Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

You’re right! It IS a hot rod! Thanks for the support—there are few things more exciting than bringing an old engine to life.

 

I think I’m going to take both of you up on your generous offers!

So just like with the bikes, I know there’s a lot of two steps forward, one step back-type situations. Although the car ran well, the water pump was leaking like a sieve. After a great deal of research, I went with one of the newer leakless pumps. Seeing that I have a four-blade fan, I opted to remove the radiator.



Out with the old. There was a lot of play on the shaft. I think I may rebuild it just for practice and to have an extra.

 

Front-to-back play, that is. I’ll be installing the new pump tomorrow if all goes to plan. Also, my floor arrived and I HAD to set it in there. It needs a little customization and some staining and it’ll be ready for action.

 

TBD at this point. I'm going to do some Craigslist searching and see what I can pick up for cheap/free. I do have a rubber floor mat that will be covering it down the line. One thing's for sure—the oil and grime will show up regardless

Thanks! The plan is to drop in a flathead V8 when I get a little more established. Right now, resources are tight and space is tighter. I'm just enjoying the process.

 

I'm in the middle of moving, but my goal is to be able to drive the car to the new place. It's only a mile away, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that with the leaky water pump. I have until the 10th of October to have not only the old spot cleared out, but also the roadster ready. As you guys know, I'm always working with deadlines.

This afternoon I was able to get the new water pump installed. One of the studs needed a little cleanup work, which gave me a great opportunity to use my era-correct tap and die set that I got at an estate sale in SoCal a little while back. With that all straightened out, I put everything back together and fired it up for the first time in a month. After a little fiddling, it fired right up. Best of all, the new water pump seemed to be working just fine.

And the finished product...

 

Next, I started making the template for the lower seat out of cardboard. It will be 3/4-inch marine-grade plywood stained to match the floor. It will bolt on to the seat pan and serve as the base for the seat. Grade 8 hardware will be used to secure it.

That's all for tonight. I gotta do some packing!

 

Thank you! Yep, that’s what I meant. I will stain it and seal it, after I paint my new bedroom [emoji23]

 

Moving has been going smoothly, but it sure has taken up a lot of my roadster time. That being said, today was a red letter day.

Even though this is an early style build, I knew I wanted to run steelies from the start. After talking with @13clicks about what he did on his roadster to have steelies and mechanical brakes, he sold me the front adaptors he made. They should be showing up shortly.

Then there are the wheels. My friend Brandon Flanner of East Bay Speed & Custom hooked me up with a killer set of 16-inch ‘40 Ford steelies. They’re four inch fronts, 4.5-inch rears. I had a great time hanging out at the shop, catching up and learning the finer points of hot rod rolling stock. Later this week I’ll be buying my bias ply Firestone black walls. I can’t wait to get these on the car! Note the original pinstriping!

 

Side Note: Remember when I said I finished my Triumph project so I could finally build the roadster? I'm really excited to share that the bike is featured in the new issue of DicE Magazine. This is the motorcycle equivalent of having your car in Rodder's Journal. I couldn't be more thrilled!
I'm trying to apply everything I learned to my latest four-wheeled project. Build thread to that machine on the Antiqued here

 

Hey, you guys know way better than me. I was under the impression that things like seats should be securely fastened. The seatbelts are connected to the seat frame via Grade 8, so I was just trying to follow suit. If this were your build, what would you use?