Projects My roadster pickup project.

Hey Don been waiting almost two week's. When we gonna get an update? Gregg

 

Hi Gregg, sorry, I didn't see your post until now. Not much to update, we have been working on building my front shock mounts/headlight mounts and have those sort of half done. They will be capped and have a tapered end put on to hold the light, but here is the rough shape of what we are doing.



We have been helping Don shoehorn a 460 Ford into his O/T Capri drag car and that has been taking some trial and error. (Ever hear of 10 pounds of something in a 5 pound bag ? ) When I get a chance I am also working on the body to frame mounts, and those are about done.

As soon as I get some more done I will update where we are. Thanks for asking, say hi to Jan.

Don

 

I'm a sittin here thinkin more please. Getting ready to build one of these rpu things for myself. Ya do great posts. So may we have some more please.

 

Don, that is a way cool hot rod, love rpu's. Everytime I see your avatar it makes me smile, just says fun road trip to me. Keep up the great work. ~sololobo~

 

Nice. Just keep Dan under control. You have a deadline

 

Roger, thanks. Me too, I've really wanted to build this one for a while. Every time I would look over at the body just sitting there I couldn't wait to start on it.

Thanks, sololobo. My avatar makes me smile too, it is depicting my very favorite thing in life, cruising behind my two Sons in their hot rods. This past Monday night we got to do it again with all 3 of us and last night Dan and I took them out and went for a long drive to dinner. The night was cool and the traffic was fairly light, so it was just a perfect time to be in a roadster. Ever since Dan got his rpu running I don't have to ask him twice to go for a little cruise.

Thanks, Striper. Keeping Dan under control is ALWAYS a problem. He is such a perfectionist he drives me nuts. He keeps finding things on the car that he doesn't like and wants to change. Dan simply has never gotten the concept of "It's good enough." As for me, I want to drive this thing before I am too old to climb in there.

Don

 

Looking really good!

I need to get moving on mine...

 

Thanks NortonG. I've been following your build and you've got a lot of good stuff there to work with. Don't let the fiberglass work scare you, after you do a little bit of it you will think you have done it all your life. It's very forgiving and great for the home builder because it doesn't take a lot of special equipment to do.

Don

 

Very cool project will keep following this one.

Thanks
Frenchy

 

Thank you, Frenchy.

Tonight I worked on the interior of the body a little. Most of the hard work on the body is already done from when my Son Dan owned it, but there are some things that need to be changed to make it work with the current frame. One of those things is the transmission hump and driveshaft tunnel.

Dan was going to have the car sit lot lower than what I am doing, so the tunnel and hump were built pretty tall to accomodate the drop he was doing. I don't need them that way so I am in the process of cutting out the old hump and tunnel and we are going to build a smaller one.

Once I had some of the old stuff cut away I figured I better put the shifter on to see how much room I would need for it. I bought an American Shifter at Turkey Run last November because I have always had Lokars and wanted to see how they compared. It was only $ 20 cheaper but when I looked at them in Daytona they looked pretty similar, although the difference in money was not a factor.

I have to say I wish I had bought another Lokar. When I opened the box tonight the first thing that greeted me was a piece of paper that said :" This box contains NO instuctions, go on line to download the instructions." WTF is with that ? I was at the shop with no internet, so I had to try to figure out how things went. Luckily, I got through it pretty well as I have done a few Lokars and this one is somewhat similar.

The next thing I noticed is that the chrome shift handle is not the same quality as the Lokar.......the chrome is rippled, not smooth and deep like Lokar does theirs. Strike two.

But the most disappointing part is that my Lokar adapter and 8 ball knob will not screw onto the American shift handle. The Lokar is course threads and the American is fine threads. I specifically asked the salesman at Turkey Run if the adapters were the same and he assured me they were. I have an 8 ball knob that I am going to use because it was a gift from my Son and I ran it on my 23 for years. I kept it when I sold the car and will used it again on this one.

The other thing that bothered me is that there is no shift boot with the American Shifter. I am pretty sure all my Lokars had a chrome ring and vinyl boot in the box, so that is something else I will have to buy. If push comes to shove I will buy another Lokar and put this one on Ebay or Craigslist. Functionally is seems ok so far, but the points I mentioned are disappointing. I have to say at this point I can not recommend the American Shifter brand over Lokar.

Anyway, here is a picture of the shifter semi mounted and also it shows how I have begun to cut out the hump and tunnel.

Don

 

Today I downloaded the directions on the American Shifter website and while they weren't great they did confirm that I had it mocked up pretty much right. I also may have prejudged the quality because once I got everything assembled and tightened down it actually feels pretty solid and it moves through the gears very firmly.

I was also wrong about the Lokar adapter and knob not fitting the American shift handle.......it does. I had a burr inside the adapter I removed from my 23 and once I cleaned it up with a tap it went right on. So I was able to install the "Lady Luck" ball knob and just pushing down with my palm lets it shift gears pretty well.

Another thing I was wrong about is the Lokars coming with a boot as standard, I guess you have to buy the color and style you want seperately. The bottom line is, this shifter seems to be pretty close to the Lokars I have had in the past.

Don

 

I haven't had anything post worthy because all the work we have been doing on the rpu has been pretty boring stuff. Since the frame is now a roller my focus has been on getting the body mounted to the frame and figuring out how the transmission and driveshaft tunnels would be built.

As I have mentioned, my Son Dan owned this body and was going to use it before he bought a Brookville body and bed instead, so I took this one for my own. He had a lot of work in making it but it was built to fit a frame with different dimensions than the one I am using and consequently the subframe and hump and tunnel were just not the right size for the new car. He is using a different model Olds (455) vs the one I am running (394) and my setup puts the transmission lower and further back by about 6 inches than the way he designed it. So my plan was to modify the existing subframe and tunnel to work with my setup.

But the other night Dan looked at where I was on the project and he made a good suggestion................a good suggestion that would be more work in the beginning but that would result in a better car in the end. He suggested we just cut out all the old subframe he had built, leave the two side rails, and then build a new subframe, tunnel, and floor to fit my motor and transmission. At first I argued against doing all that work, but in the end I knew he was right so I agreed that what he suggested was the right thing to do.

So, tonight I spent 7 hours with a sawzall, 14 sawzall blades, lots of grinding discs, and I got the old subframe and tunnel removed. He built this thing like a tank, so it took some real doing to get it all out, but it is done and now we can put the body back on the frame and start designing the correct subframe.

Here are some pictures of the cab after I got about 150 pounds of steel removed from it.

Don












The other thing we got done last weekend was making the lower firewall sections and patching some holes in the top firewall section. We made the bottom out of 18 gauge steel and bent the edges to make them rigid. Having this done now will allow us to tie the floor and trans hump into it and weld everything solid. (That 1 x 1 steel brace is just temporary to keep things in line until we get some subframe back in the interior)

 

I really like how this one is turning out..

 

Thank you. I'm starting to get a little excited over it too. Can't wait until the subframing and flooring is done so I can start on the body work.

BTW, this is an early picture showing part of the stuff I had to sawzall out. There was actually more bracing than in this picture.



Don

 

Can you tell me what size and brand tires you are using? Also what offset and width of the wheels? The combo looks great together and would like to use it on a T project I'm fixing to start. Thanks

 

Looks like Dan was planning on running that thing without a frame under it.

 

This project has been inspirational for me as I am building a modified style build from a pile of A sheetmetal. You guys don't fool around, a lot of work cut out and started over....but I suppose you really wanted that 394 it had to be done. Please keep up the photo updates....I am getting some of the best of "my" ideas from them!

 

I would have liked to use 46-48 Merc front wheels like I had on my 23 and that are on my 27, but I used all the ones I had so I was forced to buy two front wheels from Superior Wheel. They are 15 x 5.5 or 15 x 6 (It's been a few years so I forget exactly) They are just stock offset with 5.5 early Ford bolt pattern. The front tires are 5.60 X 15 US Royals from Coker.

The back rims are also Superior Wheels, but 15 X 7 inches wide with the deepest offset they can build. Again, it has been a while so I forget the offset, but I think it is something like 4 inches. Those have the dual bolt pattern, Chevy and Ford. The tires I am running on the back are Firestone 15 x 8.00 slicks. I had the 10 inch wide Firestones on the back of my 23 and they were actually very good on the street and lasted well. Hope this helps you on your project. If you have any more questions just let me know.

Thanks. It's hard sometimes to just cut stuff up that you already have done once but it is sometimes the only way to make it right. Halfway though cutting it all out I was questioning my decision though..........cutting through long runs of mig welds is pretty hard and sure chews up the sawzall blades real quick. Good luck with your project too.

Striper, you know Dan, he builds things like he is going to run it in a demolishion derby. Not only was the tubing welded in, but he had everything gusseted. My arms and back are killing me today from all the cutting and grinding. I always get nervous when Dan starts staring at a car I am working on because I know he is going to come up with some better way to do it than I had planned on, which usually entails cutting something up and starting over. But once again, he was right in this case and the end result will be better and cleaner.

I thought I had hidden the sawzall real good, but he keeps finding it.


Don

 

Thanks Don that does help.

 

You're welcome. One thing I should mention is that the front wheels are just slightly wider than I would like. The 46-48 Merc wheels are just about the right width for the 5.60 tires I usually run, but that width wasn't available in the aftermarket so I had to go with what I could get. The tires do slightly balloon out, not horribly but slightly, and don't look as narrow as they do on the front of my 27. But I will live with it.

Just thought I should mention that in case you or someone else goes that route.

Don

 

Don, how do you ID the Merc wheels I have a ton of the 46-48 Ford wheels and they don't look the same? Oh yes great work on this project!

 

Thanks. In those years the Fords had 16 inch wheels but the Mercury's had 15 inch wheels. It was an old hot rod/custom trick to put Merc wheels on Fords to lower them and get smaller tires. The 46-48 Merc wheels have the hub cap nubs on the inside of the center section but 49-51 (I think 51, maybe 50) wheels have the nubs on the outside of the center section, so you can't use early Ford hubcaps on them. Aside from the hubcap mounting thing the wheels are pretty much the same.

Yesterday Dan and I pulled pretty much an allnighter and got a lot of the subframe figured out and started. He came up with a better way of doing it than I had planned so we went with that and it is turning out pretty nice. I'll shoot some pictures as we get further along in the process.

Don

 

I am digging this one

 

Subscribed

 

nice project sir.. Keep us updated

 

Clean work!

 

Thanks guys. Today we did a little more work on the subframe and got the center supports welded in. I was just going to use some more 1 x 2 tubing to do a drop down to clear the driveshaft but my Son Dan had a better idea. We cut a piece of 6 inch tubing in half and made two half moon pieces that go under the driveshaft. They will not only be a structural part of the subframe but will act as the lower half of the driveshaft loop. I plan on racing this one at the Billetproof drags so having a loop will be nice in case a shaft fails.

The next step is to form some more 1 x 2 tubing around the transmisson and tie it into the front of the body. Then we can start building the transmission hump and driveshaft tunnel. Here are a couple of pictures of where we ended up tonight.

Don

 

Tonight I decided to get some more work on the subframe done. Shaping the front part of it around the TH350 trans is a little challenging as it is a different shape on one side than the other, and also , it sits so high in the cockpit. I am using 1 x 2 x 1/8 tubing for the entire subframe and I continued to cut some of that up and fit it into place.

With the help of a bunch of clamps I finally got it all in there and now we can put it on the bench and weld it up and install it in one piece per side. I am going to add one more short piece of 1 x 2 to each side, midway back so there is solid support under my feet . Once this is welded into the body we can start shaping the trans hump and driveshaft tunnel.

Here are a few pictures of where I left off tonight. (That 1 x 1 brace across the door jams is only temporary to hold the body in alignment until the subframe gets fully welded .

Don

 

Very nice work. Subscribed!

 

Thank you .

Don