Hot Rods Spalding Bros Repro, for "Too Tall" Ganahl.

I see it Marty. Can't wait to watch that project!! Beautiful fenders. Too bad about the tire well though.

 

You had to deal with a well on the driver side, didn't you ? I will either swap the fender or fill it in, be buying some cab corners, sub rails and a box from Brookville, and will be conferring with you on some details. Thanks for your interest.

 

I guess this means you are bulding a replica of deans RPU? That will be awesome!!!!!!!!

 

Update, I got the torsion bar arms from the "Waterjet" Cutter, now I can do a mock-up on the bar mounts. Quite a time saver, and transformation from the blank arms.

 

Well, It won't be an exact replica, as it will have a Champ rear end, and a different 4 speed, but I sure plan on capturing the look ! As everyone tells me, "there is nothing to improve on, in that department" !

 

Yes, Mine had a well on the left fender. In 1960, we just went around the corner from our shop and bought a fender off a '28 coupe in a bone yard. So. El Monte was mostly bone yards then, and they all had plenty of junk Model A's. Left side well is commercial. A right side well came on Deluxe roadsters with two side mounts.

 

That is the rumor around here, it will be an epic build!
I have a thing for the frame, the few pics I've seen is memorable!

So if you do like Dean did, you can't go wrong!
I'm by no means a RPU-guy at all! But the Dean Lowe RPU will always make me weak at the knees and warm around the heart.
And building a tribute car, and having the OB giving advice is nothing short of EPIC!

Now you just need to do a Ak Miller '32 with Buick straight eight and IFS and you've done the favorites

 

Last Saturday I went to a yearly outdoor car show in Portland, we always have our own display of Track Roadsters and other vintage race cars, and something special showed up. A '27 roadster with some local and National history, built and raced by Bob Donker from the Seattle area in the golden years of roadster racing. There was a full feature, including a Rex Burnett Cutaway drawing of the car in Hot Rod in 1951. When roadster racing faded in the mid 50's the car was parked and parted out. A friend of mine, Davey Downs bought the body and hood in 1957, and sold it to his friend, Bill Knowle in the 60's. It now sits on a copy of the original aluminum frame rails, and houses a 304" flathead. The original nose is on a street car in Carnation Wa. I am told, it would sure be nice to see it back on this car.

 

I've seen more than a couple Model A hot rods with side mounts that looked really good.....especially on a truck. Has a raw functional look with a old Ford spare wheel stuck in there. One more old Ford part to look at isn't a bad thing.

 

A Boner, if I was building a different style of truck, a side mount spare might be OK. In this case the spare tire would get a "little warm" due to the header exit.

 

I am mocking up the front torsion bars, making the bushing mounting blocks will be next. I have been having a clearance problem at the rear of the bar mounting and stop arm, and the radius rod. The solution was to mill the clamp bolt area of the stops, narrowing the arm at that point. The ink mark on the stop, represents how the stop will be configured, and the adjusting bolt. There will be a pad welded on the side of the frame rail, for the adjusting bolt to seat against. It makes a simple way to make fine adjustments to the corner weights. I have been working on the "Delivery Truck" a little too.

 

Wow Marty, the trucks lookin great, G......

 

Love the truck Marty. I just sold my 54 C 600. Decided that I don't need another project right now.

 

I started on the dash and the completion of the "flip up" cowl, along with rolling the top edge of the sheet metal around the support tubing. With the cowl extension "plug welded" to the the hinge mount, the dash is about ready to weld in place. I bent a 3/4" flange on the top of the dash to add some support and insure the top surface would remain straight and flat.

 

I punched holes along the bottom of the dash to attach the firewall, and tack welded it in place. It really adds stiffness to the cowl area.

 

I am nearly done machining the torsion bar bushing blocks/housings, one for each end of all 4 bars, for a total of 8. I used a 1.250" Rotabroach in the Bridgeport to bore the housings, then drilled and counter bored the pinch clamp end. After the tapping process, the cutting of the slot in a horizontal mill, worked out great. These blocks will weld on the sides of the frame rails to support the torsion bars. The next task is to profile, drill and tap the arms/stops. Dean, I sure could have used a real machinist for this job !

 

Looks great Marty, bet you wish you had a tapping head huh.

 

Hi Marty

I was told be an old timer how to tap with the mill quill and it works great, but you gotta be quick on the brake handle to get her stopped in time then you back her out with the reverse turning lever

I don't have a tapping gizmo to handle the large taps either

The roadster is sure looking fine

Don

 

You're about 5 years too late for me to be any help Marty. My Bridgeport and lathe went with the shop sale. Looking at what you have there, you don't need my help.

But, I do know how to tap on a Bridgeport.

 

Those look similar to an outboard steering shaft support pillow block on my champ car only instead of oilite inserts I put in a zerk and an internal lube groove, since it won't see as much force / cycling as your suspension.

 

I think I have said this before, I am not a machinist, just a man with some machines, trying to get by !

 

Hahaha! You described a lot of guys that came through our shop in 55 years!!

 

I got all 8 of the torsion bar mounting blocks finish machined, and tack welded 2 of them to the frame rail. The profiling of the arms/stops was next. After a little band sawing, belt sanding, and machining, this is the final product. The front shock mountings are the next priority.

 

Looking very professional,, did you broach the splines?

 

The blank arms and stops came with splines from Schroeder, they are 1"- 48 spline.

 

THANK YOU for taking the time to post all of this build.

 

I pulled the body off to mount the rear bars, and the need to shuffle the engine ahead and down 1". More progress next week !

 

I mounted the driver side rear torsion bar. All 4 arms require a 2 degree bend near the big end, to square them with the axles. It took 10 tons in my press to accomplish that, very stout arms !

 

We did this on pillow blocks as part of my machinist training. poured the babbit, then used dykem and scrapers, pretty cool actually...

 

Used these for years, really works good when chamfering the bore on lathe turned plastic bushings before parting off.