As far as wheelbase is concerned, from the front lower edge of the body to the centre of the rear axle on mine is 6' 3/8''. This is only relevant if you are using a turtle deck or a standard length box. JW
Hey, Bud, on your steering column not lining up with the T dash. You can set the steering box inboard enough to line up with that dash, so whether you choose the stock one or another, your column will be lined up straight and any drop can be modified to bolt dash to column. You will be laughed at with the column coming out of the floorboard crooked AND it will look like shit. Just my 2 cents.
My wife went out of town for the weekend, left Thursday night and came back this afternoon. I started tearing the car down half an hour after she left, and stopped moving things around about an hour before she got back. I could have used another day but am happy to have gotten this far. The front and rear axles are on a trailer awaiting storage space, but the body, frame, and everything else are in their winter home. I still need to put together a body dolly, engine dolly, maybe a frame dolly, and do a bunch more set-up/cleaning, but the heavy lifting is done and I'm acutely aware I'm not getting any younger.
I often contemplate a build like what your doing. I think I'd fix any rust and structure issues with the body. Clean , rebuild and reassemble everything without sand blasting and painting it all. Just degrease, then Satin clear. Freshen the motor and trans, wiring and away you go. That's just me, it'll be cool either way. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Yeah, I had planned on building one but decided my shop space was too small. The boat will have to wait until I have more room... and live on a lake maybe? I bought a Buick 215 that had been converted to marine use before I abandoned the project. Sold the manifolds from it recently, and now am thinking I should sell the engine too. It's not worth much but I could use the space! I thought about it, but I think this body is too far gone. I'd prefer to do that to a survivor. Plus, I have an aversion to rat rods since my VW days and it'd bug me to have people calling it a rat rod because it was rusty.
Desmond of, I agree, not much for the "ratrods" myself. I like the unrestored hot rod look. If that makes sense. If the body is really in need of a lot of work, your probably right about the clear, even for me. In that case I'd fix it up as needed, then paint it in a weathered style to make it look like a survivor. Not pushing you, just motivating myself, lol. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
A rambling update since what little progress I've made has been hit and miss. Axles are still on the trailer, I decided to tear them down further and figure out storage for them here. First step was removing the rear spring. I bought the cheap spring spreader from Snyder's and am not impressed. Basically it didn't fit, the cross bar contacts the diff housing so it took a big wedge under the shackles, a big hammer, and a billion 1/8 turns with a big adjustable wrench to get into position. Then it took an angle grinder with a cutting wheel to remove the shackle because the spring end was frozen in place and nothing was moving. No worries cutting the shackle though, once I got that side apart I could see how worn it was on the axle side. It was junk anyway. Hopefully today I can finish pulling it apart and finding a place for it, I want to get past this prep stage and actually start working on things. Still need to build a few dollies for various assemblies first though. The rear spring is a 10 leaf version since it was a pickup in it's first life. I'm in the process of figuring out if I can get away with buying a new main leaf with reversed eyes and using five or six of the original leaves to come up with something. Or, buy a complete new spring? There is virtually no wear on the original leaves, likely because it was a pickup and the spring didn't give a whole lot under normal use? Up front the plan is a new reversed eye main spring with some version of the original leaves. I will not reverse the spring myself - for the cost of a new main leaf it's not worth it to me. Judging by the black paint on the engine/trans and a few of the parts I'm seeing when I pull this apart, my guess is it's been restored before, or at least had a lot of work done at some point? Obviously the brakes were gone over late in it's life. I'm attaching a pic of one rear brake - that parking brake set up doesn't look 85 years old to me! In other news, I can't find any evidence of a number stamped on the frame. I'm looking at the top of the frame rail on the left side, right behind the rear engine mount, but nothing's there. It doesn't matter, the title (which showed up on Friday!) matches the engine number. Wheelbase - I've spent way too much time looking at pictures and trying to scale hood lengths based on door sizes and other stuff. The conclusion is, I like roadsters with longer hoods. Probably goes back to my younger days and liking pony cars and imported stuff with straight six and V-12 engines. That said, I'm probably still not going to step the frame/commit to a wheelbase until after I have a turtle deck. Speaking of turtledecks... it seems I've spent some of the money I was saving in case I found one... oops...
All progress is good progress Craig. You're right about setting the wheel base after you have a turtle deck, I think that's a smart idea. Measurements are great but a mock up puts things into perspective and gives you the opportunity to chop and change and get it right from the beginning. Have you ever thought about building your own turtle deck? It would be quite a task, but definitely manageable when made in multiple pieces. Food for thought I guess. Keep us updated, I love these late T roadsters!
I have considered making a turtledeck, but not from scratch. I'd need the panels from somewhere. I haven't found the sides anywhere but other than that things seem to be available. **EDIT** I've also thought about a boat tail for it, not sure how that would work wit the roadster body but it something I'll be bouncing around in my head. The thread here on making them has piqued my interest in them once again... I called Howell's a few times about a quarter panel and never got an answer. I left a message and never got a call back. Then I started reading a lot of posts about them and I'm a bit gunshy about dealing with them. I think I found the left rear quarter I was looking for somewhere else? Still investigating but looks good so far. I do something with this project every day, but typically it's nothing worth posting about. While I'm still getting what passes for my shop set up I've been looking at a lot of different areas. I don't want to sound too scatterbrained so I haven't been posting all the questions I come up with, they can wait. But as long as I'm posting anyway - I got a copy of "4 Bangers and Me" last night. Engines in general are probably my most familiar part of this but the Model A engine in particular is new to me. Lots of different opinions on details but some of the more popular ideas run counter to what I "know" so it's taking some re-adjustment. A couple things I'm having a hard time getting my head around are A) heating the intake manifold is a good thing and B)Aluminum heads are not preferred over iron... and of course the whole RPM thing. For the past 25 years I've been ignoring everything that happens below 3000rpm. Seriously, Ducati newbs (especially ex-Harley riders) often complain how rough the engine runs below 3000 rpm. The fix is to downshift. Let it spin! Nothing good happens below about 4000rpm anyway. On a Model A, not so much. Time for a bit of recalibration of my thought process. And now I'm hearing rumors a Model A won't go 60mph in first gear? What's up with that?
Still working on getting set up so I can start real work. This morning I offically ended my riding season by putting my bikes away, aka put them back in the basement, which means I had to move around some car parts. I made a stand for the engine out of some 2x6's I had left over from some forgotten project, and added some casters on the bottom so I could roll it around. I got a sketch off a thread on Fordbarn; http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52661&showall=1 Next comes a body dolly so I can roll that around too. My shop area isn't all that big so it helps to be able to move things into/out of place as needed.
Apparently you're into Ducati's. I've got a Clymer's Ducati manual from when I had a single cylinder Italian Motorcycle in the 60's when I was in high school. Its complete but the cover is faded. Its yours for media mail postage. PM me if you're interested.
Thanks! I'm getting out of bikes though, and think I already have that one... I'm thinking someone else out there could put it to better use than me. I should have a quarter panel for it heading my way soon, a cast off of another HAMBer's project. That should go a big way towards bringing this one up to snuff. I'm looking forward to progress too!
Nice build you got going regardless of which way you end up going. I'm looking forward to following this. I have a 27 RPU that is destined for a similar treatment though probably on Deuce rails (depends on what I can find or afford). I just picked up an 8BA to start working on.
On one of my searches over at the Ford Barn I stumbled across a two year old ad for a roadster left side quarter panel. I sent a PM about it just for yucks since that's the side I needed. Turns out he still had it, so I spent a little more of my turtledeck fund and yesterday it showed up. Forgive the crappy cell phone photos, I took them on my way out the door this morning before work. Not surprisingly the guy who made it is a member here too (SUHRsc). It's not a finished panel yet but it's a heck of a lot closer than what I have now so... Thanks Zach! Now to find that damn turtle deck... and figure out if I the dropped axle I eventually get should be stretched or not... seems to me if it's not stretched, the tire will hit the wishbone sooner???
One more "shop prep" task done. I made it tall enough I can store things under it. Haven't decided yet if I'll add a shelf or not, it'd be nice to keep things off the floor... we'll see how it works out. Next step is to finally get things put away and get on to real work. Weld up the subframe so it's not flopping around (you can see the clamped area in the pic) and then sliding the body into the corner to work on the chassis. Still trying to figure out if I want a stretched axle or not. I've searched but no one seems to spell out why I'd want one over the other. Stretched seems to make more sense with regards to turning radius but what do I know?
Turning radius is mostly affected by the drag link not the split bones. Try and mount the radius rod under the chassis rails and not on the outside, this will help a lot. JW
I got my Alliance tag today (Thanks Ryan!) which inspires me to post a quick update. I think I should store or sell every non-Model A part I have in the basement. Just like with bikes I find myself getting too distracted when I go downstairs. I thought I had the plan for this more or less set but yesterday I kept spying a 215 Buick block and found myself considering a complete rethinking of what this should be. But I'm sticking with the 4 cylinder, mostly Model A build. I need to hurry up and spend more time/money going down that road to make changing course too costly to consider! Who's got a Winfield head they'll sell to lock in the choices??? One step taken, this afternooon I sent the spindles off to Joe's Speed Shop. This thing is going to have an Okie Joe's dropped Model A axle (not stretched) with a stock wishbone and modified Model A spindles. Well the steering arms will be modified anyway. I pulled apart the springs and the rear one is in much better condition than the front. I'm still waiting for Eaton to tell me what a reversed eye main leaf is going to cost for it, but then I'll be putting together something from the original(?) spring, it's in surprisingly good condition, enough to make me wonder if it's not a replacement. The front is in much worse condition, with more rust pitting and wear on the leaves from the end of the leaf above it. The third leaf from the top was broken and had worn a line into the leaf below it. Hmm... I've put a little time into grinding off the scoring and it can probably be done... so maybe I'll delete the broken leaf and only replace the main leaf on this one too? It's gogin to take a lot of time to round off the ends and remove all the rust and wear on each of these though, I'm considering replacing the whole thing. Other than that all I've been doing is removing things from the frame. Brake crossbars, welded on bits of who knows what sort of brackets. Oh, and also discovering that yes the cheap casters on the engine dolly will in fact get flat spots from sitting around. Oops. No shock there, lesson learned and all that.
On your front spring: Use a cut off saw on your worn main leaf to make a replacement leaf for your broken shorter one. Do some sanding/ light grinding to restore its original 'luster', along with the rest. Grind them on the ends to prevent 'digging' into the next leaves... Make the spring pack 'worthy' of your new main leaf. * *Eaton may NOT be the 'last stop' for a reversed eye main leaf. There are others more reasonable.
The Jalopy Journal
