Projects Austin Speed Shop & The Kontinentals Present "The Jewel"

Lonestar Round Up Thrash 2014

Things have been settling here at Austin Speed Shop, we just moved into a new bigger building on a bigger lot here in South Austin, Texas. The Lonestar Round Up is fast approaching, I wanted to share this little Jewel of a hot rod that we have been working on.

Before I get started, this car has a great story, and I want to say that all of us at the Speed Shop are very thankful that we get to be a chapter in its existence.

So our chapter started just when we were gearing up to pack the old shop up in January to move to the new “Souther” Austin location. Good friend Brian Auderer met up with our own John Joyo to have lunch. During their meal Brian talked about getting his Model A sedan freshened up for the Lonestar Round Up. Thankfully Joyo’s gut told him we should get a game plan going on this thing ASAP (seeing as roundup was only a couple months out). So he got Brian to drive it over to the Speed Shop (still at Lamar) so Kail and Keith could take a look at it.





Back story starts at the first Lone Star Roundup, Brian's friend Joe Cabral drove his Merc to the show and sold it to another friend in Houston, that merc then was getting a small block transplant, making one merc flathead available. Joe then bought the 29 Sedan and mated the two together. He started having a shop “we will not name” do some “work” on the car, basically things didn’t pan out well, so fellow Kontinental CC members Steve and Reggie stepped in to help Joe out.

Reggie even started a thread here talking about how to not build a chassis, using this sedan as a prime example:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87702&showall=1

Here is another thread Reggie did while rebuilding the chassis
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97548

At this point Reggie had gone through the chassis and did a great job making it a solid driver. Joe took it back to New Orleans with him and that's when his friend Raymond got the rest of the mechanical sorted out for him. Joe enjoyed the car for several years until last summer when Brian also a member of the Kontinental family began his chapter with the car.

It ran and drove great but the exterior just didn’t jive with the rest of the work. Over time the paint was bubbling up and had some blemishes. Also we wanted to make sure the sheet metal was solid underneath for the long haul.

He also wanted to change a few things up without reinventing it. The car had a great presence, green with the white top, the stance, the Mercury flathead complemented by the Mercury hubcaps and steering wheel, it looked like it was fresh out of the little books. A few things always caught his eye though.. One the visor never seemed to look right, it sat a little low and had some funky bracing underneath, so he obtained a 30-31 visor to swap it out. He wanted to add a hood top, chrome windshield frame, chrome front axle, and dial in a few other little details. We also wanted to make sure all the rattles squeaks and any small details got cleared up.

So basically the list grew and we still haven't moved our shop. We didn’t want to disassemble the car and move it in pieces because we had plenty of other pieces to keep track of and move. So Brian's car was the first project to start at the new shop. Now we all know how moving works, you plan on having it all done and dialed by “x” and “x” usually turns into “x²”. So our deadline and our start date kept getting closer together.


Forward to February 5, 2014

Knowing we had a tight schedule and lots to do Kail made arrangements with the subcontractors, first one to get the car was JT at High Point Blasting. So we put Eric Anderson to the task of disassembling the car and cataloging all the parts. As we went along we noted anything to be replaced and sourced it.













If you have questions or wish to contact us, you can PM Kail on here or call 512-693-7277

 

Tasty little car.

 

JT picked up the body at this point and media blasted it taking it down to bare metal so we could see what we were working with. It had a good amount of mud on it and the chop was what we call “not professional” and neither were the rust patches.

 

Well, you sure got my attention, lets get on with the show. Outside of a bit of suspect work on the chop and patching and maybe the floorboards that is a pretty nice body to start a project with.

 

Jesse Miller and our visiting friend Tim started to go through all the old work, we cut out the bad patch work, recut the top and better aligned all of the pillars.



Removed the Cowl to gain access to the front sub floors and also to remove the


We also went through and fixed any rust not repaired by a questionable patch. And while we were at it we took care of the questionable patches..



After:

 

Awesome work......great to see you guys are back on track.

pete-

 

That Model A is getting a new lease on life. Great thread, I'm watching this one.

 

Love the work as usual. Look forward to following another A.S.S project.

 

Some more pics, It's hard to really convey how much sheet metal work we did in such a short period of time.

 

Looked good rolling in...im sure it will look even better rolling out

 

Ill ask again because didnt get answer last time.Does Jesse have anything to do with this shop anymore just a simple YES/NO will suffice no explaining needed?????????

 

No, Jesse James is a minority shareholder but is not a director and cannot act on behalf of Austin Speed Shop. Anything you see recently posted or produced from this shop, including bikes, have nothing to do with him.

 

Keith began installing a hood that Brian provided, like any of these parts it needed some tweeking, we ended up raising the grill shell to get the right transition from the cowl forward. So the lower part of the grill needed to be filled since it was cut to fit the frame

Also we took the opportunity to cut the holes in the lower grill to give it a more original look.
These are little touches that having the right customer really counts. Brian has a trained eye, and great taste, so our discussions were always very fluid. Every time we discussed a change or a design cue we got excited. We are thankful that we get a lot of trust from our customers, a lot of them come to us with a very blank canvas, giving us most of the design freedom. John and Kail spend many hours geeking out at night going through magazines, surfing for pictures of old coach built cars, and scouring everything from streamline trains and aircraft to old architecture and interior design looking for inspiration. Trying to submerse yourself in a time period and work with the world that was around you then, and not just trying to replicate something already done, not that its a bad thing to pay direct homage.. because when something is right.. its right.





Here you can see the 30-31 Visor installed and raised Grill. The hood is not fastened here..


Jesse Miller made a new toe board




And here is another one of the many piles we cut out.. Again hard to explain the amount we did in that short of time.

 

Great work, is this going to make the LSRU next week?

 

If we can get it all done by then.. yes, Body and Chassis are still not touching and its a week away

 

I really like what you have done to this hot rod......Bitchen dude

 

Funny you said that Jeff. And yes it will be returning to a very similar green.


So back to “The Jewel”.. not completely coincidence that there was a 1930 Sedan built by Ed Roth called “The Little Jewel” Also a similar full fendered hot rod that Roth built when he returned from the service in 1955.

Originally red it had a chrome undercarriage, it was later sold to Lee Rhodes to pay for the chrome bill on the Outlaw.

Henry Cantu bought it and painted it Green with White Scallops.

And just because I can,.. here is Roths entry form where he paid George Barris to enter the car in a show..

Pics and some history from http://www.kustomrama.com/

 

Also keep in mind while we are still thrashing on this car as I post this we have several events coming up

Tomorrow 3/28/14 We are hosting a pre-party for the Giddy Up Vintage bike show which is Saturday 3/29/14 in New Braunfels

Then the Big event weekend that everyone come from afar to participate in.
The Lonestar Round Up
http://lonestarroundup.com/

We will be having an open house on Friday April 4th
And our big party Saturday April 5th

Come by and see the new shop!

3507 Chapman Lane
Austin, TX, 78744

512-693-7277

 

Unbelievable beauty, go man go! Big thanks for posting the entry form too, a real kick reading those categories. 3 bux in '58....$25 in today's dollas, I'd give that times over to walk the Autocade in '58

 

Always great to see real craftsman at work apply their talents and creating another work of art.

Can't wait to see the final product in paint.

Jimbo

 

This whole time, Kail and Mr. Travis “Tuki” Hess were communicating as he was next in line for paint. I thought we made great time getting the metal work sorted out but the daunting task of bodywork and paint were left with just about 30 days to do it, oh and did I mention we are in Austin Texas? yeah Tuki is in West Virginia. So Danny who just happens to be friends with Tuki works on Saturdays here at the speed shop for a few hours selling merch, showing visitors around and talking shop. He volunteered his long haul trailering skills to make the run for us, which he did in record time.

So in 30 days, Tuki his dad Bucky and crew thrashed on the sedan, through text, email, phone calls and UPS spray out samples, they got the “new” color approved, made everything perfect, painted the green and the cream white, cut and rubbed it and got it back in the trailer for Danny to come get. This is another one of those times I am so glad to have good relationships with great subcontractors who really “get it”. Just like with Brian when you are on the same page from the beginning; communication, decisions and results come very easy. Tuki is a great guy, who is an amazing artist. He stands behind his work and his word. And we stand behind it as well.

Here are a couple shots, Tuki sent me when he was priming..





This is the sample that he sent via UPS so we could see the new color. I say new but it is very close to the original, little less chunky more refined version. Has great color flop in the light with a nice gold pearl.


And this is the first time we saw a painted panel..

 

Love everything about it! Great work!

 

Love it! Great piece.

 

Outstanding work guys.

 

Looking really good!

 

Awesome work guys

 

Dang cool! Looks like a Weesner drawing....no?




Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

That has a great look. it would be how I would build a chopped sedan