So I am about to put Dad's very traditional roadster pickup back on the road. I have decided to start this thread off from the beginning. Then through the wreck and finally the rebuild which I will document here on the HAMB. Sort of a full history of the little rod in one place. I do not have any photos of the original build at this point, but I will look around for some and see if I can drop in here later. But I can tell you, it took nearly 20 years a weekend here and vacation there to complete the first edition. Dad originally started building the frame for a T-Bucket but the cowl was so rough on it that he decided to build a '48 Thames 1/2 ton van that by the way he still has tucked away in the shop. That would have been in the early 1980s. However, after finishing the perimeter chassis work, he stumbled on a really rough chopped top 31 Model "A" Body. So he sort of changed directions. He finished the chassis and started slowly working on the "A" but it was crazy rough. In fact so rough that he decided to just cut the top off and make a roadster. But he still was not happy with the direction and traded for '26 Ford Tub body (which also fit just about perfectly on the home made hot rod chassis). It was in good shape but to be honest it was not what he wanted. T-bucket is what had been rolling around his brain since a he was a kid watching "Kookie" from 77 Sunset Strip hop into Norm Grabowski trend setting rod! So after 15 years of floundering, he decided to take the '27 cowl from the Tub and the doors, sills and back half from the original roadster pickup bucket and make one body. Finally the build really picked up some momentum. I found a Model "A" pickup bed for him and things really started coming together. He shortened the bed to fit the frame and with a cut down '32 radiator shell, home made windshield and steel wheels, it was basically his dream car. In it's first incarnation, it had a 327 with 3 deuces ran through a Powerglide to a 9" out back. Matte black finish wearing wide whites on red steelies with rings and caps. He ran it that way for several years until I found a cool 2 fours set up and convinced him it would run a heck of a lot better on two fours than one or two deuces (depending on their mood)! We also changed the wheel color to black and painted the grill shell. Probably one of my favorite looks for the little roadster. Then out of the blue about 2 years ago he starts talking about making a change. He said he had always wanted to paint it yellow. So right around the end of October 2014 we blew it apart and started prepping it for paint. After getting the body back on the chassis, I added a set of red flames to finish it off. We had it all back together and on the road in time for the local Hot Rod Holiday indoor car show. Dad cruised and showed the car through August of the next year. It was his absolute pride and joy.
Then came the First Ever Hot Rod Reunion, Vintage Drag Race at Ozark International Raceway in Rogersville, MO. The Austin Somerset was not ready to go so we decided to take Dad's car out and just do the Show-N-Shine. However, we heard as part of the show you got to make a few passes. So the night before the event, I had a great idea. Lets turn Dads car into a Drag Rod! We took the slicks and front runners off the Austin and put them on the little RPU. It looked absolutely awesome! We had an absolute blast!
Two weeks later, after resuming its life as a simple traditional rod, it all came to an abrupt halt! Dad was on his way in to Springfield to hit our usually Friday Night cruise-in when a speeding car tried to cross all four lanes and median in one shot. Dad was in the far right lane running about 45 miles per hour when suddenly completely from his blind spot, there was car broadside in front of him. There were not even black marks on the road. He T-boned the car and was tossed out and over it. He bounced about 30 feet down the highway. The speeding cross cutting car, took the little rod for a ride into the ditch. The impact was so hard that is snapped a Superbell axel and pretty much totaled Dad's ride. Dad was crazy lucky as believe it or not, he only came out with a broken rib, bruises and few scrapes etc. It was funny only after the fact, but here he is in the hospital holding the wooden steering wheel ring that he took with him when he was ejected. I settled with the insurance and got enough from them to replace his little home built hot rod with another bucket list ride. The real goal was not to spend another 20 years rebuilding the RPU but rather get him back in the hobby he loves ASAP. I bought a rolling '32 project here on the HAMB and had it and him back on the road with in 45 days of the wreck.
Glad to hear your dad's ok and in good spirits. As for the jerk who hit the car,well he'll get his. I love that you're getting the car back together and traditional style no less. Looks good . Good luck with the project and happy motoring Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Jeez, his wreck looks almost like mine. Police car making an illegal left turn. Sucks major. Glad he came out of it okay, for the most part.
Glad to see that Dad's OK and has a new ride. Maybe you can rebuild the roadster pu into a race only car, might be safer. Whatever you choose, it should be awesome.
Well I am working on sketches for it right now and I know a picture is worth a 1000 words, but here are the words anyway. I am going to straighten up the original body and put it on 32 rails. it will run a 1957 J2 Olds with factory triple carbs through a Hydromatic hooked to the original 9". Standard 4" dropped front axle with friction shocks, I am going to try and fix the original 32' ford radiator shell. Still playing with wheels, either salt flat style Halibrands or Steelies (real ones not a "unilug" pattern). The major change I am looking at is rebuilding the swept back windshield and then trying to adapt one of those small chopped top Deuce Highboy tops to it (I love the way they look). Then what ever color we do the top, making a matching functional lift cover for the small bed. We dropped by the machine shop Saturday and my J2 block cleaned up really well. No need to bore it out so we can use the stock pistons etc. They are installing the cam bearings this week and ordering a full engine kit for it. We might even start re-assembling it this weekend.
So the J2 Olds (which was supposed to be rebuilt but I new it wasn't) finally comes apart. Although it is actually in pretty good original shape, as expected, it had a shaker can rebuild only. We acquired an original J2 Tri-power intake (below) from a fellow HAMBer we met at the HAMB Drags. Below is the "killer cool" polished quad intake the motor came with but it appeared not to fit quite right. Although we never tried to bolt it on with gaskets etc., I am betting it is for a 324 but we will see when we get the engine back together for real. Either way we have it covered! Dropped by the machine shop this morning, the block is in really good shape so that was good news. They cleaned up the pistons and rods by bead blasting them. They looked awesome as did the original cam. So at this point we ordered bearings, oil pump, timing set and gaskets. Hopefully by next weekend, all the parts will be in and the shop will have the cam bearings installed.
Looking pretty good. Great to see another J2 coming alive. That Ol496 is for a 324. Unless it has been machined it will not fit the #14 heads properly.FWIW.
Thanks for the confirmation, I had not had a chance to run the numbers on it but just sitting in place it seemed to come up a bit short. Any one want to buy a cool OL496 Intake LOL!
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