1930 Pontiac roadster pickup progress Pictures

I thought I'd post a couple more pictures of the Pontiac roadter pickup I'm building. First is the cowl we picked up for $75. The rest is kind of self explanitory. I built everything else from 20 and 18 gage sheet metal. There are no pictures of that I have been able to find so I just continued the body lines off of the cowl. Let me know what you think. At some point I'll do a full teck post on the build, but in the meantime thought I'd post the progress so far.
Eddie

 

Dam nice skills ya got there.

 

Thank you both. I appreciate the compliments!
Eddie

 

Nice work. I would love to see the cab corner tech.

 

Very nice and well built.

 

Thanks again for the compliments. I'll do a tech on the cab corners when I build the next one. I do a car every three months or so. Any opinions on color?
Eddie

 

Awesome work - forget measurements just build it until it looks right, great job

 

Very nice work. Excellent craftsmanship.

 

Had no choice with this one. As far as I know Pontiac never made a roadster pickup so there wasn't anything to take measurements from! Thanks for the thumbs up!
Eddie

 

It looks like PONTIAC letters pressed in the gate?

and I like the side view of the curved rad shell you made...

You are going places in your future, thats for sure

 

It does have pontiac pressed into the tailgate. I found a 1930 pontiac ad and enlarged the letters then embossed them into the tailgate with my english wheel. The rad shell was something i was having a hard time deciding on so I made a couple of different ones till I liked the way this one looked. Thanks for the great compliment. Now if I could only get my wife to feel the same way!
Eddie

 

I would love to see this. Please do a tech on this.

 

Great skills there,looking good.

 

Great idea! I'll try to put something together in a couple of weeks! Right now I trying to get this thing done asap.
Eddie

 

Holy Crap! thats awesome ! job well done, you must be proud indeed.

 

do you have a pic of a pontiac rad shell, they had a bar down the center and looked quite nice to me, i have one sitting out in the yard if you would like a pic.

 

I have a picture of the Pontiac rad shell but the guy that I'm building this for wanted something a little different. Thanks very much for the offer though! That's what makes the HAMB so great is guys willing to help eachother out!
Eddie

 

I am now thanks!

 

Eddie, I'm sorry but I'm just gonna have to rough you up alittle and you seem like such a nice guy. Your see I've looked high and low for a roadster or phaeton cowl for my 30 Pontiac phaeton project. One on the car is rough to say the least. Someone gas welded a bunch of patches and warped it all to heck. Even welded it to the frame! Second reason I'm coming for ya is that I planned on using what was left of a 30 Pontiac sedan that I bought as a parts car for the phaeton and build what I thought would be the FIRST & ONLY 1930 Pontiac pickup. So you understand why I gotta get rough with ya right? Just kiddin about the rough stuff, but I do plan to build a 30 Pontiac pickup as well. Gonna use the top rather than a roadster style. And, I had planned on using a 1930 Chevy bed and build a tailgate with, yes, PONTIAC embossed into it. I am very interested in how you did it and if you would be interested in doing it again down the road. Here's pics of the phaeton and the sedan doner and pickup candidate.

Beautiful pickup, hope mine turns out half as nice!
Rick

 

Rick,

What can I say? I think that making someone want to rough me up because of my car building is about the best compliment I've ever gotten! Thanks man. Sorry to beat you to the punch on the build. I wish I had seen your pictures before I started it would have been a lot easier, I didn't even know what a 30 Pontiac grille shell looked like, I thought the "cap" on the top was a good look. I had no idea that they really had them! I think your idea of a closed cab truck will be really cool! As for doing it again, I do this for a living so I never stop building cars and car stuff. I would be more than happy to help in any way I can with your project. I think you have a great start and can't wait to see pictures of your progress. You can still be the first and only 1930 Pontiac closed cab pickup! Hopefully we can be friends now and I'll be saved from being "roughed up". Look forward to hearing from you.
Eddie

 

Hey no problem guy, I meant it as a compliment. I'm still thinkin about how you embossed that tailgate with a E-Roll. Dies on the wheels? Inquiring minds want to know. PM me as I don't plan to buy a roll so it's your technology. I'm still working in my head on how to get the paralled front on the ground without a massive Z or using a Ford style perch and spring. I have considered using half of the front springs hard mounted on the rails but not loving that idea either.

Also, engine options. I have two to pick from: a 348 Chevy and.....ready for this....a 1930 Oakland V8 (pic attached). Oakland was the parent company to Pontiac and I found this engine recently. It's a flat head (L-head) design with some wierd looking exhaust on top of the engine. It put out a whopping 85 h.p. originally, if I can do some mods to make 150 hp I'll be more than satisfied. I' thinking at this point of using the Oaky V8 in the phaeton and the 348 in the Ponty bobber truck. But the Oaky would be cool in the pickup too! Could point the exhaust straight up from the top of the engine as the pickup will be hoodless. Decisions, decisions.

 

That is one nasty azz ride! You have a great looking truck there!!!!

Keep up posted....pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

I'll try to post some new pics here soon on the build. Thanks for all the compliments guys. Rick, I'll try to do a tech on embossing letters and stuff using the english wheel soon. I've been pretty busy and having a hard time catching up!
Eddie

P.S. I'd go with the 1930 oakland engine if you can mate it up to a decent tranny. Keep in touch!

 

What a great project and what fantastic craftsmanship!
Are you planning to run the 6 banger or do you have bigger plans for a different mill?

 

Looks like both you guys have got some good plans. Personally, the rarer the better for me. Topcat, if you couldn't talk Rarerodder out of his Oakland-8, maybe go with a early 40's straight 8.

What color? Ah ha, any real pontiac is green.

 

The guy that I'm building it for want's to run the straight six. He's had it for a while and has a bunch of old speed stuff for it such as dual carbs. I thinks it'll look pretty cool that way. Although I do like the thought of a straight 8. I'm going to have to look into that. Thanks for the compliments!
Eddie

 

Here's a couple of pictures of the grille shell I made for the Pontiac. It still needs the grille but that will have to wait till next week. I'm going to bring it to a show on Sat in bare metal. What do you all think?
Eddie

 

Eddie,

I just noticed how much your grille resembles the 1931 Pontiac grille which I think was one of the sharpest grilles ever produced. What do you think of adding the center bar? That was the early version of the personality of Pontiacs, as you know later model Pontiacs always had a pronounced vertical 'nose'. Also, considered using an Indian on it somewhere? The 30 and 31 Pontiac indian radiator mascots were exactly the same by they were all cool from '26 up to '54! Most can be found on ebay at any given time. Here's a link to some later indians: www.lepoix.de/text/pontiac_hood_ornament3.htm

May generate some ideas?!

And, I've gotta say it again, that's an awesomely good looking pickup!

 

Rick,

What a great site! Yes I have been wanting to put a Pontiac Indian on the car. I really like the 34 on that site. I don't know what a 30-31 looks like. I'm not sure about the center strip on the grille shell, we'll have to see. As for the shell I had no idea how close I was to getting it right, I just made what I thought looked good. I'd like to see more pictures of your car. It looks awesome. Where the hell did you find it? What color are you thinking of? we're still trying to decide. If all else fails there's always black. Keep in touch. Thanks again for the compliments,

Eddie

 

Eddie,

Here's what a 1930 & 1931 Pontiac radiator ornament looks like. In fact, this very one is on ebay right now.

Which car are you asking about? I've kinda gone 30-31 Pontiac crazy in the last few years. You've seen the 30 Phaeton and 30 sedan/pickup and now the 31 convertible projects. Then there is my current driver-31 coupe resto-rod, a 31 2 door sedan, and a 30 coupe original barnfind-running & driveable. Then I have a few non-Pontiac projects as well.

I had begun building the 31 convertible to be a twin to my current 31 coupe. Then my wife and I had a baby boy and for obvious reasons, shelved the two seater convertible project for something with a back seat. So I am currently building a 1942 Hudson Eight Coupe. Well, since beginning that project I purchased the 30 Pontiac sedan and Oakland V8 and am having a hard time staying focused on the Hudson project. But, the boy is now a year and a half old and he already loves hot/street rods (as well as firetrucks, Harleys, and schoolbuses-gotta get him focused, too!). I gotta stay on one project so we can take him to shows and cruises also.