That is going to be a great looking car. I'm enjoying the detail of your posts, too. For a beginner like me, it's really interesting to read. I'm glad you dropped the grille shell down - I think lots of cars using 28/29 bodies and the deuce shell get the hood line all wrong. I went with a '30 shell on my '29 coupe and had to section it a bit to get the right look. Keep up the great work. LT
THANKS! I always have enjoyed watching others build process and reading the thoughts and techniques outlined. I owe alot of what I have learned and am still learning to guys on here or other forums.
Still working on this thing, getting it all back together, been working on the motor lately, rebuilding carbs. and painting and rebuilding stuff. hopefully i will update more soon.
Ok time for an update, not all ideas we come up with are winners, but ill share anyways, i picked up a drag link at a swap a few months back, it was an older/home made adjustable job, being i didnt have en extra tierods at the moment so i can run my f1 pitman, i decided to take the pieces i have and make something for now, its temporary and i will find another tierod and swap it out, but for this temp one so i can start figuring the last of the sterring, i basically i mimiced the old one i had and even robbed the parts off of it, i took a piece of DOM and slip it over the piece of the f1 drag link, it is so tight it was almost press fit. I then cut an old tierod up for the threaded stud, extended that down into the DOM and welded that in. Then took the tierod sleeve, screwed it in and used an opposite thrd tierod end on the other end to get to the steering arm. If i deceded to rne it i would pin it in a couple places for extra measure. Pic shows it mocked up. Also pitman arm needs a little heat and adjusting for better geometry.
Ok i suck at taking pics, but basically, heres what ive done latley. I figured out the clutch and clutch linkage. I used boling bros pedals, and modified 49-54 chevy clutch linkageto work with the clutch fork, after a little tweaking, it works perfect, next i set up the shift linkage and got the shifter on and now its shiftable, then i started routing brak linnes, although they are not complete yet, the fun part though, that i have been excited about and dreading at the same time… is reassembling the body and getting it back in shape… i bought this thing completely disassembled on a pallet and it was a collection from different cars. Fun! So fitament was kind a pain in the ass. I worked front to back to get it assembled, added the mounting blocks, and built some customextentions because the original sub was toast. The doors did not line up well at all, so with some cutting, moving bracing etc. i finally got a prttey good fit and the doors seem like they will close easy. I also began rebulding the bracing for the floor in the rear once i got the doors squared away and the rear of the body squared, i then used some rubber donuts and mande 2 new rear body mounts i made my own bungs from 7/16 nuts and welded them into the frame,
All in all, i have a body now that is square, mounted and has no jackstands or welding clamps holding it together! Geres the results so far.. more to come
You have a great looking roadster! I am looking forward to watching your progress, only found your thread today, will subscribe & follow along
Thanks fellas, always wanted a 28-29 roadster, and it is very exciting seeing whats been rolliing around in my head, actually coming to life! Thanks to some good friends in helping me find, the right parts to see my vison come through! I have always been a custom guy, but always wanted a hotrod too. Now i have both. Heres my 52 pontiac i built in much of the same way, a torn up hunk of junk that was completley stripped, and the top was mangled. And it was a 4 door on top of it all. For some reason i love rough cars! Haha i will try and take more pics as i go along.
Ok last 2 pics for now, worked on the trunk floor today and took the rest of the day to clean up the shop from the last few days. And drew some numbers on for fun. I did how ever roll it over to get a better side profile look, im pretty pleased with the proportions, after lengthing the minimal amount i could, i think it all firs pretty well. hard to get it outside because i live on a hill. Excuse the mess, this was precleanup
Ok, time to rumble! Being this car is a hodge podge collection of body panels, i had bought the inner bracings and trunk gutters repop. I had an idea of how it all went together but wasnt 100% sure. I didnt have measurements, or know exactly where to mount the hing brace, but had an idea. I wasnt even sure if i had all the right pieces. ( i am missing a couple) but this is a custom situation anyways since i kicked the rear up 5 inches. Fortunatley i have a buddy who just got his 29 together, and with help from his reference pics and measurements, i got started. As you can see i had a pile of parts i thought i needed in the first pic, i knew that where my hinge brace would have to mount, wouldnt work without modifications. As you can also see, in my structure i created rear bolt on body mounts, using 7/16 nuts i turned them down on my oakie lathe (drill press and a sanding disc on an angled die grinder) and weled them into the holesi had drilled in the too of the frame, i ground them slightly conicle to drop into the holes just right. Home made bungs! Then used some round donuts rubber pucks for rear body mounts( motor mounts for some late 90s early 2000s mopars if i remember right?
based on his info he gave me, i decided to trim the brace and mount it in place to where it would just be flush with my floor structur i was adding to the body. Once bother were trimmed and bolted only from the top and not securred at the bottom, i bolted the rumble in for a test fitting and swinging. It swung! But obviously was fitting a lityle wonky
After an afternoon of fanagling with the lid and opening and closing i decided i had it pretty close. So i fabricated 2 small floor pieces with holes ( for body mount bolr access) and some little beads, then fabricated some small brackets to wrap the bottom of the hinge bracket and bolt in. I then installed the repop gutters that required some trimming and reshaping.(( you can also see the approximate location of the future fuel tank) i plan to have most of the floor removable for maintenace access, which is why the center between the body mounts is still open. After that i slapped the lid back on and adjusted it. Although its still in a minor ammount of adjustment, i plan on adressing it when all mounts are set and doors open and close nicely…. The lid needs some repair before i can attach the latch and some rust repait on the botton inner which is causing a small hangup on the tailpan, but with a shot of my fake patina, i think its looking preet good. More to com, stay tuned!
So we were building twins...now I'm going to use a flathead and a '29 grille ...so I don't feel like we're wearing the same dress to the party
I have actually gathered up parts for another and was thinking of doing the same with it haha. but I need to finish this one... we will see if the other ever gets built.
its been a while, but I am still plugging away at this thing. I am getting close, heres some stuff that I have done recently, maybe I can make Mooneyes? doubtfull but spring for sure. pics kinda of tell the story, started with a set of F1 shock mounts that I heavily modified, shortend and treated to the torch, overall, they came out pretty close on the first try. Found a vintage 2 ball and drilled, tapped and made a shift knob, and decided since I had an extra 58 buick hood porthole badge, that it would fit the bill better instead of Henry's V8. Also I figured out my air scoops and decided on this mounting.
So I ordered some bitchen arms from my buddy Noble speed, check him out on instagram for some awesome parts, also where i got the carb top covers. I then gathered up the stuff to build my own back bars. cut some plates, mounted some hiems and ordered some arms for 3/8 rod from speedway. a buddy hooked me up wit old hiems, and and I picked up some stainless tubing that i threaded so the hiems are adjustable. i also added an aftermarket spoon pedal, and got it all in time, what a pain! it definatley took some patients. last pic, my buddy came through for the weekend with his roadster for some motivation.
Well this car is finally on the road, some small things still need done, but heres how the last leg went. About the last month and a half i thrashed on it day and night, weekends and after work. The goal was May 4th and the RPM nationals Barona drags. Basically i thrashed all the way up to the Thursday before, with the help of a couple buddies Thursday night we buttoned i tup. A gremlin popped up Friday morning ans we fixed if, loaded it and headed to Barona. She did pretty good out there, didn't break, and man what fun! She had more miles on the strip, and than the streets at that point. No real pretesting was done, just tuned my best in the garage and took it racing. Since the post race depresion i have been tolling her around town and this is a fun car for sure. Heres some pics, thanks for following.
this pic sums up the final weeks of theashing. Garage is still a mess, but im working on my house right now, ans will get it all organized after. Stay tuned for small updays and asventures, as well as a flathead car im going to pt in the works soon! Thanks!
The Jalopy Journal
