Let’s start with a bit of a read first... So there I was, 7 years deep in my 36 build and mostly stuck in a rut. Marshall Woolery pointed out that I usually worked on it around New Years , and then not much the rest of the year. He was right. I was stuck. So I got my jalopy into roller form and brought my wife down to look at it. She shrugged apologetically and said -“ I’m not really into it” I asked her then, what do YOU like? What do you miss most? To which she replied- “our little 29 roadster” . She was right. Some remember I had a sweet crappy little 29 with a banger that we crisscrossed Northern California in. We shared many a freezing morning riding out and watching the sunrise over the delta as the Little banger sang spit and hollered through the hills. We had traded it for a chevy with a roof, opting for more practicality as we moved to the Pacific Northwest. Now that I’ve been settled in for a decade up here, I’ve had the pleasure of helping build some really great cars , and I had become enamored with the 32 . It wasn’t until I really dove into the more stockish details did I become this interested. I decided then it was time to build a roadster , and set about collecting parts and letting go of other projects. now for the style: I always really loved the kurtis and Duvall early customs. They were fascinated by the elegance of luxury cars of the era and embraced details like skirted front fenders, accessories, smooth hoodsides and the like. You never see 32 customs, probably because by the time one could afford one to customize along came the 33 ford- wow! Longer wheelbase, slanted cowl, skirted fenders and a pointy grille oh man! Why bother now with the deuce? well eventually I will try. For now I will build a more budget friendly highboy, but some of my core build decisions and processes will be dictated by my eventual end- goal. A full fendered custom style 32. A few years ago I sold a 32 seat to someone in Canada, so I called him to see if he had any 32 parts. He had a kmember, so I got that and set about repairing it . Seems as good a place to start as any so let’s go. I had to rebuild the flanges mostly . Next I got some ASC rails from squeak bell, a couple of crossmembers and a pedal assembly and a firewall and set about to repairs and a hydraulic brake conversion.
Well now, if that ain’t a good start I don’t know what is. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Moving on. I started with just a roadster cowl, but after totaling the parts I’d still need from brookville, I ended up buying a brookville body . I could have afforded a real roadster body, but I would have had to compromise on the dash, grille, emblems, running gear...this choice enables me to level up in lots of other more subtle areas. Upon getting the body , I had some seat goods laying around, some original stanchions,and a repop windshield frame , so o set about making it work. I only used the seat riser front, chopped down, and constructed a 5 window style seat. John Swander really helped me figure out some crucial things so credit is due to him on the seat. The windshield had been chopped previously and I ended up just cutting the entire frame apart and basically remaking it. Pics to follow.
I'm watching and if the New Years glow starts to dim we will be bringing this back to the top for an update.
Ok. So to give you an idea of the timeline, the last post is when quarantine struck, which just happens to be right after I scored a big load of parts. The build really started to heat up around then so I’ll post a big mess of photos tomorrow !
Some fab fabwork going on there! Remember the days when guys would walk by a deuce firewall at a swap meet because it had some holes in it and keep looking for a nicer one. Nice welding table by the way!
Can’t wait! I love your fixture table is it threaded? Your thread holes seam pretty big! On mine it’s 1/2 20 Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
In this thread you will see a few attempts at various things. One of them is putting the frame together. armed with a blueprint, my table and a motorcycle frame jig I made attempt 1 .
Attempt #2 I added some borrowed Ibeams, and a fixture I made From a cherry 32 frame . A friend was nice enough to entertain my ideas.
after these attempts , Marshall at thun field rod and custom took pity on me and cleared his table and we got it tacked together. since time was limited on the table and since I was planning on adding additional legs to the kmember it was tacked enough to keep things moving forward and once the X member legs were sorted , then I could weld everything up final like.
When I got the frame back to my shop, I laid out some paper templates for the x member legs. Not ashamed to admit I took a great deal of design elements from industrial chassis and our very own British phenom fresh reflections (the pinstriper) . I’ll show you my cardboard crap then we will move on for a bit to modifying an f1 steering box . I made more fixtures from a stock frame for the rear legs/fender holes. you may have noticed the mock-up engine and trans. Since I had a 1958 chev 283 , that’s what I’m using , along with a 39 trans and 1940 rear.
Since I am running a sbc, I really didn’t want to run an electric fan so my solution was to bump the crossmember forward 3/4. I also wanted unsplit wishbones, so here’s what I did. I had an extra wishbone ball and yoke so I freed it from the yoke , and used a shaft collar to chuck up the ball and turn it down in the lathe. I also had some 3/4 rod end bungs I would never use so I halved one. The new ball retains the shaft , gets a tapered cut for welding while the original ball gets cut off. It’s pinned, pass welded and capped with pass welds there too. The perches needed some love too.
Whole bunch of misc. stuff. I popped the body on, shimmed it , made an e-brake bracket, moved my column and pedals around, and set up the clutch and brake linkage and started laying out floor templates. Can’t find the pics but I also dropped my steering arms (round back spindles) and set up a tie rod .
No by this time I was kind of a little panicky over how to approach the motor mounts. my first thought was 32 v8 mounts and modify the model A style crossmember. That wasn’t happening . I couldn’t find a simple trick solution. Next I’ll show you a hurst style idea. Spoiler alert, I did not use that one either.
View attachment 4880805 View attachment 4880815 It occurs to me at this point it’s time to assemble my x member legs and get this frame done. One of the things I wanted to do was use a mechanical brake cross shaft as an e-brake linkage, so I made the center section to bolt one up. next is assembling everything at my shop, then again Marshall at thun field graciously allowed me to do the final welding on my frame on his table.
View attachment 4880836 Here it is back home and ready for more. As much as I was obsessed with the motormounts or my lack thereof , it was time to start building a transmission. This I could do at home, which was nice to be able to double down. The trans build was very much stop and go, as I needed to constantly order parts . I used the van pelt book mostly.the gear set is Lincoln zephyr.
I found a 1930s chevy steering wheel on eBay. The pictures were terrible but I could make out some stainless or chrome trim in the spokes. Never seen that before and the price was right so I pulled the trigger. It turns out it’s 37 chev standard and it s really nice , and I’m excited to use it! I ordered a horn button, but it was wrong sized, so I made one. I found an nos Chevy steering shaft too, so I grafted that into my steering box .
So now that I have my frame home it’s time to get serious about having a roller. I was fortunate to find some 32 shocks, but finding I would need to partially box my frame for motor mounts , access becomes an issue. I made some threaded weld bungs and welded them inside my frame first. You can kind of see the simple fixture to hold the motor in place also .
A long time ago I got a 35-40 frame and it had these neat v8-60 adapters. I planned to use these, and figured I’d just do a hurst mount and these. Nice and simple, except hurst mounts don’t allow you to use a mechanical fuel pump, so I just went ahead and made my own hurst mount after I finished the boxing plates. Pics to follow.
The Jalopy Journal
