Hot Rods Trying to build a 1920ish Ford roadster body out of this!

well crap!
and I sometimes get upset when a repro part doesn't fit like I think it should
and this guy just poops an old car with junkyard leftovers
thanks for some creative inspiration

cool car and awesome ingenuity

 

I had run out of steel and still needed some for the trunk lid skin and the door skin. We had this Fiat Punto at work which was destined to go to the scrapper so today I stripped it of some useful parts. The hood and roof skin were the main parts salvaged but I also rescued all the 12V light bulbs, the rear wiper ( looks ideal for a '32 pickup) and the door wiring connectors which are multi connectors of a twist on type. (Ideal for wiring body to chassis for a quick release.) I also took out the electric fan. It's got an ugly plastic shroud but that can be replaced with steel.

The second picture shows the hood skin after I carefully cut away the inner reinforcing using a carpet knife. So now I have two more large lightly compound curved press steel. Notice it's another 1990s bubble car with no beauty lines. The hood is plain and simple.
We also pulled the doors and put them to one side. We often have to repair the underside of doors from 1950s and 60s cars which are often rusted out. This may be a 1990s car but a door is a door. They haven't changed much over the years especially the bottom. So why spend hours hand forming a patch for the bottom inner of a door when you can just cut it out of a modern door.
I found a fairly new one foot square amplifier in the trunk!!! plus 4 new wiper blades. We also pulled the front seats for workshop seats. Put 4 castors on them and they're great for working underneath cars, next to them or just when you're tired.

 

Thanks but I think that would be a bit too expensive and also difficult. You see the Model-A engine places the fan belt really close to the radiator.

 

Isn't that what hot rodders did in the 1940's?
I'd never do this for a customer who has to pay me by the hour. It wouldn't make sense - but I'm building this for myself out of leftovers and have set a budget of 3K. So I'm having to be creative.

 

Here's a picture of one of the rear trunk side panels after many coats of rustproof paint. Sanded smooth with a scuff pad I think I'm going to leave the whole body like this. It looks like faded brown paint.

 

good luck and keep the pictures coming

and the junkyard leftovers comment is meant as a compliment towards your ingenuity

 

Ed the other idea I had for your fan/ pump dilemma is plug the head outlet with a piece of plate like used when adapting the v8 water pump then in the water pump location a 26-27 model t water outlet/ fan bracket.there are pulleys available to take v belts instead of the flat belt and then on the side of the block one of the model t accessory water pumps

 

Now that sounds interesting!!! Do you think the T outlet, and fan fits to the Model-T engine? I think the Model-T has an extended sump with the mount up front. I've not got a Model-T engine here to compare. Maybe I'll have to find one to compare.
Ed

 

I believe I saw a model a engine with that setup in it one time. Im not near any of my As or Ts to test it for myself but it seems like it could work

 

Finally after a 10 week wait, my beading machine turned up. Wow the thing weighs about 200lbs. Next week start beading.

 

Good luck with it can't wait to see the results.

 

I am just amazed at this.Bravo!

 

Waited 10 weeks for the beading machine. Took an hour to assemble it and just 30 minutes to do all the beading! It is a two man job though, especially the big panels.

So with the beading done I could finally weld up the tub. I spend the last two days doing that and rolling over the top edges. Also fitted the door skin. Still some detailing to do before filler.

 

Two Ford Fiestas and one Fiat Punto.

 

Oh and I also fitted the headlights I made the stands out of an old Model-A headlight bar someone gave me recently.
Pretty car.

 

THAT's where I saw that! Thanks, Jase... was drivin' me nuts...

 

Looks great, the bead rolling really ties everything together. Can't wait to see it all one color, outside.

 

they don't make them like they used to

 

More updates. Faster. Please.

 

On the drivers side, Model-Ts had a dummy door pressed into the side. Obviously due to the size of this panel, and the internal bracing I wasn't able to put the beading into the panel so I beaded an extra piece of metal and trimmed it down exactly to the edge of the bead. I then drilled holes into the panel just in from the beads in order that I could spot weld it in place. It was attached in place with those tiny nuts and bolts I used earlier. Again I can't stress enough - when using metal from modern vehicles you have to clean off all traces of the zinc coating where you want to weld. When you're cleaning off the zinc with a flap wheel you can see it disappearing. The zinc is a mat color, the steel underneath is shiny. Then I filled the inside of the bead with windshield glue and then bolted it in place. Where I couldn't use nuts and bolts to attach it I used self tapping screws. I left the glue overnight to cure and then welded it on the next day including the holes from the nuts and bolts. After grinding I used flexible filler to blend it in.

 

LOOKING GUD

 

I love this shoe-string builds, maybe because that's also how I do mine!

This is really out of the box thinking!

Will this nice rod get a hood and a belt pan? Or didn't you get enough parts out of either OT shitb... Sorry, donor vehicles!

 

No hood. Whats a belt pan?

 

Possibly one of the most innovative threads on the HAMB. Great work.

 

Yesterday I removed the bucket from the subframe to do more detailing. The bucket actually has it's own subframe too so it's rigid and stable on it's own. The firewall is now welded in place so the whole bucket lifts off in one piece. I was surprised how light it was despite the heavy duty subframe I could easily pick it up on my own. I think that is due to the light weight of those modern hoods I used. And as you can pick up the whole trunk, including trunk lid, with one hand I reckon the entire body will be really light weight. Nevertheless everything is extremely stable now. Probably just as well it's light weight with just 40 hp.
2 lbs of filler already used up. Another 1 lb on order.
Now I'll be the first to admit that this body is taking up quite a few hours of work and wouldn't be possible if I was charging somebody an hourly rate. But a surprising number of people build T-buckets using fiberglass bodies. In fact there are probably more fiberglass T-buckets than steel ones. Anyone who has ever framed out a fiberglass body knows how much work that is especially if you do a good job of it. The fiberglass bodies aren't 100% accurate either so you may as well make your own body out of steel. The steel body I built isn't heavier than a framed out fiberglass one. Possibly even lighter. All the internal strengthening in my body is the modern Ford factory bracing which is paper thin steel too and only has it's strength because of it's pressed shapes. Also I reckon I now have more side impact protection than I would in a framed out fiberglass bucket. (I don't intend to put that theory to the test though).
Add to that - working with steel is easier than fiberglass. No gluing, sanding fiberglass and all that horrible stuff. Steel can be welded, ground down, bent to shape and filled with filler. And as I pointed out earlier, the 1990's bubble shaped car steel I've been using is the easiest to form I've ever had.

 

Sad, hoods are cool, especially home made alu-ones.
No such thing as a belt pan, but with out the Auto-correct in my phone, it should read; Belly pan

 

Love this! How did you fold over the top of the tub? I see the slits of course but did you use a form of some sort of form to maintain consistency or are you just that good?!

 

I made a dolly with a bump on it which just fitted into the beading. Actually it was a two man job. I applied heat to the fold area and my buddy held the dolly in place and knocked the top over. We tried it cold but found we were distorting the beading. The inside return edge was made with that 1/2" L profile steel which I've used extensively in the build. It really stiffens up edges and is easy to bend using Eastwood's shrinker and stretcher. Three lengths were used, left, right and rear with two fillet pieces in the corners.

 

Ah! Excellent. Thank you for the explanation! I'm really enjoying this build. Your vision and skill are inspiring!

 

Oh thanks but it's really nothing. Anyone could do this.