Projects Model T roadster on Model A chassis

A little bit at a time. See if you can find a lower panel with the correct bead, maybe a hood side or anything that has that bead in it.you could make your own. MDF and router and a dome headed bumper bolt, and a piece of metal

 

Little late... been a busy couple days. I went over to Robin's on Sunday. We got a bunch of stuff done, but it was a bunch of relatively little stuff that doesn't necessarily make for great pictures. Nevertheless...

The passenger side of the bucket is totally shot. We are gonna have to remake the whole panel. Step one: pattern. This will only give us a rough estimate at best - there will be a ton of trimming and shaping involved here.




Before we began cutting metal I wanted to know if this lip was supposed to be crushed down like this. A little research revealed that no, it isn't. A wooden tack strip is supposed to go around the back top of the bucket, which the upholstery and top are attached to, and that flange has to be standing straight up for that tack strip to fit.



While I was trying to figure out how to fix this, Robin fixed it.



Somewhere in here we decided the next major step should be getting the body bolted down to the frame - that way when we do all our final fitting for these panels we're making, everything will be sitting exactly the way it needs to be. Setting that objective made it easy to organize our next steps.

We started dressing the driver side panel to get it ready to install the patch we got from Howell's. The subframe will get primered before we burn in the patch.



We removed the sill plates. The passenger side plate looks salvageable but sadly the driver side is toast. Worse, the subframe is pretty rough underneath and will need repairs.



The doors had to come out for repairs, and we removed the dash to make it easier to work on the inside of the cowl. I have some modifications planned for the dash.

Robin's impact driver was helpful here, but where it failed, the plasma cutter succeeded.




Like I said, the subframe will get primered before it's covered up. Clearly a lot of patch work is needed in here...



For now, Eastwood rust converter protects & serves.

Finally, the gas tank - it came out great!

 

So... there's a light at the end of the tunnel! Another late update - last weekend's shenanigans.



The body is finally mounted to the frame. We realized that any structural repair and fine body panel fitting should be done with the body sitting on the chassis and decided to go ahead and get it located and bolted down.



Some heavy angle iron provided the material for mounting tabs. This is a slip fit into the frame which is then welded at three points. Overkill but it was easy and should be very strong. The tabs will be trimmed off next time.



As we were locating the body we ran into some clearance issues with the pedals and steering column. A little nibbling and a little bending got that sorted out.



We cut the rot out of the cowl bottom. The subframe up here is in pretty good shape and cleaned up nicely but I don't have any pictures of that. Sorry!



The subframe under the rocker panel on the driver side did not fare as well. But not to worry...



Some 1" box tube, carefully sliced, made an exact fit.



... and burned in nicely.



Then we took the body back off and sprayed everything with rust converter right before I left. Just because.

It will be a while before the next update! I'm not going over there again for a few weeks.

 

But I did get a cool thing today.



This is a WW2 surplus aircraft oxygen tank that someone already converted into a gas tank with a chrome Studebaker cap! I'm thinking I'll put it in the trunk as a secondary tank. With this tank and the cowl tank I should have about 19 gallons of fuel on board.

I guess most guys mount these tanks vertical - that's how this one must have been mounted, because it doesn't have a bung on the "bottom" (opposite the filler). But that seems like it would really limit the tank's capacity with the filler neck where it is, so I dunno.



But I don't know if there's enough room in the Model T trunk for that. Guess we'll find out!

Also, I have a line on some really nice original top bows. They are gonna get chopped... obviously.

 

I'm learning a lot from our progress!

 

Got a little excited, got windshield posts and a frame on the way.

I was gonna just order the chopped ones from Speedway - but I learned that I wouldn't be able to run a top with those as they are missing the little finials at the tops of the posts, which the top hooks onto in the front. So I got unchopped ones and we will figure out how to chop them ourselves in a way that we can keep the finials.

This is important, because I also got a super nice original top frame we will have to figure out how to chop.

 

I went with a speedway frame and original stanchions. I too have to figure out how to chop the stanchions. Fun times!

 

I wonder if it was used as a 'Jerry Can' rather than a fuel tank?? I expect the bung was the og fitment as air doesnt need to be taken from the bottom??

 

It may have just been used as a jerry can but it sure would have been awkward to pour fuel back out of it. As originally made, it has a bung on either end of the tank for the air fittings - the bombers had like 20 of these things on board.

 

I was thinking this whole time I would retain the stock style seat and try to duplicate the factory upholstery, but I think that will leave the seating position too high for the chopped windshield and top. This post is mostly to remind myself to load up my Model A seat springs and riser next time I go to Robin’s to see if we can make something work…

 

Really coming along nicely, some of the 'surprises' got addressed and the body is getting ironed out efficiently.
I had a problem with '27 windshield stanchions/frame, but found some rough ones that cleaned up in my bead blaster... The frame will be aluminum, (solid aluminum bar stock, notched on 1 side for the glass)
Calif. Roadster sent it to me.
I found a '27 Chevy roadster windshield and stanchions some years back at Turlock swap, lots of dry lakes guys ran this setup on '27 T's.
I have a roadster and a tub, they can flip for the windshields. LOL

 

Dropped the windshield frame off at the glass shop & now I’m looking at the stanchions. These came with snaps for side curtains which is cool - I hadn’t even thought about that. But chopping these to keep the finials for the top will be a challenge.

There is no way the stock seat height is gonna work with a top, and I’m pretty sure the steering wheel will need to come down as well. I wonder what it will take to change the column angle.

 

Fair call. It was the handle that caught my eye...

The roadster is coming along very nicely btw.

 

Picked up the top frame today! Really excited to start chopping it up.

 

I’ll be interested to see how you chop the top. I’ll be chopping mine but not quite sure how.

 

I’ll try to document everything we do to the top & windshield as extensively as possible. The stanchions will be pretty tricky… not sure about the top itself yet. I think it might be pretty straightforward.

 

I think you and RMONTE can figure it out

 

Dana Barlow has posted a tech on how he built his top from conduit. That's another option now that you know exactly how the top irons connect to the body and the stanchions. I know you guys will do just fine either way.

 

Not to hijack your project but I found this yesterday out in the Texas backwoods. He won’t part with it
(of course he is gonna do something with it “someday”) I want it, I want it
Oh well…

You can see that it is already trying to shed its fenders and turn into a highboy phaeton

I’m curious, the stanchions on this car are cast iron. What is the material used on your replacement parts?

 

My repro stanchions are two layers of stamped steel with little discs in them for the bolt holes. There were cast options available, but very expensive. Since I’m still hoping to find some originals eventually I didn’t wanna break the bank on these.




I am thinking a chopsaw straight through the center of the two discs, cutting out all the steel in between, using the bottom half of the lower disc and the top half of the upper disc. The stanchion tapers as it progresses up but the two bulges are the exact same diameter right at the centers. That would be the cleanest way to do it, I believe.

 

Depending on your windshield. If you cut out the bottom pivot and butt weld back together, then cut the top pivot off and lower it on the stanchion to your windshield height, that should work. I'm running a 4 inch chop windshield from Speedway. A stocker would be done different.

 

A stocker lower windshield, you would cut the two pivots in half, discard the center chunk, and weld the two halfs back together. That gives you a very short windshield.

 

Yep, I am running just the bottom half of a stock windshield.

 

I think I settled on a paint color - I knew I wanted to use a 30s/40s paint color in single stage lacquer. I think the Model A andalusite blue will look very fetching on my car. Looks like it will be expensive though hahaha



Experimentally photoshopped it onto someone else's T roadster...



People sort of expect these cars to be black, and the body shape lends itself well to a dark color. But black is overdone on Ts. I think with a black top that will look really sharp.

 

All paint and material got expansive, and you have limited selections in lacquer. The sealer coat will give you a lighter to darker color depending what color sealer you use under it. White sealer under red will make it brighter and a black sealer will almost maroon. Best to do some test panels to see what you like PM me if you have any questions Frank.

 

I know almost nothing about paint, so like everything else I was planning to just dive in and see what happens. I'd definitely appreciate any wisdom you can share. Pre-mixed andalusite blue lacquer is about $750 a gallon, so I can't afford trial and error there. Don't care if it's exactly the right paint code but I love the deep blue that looks almost black in certain lighting.

We are probably gonna shoot the whole body in black epoxy primer. I'm thinking lacquer paint because it has the smooth low-gloss look that I associate with old cars. But maybe you can get that look with cheaper paints? Is lacquer harder or easier to work with compared to other paints? I don't really know anything except that I can't afford to pay someone else to do it, haha.

 

Big things happening tomorrow!

 

Trevor cutting apart the car @Shadow Creek offered up. It's only metal! Cut it up!