I had such a blast racing my AV8 roadster at The Race Of Gentlemen this year that I decided to build another car for next year's race. No guarantee I'll make the cut as there's a lot of competition for an increasingly limited number of spots, but I'm going to try. As some of you know, I've been helping fab32's widow with the liquidation of some of his assets and cleaning out his huge shop. Behind the barn I found this '26-'27 T roadster body along with a rough set of doors and a trashed turtle deck in pieces. In a junk pile I discovered a deuce chassis that required the cutting down a small tree to liberate it from the heap. I scored a pretty nice turtle deck on eBay and ran out to Iowa to grab it. At that point I had the bare bones of my 2016 TROG racer. Maybe someone here knows the story on this body? Fab32 bought it around 2005-2006. It has Viva La HAMB painted on the cowl side and racecar in tow along the back. As I make progress I'll try and keep this thread regularly updated.
I'm completely out of room at my home shop. I have three Model As, Frank (fab32)'s deuce tudor, and a '50 F1 all crammed in there. Frank's widow Sharon was kind enough to give me a set of keys to the shop and told me to set up a work space out there to build the T. I was humbled and honored to be given free reign to utilize the shop of the guy who took me under his wing and taught me pretty much everything I know about hot rods. And I'm sure fab32 would be happy to know there's sparks flying and welders buzzing once again in the place he spent so much time. I know the direction I want to take this T, low. Heath Pinter smoked me in my first run on the beach with his incredible, low slung '29 roadster. That car is a huge inspiration for this build. I started looking over the deuce chassis and discovered it had been repaired with another rear frame section crudely and unevenly welded on. It was also bent and cracked at the steering box holes and I realized why it was in the junk pile. I hacked off the rear of the frame, then cut out the front cross member that was secured by 1/4" plate steel motor mounts ARC welded to the inside of the frame. After quite a battle I was able to tack in a new front cross member. I removed the K member, then pulled the rear of the rails together and slipped the whole mess under the T body. I grabbed some wheels and an A grille shell to give me some idea of proportion and this is what I came up with.
Unfortunately....... It looked really goofy. I talked to Heath at the race and he said his chassis is sectioned and has an additional 1" mini channel directly under the body. The stock deuce chassis is six inches tall so I cut 1.5" out of the top and made a little area for the body to sit in. It looks a lot better but I might cut it down a little more. For reference look at the passenger side where the frame is still stock, it looks like a sleigh. I went back to the junk pile and found a candidate to repair the rear clip. It's a '32 frame bent and hacked into a trailer. The back of the T's chassis is going to be a bit of a challenge. It has to taper inward ahead of the rear wheels, fit in the tiny confines of the T turtle deck, and taper down towards the back. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to do it, but I think the trailer will come in handy.
great project - nice to have friends to help with parts, and a nice shop to work in. will not get much sympathy here with your shop being too full with Cool rides.
I got the passenger side frame rail channeled tonight. I then tacked the turtle deck onto the body. Kind of a shame to cut out such a cherry floor pan, but this is a racecar not a showcar. I stripped the whole thing, and now I see why there was 1/4" of Bondo, man this thing is rough. I then cut out all the rotten sheet metal all around the perimeter. The more I looked at it, the body still needs to come down. I think I'm going to cut off everything below the top of the rocker panel. That character line on the bottom of the door will touch the top of the channel in the frame. Not sure if that's the way to go? But it will bring the height to around 31.5" to the top of the cowl at a conservative 5.5" ride height. Soon I'll be able to start on the rear clip now that the turtle deck is in place.
Thanks, the shop belonged to HAMBer fab32 until his passing nearly a year ago. His wife is kind enough to let me work out there.
Cool project, and a wealth of cool pieces you've got to work with. I would have cried a bit cutting that trunk pan out, but I see why it had to go, looks like you're doing it justice.
Love these cars, really nice of his wife to let you build it in his shop keeping his memory alive and finishing a project that he would have enjoyed building with you. Do me a favor and close the lid on the parts washer or better yet, move it to another part of the shop away from the welding and grinding. I worked at a shop years ago and a stray spark got into the tank and up it went, not pretty. Better to be safe than sorry. Good luck with it, I'll be watching your progress. Scott
Thanks, I'll shut it. That's basically my biggest fear in the whole world, that I somehow burn the place down. I'm always careful and I usually stick around for a half hour on fire watch after I'm done working. But I hadn't thought about the parts washer.
It's been a few months since I updated this thread. Early this morning I rolled the T outside for the first time. I just set the engine sideways to compress the suspension and see where my ride height will be. I'm happy with it, just a little fine tuning on the rear clip and I can weld it all up.
Very nice roadster! If not for the race it will make a great street car. Can't wait to see it progress.
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