Hot Rods A New England Channeled Roadster

Great side view, rear tire covers the wheel well just about perfectly.
Bob

 

I would love to have a chrome firewall in this! Unfortunately it is pitted from end to end and my sheetmetal work always requires a bit of polyester leveling enhancer.

 

Buffed stainless or aluminum sheet could be bolted over it.

 

Made up the rear sub rails out and of some 1/16” plate bent 90 degrees and plug welded them to the inner wheel wells. Skinned the floor with 18 gauge and made a small bump over the rear end to finish out the trunk area.


Working my way forward skinned the rest of the kickup and connected the tunnel to the floor. The pinion is off center 1 1/2” and didn’t want the tunnel to look too crooked in the car so I just made it a little wider then it needed to be. Also made up those two small bumped out covers for access to the spring adjusters.

 

Had a nice productive day, made up some more floor bracing and skinned both sides up to the toe board area.

 

It's coming along nicely. Nice job on the pans.

 

Picking away at the tunnel this week, with the transmission pretty much inside the car it was definitely a challenge to keep it fitting tight without looking like a square box. These tunnel pieces were formed by hand over a 4” piece of pipe and then welded together behind the shifter.

 

Looking great. I like the section taken out of the frame rails. You rarely see that great hack!

 

Thank you, when I first saw the sectioned rails on a channeled car I thought man this is genius. You get the look but can still sit low in it

 

Nice fab work! Looking great!

 

I completely missed that detail earlier on. Genius.

 

First I needed to build a new flange along the bottom of the firewall to give myself a target for the trans tunnel to land on. This was made from 1/16” plate and shaped with a torch.



I decided to weld the trans tunnel and toe boards together to keep it simple. The tunnel is 18 gauge and the toe boards are 1/16” plate.



Here it is bolted in the car, it adds a tremendous amount of strength to the floor as you would imagine.



With that project done I cut out the temporary bracing and laid some seat cushions in to make sure I fit before moving on. So far so good!

 

I really like this project, hard to believe there is this much steel attached to a glass body. Still remember the Westcott I had, $2,200 delivered to Connecticut back in 1976.

 

I believe it is a Brookville steel roadster.

 

@The37Kid
It is a steel Brookville body

 

I stand corrected, most Brookvilles are in red primer, Wescotts are dark gray.

 

Here’s what has been going since finishing the floor up.
Due to the angle of the rails being pinched so hard the F100 steering box needed the flange cut off and a new piece made up. I used a piece of 1/2” thick plate and made a washer out of 16 gauge stainless.

This works nice because you can drill your holes, bolt it to the frame and then set the position exactly where you want it before tacking.

I used silicon bronze filler to attach the flange to the cast steering box.

Now that the steering column was in I made this reinforcement plate 1/4” thick and welded it in to the firewall for the swing pedal / master cyl setup.




A shot inside the car with how it all lays out. Somehow an original 32 column drop worked out with no modifications.

With those pieces situated I ordered up some mandrel bends and built a set of headers. They probably aren’t the best design for performance but I think they look pretty neat.

 

What kind of pedal assembly / master cylinder are you using? Or did I miss the info earlier? Thanx.

 

I like the cowl bracket on the side of the rail. Little things like this are eye catchers. Bob

 

Nice work! Headers look great!

 

The pedal setup is from Rjays speed shop, very nice unit. I purchased the master cylinder and slave cylinder from Rockauto. They are early 60’s chevy truck items.

 

Thank you, channeling a car definitely brings out many obstacles to overcome.

 

Thank you!

 

Very nice work! Thanks for taking the time to show the steering box flange mods.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

What a day! I cut the chassis off the table and got the front end under it for the first time. It’s really taking shape now!

Cut in these 40’s buick taillights and got the 32 plate mounted up.

 

Now that's a Hot Rod ^

 

Great thread my old 31 survivor It had 10” channeled

 

Like the Buick tail lights!

 

Man that looks fine! You nailed the east coast look.

 

Great "Stance"