Projects Finally My '26 Chevy Roadster Build

Wow, some cool stuff going on with this. I like it.

I'd love to get a set of rockers like that. Are they old Neal Jern rockers or made by someone else?



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Sorry, double post.

 

Thanks. I did point out didn't I that the Olds head is not for the 153 Chevy but the early 171
The guy I got them from made them. He belongs to a Vintage Speedster club. These rockers were outlawed because they killed the Ford Fours. They are 2 to 1 ratio. I think the reason for that is that there are no hot cams made for these and there is not a lot to be gained by regrinding stock cams. The rockers are pretty simple and could be duplicated by any one with a mill. You could probably play with the ratio as well. They would work on Chevy or Olds heads.

 

Don't sweat it Six Ball, just wondering about the measurements, never physically seeing a Banger hot rod build up close or read about here on the HAMB. Happy that you scored some SERIOUS vintage parts for your Banger build! Now you can continue where you left off. Get 'er done Six Ball...

 

Thanks Mike. I'll get out there with a tape.
I bolted the steering column to the frame. It is even better than I thought. A bit of cleanup and it's good to go.

 

I once had a friend around 1980 store his 153 chev in my garage. Came with all kinds of trickery. Mercury marine cross flow cylinder head......dual weber side draft intake, vertex magneto, fancy valve cover, custom headers and other parts.

Was never fired and sold it to a CONN guy to run in one of those pipe dream winged things. So there is some go faster parts out there, just need to get lucky.

mike lynch

 

You are right Mike. Ansen made a head as did Duggan. Ansen made fuel injection and there are Weber carb setups. There are headers and a turbo manifold. Circle track racers used them a lot. I friend had a dragster with two 153s in it. He ran them on one V8 distributer. I actually have some after market stuff that I my uses on another engine.
A couple of years ago I got stuck on this thing as you can see. I was having trouble finding anyone who could or would do the work I needed for a price I'd pay. In the last month or so I decided get my tools up and running. That took some updates to our electric service. We make our own power and I did some upgrades. Still work to do. I changed the motor on my drill/mill so I can run it and am cleaning it and my lathe and doing some upgrades on them as well. I'll be able to finish some things that I took right up the end of what I could do. I let this stuff bury me but it is coming together now. Hopefully the mill will be up tomorrow and the lathe next week. Too bad the roadster is not the only project that's been on hold, but I'll get to it.

 

I have an Essex axle . free to you. just need a relay to get it to ya.

 

Thanks for the offer, That's how I got the cowl. We got it here from Texas. Is it just the axle or are other things attached? I have a line on a complete axle, springs, and wheels but it's not Essex. Probably Chevy but that really doesn't matter to me. I would like to find a complete steering box, column, Wheel and control levers like what I found for the Chevy roadster. Pretty sure that won't happen.

 

whole thing .from shackles right down to the broken wooden spokes.

 

Crap, Now you have me thinking about it.

 

OK so lets talk about the motorcycles!!

 

Not that much really. There's a '70 BSA Royal Star that was converted to 650cc, a BSA Trackmaster flat track racer less engine that belonged to Dave Aldana, several boxes of Harley Hummer pieces 95% of a one.

 

" ... I once was lost ... but nowww' I'm found ... was blind, but nowww' I seeeeee' ..... "

Subscription notation posts, are always better than long lost thread ... "like" clickies.

Ready, set, go !!!

 

OK, Maybe a reboot. Two of my friends, realizing or age and the inevitable tunnel at the end of the light factor, approached me with an offer I can't refuse. We are moving the '26 roadster project off the mountain to their shops in the valley. It will be easier for us to work on it together and make progress. I'm in the process of gathering and packing parts for the move. They promised to keep with my plan and we went through the photos of parts and photos of cars that inspired the build. They are both up to the task and have been offering help for years. I think the death of our friend at Bonneville last month caused them to put more pressure on me. Their thought is to have a roller at the end of winter and a runner by June. Not totally finished but drivable. Two of us are retired and the other one works at the V&T Railroad shop 3 days a week. We have the time and know how and are hoping 3 of us can get it together. At the very least all of the pieces will be organized in one spot and not hiding amongst the junk up here.

 

Oh man I hope you do. Yours is a great project. Ron

 

@Six Ball Glad to hear! It would be great to see you behind the wheel. Keep us up to date on the progress.
Tom

 

Put me on the excited list...that's great news @Six Ball...

 

Awesome man!

 

Thank you guys! My son was here today and we discussed a couple of machining jobs he is going to help with. They will enable engine and transmission assembly. Hope to have some new pictures soon.
It started snowing here about 5:00 pm. I'm not ready for it at all!

 

...Wahh....Saaanowww...yipes...we had pea sized Hail yesterday in fairly substantial amounts but yes the switch of Summer has been turned off...

 

We got a pretty good freeze last night. I haven't been into the garden yet to see if anything survived. The snow is mostly gone.

 

Just read the thread. Good to see you are still working towards finishing this project.

 

I hauled the second pickup load of roadster to my friend's shop today. I don't think these guys know what they are in for. It is sort of surprising how little space it takes up when it is not scattered everywhere at my place. While loading up I found what I need to adapt the tranny adapter. I'll get that done tomorrow and haul it down.

 

Part of my drive to get my A a little further ahead is to bolt all the shit together and take up less room. I bet with the roadster it’s even less room

 

My friends are afraid I'm going to run out of road before I get to drive on it. After a little cleanup I'll have room to do the adapter, rebuild the carbs, finish the distributer, mount the other tires, rebuild the front axle....... Well it all sounds good. My shop is such a mess that after I took that stuff out I still can't walk around. A few dump runs are in order.

 

Six Ball You have got a good start! And know what you want to do in the space. One load at a time, just remember to keep it up for a few days! You will be working in there in no time!

 

I had to get a batch of prickly pear wine started this morning but I piled up a few pieces to begin load 3.

 

Baby steps. I found a bearing retainer for the Stude trans that fit the hole in the adapter but I had to drill the bolt holes. I did them one at a time and transfer punched the next with bolts in the one/ones before. It worked well. That is done. I bored the pilot bushing for the Chevy engine to fit the Studebaker input shaft. I busted one by clamping in the vise on my mill. My lathe is down so I took it to my son. We also cut the fuel pump lobe off the cam so #2 rod will clear the cam. That is a hard piece of stuff! We put it in his mill and chipped if off with a carbide cutter and then cleaned it up the best we could in the lathe.
I' trying to do a bunch of this stuff here so we can mostly work on assembly at my friend's shop.

 

A bit more. We are starting work on the frame but first we had to build a table to put it on.

I also made another decision. We will use the Chevy radiator shell and not the Oliver tractor nose. The tractor piece is too narrow for the rest of the parts. I also nixed the '29 Chevy splash guard. Now that "THE" parts are being picked from the pile I can see that there two old Chevys in the in the pile. They were both trying to get out at the same time.