Hot Rods The Arin Cee Roadster

I got up early today and got right to work on Arin's roadster. The boy has been driving me crazy to make some progress he can actually see. Typical kid. Impatient...but he made a good point. Not much of what I've been doing lately shows. So today I pledged to change that, and the front suspension seemed like a good place to start.

I had collected a big pile of Pete & Jake's stuff that I'd planned to use on this car: short chrome hot rod front shocks, weld-on upper shock mounts with headlight mounts built in, long perch pins with lower shock mounts, shackle plates with an extra hole, front spring clamp, urethane shackle bushings, etc. - all very high quality and well engineered, but honestly not very traditional.

I had spent a couple hours each day last week tinkering with the P & J parts, trying to find a way to make them work together on this car while keeping the early hot rod flavor without too many obvious compromises. Total failure. Just not happening. So I tore it all off and went back to my Hot Rod History books by such authors as Al Drake, Tom Medley, Don Montgomery - you know, the guys whose books are filled with photos of real hot rods from the past - to do some more homework.

Didn't take long to see where I'd gone wrong...and what it was going to take to get back on track...



I found these F1 front shock mounts in with a bunch of other stuff, drilled out the cross member rivets and bolted 'em on. I kept the P&J perch pin lower shock mounts (I may replace these later with studs welded onto the axle boss) and found some more appropriate and longer shocks for this application online. I'll cut, reshape and weld the F1 mounts when I have the shocks in-hand, but I took one bolt out and rotated them up into position for trial fit and they'll work just fine.

Traditional headlight mounts were as far away as the pile of stuff I'd taken off the 'banger roadster in the form of a weathered early reproduction Model A headlight bar. After a quick trial fit I cut the curved ends off the bar and tacked it to the F1 shock uprights - more of a mock=up just to see how it would look.



Another box in my stash yielded a pair of NOS Deitz 7" headlights I'd been saving for this project...



I can't wait for the new shocks to arrive so that I can change this tacked-together mock-up into the real thing. I'm really pleased with how everything seems to be coming together now. (Anybody need any slightly used P&J parts...?)

 

Shocks finally arrived and are just what I wanted. They are Gabriel "Classic" #82007 gas-charged and are the correct length and have the correct loops to slip right into place...

 

Front end looks really good!

 

Made a little more progress today, rear shocks. Nothing earth-shattering. I used the bolt-in upper studs and the forged lower mounts that bolt to the backing plates. Gabriel "Classic" shocks - #82007, the same ones I used in the front - completed the installation. Drill some holes in the cross member, bolt 'em on. Simple, clean, easy...and traditional.

 

Not much time to work on the roadster this weekend, but I made a little progress on the front shock mounts. The original shape of the F1 shock mounts needs to be reworked to fit my application and look neat while doing it. I elected to cut the mounts just behind the first hole, rotate the "tail" section upward and weld it so that the hole lines up with the cross member rivet hole. Once the weld is ground smooth it'll be hard to tell the mount has been modified. There's more to this operation, but it'll have to wait until I've got some more time...

The unmodified F1 shock bracket will bolt into place once the '32 front cross member rivets have been drilled out, but the shape isn't right...


There are a couple of different ways to change the shape but I chose to cut the "tail" off and reweld it on with the front section moved upright...


With everything bolted down hard I tacked the two pieces together. But we're still not done...

 

I would have thought heating and bending the arm up would have been easier.

 

not only easier but more pleasing to the eye

 

You are both absolutely right, but doing so would have put the stud portion which accepts the upper shock loop too far forward and well out of alignment with the lower stud in this case.

One detail I didn't get to last night was heating the mount so that the upper stud portion of the mount and the lower stud on the spring perch would be parallel to each other and to the c/l of the chassis. A few minutes with a torch today took care of that...but there's still more to come. Stay tuned.

Here's the problem in a nutshell...


A little gentle heat from the torch and gentle persuasion with a short length of pipe...


And problem solved.


Now that the arms are shaped right it's time to put the headlight bar back on. Good job for tomorrow...

 

I've always liked the look of hairpins that have been heated and dropped, so while I had the torch out...

 

Looking good

 

I didn't have much time to work on Arin's roadster today, but I did make some progress on the charging system.

In an effort to keep this car as traditional as possible while still being dependable I've decided to run a generator instead of an alternator. This car will have no fancy stuff so the only electrical draws while the car is running will be the ignition and the lights. A small 25-amp generator from a '55 Chevy will keep the battery charged just fine.

The rebuilt generator, lower bracket and voltage regulator I found on eBay, while the upper bracket, single groove crankshaft pulley and generator fan/pulley assembly I found in my stash of assorted rusty, greasy and worthless stuff. The voltage regulator is also '55 Chevy and will be mounted on a panel on the inside of the firewall out of sight. It is my goal to have the firewall free of all the electrical components and other clutter other than the coil and hydraulic cylinder.

All of this works just fine in conjunction with a Snow White water pump/riser assembly like the one which keeps my coupester cool even on the hottest summer days here in Texas. (please don't laugh at my paint stick "fan", the real one hasn't arrived yet...)

Stock '55 Chevy exhaust manifolds, brackets and the generator system keep this new-built car looking very traditional, as if it had once been flathead powered (which it was originally) and then updated with a "new" OHV 265 from a wrecked '55 Chevy in 1955.


As one might expect, the 25-amp generator hangs out in the breeze in the stock '55 Chevy location on stock '55 Chevy brackets.


The Snow White raised water pump is a must here in Texas. All the early brackets and pulleys work just fine with it. Once it's painted black it will be pretty much un-noticeable, especially with the hood in place. Another departure from "period correct" will be the triple 2GCs. You can keep your 97s, thank you very much...

 

Pressed again for time - as always, it seems - I spent some time finishing up the front shock mounts and headlight bar today. Got it all aligned with a slight (2 degree) downward tilt of the headlight sockets at ride height, notched the bottom side of the old headlight bar and tack welded the whole mess together. Then I took it off, welded it up solid and spent some time dressing and blending the welds. Should look pretty good in paint...

The first order of business was to notch the bottom of the headlight bar so that it embraces the top curve of the shock mount, clamping every so often to be sure the notches centered the bar properly.


I'm not sure if this is absolutely necessary but I tipped the sockets forward a couple of degrees to aid in headlight alignment. This was done with the car blocked at ride height and measured relative to the ground.


With all the components clamped in position I put some heavy tack welds on them so that I could disassemble the unit and remove it from the car without fear that it would distort before or during the final welding process.

After welding the joints solid, including where I'd reshaped the shock mounts, I spent some time smoothing the welds and dressing the cut-off ends of the headlight bar. This part will not get chromed, but will instead be painted gloss black as would have most likely been done back in the day by boys more interested in speed than in flashy looks.


The next step is to finalize the front of the motor with the drive belt, fan and brackets, and with a new supply of steel I'll finish the body mounts I started a while back. Everything in its turn...

 

I am glad to see you tie the shock mounts with the headlight bar because I was concerned about the shock mounts flexing. Good work

 

Thanks, Frank. I was mostly concerned with headlight "flutter" but this should cure both potential problems.

I hate it when I see early hot rods with spindly headlight brackets. You gotta' know that even the best cars of the period (in this case the Bob McGee '32) were sometimes guilty. The Pacific Coast Highway "race" footage from the film "Hot Rod" in this video shows what happens if it's not addressed (at approx 9:42 mark) adequately. Hopefully what I've done will eliminate any flutter.

 

Nice work there.....

 

Following a marathon effort, I finally got the body of Arin's roadster bolted down to the frame. It should be noted that the roadster body was complete and reinforced with braces to stiffen it and to keep the door openings correct. This is important to prevent any sag or distortion in the body from being duplicated in the body mounts.

I had already trimmed the subrails in the rear so that the body would slip down over the rear frame kickup and sit with the original rear mounting points as close to the frame as possible without cutting into the rear body structural supports. The front cowl had been V-cut previously as well so that the original body mounts just under the dash sat firmly on the frame. I'd call this a "small channel" because the body sits as low as it can while still mounting to the top of the frame.

Joining a '28 - '29 roadster body to a '32 Ford frame has been done a million times in a million different ways. Starting at the front and working to the rear, here's how I chose to do it...

The front mount is for the forward bolt on the cowl which in my case (unpinched rails) is inboard of the frame. The mount itself is not merely a tab, but was made by sandwiching two layers of metal, the bottom one extends under the rail while the top layer brings the mount level with the top of the rail. It is very strong and held in place by a combination of conventional and rosette welds. This bolt is used for shims to adjust the door gaps.


The second mount is just below the dash and coincides with the '32 rails (the cowl section has been removed in this photo but it slides under the front of the subrail and is anchored by this bolt as well). This one is a no-brainer. A wood reinforcement goes inside the cowl section so as not to collapse the subrail at this point.


The third mount utilizes the stock Model A floor support crossmember. Arin's roadster has a tubular X-member assembly made by Carl Fjastad - The Deuce Frame Company (formerly The Deuce Factory) - and the front tube passes just below the stock floor support. I used a short length of box tubing to close the gap between them. The original hole in the Model A floor support had to be moved an inch or so to allow the bolt to pass through the center of the tube.


On the fourth mount I used a short length of 1 1/4" square tubing which fits snugly up inside the original Model A center floor support crossmember. It is held in place by a couple of rosette welds on the topside. This time the floor support crossmember did not align with the tubular crossmember so I made an offset support from heavy L-channel and welded it into place. This hole had to be moved about an inch away from the original location to align properly.


The fifth body mount is also a critical safety component as it will serve as the anchor point for the seat belts. In this case, 1 1/2" tubing slips snugly inside the original Model A rear floor support crossmember. It was notched and welded to the frame on both ends to form a new chassis crossmember. This body mount bolt passes through the subrail as well as the floor support crossmember and the new chassis crossmember using the original hole location.


Here's a topside view of the new tubular chassis crossmember where it's welded to the frame. Regardless of what some may believe, the sheet metal Model A floor support crossmembers are not sufficient anchors for safety belts. This additional frame crossmember, sandwiched with the original floor support, will be bullet-proof as as an anchor point and will help further stiffen the body as well.


For the far rear mounts I used a reshaped and gusseted heavy gauge L-bracket welded to the frame stub where it had been bobbed. The Deuce frame horns slop downward, away from the Model A subrails, and this gap must be supported as well as the body attached firmly at the rear corners.


Amazingly, with the body bolted down and only a couple of shims at the front of the cowl, the body lines align perfectly, the doors open and close as they should, and the gaps are a beauty to behold. Now...on to updating the door latches, eliminating the door handles and filling the holes. Stay tuned!

 

With the body bolted down it's time to finish up the floors. I'm using 3/4" plywood which has worked out very well in my coupester. It's not all ultra-trick looking, but it's light, strong and absorbs sound and vibration. The two center pieces were already made so today I made templates for the front floor and the trunk floor using heavy cardboard. When the weather warms up I'll transfer the template patterns to wood and get them all installed using countersunk panhead bolts, using the same holes from which the original rivets were removed.

The front floor and toe board will be jointed with a piano hinge for easy removal should the need ever arise. The square hole in the middle accommodates a lump in the Muncie case which will be covered by the rubber mat when it's finished.


The trunk floor will be flat except on the sides where the '32 rear frame crossmember intrudes. The floor support crossmember covers a tubular frame crossmember which will serve as a seat belt anchor and a mounting for the Model T fuel tank.


It looks like the trunk floor will require a seam down the middle to allow it to be removed and reinstalled. Because this car uses a stock '32 rear frame crossmember there's enough clearance below the floor for the rear axle center section. No hump will be necessary and the floor will remain flat.


So now I wait for a warm day to cut the floor pieces out and get them installed. Much too cold today. Stay tuned...

 

I got behind on your thread. You have made great progress! Such a cool build!

 

It's been too cold to work on building the floors so I decided to start the process of installing bear claw latches in the roadster doors. I should have taken a photo of this passenger side latch area before I removed the stock latch. It had cracks and broken pieces everywhere. Yes, I could have rebuilt the door inner panel and installed new stock latches, but I've gotten used to the more modern bear claw latches on my coupester and wanted to go that route if possible.

Thankfully, Speedway now offers Mini Bear Claw latches which are the perfect size for the thin Model T and Model A doors. They only require an inch of clearance between the outer and inner door skins - which is about all a Model A roadster has. But because they are small and have only two mounting screws the area to which they will be mounted needs to be stronger than just sheet metal. So, after trimming away all the cracked and broken original Model A door jamb I started the installation by fitting a chunk of 1" square tubing to serve as the foundation for the new latches. I couldn't finish the job today, but I'll get right back on it tomorrow...|

This is just the beginning but I think that this length of 1" square tubing will provide enough strength to allow the mini bear claw latches to operate properly and give the door a good solid feel. The new latch will be fitted to the tubing and then the tubing will be trimmed and welded to the door. It will be strong and the latch will be removable once it's all done. All adjustments will be done by moving the latch pin which will be installed to the quarter panel inner framework.

 

Made more progress on the bear claw latches today, but not as much as I'd hoped. It's very cold in the shop and my fingers don't work very well, but I did get one side done except for the welding. It's pretty straightforward once the damaged original metal has been removed along with the inner door handle reinforcement which is in the way.

The idea is to attach the latch to the tubing, which is much stronger than the door sheet metal, and then install the tubing into the door to replace the weak and damaged original material. I tried a couple of different locations before I settled on the one I actually used.


Once the tubing was trimmed to fit the hole and replace a section of the door jamb, I notched it to allow the latch to fit inside.


There's not much room to work with inside the Model A roadster doors - a little over 1 1/8" - but the Speedway Mini Bear Claw latch allows it all to fit - with room for an access cover - and still allow a flat upholstery panel such as the original one. The small Grade 8 bolt at the top of the photo frame is the release and will stick through the upholstery panel. There is no lock and no inside door handle other than the bolt, which will be replaced with something more attractive later on. The next step will be to weld up the original door handle holes (this is a '29...) and weld the tubing into place, finish it off neatly and then fashion a sheet metal access door to cover the mechanism.

 

Well, today I finally got the first door latch installed and ready to do the final welding on. It works well and the door shuts very solidly, much more so than with the original latches. What I discovered is that the body must be square with the doors hung properly and with good contours and gaps before the latches are installed. Filling the area where the old latch used to live with square tubing makes the door much stiffer and much more difficult to bend as is often necessary to get the gaps and contours to match the rest of the body. Do this first...and monitor any changes which might occur when the final welding is done. Then...enjoy!

With everything fitted it's time to clamp the assembly into place in preparation for tack welding it into position.


A couple of light tacks is all that's necessary since it might be necessary to take it out again for adjustments. The inner door material on this car seemed unusually thin. No wonder the original latch was almost completely broken out of the door.


Installing the striker post is almost too easy, as long as you get the hole in the right place. The Model A quarter panel is reinforced at this point so it's probably not necessary to add extra material as I'd planned to do.


So, there you have it. I'll pull the door and finish up the welding once I get the latch on the other side finished. These latches are so much better than the originals, smooth and secure with no need to use any force when opening or closing the door. Well worth the effort.

 

Nice! Those latches look like a great upgrade!

 

The weather finally let up for long enough for me to finish the floors I started a couple of weeks ago. As you will recall I made templates for the front and rear floors from heavy cardboard before the cold weather set in. Today I transferred the templates to 3/4" plywood and cut them out with a skill saw, jig saw and drill. Nothing fancy here.

Thanks to careful planning the result is a perfectly flat floor from toe board to tail lights, ready to receive the seat, fuel tank and battery. These components can be put pretty much anywhere and the legroom is virtually limitless. It's amazing how much usable space there is in a Model A roadster if the floor is made flat like this!

The front floor and toe board just barely clear the Muncie 4-speed and aluminum bell housing so no bumps are necessary. These two pieces will be joined by a heavy duty piano hinge. This will allow the toe board to fold down onto the floor board so both can be removed as a unit. I'll be using an Ansen-style swing pedal assembly with a single double master cylinder mounted to the firewall so nothing other than the Hurst shifter comes up through the floor.


I am particularly proud of the way the rear floor turned out. It fits onto the existing ledges in the subrail cross member and the rear of the body. The cut outs on the sides are for the ends of the Deuce rear frame cross member. Due to the thickness of the plywood the rubber matting will clear the cross member ends, bridging the cut outs so the floor will appear perfectly flat when it's finished.


Although the center seam can't be seen in the photo, the rear floor is made in two pieces so that it can be easily removed if desired. Like the rest of the floor boards it will be attached with countersunk 1/4-20 button head bolts.


This is a rumble seat roadster body so I'll have to use the curved rear inner panel or more likely fabricate some sort of water-catching device so that the rain does not run directly into the trunk. Like the front floor the trunk will have a rubber mat made from an old pickup bed liner donated by friend Jeff Slack for this project. All the wood will be sealed and painted to prevent moisture damage should any leaks occur.


With the floor installed and no lumps or bumps to contend with there's a lot of usable space inside the roadster body. The next step will be to get the seat bolted down and the gas tank and battery box in place. The pedals will come last. The location of all the components keys off the steering wheel. Stay tuned!

 

Okay, well today I mocked the Bengels seat, the oval Model T gas tank and the Speedway Motors aluminum battery box into their relative positions. I'll tweak 'em and tinker with 'em for the next few days, trying out the driver's position and figuring out where to put the bulkhead. The goal is to use these components to balance the weight of the car while keeping everything low and as light as possible, much as was done with the dirt track roadsters of the era.

Driver comfort is a primary concern, but so is safety. Anchoring the gas tank to the new frame cross member is a high priority. Ten gallons of fuel weighs about 63 pounds, which doesn't seem like much until you factor in the inertia generated in a crash. In a 60 mph crash, inertia turns the gas tank into a 16.5-ton flying weight perfectly capable of crushing the driver and passenger between it and the dashboard. The new cross member will also serve as an anchor the seat belts for exactly the same reason.


It was immediately apparent that the front of the Bengels seat had to be raised to exact maximum comfort so I brought it up 1 1/2 inches right away. The seat will have a roll at the front to support the knees and also to discourage sliding forward when slowing down. This is a very traditional upholstery design feature with a very practical application. The seat back tips forward for access to the behind-the-seat area, which will be quite large...unless I fill it with the gas tank. It's already become obvious that getting in and out of the driver's side door will be problematic...


The trunk area will be quite large but difficult to use if I retain the rumble lid. Maybe a change to a trunk lid is in my future. The neat battery box is from Speedway Motors. I've got one in my coupester and it's great! There's a neat little adapter available from Model T suppliers that simplifies filling the tank while providing a vent/overflow tube at the same time. Neat, eh.

 

Good stuff. I'm not surprised at all after reading your build on the 55 Buick. I have a model a coupe, and am interested in how you do the gas tank and still have a useable trunk.

 

Great job on the floor - looks like loads of usable space!

 

I finally got both door latches done. I had to do a bunch of repair work on the doors - lots of cracks in the hinge area - in order to get them to hang properly, as they must in order to get the latches to align. The inner door panels are so thin on this car that I ended up doing much of the final welding with gas using my trusty Dillon mini-torch. Anyhow, here are a couple more photos, this time of the driver's side door latch just to finish this topic.

The driver's door was in much better shape around the original latch. I only had to remove a small amount of material and pie-cut the jamb area to allow the latch mount - made from 1" square thin wall tubing - to fit where I wanted. The surface of the tubing will replace the surface of the the door jamb in the area of the latch. (The jamb still needs some final trimming in this photo.)



The latch has been installed in the tubing and it's just about ready to be tacked into place. The dark lines on the door jamb mark the cuts which will allow the tubing to move into final position.


This photo shows everything aligned and tacked into place. No final welding was done before the door has been aligned and the latch and striker adjusted for perfect operation. This setup sure works slick and the "bear claw" design will prevent the doors from unexpectedly opening as stock Model A roadster doors have a tendency to do.


The next issue I tackle will be trying to salvage the stock windshield from the 'Banger (It's all old repro stuff with lots of extra holes and structural rust in the frame), chop it an inch or three, and turn it into an attractive and period-correct unit. Wish me luck on this! I'll need it...!

 

While the rest of the known roadster world congregates in Southern California to drool over cars so overbilt that I'd not even want to own one for fear of having to kill anyone who touched it, I'm here in Cowtown USA actually enjoying myself making progress on what may turn out to be the most "touchable" roadster on the planet. Stepping back a few feet from all the recent closeup photos, here's what Arin's roadster looks like today...




I'm expecting a visit from a friend today who has some of the pieces I need to build the windshield. Stay tuned...

 

Sometimes fate steps in and makes decisions for you...and sometimes they are better than ones you'd have made yourself. Such is the case today when my friend Frank (1-SHOT here on the HAMB) arrived this afternoon with "some old windshield parts" he'd had hanging on his shop wall for many years, left-overs from a long-ago project.

Well...you can imagine my surprise when he opened the back of his car and showed me what he'd brought. Yup, a beautiful 2" chopped windshield assembly - the hot rod flat style, chrome and complete with glass - and two pairs of windshield posts for a '28 - '29 roadster - one pair chopped 2" and the other pair chopped 2" and laid back really hard! And once again (he gave me an early Delco Corvette dual point distributor a while back if you'll recall) the price was as right as it gets: free! I can't thank you enough, Frank!

I have been agonizing about how much to chop the windshield on this car, and whether or not to lay it back a little. Well, that's one bit of worrying I won't have to do any more. The laid-back posts and windshield Frank brought today are flat perfect for this car! Thanks again, Frank!









It just don't get no better 'n this!

 

You are so right....

Just a note to say how much I am enjoying your build thread. Very nice job on the project and in documenting here for us all to see. I have a '28 Tudor daily driver myself.