Projects Turning a pile of parts into a woodie.

anything new?

 

So pretty much a decided to go roadster pickup instead of Modified. I just had a change of plans. So I built a new frame, mounted an engine in it and cut my doors loose.

 

I am also un-channeling it a bit for comfort reasons. Sorry it looks goofy in the pictures I never got a picture at ride height.

 

Don't know how old you are, but at my age doors that open are a real plus...

 

I like it. Please show more when you have time or progress. thanks.

 

I like it too.
Keep up the good work, and don't forget pic updates, we all love em

 

I guess I should explain a little about what I did. I had to widen a stock A crossmember to except a wider 1940 front spring. I will be running spring ahead 1940 front end with a dropped axle ( done in the 50s ). I chose to notch and bend the wishbones to split them instead of heating and bending the ends, because it reminds me of old dirt track cars. When I made the frame I used 2x3 tubing and I pinched the first 24" to eventually put model A frame horns on ( when I do my final welding). I did a slight kick where the firewall will be and a large z out back, with a model A rear crossmember. I want it the have rearward rake, because I love the look of a lot of those old East coast cars particularly New England area ones.
I ended up having to make plates and extend the top of the stock 54 Chevy motor mounts, but I lucked out because the frame width was very close to a model A I guess. Right now the mounts are just bolted in place, but they will be welded and gusseted during final welding. I don't have a picture of it now, but I have since made a simple trans crossmember to support the Saginaw 4 speed that I put on the motor after these pictures where taken.
I'm at a pretty huge disadvantage trying to build this car because I still haven't been able to upgrade the garages electrical system, so right now I just have a 110 MIG and electric grinders. But that's why I did the initial frame construction at work, and will bring it back to do my final work. Currently I have a system of tacking with my little welder, then drilling and tapping for 1/4-20 screws. That should hold things together until I can use a real welder, then I will just weld and bring the screw heads and they will just look like rivets, I call it "mechanical tacking".

 

Today I set the body on the frame at its new height, I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along. It's not as extreme as it would have been, but I bought myself a lot of real estate in the cab.

 

waiting to see more.

 

This looks interesting, im in. JW

 

I was doing some measuring and found something new to worry about. Before I cut the doors loose I was very careful about bracing the body, being that those doors were all that kept the cowl and the back of the cab supported. Unfortunately whoever welded the doors shut wasn't so careful. There is a 1" difference in length from the bottom of the door opening and the top, which makes sense because the doors fit flush at the top and overlapped at the bottom. My guess is the cowl has a forward tilt, so I guess I'm going to need to cut my bracing loose and square up those door jambs. Then it's onto hanging the doors with hinges.

 

I used a high tech method to get the door openings square. I cut the supports and ratchet strapped everything into place, then re welded my bracing tubes
.
I added some support to the cowl section to hold its position


After that was all done I went to work with a map gas torch and an impact driver to remove what was left of the old hinges. It went good until a broke the bit, got to get more from the tool truck tomorrow.

 

Haven't updated this thread in a while. I've been making some progress on the car now that winter is here and I don't have to work on the house or the yard... So I'm back in the garage making noise and angering neighbors as usual. In the past few weeks I've made some radius rod brackets and have been working on the dashboard. I had no intention of running the stock tank in the cowl, so I cut the top off to use as an access panel. I used the front of the tank to make a dash using some 46 Nash gauges I dug up.


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I hope that your camera is still working in the cold. love to see some pix,Damn the neighbors.

 

Actually the neighbors are nice, but the houses are very close together around hear so I try to be quiet. But there is a dog 2 yards down that really hates when I use a grinder... Which is constantly


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The dash looks great.
Good tip on the grinder dog thing.
I have a noisy dog park across the street from me.

 

Nice build. I can relate to what it takes to maintain good neighbor relationships &I think single garage outlet/light situation. Subscribed.

 

Back out in that garage today. Doing some mock up work seeing how everything fits up. A few weeks back I found a decent firewall for a very good price so I got a chance to set in place and see how it looks. It really makes it look way more like a car! I'm a little bummed about the amount of the bell housing that is visible, but that should get fixed once I get a trans tunnel in ( the trans is hitting my floor support, so it won't move forward any more. I set my steering column in place, it's going to need to get shortened a bit, but I'll worry about that when I get the floor and seat in place. I'm dead set on using this giant old metalflake wheel my buddy gave me, it's just too damn cool.


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Can anybody point me in the direction of a thread that shows info about dissembling a 1940 or similar steering column? I did a search but i didn't find anything.

 

No help on the column.... But I really dig how your build has grown up from a cartoon to a real hot rod. Keep at it

 

Thanks a lot, I'm learning as I go and reading lots of books, and pretty much reading the HAMB every chance i get.

 

diamond in the rough....will look cool and different

 

Cool build so far Stinky!...if your lookin, there was a model A bed on Craigslist today...

 

Thanks, but I have a 37 dodge bed that I'm going to narrow and shorten, a stock bed won't look right with my modified wheelbase. Plus I paid $10 for the dodge bed.


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I did some work on the floor today, building a subfloor structure using 1x1 and 1x2 tubing. I used a pre bent piece for a support in the rear. The trans tunnel will not be that tall, but that piece will tie into a larger support that will give strength to the back of the cab.
P.S. I changed the name of the thread because I switched to the roadster pickup idea over a year ago and just figured out that I could change the threads name.

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So it been about a year since I touched this thing. But today I had to take off to get my dog fixed, so I picked up some metal and went to town. I moved the cab forward to close up the gap between the engine and firewall, then I made a lot of progress on the subfloor. I even got a bit done up in the toe board area. I just hope I can have some more productive days like this this summer.


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Glad to see ya back at it.

 

X2