Hot Rods Is this a Brookville roadster pickup? Update: NO. Now building 1929 roadbriolet/cabrioster pickup

I'll jump in to start a bed discussion.


Does the photo I chose resemble your bed? Does yours have the wheel outline/ fender attachment? If so, it would need to center on the rear wheel.

So, how would it look if wheel opening to rear of bed was shortened to be the same as wheel opening to front of bed?

 

On the other hand, this really short bed looks pretty neat.

 

Gee Al, that's an interesting idea. The '26-'27 "turtle deck" looks like it could be modified (cut up) to work. It might take some work to get it to match your exiting wheelbase though, where with a pickup bed, you can fudge it a little.
I don't know if anyone reproduces them...or how hard it would be to find a nice original.

 

Here's a cropped picture of the bed that was in the ad.

Heres's a picture I took showing the rear wheel location being off about 2" relative to the bed.

Notice that a skirt of a fashion has been added below the bed.
Here's a closeup of the gap between bed and cab.

I had to remove the bed because you couldn't safely put gas in it in my opinion. If I remove the skirt and just extend bed flange down to the chassis that would clean that up. Fabricating a panel to attach to the front of the bed that was tapered to follow the body line of the back of the cab would make the bed look more like it belonged there.
I'll go back and study the gas filler situation. It might have room to come out the side if the skirt was removed and the new extended flange had a hole for the filler neck. If we removed the mounting bracket from the side of the bed it wouldn't be so obvious that the rear wheel is off center... in fact, that could be moved but probably cleaner to just eliminate it.
That short bed on that green pickup looks great but I don't have one. The longer bed does pretty well cover the 32 gas tank at the rear.

I got this progress at the time picture from the previous owner.
I'm thinking of replacing the panel with the taillights in it and route the gas filler out the side versus being in a whole underneath the bed. The hose was sticking out in this picture before the little door shown above it in the bed was installed.
I'll work to get us some better pictures of the bed. With the tank almost full, we can even mount it now.
I greatly appreciate all the ideas and help.
Thanks
Al

 

Thanks, Jack, for sharing your thoughts and giving us some dimensions.
I was typing while you were posting and didn't see your post until after I posted mine.
I welcome all thoughts and ideas.

 

Orange outlines the new panel that would be attached to the front of the bed and extend down to the chassis.

 

It looks like the reveal line box on the side of the bed does not continue under the wheel opening arch?

 

Phil, you are correct about the reveal line. I think removing the arch would clean up the side of the truck as well as helping to hide that the wheel is not exactly centered. The offset is 2". I have the room to slide the cab forward about an inch but I'm concerned that the distributor could no longer be removed very easily.

A shorter bed would be better, I think, but the one I have might work... with a little tweaking!!

PS I'm surprised and honored that out little project is approaching 14,000 views!

 

I originally went to the garage to further study the bed situation but as I got my tape and went to the rear of the truck, I started measuring from back of cab to back of gas tank. Notice anything unusual about the picture above? Maybe the gas tank if a bit off front to rear?

Passenger side.

Driver's side. Dang! It's off by a bunch!
Loosen the bolts and shift it around.

Now about 4 3/4 inches on both sides.

Sand it down again and add a fresh coat of gloss black.
Now back to the bed.

 

That looks like a 32 passenger car, repop, tank.

 

I know you've posted on the Roadster pickup thread, Al. I just want to put the link here in case we need some photo inspiration, down the road.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/roadster-pickup-picture-thread.320146/page-57

 

Fired it up moved it up the hill.

Then with the help of my brake bleeding assistant I moved the bed out of the garage and turned it around.
Then I put the cabrioster back on the lift and we managed to get the bed back into the garage.
Now the engineering is gonna get serious.
I'm gonna start by figuring out how high bed has to be to allow the gas filler to come out the side. Looks like a couple inches higher than it was... maybe!
I've gotta get some half sheets of 3/4" plywood to make this simpler to maneuver.
You can see that I have removed the panel below the bed that held the old taillights and the gas filler door.
Figuring Al

 

Al,
If I may offer a suggestion. My pickup also uses a '32 passenger gas tank which sits under the bed of my truck. I too wondered how to get to the fuel filler when I was buildig the truck. I sourced a hinged door from Speedway and cut a hole in the floor of the bed to access the fuel filler. It seems to work quite well for me. I realize my '32 bed is wider than yours but I know that as ingenious as you are at adapting things you may be able to overcome this stumbling point.



Too bad we are on opposite sides of the state. Could be able to give more assistance.

Ted

 

Raising the pickup bed could affect the side view proportions of the truck. Maybe positive, maybe not. More opportunities.

Maybe use 2x4 blocks between frame and bed to get proportions that look best, before fixing the fuel fill situation?

 

Serious engineering going on here. Got a fella bringing me some plywood this afternoon.
Phil, I think there will be a good bit of up and down in trying to locate the bed.
I appreciate the idea, Ted, and the source, on putting the access inside the bed... I could still happen.
I'm gonna do something... just don't know if it will be good or bad!

 

I'll admit that the "mounting" of the bed is a bit fluid at the moment; but, I was editing this picture and trying to straighten it a bit when the graph lines popped up showing the cab line and bed line were nearly perfectly parallel!!
I couldn't believe it. Anyway I've now got it up on the lift and checking what has to be done under there.

Another angle. You can see the bed edge sitting on top of the frame. I'm going to modify that to drop the bed two inches. The front is now supported on all thread with nuts and washers. The plan is to drop the bed over the frame 2" and likewise do the same up front and at the rear. While doing all that I'm going to make certain that the "lines" of the cab and bed remain parallel... I hope! I'm going to have to trim a couple bed wood support crossmembers some as well but shouldn't harm anything.

There is about 2.5" above the fuel filler tube so I think it will be fine if it comes down 2", too.
I'm studying how to make new supports to secure the bed to the chassis where needed.

Lastly, you can see that the taillights extend just past the end of the bed; keeping in mind that we removed the tailgate.
This whole thing might actually work!

 

Keeping the bed as low as practical, will have a good look. Yes, I like the bed rail parallel to the door top.

 

I'm thinking the same way, Phil.
I'm pleased that the bed is as low as it is at our starting point. It wouldn't look bad like it is but I think would look better a couple inches lower. And we've got to add that contoured filler panel to make it look like it belongs together.

 

After I straightened up the alignment to the rear spreader bar, I got to wondering how the new aligned distance of 4.75" compared to the distance between the tank and spreader bar on the 32 cabriolet... it is nice to have another 32 in the garage to compare. The cabriolet has about an inch! Hmm... I think I'll move the gas tank on the cabrioster at least a couple inches toward the rear to make it more consistent with most 32 tanks and it should bring the filler tube a bit closer to the rear and bring it somewhat out of the hole it seems to be in at present under the bed.
It sounds good... now to make it happen!

 

I moved the gas tank back a fair amount which really made the gas filler tube more accessible.


Another view from further back.

Here's the reason you put a filter as the first thing in the gas line after it leaves the tank. This is from a new Tanks unit but we don't know how long it has been sitting around.

I think it looks fine with the tank relocated to the rear and the gas filler will be much easier to access and I'm not going to go with a side access as I was planning. This will be cleaner... I hope!

 

What happens if you move the tank back almost touching the spreader bar?
How does it look?
Can the rubber tube adapter be removed, put the cap right onto the tank?

When I am in the road in my Deuce, I like to be able to see into the tank to be sure I am getting it full, without spilling everywhere.

 

Phil, I like to see into the gas tank, too but it is only about an inch or so from the spreader bar now.
Of course, we could install an inspection hole in the bed!!
We'll have a better perspective once the bed is mounted. I'm hoping as we move the bed down a couple inches that we might also be able to move it just a little closer to the cab which will effectively move the gas filler tube further toward the end of the bed. Might be able to see in there but I doubt it.

If you look carefully, you will see the tip of a short, stubby phillips head screwdriver under the taillight closest to you. The tank is the thickness of the handle of that screwdriver from the spreader bar. Dang tank kept slipping back! Using what is handy is traditional ain't it?
I've got to get the bed off before I can drill new gas tank locating holes.

 

The tank on my passenger car Deuce is so close to the spreader bar that I can just get a wash cloth, unfolded, between them so the back and bottom of spreader gets cleaned. Just for reference.

 

I'm thinking I should remove the fender brackets while the bed it off. No way am I gonna gain 2.5" forward on the bed. That's about how much the tire lacks from being centered in the fender bracket.

 

While waiting on my bed remover helper, I shortened the radiator support rods again.
Above is the before.
The following is after I took more than an inch off the radiator support rods.

I'm not sure why the picture shrunk but hopefully you can still see that the radiator is sitting more upright now.

 

Radiator looks much better.

If you are going hiboy, I'd remove the fender brace. (Brace could be moved forward if fenders are to be added.)

I'd still try to move the bed forward, to make the body contour patch as small, and unnoticeable, as possible.

 

How about this........remove the fender mount brace, extend the bottom bead end to end to finish the design. Now the fun part, move the bed forward and trim on an angle until the tire is centered where it belongs, remember I said that was the fun part. Then pie cut the rear frame horns to raise them up close to level with the bottom of the bed, re-instal the tank, in or out to look best. Maybe even shorten the horns if needed. As far as trimming the front of the bed, maybe just reshape or remove the front stake boxes. Remember, it's a modified roadster pick up, so lets get modifying! Question, can you open the doors with the windows rolled up, just wondering?

 

^^Doors will open fine with windows up. The rear frame horns and gas tank (relocated close to rear spreader bar) should be fine as they are. As to reworking those front stake boxes; forget it... it is way past my skill level!
Besides, we will accomplish essentially the same effect by adding what we are calling the contoured filler panel at the front of the bed... and it is much less work; and much less chance of screwing up!!
I can't imagine reshaped front stake pockets not looking a bit goofy. If you remove the front stake pockets then you would need to remove the rear stake pockets as well if you want any kind of consistency.
I do appreciate the suggestion, along with all the others, but I need you to get a little closer to the right coast to show me how and help me. I'll buy the ice cream!
Bert, the 56 Tbird owner, helped me remove the bed last night and review the planned changes and we tweaked them just a bit. I'm hoping to get some time today to start tweaking the bed.
I'll keep y'all posted.
Thanks for the continued interest and help,
Al