Hot Rods Model A body on ‘32 chassis WITH FENDERS- Help!

They hold it every year

 

Wow !

 

True, but I’m impatient as hell!


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Wrong answer.Cool car.

 

Have Rex Rods been to have a look yet??

 

Yes but we were not on the same page regarding cost. Apparently they thought I wanted gold-plated floorboards and a diamond-encrusted dash panel. I’ll be searching for a more affordable shop, or just find some guys that can help me build the car over time myself. I may be reaching out to you Hambers for advice!


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Sachse Rod Shop, Bruce's Rod Shop, Dirty's Rod Shop, Rusty's Rod Shop, Austin Speed Shop, and Rex Rods all do bad ass work. Most are 60 to 100 bucks a labor hour.

Unfortunately most builds are all one of a kind. Different modifications, past's transgressions, rust, and subpar histories don't make anything easy and cookie cutter production capable.

You can piece out your build. Any would take up part and parcel of what you want, and can or can't do. Many builds get pro help, but are by and large, owner assembled.

You'll figure it out. A good disassembly ....and parts tagging is a start. Ground up starts with suspension, and drivetrain. Plenty a home build guy can do.

Invite help as needed, or afforded. They'll be there. Still a plus.

Quick shoutout ..... @barett

New shop guy, but impeccable HAMB'r just down the road.

 

Yeah even if you just got the chassis sorted out I’m sure you could manage putting the rest together with some helping hands and patience

 

Fifty plus years ago when I started hanging out with hot rodders we figured it would cost the price of a new pickup to build a nice car. Most were built for half that and were not as nice or finished. But we drove them and had fun or used them for regular transportation. Today a new truck is $40,000-80,000. It's easy to get 1,000 hours into even a simple car like your roadster. No painter is going to shoot it unless he is happy with the body work. He doesn't want his work to fail because of someone else's work. Many shops will spend 40 to 80 hours just blocking the primer to get it ready to paint. Quality paint material will be $2,000 or more. That's why shops are quoting $10,000-15K (or more) for a paint job.
Did Rex Rods give you any advise on the frame and running gear on what is safe and what needs to be redone? If you can learn and do some of the cleanup and mechanical work you might be able to get the frame in shape for a reasonable amount and then your biggest outlay will be the body and paint.
Now that you have been shocked at what a quality shop with employees and overhead needs in order to do a job that they will be proud to have roll out of their door, the alternative is to find a quality craftsman that is working out of his home that likes to do side jobs. The usual problem with this approach is it takes much longer and in the end might not be as good a job nor as reasonable priced as first hoped.

 

Rex Rod guys were very nice and professional - obviously I didn't set my expectations realistically. I'm sure they do outstanding work. I'm not ready to lay out double what my first house cost to fix up a car.
So - to get started, anyone have any suggestions on how to drill out a sheared off crank bolt on a small block Chevy? I need to turn the crankshaft with a breaker bar to get the pistons to TDC so I can get the distributor out so I can put the original instake manifold and carb back on the car. I want to fire it up and see how it sounds. Damn - I'm even starting to sound like a car guy...

 

ask hambers, watch videos on youtube! you can do your own bodywork! i know it seems intimidating because you havnt done it before, my dad refused to help me or teach me about cars, not because he didnt want me to learn but because he could see i was already motivated and one of the best ways to learn is to be thrown to the wolves! learn as much as you can, practice on small parts, you arent building a full custom, youre restoring something. restoration is simple, make it fresh and pretty again, ive taught myself (with the help of forums and youtube) to rebuild carbs. cut and replace panels, bodywork, paint, install glass, rebuild engines, etc...yes it took time, yes i watched more than one video and read more than one thread on a subject before tearing into it. no i havnt ruined or destroyed anyghing more than a cheap paper gasket or something else replaceable. eventually i went to an automotive tech program at our local community college. it was funny because aside from rebuilding automatic transmissions, i had already done the entire curriculum. ask questions and uf theres someyhing too daunting, farm it out. theres no shame in not being willing to try. the big secret of cars is, once you try, you find out uts not that hard. theres tricks to being good just like everything else

 

Could have a nut welded on to turn it out. The heat generally loosens it up and then you can just wrench it out

 

Pull out the spark plugs. Hook up the battery to the starter. With your jim dandy remote starter switch bump the starter with your finger over the #1 spark plug hole. When it blows your finger off the hole #1 is close to TDC. Timing marks should be close. Pull the dist cap, the rotor should be pointing to #1 on cap. Make a note of the rotors location. After you change the manifold, replace the dist in the same approximate location. Drilling the bolt can wait until you pull the motor. But then you might as well pull the motor and get to grinding the frame.

 

My first house cost $9,750. My first new pickup 12 years later, a S10 ext cab cost me $11,000. I would spend $20,000 to fix up your roadster. I wish I could spend twice what houses are worth today, I would have an AMBR contender.

 

Now that you have been given a reality check on the cost of having others do the work, I will begin this pep talk by saying you can do it yourself. The original builder was probably some kid in his teens to twenties who didn't have a clue either. Most of his work is good. His main advantage was that the parts available were better. There really isn't a lot of all out fabrication that is needed. The best thing you have going for you is the HAMB. There are a lot of really good mentors here. They post pictures of their work so you can tell who the really good ones are and you can follow their advice. Separate the wheat from the chaff. If I offer really bad advice, I'm sure there will be people with better advice. Look at the updates on the Kookie Car. This iconic car was built by some kid who didn't know what he was doing either but he sure was motivated. If you see old pictures of this car, you can see changes that were constantly being made. See the current pictures and look at the welds. See the old videos of how hard this car was driven. That old hot rod stuff really works.

 

^ agreed this is basicaly a few repairs, a lot of cleaning and buffing, and putting it back together to over simplify it. You’re capable

 

One of the signs of growing old; when cars cost more than your first house. Only now it's waaay more.

 

283 ... probably isn’t drilled for a bolt in the crank , the balancer was just hanging out with the keyway.. nothing else in the old motors

 

Go to a parts store and purchase a flywheel turning tool. They are not very expensive. It grabs the flywheel at the teeth the starter motor engages.

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No need to mess with the timing when you change the intake manifold.
Pull the distributor cap, and mark the clocked position of the rotor on the distributor base where the cap seats. You'll be able to align the distributor to this position when reinstalled. Just DON'T turn the motor over when the dizzy is out. Have fun!

 

Thanks goldmountain. I had to look that one up, because it sounded too much like a ‘left handed hammer’ or ‘metric crescent wrench’, but it actually exists! Thanks.


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When I started on rebuilding my 54 Chevy truck, I didn’t know how to weld. I learned on that one with the help of fellow H.A.M.B.ers. Right after that project I built my 27 roadster heavily modifying an original T frame. At the last H.A.M.B. drags it made it’s best pass of 10.62 and best mph of 131. What you don’t know, you can learn. Just don’t be afraid to learn.
r


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Flywheel is inconvenient to use to turn engine over, unless engine is on a stand.
Flag down a pro tool truck, (or just punch up 'Summit') and order a small block crankshaft turning tool. (socket)
It is a 1/2" drive thick wall socket that's bored the diameter of your crankshaft snout. It has a keyway broached in it, so it slips onto your crank snout after removing the balancer. Duck Soup! Summit: "Sunex SXT 10000." $15.95
(they also have one for big block...Get the right one!)

 

Atwatermike: this is a photo I took of where I thought the crank bolt should be. It looked like it was sheared off.



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Raven-I’ve watched a bunch of videos in the last few days about welding and I want to give it a try. I may even take a class at the local community college. There are pros and cons to each. What is the most common for hot rod body and chassis work? TIG or MIG?


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That explains it. I guess I’m back to using the starter or the flywheel tool.


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Learn both, but TIG will take a long time to master. MIG will be more user friendly and just fine.

 

Redo32-they didn’t get into specifics but said they weren’t planning to box the frame or change the basic set up, just remove, clean and refurbish existing components. Maybe that’s why it was so expensive-it all labor. Probably cheaper to buy all new parts.


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Is it as forgiving as TIG? Will the welds be generally pretty strong?


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