Projects At it once more... '27 T Roadster build

Well i got the roadster from Andy up in buffalo about 2 weeks ago and been hitting it hard. Cleaned up the 27 chevy frame, cut out the cross members and pinched the rails to follow the T body and subrails better. Powering it is a 216 i had laying around. Up front will be a '38 axle with '40 backing plates, and out back a '54 Chevy rear with a shortened torque tube. Still waiting on some parts to arrive, hoping to have it ready for the Showdown in may. At this pace, it shouldnt be a problem. Hope you all like what ive done so far and check back often since ill be updating about once a week. John

These are the ones i took before any real work started but i will have more up soon.

 

can't wait to see your pics!!! sounds real cool...

 

That was fast! Lookin' good John, I guess it went to the right guy, huh. Can't wait to watch it come together.

 

Thanks Andy! Next ill get on mounting the rear the and getting the engine set in there. But its is going quick.

And i had some time to kill last night so i made a shifter for it. It was an old 3 speed indy shifter that i got with a truck. Bent the arms flat so they bolt to the side of the case and welded everything solid. Then cut the arm down and went out back and got the shifter off the 38 dump i have. Welded it up and it turned out great. Just need to wait until the motor is set in so i can get the final bends right.

 

Looks like a great start. Have you given any thought to building it as a 3 springer with a Franklin or Chrysler tube fron axle?

 

I have a mopar axle but i wasnt sure if it would look right on this car. Plus i have a lot of wide 5 stuff so i wanted to use it on here, thought it went more with the look of the car... well how its supposed to look in my mind lol

 

Well the snow this past month has been killing me so i havent had time to head out to the barn to get work done. But things have eased up and had time this weekend and a few nights during the week to get more done. First thing was widen the front crossmember to fit the spring. Got that done and all cleaned up, looks stock and thats good for me. THen got the front motor mount done and turned out great. Real simple and strong. And this past weekend, got the steering box mounted and cut out a crossmember out of the dump truck to use as a mount for the ball of the radius rod. Next im tring to figure out how to mount a set of pedals and a trans mount. Just need to get the steel for it. Hopefully thatll be dont this weekend and then off to getting the rear set in. Hope you like what ive done so far.







Hump in the frame for the steering box



Radius rod mount


Widened crossmember and motor mount



Still need to add some gussets and final weld everything but its looking good so far

 

Wow! looking good!!

 

I set up a 27T firewall exactly like this awhile back. Looked great. Fit great. Then it came time to adjust the valves. Guess what. oops pigpen

 

Have that figured out, have a chevy firewall out of a '30 truck. Ill cut the T firewall out and put that one in place. Ill get rid of the bump out on the T firewall and go flat up against the cowl banding with the truck firewall.

 

That should do the trick. pigpen

 

Way to go, John. Looks great!

 

Maybe I'm not remembering right, but shouldn't the brake pedal should go under the steering wheel??

 

Well time for another update... I had some time this weekend and cut some pieces of channel i had bent up to fit in the frame rails for a crossmember to mount the trans and pedals off of. Its all just tacked right now and a little crude but i just want to make sure everything fits and wont have any issues before its blasted and welded solid. And last night, i took some time to mount the rear in the car. Its a torque tube axle out of a 54 chevy. I cut the stock perches off a junk model a rear end i had laying around and used those to mount the spring. The frame rails need to get trimmed cause the spring hits on the bottom side of the rail. But ill wait on that since i want to get the rear section of the frame boxed. Just waiting on a couple little things and this chassis will be ready for blasting, welding and then paint =)

Let me know what you think. John

 

Good work alot of inspiration thanks =)

 

Looking good....but one thing...

A "216 just laying around"? C'mon, meng!!!



Look familiar?

 

Haha.. it was laying around my garage after i got it from you. Kept tripping over it so i had to stuff it into something.

 

Man,I love those T's!

 

She's a roller!!! Finally got my adapter plates from speedway for the rear and shortened the torque tube last night. It ended up being so much easier than i thought it would be. We took a couple measurements and then it was time to start cutting. We pulled the cuts out of it so it was just the center section with tube. Cut the tube off with a band saw, cut the tube out of the center section with a torch and then cut the tube to length. Once all that was done it was time for reassembly, thats when it got fun. So it was time to fire up the torch and heat up the center section and stuck that and the outer tube in a 60ton press. After lots of creaking cracking and popping it was all one piece again. Now its time to cut the inner shaft which will be even easier. Its a hollow tube, so we cut the splined shaft of nice and square with a pipe cutter and chucked it up in the lathe to get the rest of the tube off where the spines where pressed and welded in. So now the tube needs to get cut down and the end can get pressed back in and welded. And i also got the trans crossmember in. Used some 57 chevy rubber donuts and stock 27 chevy motor mount that was modified to fit the trans. I think thats it for now. In the next week or two i hope to get everything blasted and get cracking on welding up the chassis solid since it seems everything fits just the way it should. Well i think thats it for this week.




Trans mount using old crap laying around in the scrap barrel and pile outside



30 chevy firewall cut and tacked in


And the torque tube and rear in

 

Bump for the morning crowd

 

Very cool man, I too am planning to go to the Showdown (first timer) we should meet up and roll together...I live in Jeffy off of 15....like the T!

 

I see in the other pics you have a few more nice projects waiting patiently for some attention!!
Look's cool man keep it up..

 

wow, your 27 brings back the days when i was building my old bucket. Have fun, and do i right the **3rd time** and drive the Hell out of it.

 

Im stoked too!! good inspiration man, I just got mines' yesterday!!!!! A coupe body turned into a roadster by the previous owner. Fuk it!! ill stay tuned!!

 

It's looking phenomenal. I can't wait to see it done! Hopefully I can swing by there soon

Now I'm getting depressed that I don't have sh*t done on my A....gotta get my ass in gear and get some garage space.

 

Just have a little update tonight. Been busting ass when ive had a chance, other things have gotten in the way as always. But i tore the entire body apart so i can blast the subrails which are really rotten but im ready to repair all that. And i took off a day from work and blasted and primed a whole pile of parts. Today i picked up a new toy and after that got to working on making some gussets/body mounts for the frame, fixing the f'ed up bends on the crossmember. Also modified the arms on the pedals and mounted the master cylinder. Hope you like what ive done. May 14th is getting mighty close but i think i can still make it =).

My new toy in its place, just waiting for time to rum power over to it and wire it up

 

Bump for the morning

 

I see you use an ARC welder..

 

Well this weekends project is pretty much all done. Fixed the subrails that were all rotten out. It wasnt very hard but took one hell of a long time to do with all the fitting and grinding. New to old steel was welded with a torch and new to new was all mig since i was running out of welding rod haha. And during the week, i got the motor torn down and regasketed the whole thing today after i washed it down and degreased it. So this week i should be ready for some epoxy and chevy grey. So now the motor will be all done and ready to go in. Its not much but a major chunk of the time consuming work is done.












and this is how you shouldnt load your trailer. It made for a fun 5 mile ride to the scrap yard but made me enough money to buy the rest of my patches for my car and maybe a pair of tires.

 

Just a little update this week. 3 days of snow has slowed me down. But i finished up the rear part of the subrails this week. Finished welding up the chassis, got the rear boxing plates welded in. Also made some headlight mounts but they need to be tweaked a bit, still too close to the grill shell. And i got the cowl blasted and my buddy hammer welded the patches in and fixed the top of the cowl were it was pushed in under the windshield posts. Im getting there slowly but the weather is screwing me up. Spring is here but winter doesnt want to leave.