Projects Building hot rods from garbage ( non-survivor club)

My roadster....from a rolled 5 window.

 

Usually when I read "Roadster made from Coupe" I just move on, because they mostly look like...well, Roadsters made from a Coupe. You in my opinion have pulled if off beautifully. Nice job and a great looking Roadster.

 

Thanks!!

 

Thought I would bump this thread for all the “dumpster divers” out there in hamb land for the long weekend.... Merry Christmas everybody and hope you have a great new year!

 

Another of my one of idea designs and build back in the 90's. Accumulated lots of extra truck parts, custom made bed with storage compartment, suicide doors, Small block Chevy. Built for years of cruising and hauling. The truck was a great road trip vehicle. Probably ready for some refreshing and is now owned and enjoyed by my Son in Michigan.

 

Thank you Thirtytwo I really enjoy this thread! This is what inspiration is all about Hobo Jim

 

Ive been building cars from scrap for so long I wouldn’t know what to do with a nice car to start with. Great thread.

 

I’m not sure if this qualifies but it’s the only way I can afford to put together a real 1932 these days...

I have a cowl and doors once I fix some rusty cowl sides and doors...



@thirtytwo you may remember some of these bits

 

looks like a good start.

 

I found my dragter in a local salvage yeard cut in two pieces in 1989. I found the rear half first and knew it was a dragster cage nad after looking around I found the front half 30ft away with a small tree growing up threw it. I bought it off the yard for $200 did my research and found out later it was a 1959 Lyndwood eliminator II dragster. I sand blasted the frame and had a local chassis shop replace the upper body frame and structural lower frame (as per original factory size and placement) + had the main tube sleeved and tig'd together. it took me 55 weeks and $2500 to restore this rail to a running & painted C/D with injection. 75% of the vinatge parts were dirt cheap or free as no one wanted "old speed" equipment at that time. i ran the rail in exhibition from 1991-96 till the old chassis were outlawed, then it got stored till 2001 when i brought it back out for the York US-30 reunion show. soon after I found out it was the original Solomon& Roerres A/D from the area. they ran a blown 394 olds, not having the cash to re-restore it or the correct parts I rebuilt the injected 331 and added a 671 to pay tribute to their rail. today it sits in a museum in allentown PA , America on Wheels, on display but is ready to fire and make a run at the jalopy drags( I just dont fit in it anymore).

 

My brother started with this trailer load of crap to build the coupe I am currently driving.

 

Instead of saving this one, we’re bring it back from the dead. It was rotten and the wood apparently had been burned out of it. A friend had it at the local swap meet in August and I said I would buy it for his $500 asking price if nobody else did by the end of the weekend. Nobody did so I brought it home and my father and I decided to try to stitch it together. We have about six weeks work in it so far(nights and weekends)


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Need to resurrect this thread. . . .
Some may be familiar with my roadster but here are some pictures.
This "thing" was built from scraps and cast off parts. EVERY piece needed tons of work, but it was the only way I could afford to put one of these together.
It was so much fun I decided to build another one from pieces, this time a coupe
Build threads: something from nothing 29 roadster build
Another New England build from pieces

 

Bump for one of my favorite threads.

 

Different cowl & doors, but it still looks like it did when I found it in 1962. So far I have parts from 10 different Roadster bodies in it Bob

 

Not sure my '39 fell into the "complete turd" category, but everyone I know thought it wasn't worth saving. It was dirt cheap because of all the rot, and had sat outside covered in blackberry vines for a very long time! The entire bottom 5" of the car was gone, and the whole side of the car swung like a gate when I closed the doors!
I replaced all the floors, rockers, lower firewall, lower doors (inner and outer), lower quarter panels, tail panel, attachment areas where rear fenders bolt to the body, fender lips attachment points, and a few other assorted patches.
Much of what I welded in I fabricated my self with my homemade sheet metal brake, and a 4'x8' sheet of 20 ga. metal. All the front clip was garbage as a previous owner worked for Old Chicago Fiberglass Products and built a one piece glass frontend that never fit, and got worse after many years out in the weather. So I had to find metal front fenders, and then build a tube frame inner structure to support the front clip, and radiator. Radiator is an aluminum unit for a '32 Ford with Chev V8 swap, because it was cheaper than one for a '39 Chev. Grilles were crazy expensive, but I found a place here in town that I've dealt with for years that had numerous damaged '39 Chev grille halves. I bought 3 halves that all had bent or damage in the lower 5-6 grille bars, and cut pieces out of the 3rd half to tig weld in the other two halves to make two decent halves. Then just sanded and painted the grille with metallic graphite colored mag wheel paint.
Built a Chev 350 I found for $100, and got all the running gear used from the wrecking yard, except for the 4 speed automatic trans I got from a friend. Front axle is a '58 Chev truck axle I narrowed 5" and converted to disc brakes with Ford Pattern to match the Ford 3.73 posi 8.8" rear axle.
Bought a old Singer commercial sewing machine, and learned how to use it enough to sew up my interior. Bought a decent quality spray gun, and tried my hand at my first paint job. Then tried my hand at my first lettering work also.
It's not perfect, but I love it, and it was a fun build!

 

Just a little update on a previous project of junk.

 

Man you could build a Hot Rod out of an oil stain!

 

Gives me some much needed inspiration, thanks

 

Man, i love this stuff. These posts about building from scrap are what makes me happy. It always seems that the worse the start car is, the more i like the end result. Anyone else got some pics to make me smile?

 

I've mentioned before that the guy I share my garage with worked for a company that threw away just about everything they ordered at one time or another. All the hardware in my shop came from there; all my sheet metal including stainless panels. So where is this going ? They built custom parts washers ( 25 feet by 9 feet by 10 feet kind of parts washers ). Their customers would ship in some parts that the washer will be used for and would usually have the company throw them away after the test wash.
we had been working on our 51 chevy fleetline trying to figure out how to do the firewall indent ( the engine is setback 10 inches ). His company built a machine for Polaris, The ATV company. after the test wash, they threw away about 25 gas tanks.
Doug snagged one and now the story begins. We cut the top of the gas tank as a starting piece


We cut then cut a piece of 1/4 rod so we had the shape, including a 6 inch piece to be added to the middle to get the width we wanted.


We added that rod to the basic structure of the firewall


we ended up added a six inch piece to the middle to get where we wanted to



built entirely of junk gas tank, junk 14 gauge steel, 1/4 rod and 1 x 1 thick wall tubing ( they throw away anything less than 4 feet long

How did it turn out ?

 

20220619_115810 by chessterd5 posted Aug 2, 2022 at 1:29 PM

Screenshot_20220809-205809_Chrome by chessterd5 posted Aug 16, 2022 at 5:53 PM

 

Sport coupe to sport coupe de-ugly-fied LOL

 

Man, i love to see all of the garbage rods! My favorite thread by far!

 

I've put this on before but, two pallets of body panels to build a 30 closed cab pick up with quick change and early hemi power.. A back of a 28 fordor that had long ago tacked front door jambs was in the pile to create the back of the cab. When I went through mock up assembly the panel was 4 1/4 inches too narrow and the bottom curved in way to far and contours were just wrong. I'm making the most of it and picked up a couple inches of interior room as well. View attachment 5568792 View attachment 5568793 View attachment 5568794 View attachment 5568795 [

 

If there were a prize for this category, I might be a contender.

I'm building a 31 Ford coupe on a 32 frame. The frame came under a model A roadster I recently bought that had sat in a muddy field for 5 or 6 decades and the front was so rotted that it twisted up in the front and didn't look savable. We happened to have a 32 frame jig at my house that I had borrowed from a friend so we cut out a section in back that had been stepped and we welded the frame back together like it originally was and we then fitted the rails in the frame boxing jig. We then managed to coax the front rails into the boxing jig with a big pry bar and the occasional heat from a torch and once we got it all tied down, we reinforced the inside of the rails with plates of 1/8" steel then we boxed them too.
The body that I'm putting on it is made from a 31 slant windshield four door sedan and a pair of 31 coupe quarter bottoms that I bought already partially roughed in with a 6" chop. We put a 32 firewall and cowl vent in it and I have a 32 windshield header and dash to put in it next. I've got a couple of options for deck lid that I haven't decided on. One is a rusty model A decklid skin pressed full of louvers and the other is an original old 31 deck lid that someone has chopped holes in with an ax. I've got a 32 heavy axle with a 5 inch drop for it and some rusty old chrome wishbones left over from another build. I've got lots of 35 Ford wire wheels to choose from and I've got a 51 Ford flathead and a 2 x 2 Offenhauser setup and some nice Sharp heads to run on it. I've got lots of other projects going so I need to get this one at least to a roller stage so I can put it away and work on building more 32 frames for my cars before I have to return the frame jig.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Like that project a lot, is there a build thread that we can see and follow the progress?

Bob

 

When I got my roadster years ago fortunately it came with a copy of a 1953 magazine it had been in so I knew wat it once was. I got the frame, front end with suspension and what was left of the body. I wouldn't have painted it red if it hadn't been mentioned in the story.

 

Mine definitely fits this category. Floors barely enough to hold it's self together, no interior, no drivetrain just a rolling body.

 

To keep this thread going, (I love it!). Some pics of my ongoing project. Sourced the body a few years ago, (Thanks Adam401!), on here and have been banging ever since. The newer pics are actually a few months old. They were taken back in the Spring. When I slide it back in the shop next week I'll do an update. Everything so far has been done in the driveway as I haven't had a bay open in about two years now. I guess that makes it traditional. More pics on my build thread.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-vicky-body-a-build-thread-with-pics.1197541/

Getting a super nifty Carson style lift off top with a Packard rear window. The car is drafted out in full scale and I just love the proportions. Working on the custom louvered hood. Cheap but labor intensive.