Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

Tying it all back together:

 

Thank you, and great eye! The curved surfaces very much remind me of his work.

Hahaha I could totally see this as a hot rod clubhouse. I wonder what the garage situation is like out back?

Interestingly enough, the building was constructed in 1911 and given a "facelift" right after the H.A.M.B. era. I checked out their old place on Moraga and you're right—it's definitely lost its charm. That being said, the remainder of the Sunset remains virtually untouched. I love cruising through there in the roadster.

 

Thank you for coming along for the ride! Lots more great stuff ahead.

Me too. I'd love to take you for a ride in the roadster and hear firsthand about San Francisco's Golden Age. Then we could grab some food somewhere near Washington Square Park and see the lights of the Bay Bridge.

 

The past week or so has been an absolute blur. On Saturday, the friends and I cruised down to Santa Cruz on our old motorcycles. Then, on Sunday, I had my bike in the Time Flies show. When the dust settled, my bike was crowned "Best Swing-Arm Chopper" and I won a homemade trophy and a case of beer!

As fun as that was, I had the best time catching up with a long list of friends. In this photo, you can see the custom windshield I built as well as my vintage Jalopy Journal T-shirt.

The following day, I made my way across the bay to see Aaron. He was gracious enough to lend me a '40 Ford rear and some wheels for mockup, and we ended up having a great time eating Chinese food and catching up at a local watering hole. You'll be hearing more about those parts in the coming weeks.

On Tuesday night it was cold, but I knew that I wanted to take the roadster out for a night drive.
I threw the hood on there, just because I wanted to mix things up. After riding bikes all weekend, it felt good to be ripping down the side streets in the A. The engine liked the cool evening air. My route took me through the Richmond, into the Presidio, then into the Marina and Cow Hollow. When I saw the Metro Theatre with neon ablaze, I pulled a U-turn and snapped this photo. The theatre opened its doors in the spring of 1924.

 

Now for one of the biggest updates to date.

Remember when I said I brought my original '40 Ford rear to Ben Thomas of Rancho Deluxe for a complete rebuild? Well, he just wrapped things up and I can hardly believe how good it looks. Ben is a true craftsman.

Here are a bunch of Ben's Instagram photos from his shop, which is located in Johnson City, Texas.





















There's so much for me to process here. The quality of the Rodsville looks high, and I asked Ben to vent the case like that after seeing the same treatment on one of the Kennedy Brothers' cars.

It's pretty surreal to think that my car will be getting this rear. I never imagined that I would own one, let alone one this nice. It's the perfect blend of function and form.

 

Saturdays are the best!

 

We’re turning wrenches, welding and making moves!

 

Stay tuned to tomorrow morning's Jalopy Journal to hear about my cross-town trip to Norm Rapp's garage sale—and more!

 

For those who missed it, the full article can be found here.

 

I know I say this all the time, but the past few weeks have been pretty busy. Even though I've been slow with the updates, you can be sure that I'm making progress on the car. Here's what's up.

Last Saturday, David and I decided that we were pretty close to having a roller. To help make that happen, I went to the tire shop to get the rolling stock mocked up.
These are just temporary tires, but I'll be running 6.00s on the front and 7.50s on the rear. Unfortunately two of my '40 Ford steelies are bent, so I'm on the hunt for two more runnable ones. I couldn't be happier with how these are looking. The black paint, beanie caps and wide whitewalls are pure early-'50s. Big stuff!

We spent the remainder of the day finishing up filling holes and smoothing things out on the frame.

Lately, I've been putting the miles on the car. In the past two weeks, I've been driving it everywhere, often times in heavy city traffic.
The other day, I was thinking of my friends @nickthebandit and @Six Ball as I ripped through North Beach.

Roaring through the Broadway Tunnel for the first time was a major highlight. Shifting into third with the sound of the banger bouncing off the tiles is something I'll never forget.

Since I was on that side of town, I naturally had to stop for a photo in Chinatown.

 

My other adventures brought me to Bayview on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. The car did great on the cross-town hauls, including on the hill climbs. Each time, I worked to take a different route to change up the scenery. There was a lot to enjoy.

Last Wednesday, I drove the roadster to welding class. The temperature was in the 70s that night, and I made sure to savor every second of it. In class, we had our intro to TIG welding. I've been looking forward to that day for a long, long time. The fact that I got to drive there in my hot rod felt pretty surreal—almost like something you'd read about in a Henry Gregor Felsen book or watch in a hot rod B-movie.

While I was walking over to pick up my gear, I saw the nose of the car through the shop's garage door. I couldn't help but smile.

I'll share more about my TIG welding experience at a later date, but I will say this: once I have access to 220, I'm buying one. I love the feel and I can't wait to put it to good use on this project.
I did swing by my favorite neon sign in all of San Francisco on the way home. When I pulled up, folks spilled out of the bar to see what was causing all that commotion.

"Are you ever going to paint it?" asked the man in the flannel shirt.
"Nooooo," said the woman in white, running her hand along the quarter panel.
"I wanted to at one point," I replied, "and maybe I eventually will. But right now I'm having too much fun with it exactly how it is."

With that, I hit the road.

 

My next trip was Norm Rapp's garage sale, which I mentioned earlier. For that full story, check out my Jalopy Journal entry here.

Mags.

Late-'40s hot rodding.

Racecar stuff.

And my parts haul. On the first day, I searched high and low for those fuel line clamps and couldn't find any. When I went back on Sunday I stumbled upon this custom fuel system and I couldn't be more excited. These will be perfect with my Strombergs on the Weiand 2x2 intake.