Customs I finished my Mysterion clone and have a book contract!

Tom is WAY too humble. He IS the story of Mysterion!! Is the star of my book.

 

now i have to find a way to grab this book. Ed Roth was way cool, building a clone is a huge amount of work and needs some brilliancy and the work of Tom Davison is out of question.. another ten points to join the H.A.M.B.

 

S

Sure. And with my autograph and $2.50 you can get a cup of coffee anywhere in town.

 

Wow! This turned out Amazing!! Great job- post more pics

 

Love it.Like others have said can,t wait for the book.

 

Had a clear day today so took some more photos.

 

Cant wait to see it in person! I met Ed , a very nice guy. I drew his cars and style of Art in school. LOVE the rod and looking forward for the book also. THANKS ! from R.F.

 

That car is just too cool for school . Excellent job !

 

What a great project, both car and book. I just noticed the rear axle in the Ton Davison photo above. Did Ed know about the P3 Alfa GP car that used the same setup? Bob

 

Don't know about the Alfa. I suspect Ed came up with the axle on his own. This batch of pictures are ones
I took. Tom took the ones in the park on the grass.

 

This book will definitely be added to my library. Looks really good!

 

Great looking car but I'm a little baffled by the rear suspension. Does that siamesed rear actually pull up on the springs instead of compressing them?

 

I have a question about the rear suspension. It looks like 48 Ford torque tube rear ends. If they are torque tube that would mean the rear axle can move straight up and down but not twist side to side. That means if the car was not on level ground the front suspension would have to do all the flexing and it wouldn't take much of a difference to make the front suspension bottom and try to twist the frame. I have the idea this is one of the reasons they had so much trouble with the frame cracking or breaking. What do you make of this?

 

AHA!!! You have to buy the book to find out!!!!!! Actually Phord produced those axles for a very short time with conventional U-joint drive shafts. They came on pickups, I think I read somewhere only in 1948 so those rears are fairly rare but I had no problem finding two. The Revell model kit has the proper representation in its parts.
Here are pictures of Ed's rear ends from the Revell model kit instruction sheet and of a stock '48 Phord pickup one fresh off the truck. I think Ed must have used a conversion kit if they made them back then since his pinion carrier doesn't look like the pickup one. I used the pickup 'cause it was way cheaper than buying two conversion kits. The coil spring suspension is really quite typical. Ed just hung the spring mounting cups in front of the axle instead of putting them on top of it or attached to it but the suspension is otherwise pretty plain vanilla parallel link w/coils. Oh, and with a raising and lowering mechanism and about $$$$$$$$$$$ worth of chrome!

 

I envy you. I never met Ed. Closest I came is I wrote to him in Utah in the late 90s asking of he still sold Rat Fink Decal. I wanted a RF decal on the spare tire bump on my '36 Willys coupe gasser clone. He replied with a pencil hand written note which I treasure.

 

Ford used the open drive rear on commercial vehicles for several years. Reason, the transverse leaf wouldn't hold the weight so they went to parallel leafs and it was easier to do that with an open driveshaft. At least that is the way I figure it, you can never tell what was going thru old Henry's mind.

 

Thanx Rusty. I read that they used that axle design on commercial trucks for '48, but makes sense they would for other years too. I know very little about Ford stuff. This is the first project I have ever built with anything Ford on it. The engineering is, let's say, 'unique'.

 

Ok. so when is the book due to hit the book stores?

 

Absolutely great work. Being a designer/engineer, a labor of love like this is no simple task. Your eye and hand become an extension of art. Again a fantastic job and the ability to complete a work of art.

 

When is the book coming out?

 

Well done!

 

I am as frustrated as you! The book publishing process is apparently done on a glacial time clock. I submitted my final manuscript in October, there was a flurry of back and forth communications clarifying some questions and typos thru mid January, then the editors retired to their padded offices to put it all together. In fact that is what they tell us on their website will happen, that there will be several months when it appears nothing is going on but not to worry, they are working diligently. My best guess is I should be getting the proofs to edit and create an index some time in June? The book has over 400 pictures and just the captions for those are over 10,000 words so I think they are having a tough job assembling all that. Give me a couple weeks to do the index, send back the redlined text, then it will be a couple months to print and distribute. September maybe?

 

I know what I'm asking Santa for. Thanks for the up date. Ron...

 

Congratulations. You have done a service to all who live in the hot rod/custom world. Well done, and thank you.

 

Very Cool
If you didn't own a Chrome Shop before this project you do now!

 

Yep. I am a MAJOR investor.

 

I want a copy!

 

VERY VERY COOL! I met Ed as a kid in the 90's, he was my hero! Very nice guy.

And for what it's worth, Ford used those open drive shaft banjo rear ends from 1942-1947 in half ton pickups. In 1948, with the all new F series pickups, Ford started using Spicer or Dana rear ends.

 

Interesting read. When I first opened it, I was a little skeptical knowing of the Moriarty/Shuten car. I quickly came to realize what a great job and labor of love you have created. Kudos!
I knew Roth, even had him do some lettering at my store back in the 80's, people freaked out when they saw his little Honda car parked out front - I think he would be both proud and flattered, and maybe even a little overwhelmed.

 

What Don said!!