Hot Rods The Arin Cee Roadster

Eric it's to Hot to work in the shop past noon. You are making good progress on Arin Cee. Do you still need the 46 front radius rods? Frank

 

Agree 100%! It's about 104 degrees in the shop during the daytime but I often work in there anyways. It doesn't get much below 100 until it's too late for me to work any more...and I'm just not a morning person.

I'm motivated to get the Arin Cee Roadster done and on the road. Between you and Arin pestering me to get 'er done I'd better get a move on before you both drive me crazy! But seriously, the new car is almost ready to arrive and I'll be needing some more space to work on it.

And yes, I'm still needing the '46 radius rods but there is absolutely no hurry. They are for the new car and I've got to get Arin's done first...

 

I guess I'm falling behind on the progress reports on Arin's roadster. I'm working my tail off, just not posting much here on the HAMB. Let's see if I can bring y'all up to speed...


I covered the welding of the repair panels a couple of posts ago. The next step was to apply a thin coat of body filler to the welded areas in order to blend them into the surrounding surfaces. I had welded up and metal-finished several other areas on the body as well. These got body filler also.


The next step was to apply Direct-To-Metal Primer to the bodyworked areas to lock everything down and give a really good base for everything to come. I used Eastwood brand DTM material - two-part 50/50 mixture ratio - in black because the final color will be dark. Even in hot weather this material takes several days to set up, but when it does it really grips the metal and bonds very well to epoxy primers, both regular and high-build.


As I discovered with my previous build, the red '31 roadster, the body metal MUST be very, very clean in order for DTM to bond properly. This means scrubbing it with hot soapy water twice, rinsing well between washes. Once it's dry the metal is given a careful application of DX-330, PrepSol or some other quality wax and grease remover and wiped dry before allowing it to evaporate for at least 15 minutes. The reason is that some contaminants are oil soluable and some are water soluable. You need to eliminate both, and that means a two-stage cleaning process. With that done I gave the body two fairly heavy coats of DTM. Won't be ready to sand for a week or so.


I had made the body mounts some time ago, mating the '28 body to the '32 chassis in a way that is neat, clean and able to be disassembled should the need arise. I used remnants of a military rifle sling to fabricate the webbing to isolate the body from the chassis. Worked great, but commerical webbing is also available. I had fabricated and welded in an extra chassis crossmember previously to support the rear subrail crossmember. You can see it in the photo below. It will also serve as a heavy duty seat belt anchor as well as a body mount.


So this is where the Arin Cee Roadster progress is as of today. The body is reattached to the frame and I'm waiting for the DTM Primer to set up before continuing with the bodywork. Reattaching the body marks a huge turning point. More to come. I'll try not to take so long between updates. Thanks!
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More progress...

Just a quick update on progress to date:

Floors are in and finished, still need to be bolted down but will stay removable until I wrap up the exhaust work which is much easier done from the top than from the bottom.

The front quarter panel skins got trimmed to match the inner structure which has been wedged to allow the body to sit down tighter on the frame and minimize the gap.

Nothing remarkable here, just progress.

 

More progress...in no particular order.


Since the Arin Cee Roadster has been converted to a trunk-style roadster from a rumble seat-style car, a different rear trunk panel was necessary and had to be adapted to fit this body style at the same time. This took a little head-scratching, especially since the floor is no longer original, but I got it done.

Some parts of the body took very little high-fill primer while other parts took a whole lot. To save material which has become very expensive in today's economy I masked off the different panels and applied amounts of primer appropriate to the needs.

Prime. Block. Prime some more. Block some more. Repeat...

I also primed and blocked the front quarters/lower firewall assembly after having previously welded filled all the factory holes. This will give the car a very smooth look while not being dead flat like the fiberglass bodies.

The doors and deck lid are also being primed and blocked as is the tank panel in anticipation of applying the finish paint. It's a lot of work that nobody will ever see, especially when you consider that this body had been previously stripped by a gorilla with a 40-grit grinder disc...

More updates to come.

 

I’ve been checking in on this thread for years and I’m anxious to see the finished product but not as anxious as Arin obviously. Anyway, have you used that strapping for body webbing on other builds. I was planning on using it as well but was concerned that it might collect and hold moisture. Thoughts?

 

Did it ever get finished?

 

This is a terrific build, don’t leave us in mid air!