Hello all! Dont get as much time as I'd like to take part in the HAMB these days, but thought you guys would like to hear about my longterm A Modified that has been gathering dust for the last few years whilst I fanny about doing things that at the time seem more important but with hindsight just get in the way of the really important stuff, i.e. messing around with your mates in old cars. A lot of you British guys will have seen a similar thread on another forum, but for the benefit of those who haven't heard the story so far I'll start from the very beginning ("...a very good place to start"), but the interesting stuff for most will be further down the page. Suffice to say the game is once again afoot Ok, so once upon a time I had a perfectly nice '32 roadster pick-up called Doris. Here she is... (Pic by Nealie) She was my first proper hotrod and I spent plenty of time and money getting her fit and useable, and she was both these things, but as I got more involved with the trad (or whatever you want to call it) side of the scene I started to realise that I she wasn't what I wanted anymore and I started hunting around for a new project. I'd always been more of an A than a B man anyway so an A body was what I went looking for. A buyer came along for Doris so off she went and I then became the owner of a '31 Sedan body in good order and the rustiest '29 Coupe shell you have ever seen. I was looking around for all the other bits too at the same time thinking I'd probably go the Flathead Ford route but briefly flirting with a Buick Straight 8 as well, I like silly engines you see, when I was offered the silliest engine of all. A friend of mine's brother had a '39 Cadillac Flathead V8 for sale, so my good friens Phil (hotrodfil) and I hot footed it down to darkest Essex in a borrowed van for a look see (Well, to buy it actually, you know how it is) and after much huffing , puffing, grunting, swearing, and strained muscles we managed to open my wallet and we dragged the great lump of an engine home along with boxes of spares and a LaSalle gearbox, the van looking a lot less happy about it than I did! This we delivered to another good friend, and fellow Jesters CC member, Ivor's workshop, where the van smiled more than us after the effort of unloading. So now I had a silly big engine and a choice of bodies to use, all I had to do was choose which one. So I did the sensible thing and sold both of them on and started collecting panels for a Modified! There was actually some sound reasoning behind this, really there was. The Caddy motor is so big that it was going to be the focal point of whatever I put it in, not to mention the fact that it'd be well back into the firewall to keep stock A dimensions. And I also realised that at the end of the day I was building a hotrod not a sensible everyday car so did I really need a roof? Fuck it, I've been getting soaked on bikes for enough years... So panels were sourced from various places, as was an unidentified Ford front axle and spring (Any pointers gratefully received), some wheels and a mock-up back axle, now we needed a chassis. Now going for a ground scraping Modified with this much weight up front (The engine, not me) would've meant giving a stock A chassis such a workout that we decided to build from scratch but in an A styleee. I left Ivor to it and two weeks later we had this... Then we got the HIAB out to move all 900lbs of this into the chassis, that leveled the spring out a bit... A few more weeks work and a rear axle sourced and we rolled her outside in the sunshine for a look... ... and again after more parts collecting and more work from Ivor and we got to here... Obligatory 'Grinning idiot holding steering wheel' shot... And that was where the story came to an abrupt halt for a few years. Life took me down to the south coast for a while and I sold the project on to Ivor and messed around with a rusty '60 Sedan DeVille for a few years. Ivor fitted a small block Buick motor to the chassis and did some more bodywork, and I stupidly sold the wonderful engine and many other choice bits that I'd collected to keep me going financially as work was hard to find. But as is the way things suddenly took a turn for the better when I found myself homeless and without the '60, as this happily coincided with landing a plum job driving rock stars around and finally I had some cash in my pocket again. So I did the sensible thing once again and before sorting a place to live I'd bought the car back from Ivor and was on the hunt for another Caddy Flathead to fill the rather large hole the last one had left! Coming up empty handed from a few months searching the UK I had a tip-off about a complete running engine and gearbox in California, it wasn't cheap but it sounded a good 'un, so I wired the money and awaited the container arriving in Felixtowe. Once again calling on Ivor's assistance to collect and store the lump (The engine, not me) I got myself back up to his place in Norfolk full of hopes of a check-over and oil change and getting it running on the floor. Here it is on arrival... ... and the longest tailshaft I have ever seen on a LaSalle box... Out with the plugs and she turned over easily by hand so on with the oil change... ... oh dear. To be honest after finding the muddy sludge that was in the engine my heart sank pretty rapidly and all thoughts of bench running the motor went out the window. Firstly it looked like there was quite a lot of water in the oil which either meant a leak (Head gasket, or worse a cracked block), and secondly I really hoped the engine hadn't been run in the States for long in that condition. We spun her over on the starter briefly and more shite emerged from the plug holes and we also discovered a stuck valve. Running out of time that day (I was out on tour again the next morning) I left the motor with Ivor to strip and inspect. It would've been nice just to wire, plumb, and run it, but as things were a rebuild looked like it was on the cards. Luckily the motor seemed fine inside on visual inspection with no obvious cracks or damage, but all the bearing surfaces were pretty clapped out and she needed a hone of the bores at least. The engine was stored away in the dry whilst I went off to earn some more money to rebuild it, and that was how things were left at the beginning of 2012.
Fast forward to last summer and I've moved back to Norfolk at last, changed jobs in the same industry, and am itching to get stuck into the Modified again. Anyone who knows me will tell you I've never been much of an engineer, I'm definitely one of those who enjoys driving and maintaining my cars rather than building them. I'm quite happy with the mechanical side of things but when it becomes engineering I come unstuck. Don't get me wrong I've picked stuff up over the years and like anyone I'm learning all the time, but I am realistic enough to know when to hand jobs over to someone else. Working away for most of the year is hardly conducive to car building either! For this reason I was planning on getting Ivor to finish what he'd started for me nearly 7 years ago. Unfortunately things have changed for him over that time too and with him being snowed under with work and having a busier family life it just wasn't going to happen. Time for me to enlist some more help I realised. After discussing my choice of engine many times with him over the years there was really only one other person I wanted working on the engine and that was Jim Turnbull at Royal Kustoms near Poole in the UK( http://www.royalkustoms.co.uk ), so one sunny day at the beginning of August I loaded up my long suffering Ford Escort van with the component parts of Cadillac engine and box and headed south to Dorset. I'd never driven a Gasser before, and if they all handle like my Escort did that day then I never want to. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that day, but if I did they'd look like this; We unloaded the engine and box at Jim's shop... Had a nutritious and healthy lunch at the cafe next door... And followed that with a serious discussion on where to go with what we had... Jim's hard at it making things all lovely and cuddly in the power department. At least thats what Jules tells me. So thats the engine sorted, now just the rest of the car to build, and who better to handle it than your friend and mine Russ (Rottenpop on here), who has bravely stepped forward to handle the majority of the rest of the build for me. (I've not told him just how much that'll entail yet, keep it between us for now eh?) So last November I blagged a towcar and trailer (Thanks Phil and Pixie!) and headed over to Ivor's to collect the Modified from storage. Here she is hiding behind a small motorbike... ... out in the sunshine for the first time in years... ... and onto the trailer... Then we chugged off to the wilds of Lincolnshire and to the home of Rusty Bar Rods where, with a little help from some fellow Jesters (See, we do have our uses) the Modified was rolled into her new home... The only real 'job' to get done was swapping the wheels from Ivor's kindly lent steels to the wires (18" front and 16" rear) that Dale had completely failed to wear out when he borrowed them from me to sort the handling on his Coupe. I proved my mechanical abilities here... With a little help... Before eventually letting an expert do the job for me... Well done Alex! There then followed a happy afternoon of humming and harring, tea drinking, piss taking, and general nonsense whilst we strung together a lose plan of action, though nobody liked Archie the Lincolnshire Terrier's ideas much... ... culminating in yet another obligatory 'Grinning idiot holding steering wheel' shot... And here she is as she stands now before Russ gets serious with the grinder and hammers... And that was the last time I saw her, what with work keeping me away on tour all the time. There's plenty to do and a few changes to make (The first of which will be the windscreen you'll be glad to hear) and But all the important bits are in safe hands and I'll be doing my best not to drop the other bits myself. And I now have a deadline to work to as well. The plan is to debut the car in September when it is booked to race at the historic Pendine Sands in the first speed trials to be run there in nearly 80 years This is the place where the likes of Sir Malcolm Campbell learnt his trade in the days before the legendary Ab Jenkins started his record breaking at Bonneville, and invited us Brits over to race him. The Sands were closed to motorsport in 1927 following a bad accident, but through persistence and enthusiasm the UK based Vintage Hot Rod Assoc. have managed to get approval for speed trials to take place again later this year for a very limited number of cars, including a few old record holders from back in the day. Having the only Cadillac Flathead engined hot rod in the UK (As far as I know) I had to apply to race, and I was lucky enough to have my car accepted to run. Hopefully we'll have the car finished and ready before September so we can shake it down and iron out the bugs before trying to break records! Here's a link to the VHRA website for some more info on the event if you're interested; http://www.vhra.co.uk/VHRA/Pendine_Sands.html Since last November there's been plenty of progress, so if you'll forgive the lack of interesting pictures (or any pictures for that matter) then I'll bring you all up to speed First off, the engine; Jim's been hard at it checking things over and amassing parts ready for the rebuild. The good news is that the block is a good 'un and well rebuildable, the bad news has been getting hold of the parts. Its so far taken since last November to get Egge to supply all the rebuild parts, and for us to get hold of some solid adjustable lifters to go with the lumpy cam we managed to source, but I'm pretty hopeful that in the next couple of weeks Jim will finally have all the bits he needs to crack on and get the old boat-anchor built, which is fantastic as we've both been tearing our hair out getting hold of stuff! The only thing I can't source is the Burrell twin carb inlet manifold I was after. For various reasons , Burrells can't supply any new at the moment, and they have no stock either. And finding a used one is a proper needle in a haystack thing. So if anyone has any leads, or knows someone who might know someone who might have either a Burrell or an Edmunds sitting on a shelf somewhere, please please please get in touch, I'd really appreciate it. :-[ Jim and Jules, as always, are being total stars despite the delays that they have no control over. Just glad they're not charging me storage though! Next, the gearbox; After much humming and harring we've decided to go with the 3 speed LaSalle 'box that the engine came with, albeit modified somewhat. Jim has managed to source a NOS Hurst top-shift conversion for the side-shift 'box, and the enormous tailshaft is getting shortened using a combination of Ford parts and magic as far as I know, Jim did explain but there was so much information I spilt some of it and now can't find it . Unfortunately the gears in my 'box are pretty much buggered (Not the best buy, this engine/gearbox was it?), but luckily we've sourced another 'box which hopefully will have a decent set in, time will tell. So that just leaves the rest of the car; Hmmm, where to start? Well, basically, Russ has cut most of it up and started again! Not because there was anything wrong with the work Ivor started you understand, just that certain things have changed with the overall build, plus I've changed my mind on a few things, and of course Russ wants to build it the way he wants. Which is exactly what I asked him to do so its all good. Its difficult to explain without some pictures to show you, so lets just say that things are progressing nicely, and I'm sure Russ will stop being camera shy and show me soon! Also, thanks to Russ and Dale, we've had a major result regarding parts. A guy about 3 miles away from where they live is breaking a '39 Cadillac limo in preparation for banger ( ) racing, and has been persuaded to part with most of the unboltable bits of the car for a reasonable price. This has included loads of trim and chrome, dash parts, pedals, and even the engine and gearbox. This was great luck as it means Russ has a dummy engine to build the rest of the car around, as the delays we've had with the motor were having a knock on effect. So massive thanks to both Dale and Russ for not only finding the parts, but spending their free time dragging it all back to the workshop! I've been away on tour since the middle of Jan so I really couldn't have done it without them. Cheers lads The back axle, or most of it, has come back from Nervous Bob's workshop, so things are moving on apace. Pendine is looming fast and I really really don't want to miss that! So thats it for now, stay tuned for more Modified news in, well, probably about another 5 months at this rate ;D Huge thanks to all those who've helped me get this far, and apologies in advance for the pain I'll be putting the rest of you through over the next few months. Hopefully Russ and Jim will find some time to have some input to this thread too as with my work situation I dont get to see much of the project as it moves along! Oh, and for those of you wondering about the title of this thread there's a simple if sentimental explanation. I always give my cars old ladies names just as my Dad does and my Grandfather did too. Halfway through the build to date I lost my Nan who I was very close to, so by way of tribute to her I've christened the car Edna May, hope she approves
Yep, Good read! Like they say, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. That's a great looking cab on your mod, considering the mongrel lot of panels it started as. Me, I'd have to have a door on it; I'm too banged up to be climbing over the sides! Contact HAMBer 38FLATTIE - he of FlatCad Racing Team; might have a lead on a multi-carb intake for your "lump" of an engine. Best of luck with it. Later, Kinky6
Great story, Ratty! I don't know where to pick up a 2x2 at the moment, but might be able to get this 3x2 I built back....
Hey Buddy, how ya doing? Hmmm, that inlet certainly grabs the eye, dunno if 3 carbs might be overdoing it a bit though! What did you run it on, tell me more
I don't think you need to worry about having too many carbs-you need to worry about getting ALL the air you can. If you do a light port job, and dual exhaust, with the cam you need, you'll need air to make HP. I never did run it. I made it for the original FlatCad, when it was going to be a hotrod engine. Then I swirched to the first blower manifold, before this was ever ran. This intake is now gathering dust on a shelf in New Mexico.
Well its certainly worth asking the guy if he'd be willing to part with it, thanks! I'll have a chat with Jim, my engine guru, in the meantime
Great story Ratty If you manage to source an intake, I'm heading home to East Anglia from Phoenix at the end of April and can stick it in a suitcase Someone has got one surely?
Haha Ratty your tales always make me chuckle. With Jim working his magic on the motor you'll have a strong running lump for sure. He's had a bit of practice at porting as you know so it should breath pretty good. Hopefully the next obligatory photo of grinning idiot will have the steering wheel bolted to something! Good luck with hunting for an aftermarket Cad intake. Can't wait to see this running at Pendine.
Thanks for the support chaps, believe me we (well, Jim and Russ) are working hard towards that target! It's going to be an historic event and I so have to be a part of it. Hopefully I'll manage to turn up the last difficult to find parts to make it happen. Buddy, emailed your man with the 3x2, here's hoping
Great story and well-told at that. For flathead Cadillac/LaSalle engine parts I used to go to Terrill Machine in Deleon, Texas. Good Luck at Pendine.
Hey Ratty, long time... Project looking good. Just been offered a running Cad flathead locally for $400!... Tempting!
Awsome! Ratty, here's some inspiration- this is a 2x2 I used to have. Can you imagine what you could make that 3x2 look like? Have you, are are you, going to go with the aluminum timing cover?
Hi all, sorry for the delay in replying, had a mad couple of days dashing around Europe with crap wifi access. Firstly, thanks for all the encouraging comments, glad you all approve of the project and the goal we're aiming for. Amazing how a bit of sand can get people so excited isn't it? Buddy, the great news is yes, I have a 3x2 inlet fanimold heading my way, and I'm chuffed to bits! Not only that I've got my hands on such a cool bit of kit (and well done on creating it in the first place by the way), but I wind up buying it from such a cool guy as Jeff Brock! And what a nice guy he is too, most happy, and thanks for lining things up As far as other bits on the engine go I'm starting slowly, going with stock timing cover and water system for now to see how it goes. The insides are getting a good warming over though, hoping for some good gains and I'll keep you all posted. Andy, your luggage is safe mate, the near 30lbs of metal is currently being hefted by USPS, so with any luck it'll turn up some time this decade Russ, the fanimold is heading straight to Jim, your hernia is safe
Ratty, I'm glad you got the intake! I really wish I had never sold it, so if you get rid of it, please think of me first! Let me know if you need any parts-I might be able to help you! I know you got the Winfield grind cam from Brierley-are you going to port the block, and go with dual exhaust? FYI-the stock heads breath better than ANY of the aftermarket heads, and the 1942 and later have another 1/2 point of compression over the early heads.
Yup, going with pretty much straight through pipes rather than use the stock manifolds, and Jim is going to use his experience on Ford side valves to get the old girl sucking and blowing a bit harder, fingers crossed
Ratty, did you see these lake style headers Zibo made? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=335174&page=4
Damn, that's another whole thread I've got to read through now! But that's definitely the direction we're heading ...
Ratty, I understand the engine is done! C'mon man, if you're not gonna post pics, at least send ME a couple!
Seeing as how I have been making progress I figure an update to this build thread is long overdue... This is how the car looks like now. Slowly getting somewhere...
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