, but I just used a length of solder to outline the angle of the seatback to the little tail extension



See that aluminum boat handle in the bottom right corner of the photo? My first thought was to just bend it to fit, but that didn't work. Oh well, I'm better with wood, anyway. I staggered around my junkpiles with that wire template until I found a cut-off limb (Privet, I think, leftover from spoon carving or walking stick making or something like that) that fit in that angle.



A little sawing and carving and sanding, and I have this:



Sorry about that nasty thumbnail. I lost it changing the u-joints on an off-topic project, just growing it back out. Anyhow, I scraped the paint off and glued that piece on with my trusty WEST System epoxy. Notice the high tech clamping system. Haha.

 

I was worried that in a real panic situation, that epoxy wouldn't hold, so I added some mechanical fasteners. Settled on copper rivets and roves that we have for boats. I reinforced the seat back and inside the rear part with thin strips of bamboo. A little paint and I'm pretty happy with it.





Here's how it works:

 

I also managed to bust the silver-soldered ears off of my fuel cap clamp, so I fixed that the way I should have in the beginning. The other side is still silver-soldered, but I has two ears to take the strain, and, anyway, I busted the front part being stupid, so I think those back ears will do. I think the pictures are self-explanatory.

 

Great to see you posting again; I've always appreciated this car and your clever approach to solutions. You and I are in the same "boat" with regard to a passenger handle (sorry, couldn't resist ). It never occured to me to put it on the left side. Thanks for the idea.

 

Thank you, Clark. It never occurred to me, either until that ride-along. I had to put my left arm around her and grab the outside edge of the driver's seat on left turns. I have long arms, or that wouldn't have worked. That new handle is much closer to accommodate shorter arms, but is still comfortable for me.

 

Simplicity is the key to a good design. I love it.

 

great fix and keep the updates coming

 

Always original solutions in this thread. Great to see the car evolving as little niggles arise.

 

What amazing craftsmanship! Looks great so far.

 

Well, I just passed something of a personal milestone. Our local police department hosts a car show every year as a fundraiser, and I screwed up my gumption enough to enter old Shade Tree. This was my first car show as a participant, and I had no idea what to expect, but I pooted up there and parked as directed on our old brick Broad Street. We have a real nice little town, and they throw a big evening of shopping and what-not on the 1st Friday of every month. We had a big crowd, and there must have been 100 or more cars up there. Mostly muscle cars and modern stuff, but I saw one clean stock A Fordor and a real nice 60's style '32 coupe. I was parked next to an honest-to-God late model Ford GT. Talk about extreme ends of the spectrum. I got a picture of the two of us:



That extra space is because he had a little trouble backing in. Or maybe he just wanted a little distance between his jewel and my pile. Haha. Honesty compels me to admit that the GT got a good bit more attention than poor old Shade Tree, but a lot of it was from Gen-Xers and former bodybuilders who were trying to simultaneously puff out and suck in. Shade Tree was very fascinating to old people, young kids and, oddly enough, young to middle-aged women.
Due to my crippling shyness, I stood off to the side and didn't talk to any of those people except for two different friends of mine that wandered by and two other dudes that heard me talking to one of the friends and figured out it was my car. They wanted to know how fast it would go, and how much it was worth. I didn't have a useful answer for either question. I spent most of the afternoon either skulking around the edges or wandering around looking at the other cars. Mine sure was a fish out of water in that crowd. I mean, I washed it, but I didn't spray the tires with any miracle juice or even vacuum out the dead leaves from the tongue-and-groove floorboards. I must have a lot to learn. Haha. The owl gearshift knob was a hit, though. All in all, I guess it was a positive experience. I'm not sure I'll do it again, but at least I gave it a shot. I'll leave you with a couple more pictures:





And one last one to illustrate one of the weirdest coincidences in recent memory for me. If you've read this thread carefully, you will have noticed that I have used a good many of my late father's accumulated parts on this car. He was born on 6/4/1941. This show was on 6/4. Look at the number they gave me. Damn.



Oh well. Good night, all.

 

rwrj,
Glad to see you ventured out!
You can certainly see that cars are as different as people.
Anybody can clean and polish and put on shiny parts,
but your car has something many others never find.
You've added Heart and Soul! You are living the life
of a lost era, that won't be back! Lots of car people
actually "get" your kind of car.
And also....... your Dad is in the car with you!
The 41 number proves it!
Money can't buy that!
Keep up having the joy of doing your thing your way!

 

What at great ride it has been following along on this build. I enjoyed the honest problem solving way you approached things. I would make a beeline straight to your car if I saw it at a show or just parked on the street.
Thank you rwrj.

 

Awesome. Just awesome.
Andy

 

Thank you all. One positive from the car show is that I discovered that my brake light no longer worked. Turns out the little wire connector between the brake arm and the switch that I fabbed up as a pattern for a proper job and then never replaced because it was working parted company at some point. That's what I get. I set out to replace it with said proper job this morning. It needs to be adjustable. I used the end of an old brake rod and some mild steel rod I had laying around. I think the pictures will be sufficient explanation.





That's the brake rod end. I smartly (luckily?) cut it long enough that I could get the big end past the teeth of the chuck.









That last one might need a little explanation. Lying under the car, front to the right. The big silver thing is the brake light switch. I had to use that little split ring because I didn't feel like unbolting the switch to feed it's hooked end though the rod, which has to be fed through the hole in the crossmember, so I couldn't wiggle the rod around to hook it up. Good thing I made it adjustable so I could accommodate that ring. Don't say anything about the wiring. It's working. Hahaha

 

I bet you can have just as much fun, in your little sportabout, as the guy in the GT. He may go faster but the sights will go by too fast to enjoy.

 

Your speedster has heart and soul unlike so many other cars out there, people get that, the people who matter anyhoo. I had a similar experience to your father watching over you at the car show. My dad bought me a 61 C10 short bed for $800.00 for my 15th birthday. I worked on that truck nonstop to get it done for my senior year in high school. Later I sold it to get a 72 Camaro. Always regretted it. Some 20 years later I found a 62 GMC and couldn't pass it up.
I went to the DMV for collector plates and took them home to install them, as I opened the envelope and took them out I saw something that shook me. My dad was born in 1915 and passed in 1989, the plates read 15T89(1915 to 1989). High school truck on the left GMC on the the right. .

 

I urge you to reconsider going again, even if your shyness requires you just park it and leave it. It is such a local car show, that fuel my wish for a vintage car some-20 years ago, at the age of 7, 8 or 9. They did a flea market/boot sale type of thing, and after seeing a few all original model A's, I found and bought a Matchbox car, a black'n'flamed A coupe street rod with huge rear tires - which I look at daily and right now, as it sits on my desk at work.
That toy car, and the ZZ Top "Gimme all your lovin'" video at the age of 10, and I was hooked for life!
By going, you will inspire others - and in 5-8 years, almost noone will give the GT much glances, but the few Shade Tree admireres will prevail, as long as health and life allows... and one day, it might just get company.

 

I'm still riding along & still love'n it. Keep on keep'n on rwrj !

 

Go, and keep going. There are those of us that admire your work.

 

^^^ Very well said!

 

@Dannerr and @48fordnut,
Those are good points, and I see what you mean. To tell the truth, I may have exaggerated my shyness a bit, just for dramatic effect. Haha. I'm very conscientious about accuracy when I'm discussing methods or performance, but I do like to try to lighten things up from time to time. The park it and leave suggestion is pretty much what I did last time, for the first couple of hours. After that I did hang around and watch people's reactions to it. There's another semi-local show next weekend. I'll give it some thought. On another note, my Alliance tag came the other day. I decided against putting it on the firewall. If I do go, at least I'll be able to "represent", as the kids say.

 

Too bad the Corvette was between you and the Edsel.. that would have made a lot better photo than that other Ford…

 

Enjoying your thread a lot and have enjoyed watching your ideas evolve.
The car is a credit to you.

 

Well, I've managed to control my shyness enough to drive the stew out of this old thing. In town, out of town, running errands, you name it. I know I've mentioned wanting to avoid doing unnecessary stuff to the car, but I have made one a couple of small additions, based on actual discovered needs. The first is a leather holder on the firewall for a small old oiler. I use it for the distributor and the throttle mechanism.





Dang. About time to repaint that firewall.

The other project is safety related. I had a pretty concerning blind spot to the rear on the driver's side, to the point of feeling dangerous on multi lane roads. I had an old side mirror of 50's vintage. Not exactly period correct, but it is convex, which will help. I fiddled around and decided the best thing to do is to mount it on the brass windshield bracket in between the top 2 screw holes, so I took that off and promptly drilled a hole between the bottom 2 screw holes. Oh well. I know those of you who have followed this won't be surprised at that. 2nd try got it in the right place.



I could have just covered that extra hole up with my thumb in all of the pictures and pretended to be perfect, but where's the fun in that? Anyway, the base of the mirror was too big, and had that 50's streamlined space-race vibe, so off to the edge sander for some adjustment.





While I was at it, I rounded the little point off of the bulge where the mirror joins the stand. Then it was just a matter of bolting it together.



See how the nut sticks out on the backside? Had to drill a relief hole for that.



And, just like that, a well-spent half hour. Works just fine. The image is a little fuzzy at speed, but I can see if the left lane is occupied without wringing my neck, so... That extra hole is going to gripe my ass for a while, but I'll get over it or figure a way to hide it.