Projects The Hardscrabble Hop-Up; A 1940's Style 'T' RPU build

I had a brand new set of the 18" versions. Still had the stickers on them.

 

Nice! What happened to em?

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Good heavens fellas, I'm going to have to do all my future tire shopping in Pennsylvania!

 

Hey, 41 Dave, at least you live very close to El Mirage, a location that is definitely on my Bucket List. Just gotta drive there someday soon in my '32 Highboy. Someday soon.

 

Sold em to a guy in virginia from fordbarn. His brother was a truck driver and picked them up on the way through town. He told me he was going to put them on the rear of his 32 pickup.

 

Loving the build and attention to detail....nice tires not seen them before

Jay

 

pure tyre porn... would love a set for the rear of the coupe... but in 19inch...

 

That rolling stock is awesome and deserving of the build. Sweet!

 

HELL YEAH!!!!!!!! Those look great and are going to be perfect! I wanted a set of those in 17's for the roadster but ended up with the Excelsiors instead. I would LOVE to get my grubby mitts on a set of the knobbies though!! Good score Bro!!!

 

Work on the Hardscrabble Hop-Up has been small & incremental...

Did some measuring for my windshield chop...somewhere around 3 1/2" feels right (see bottom of tape line).

Got a decent 28-29 Fordor hood, removed the side panels and did a little 'hand fitting'. Still need to do a little more, but you get the idea. Wasn't sure if I'd like the bead (specific to Fordors), but it's growing on me.

Apologies for the horribly messy garage.

 

Nice work Gary! Don't feel bad about the garage mess....mine is a disaster too.

Are you gonna remove the bead? I would recommend it or pehaps locating an open car hood....as those tend to fit the '26-'27 bodies better. I believe the hood you have located is from a Briggs bodied fordor sedan on account of the rib.

The open car hoods and I believe the Murry body cars don't have the rib.

Just a thought...

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I had read that the Fordor hoods are dimensionally different than those off open car/coupe/commercial/Tudors, but I'm not seeing it...I have a beat up rusty hood (half) off a coupe and they're identical as far as I can tell except for the bead. The rear portion of the hood fit the cowl almost perfectly...the front just needed a bit of adjustment.

I'm actually kind of liking the bead at the moment, but I may take the hood (with side panels) up to Chickasha next month to see if anyone wants to swap.

 

Couple more hood pics;

There's a little crease in the cowl right where the bottom of the hood top fits up (it's the bare spot); at certain angles it makes the hood fit appear sloppy. Should look good when the dent is removed.

 

Gary, I'm surprised the tire police haven't attacked you yet. I too have some old tires that came with my newest project that I'm going to use. They are brand new and as soft and supple as any tire I've ever seen. These things have to be 50 years old, knowing where they came from. They were wrapped in paper and show no signs of cracking. Your hotrod is looking good. Keep us informed of your progress.

 

Crappy photoshop of the proposed windshield 'chop'...

Stock height:


Chopped 3 1/4"


Aiming for something like this (although I think this is chopped 3 3/4 - 4"):

 

Well, I just spent 30 minutes reading through this thread. Damn, that's some cool shit!!! Great build.

 

Sorry I haven't stopped by since last year, the progress has been great, so many great parts and pieces. Can someone tell me if Ernie McAfee was related to another early Dry Lakes racer Jack McAfee?

 

Just a thought....

 

Now that's dead cool...always liked laid back screens

Jay

 

Looking good! I think the hood fits in quite nicely. Is the tape lines what is being removed? If so I think it will look really good and proportionate.


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Sorta...the tape lines show the final position of the top of the lower and upper windshields. The chop is very mild - I'm 6'4" so I need to proceed carefully here, especially since I want to run a top on it.

Here's what I want the final product to look like;

 

That should look pretty nice. I decided on a top for mine after I chopped it so hopefully I still fit but I'm lucky to be only 5'10". Is that a claxon horn on the front frame horn?


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It's a Schwarze 'pancake' horn...need to have the brass cover re-nickel plated.

 

Gary...I dig it. Like Zach said, maybe consider leaning the posts back a bit. I did on mine by simply relocating one mounting hole in the cowl as I didn't want to pie cut the lower part of the stanchion. I think that they look funky on the 26-27 ones when you do that. Then again....as tall as you are and the fact that you want to run a top someday, you may be better off just taking a few inches out of the bottom frame like you want and leave them up and not leaned.......

 

Yeah, I may lean it back a tad...here's another mockup shot with the windshield photo-'chopped';

 

Small update - took a ride up to College Station to see Ross & check on the progress of the motor...with everything in place the pistons are .050" above the deck. Best's copper gasket compresses to .052" and the flycuts in my (.020" milled) Winfield head are .035", so I've got .037" of clearance, which is a little too close for comfort. We'll be machining .015" off the piston tops to give me just a bit more space in case I ever need to have the head cleaned up/resurfaced again.

Pics to come soon...

 

Heck ya nice build. Love it....

 

I love this build!

 

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This is really looking great!

On a side note, I notice you are a moderator now.
I feel you are doing a very good and effective job as such.