Projects The Geoffrey Skene 1932 Roadster - Full Build by Early V8 Garage

Another great follow along on the roadster. I’m
Curious if you had to deal with it moving around much with so much welding on that yoke. Maybe doing it on both sides brought it back to where you started

 

Nice !

 

Thank you! First drive video should be by next weekend!

Thank you and appreciate the follow! I looked at your project a little and will have to go through the whole thing. Looks like a fun one.

No official schooling. Good mentors (very fortunate), hands-on experience and thirst for studying and absorbing information. A lot of what I’ve done on this ch***is, so far, I’ve never done before.

Didn’t have any issues with the yoke getting out of shape after welding. Strategic spot welds to help mitigate that. I also didn’t do it all in one shot.

 

Our Aussie Falcons from '66 - '88 had a very similar bush arrangement on the castor bars on the front ends. Probably the same as Mustangs of the era

 

Magnificent concept/design and craftmanship Dennis, you should be extremely proud.
May I suggest a couple of drainage holes be provided in the wishbone fabrication to help avoiding a mud build up.

 

PART 50

With the rear wishbone finished next up is building a pair of torque arms starting with a pair of spare 1937-1940 rear axle rods.





I cut them off but was sure to leave plenty of length to work with. Then they got sand blasted and the ends were warmed up and straightened.





Thought about different options for front brackets to bolt them to and then realized I could slice off the forged bungs from the discarded rear sections.



The bungs got tacked to the front of the wishbone and the cut down rods were mocked up. As luck would have in one of my bins of original hardware I found a pair of 1/2” bolts with castle nuts that are the perfect length.

 

PART 51

Next I designed a pair of brackets to connect the rods to the rear axle using 3 bolts per side.





The design was transferred to heavy card stock and then to 1/4” steel. I also made three 11/16 OD / 3/8” ID spacers. I made just the left side to start with incase the design failed.



The bracket was mocked into place and then the rod clamped up against it to scribe the top and bottom.





From there I cut out a 2.5” slot for the rod to fit into and then realized I rod was cut down to match and the end capped with 1/8” plate.









The rod and bracket were tacked in place and then pulled out and fully welded along with the spacers.





The process was repeated for the right side and 1/8” plates were welded between the three spacers to tie them all together. Here’s the finished torque arms.

 

PART 52

The last piece of the rear suspension puzzle is getting the shocks connected. I have an empty 1935/1936 rear axle housing I use as a jig for making brake lines for my hydraulic brake conversion kits and I’ll never need to use it under a car so out came the cut-off wheel and off came the shock stud bungs.



The 35/36 spring brackets have these conveniently located flat areas that are in good alignment with the 32 shock arms so this is where they will go.



The original bungs needed to go but I wanted to leave as much material as possible for the spring hangers which is why I couldn’t simply cut them off and move them and needed the donors.



For studs I cut apart a 1937-1940 stamped/crimped shock link and removed the studs. The ball on them is the same diameter as the 32 shock arms.





After some t******* of the donor bungs, adding a 1/4” of material to the bottom of them and sanding the tops of the spring hangers flat I welded them on. After cooling, the studs were installed and the links hooked up.

 

PART 53

With the rear suspension finished I reinstalled the rear brakes, hubs and wheels. Then, I realized there’s no reason I can’t put the ch***is down on its tires for the very first time! Any one who’s ever built a hot rod knows what a milestone and sense of accomplishment this is! Still plenty of ch***is details left but I’m just soak this in for a minute.

 

Wow those shocks are fancy! Nice.

 

Great stuff!

 

Nice!!!

 

Work like this wants to make me junk mine,
I like the details on your X member especially the frame in frame without boxing.

 

PART 54

I was able to find a very nice and complete set of Model T rear spring clamps on eBay for a fair price. After receiving they were media blasted and threads chased. To install them I needed to drill the 4 holes in the cross member flanges. Only problem there was that the holes would cut through the edges so before drilling I added some half round “bumps” to bump out around the holes.











From there I decided to fit the front spring clamp. I was able to get original upper and lower plates from my friend Wayne Pugh. The U-bolts are reproduction and are threaded further up than originals allowing them to be used with thinner spring packs by drilling new cotter pin holes and t******* off the excess. In this case, about 1/2”.





Another small project was making a clutch linkage using a reproduction rod (they come extra long and can be trimmed to proper length) and original yoke end.

 

PART 55

With the rear suspension set up it was time to address the rear half of the hand brake system. I needed a way to cleanly route cables from the main lever back to brakes. Years ago I saw where a fellow Pasadena Roadster Club member, Allen McAllister, had installed curved sections of tube at the rear of his radius rods to keep the cables tucked away from the edges of his narrow T frame and thought a version of that would be perfect.

Starting with a 3’ section of 1/2” round tube, I figured out the angles and bent the ends to point at the front lever and entry tube on the brake. Then, after some trial runs I formed tabs that hug the top of the wishbone leg and the tube lays in.











Satisfied with the first tube, I made a mirror image for the driver side. The tubes were clamped tight to the tabs and then welded. After welding, the tabs were drilled two 1/4” holes each and the wishbone legs were drilled to match and tapped 1/4 - 28. The rear ends of the tubes were trimmed off so that they end just inside of the frame rails so there’s no possibility of contact.

To connect the cables to the lever I made a pair of 5/16 X 4” rods. One end drilled #26 X 1.5” deep and the other threaded 5/16 - 24 X 2” long for plenty of adjustment. The cables (for now) are just 4 short pieces to span the gabs and I have a bag full of reproduction Ford cable boots so I grabbed 6 of them to give a finished appearance and seal the tubes. I will make the actual cables later as it looks like I have to take apart some of the Kinmont brake mechanisms to get the cable ends hooked up in there.

 

PART 56

After a short time in 1932 production, Ford realized it needed to reinforce the frame where the rear shocks attach and started fitting an inside doubler plate and then eventually, towards the end of production, adding a full inner channel through the kick-up over the axle to just past the rear shock bolt.

Likewise, I needed to reinforce the rear shock area and rather than use the basic original inner plates I wanted to make something in keeping with the frames other inner channels so I made a pair of mini channels out of 1/8” flat bar and plate. Like the other frame channel sections made previously, the upper and lower flanges were fit and masking tape templates were made for the side plates.

 

Very nice, AS USUAL! Thanks!

 

Outstanding Dennis.

 

What beautiful details—I like it.
Best regards, Harald.

 

Did you fabricate the cable guide tube that's threaded into the brake backing plate or does it look like its likely an original piece? I have a number of Kinmont rear brakes but they're all missing the cable guide.

 

Those threaded tubes were with the brakes as I received them and this set are supposed to be NOS so I’m ***uming they are original Kinmont parts.

 

PART 57

Next, I wanted to run the rear brake lines. That meant needing to figure out the layout and making some flex hose brackets. A simple tab was made to go on top of the wishbone yoke BUT, in order to weld it on I needed the rear pulled out of the ch***is AND, while it was out was a good time to break everything down so that I could install the lay shaft and driveshaft yoke into the quick change so that I can get a driveshaft made.

Here’s the set of parts needing ***embly.



Before the original Hot Rod works in Idaho was sold, they had made us a new lay shaft for open drive (top) as the one supplied with the Cyclone unit (bottom) is made for closed drive.



Here’s the shaft, bearings and yoke installed. Pretty straightforward procedure.









After this I re***embled the axle and welded on the hose tab to the wishbone yoke.



A bracket for the other end of the hose was fabricated and mounted to the face of the main ch***is bracket.







After putting the rear axle ***embly back in I then ran brake lines using 1/4” copper plates nickel lines with stainless armor coil where the lines are exposed for that OEM look. The neat brake line clips are from Nystrom Performance. The T fitting and banjo bolt are reproduction 1939-1948 Ford front, designed to attach directly to the hose.

 

PART 58

With the rear brake lines made the next step would normally be to make the fronts but I decided to switch gears and work on the firewall as in the near future it will be time to install the body.

With the engine being raised I needed to make some clearance at the bottom of the firewall. I’ve never modified a 1932 firewall so I’m winging it. After much consideration I decided the best approach was simply slicing off the center making the whole thing even all the way across.





I used a front spring leaf to draw and trim a shallow arc to match the bell housing.







A previous owner had added this bracket, possibly for a fuel filter or ? Whatever it was for, it needed to go!





A previous person had also very poorly added these mounts to upper p***enger side, probably for a fuse panel. They needed to go, too!





A previous person had also filled the 6 mounting depressions for the original dash tunnel. Not a problem because we aren’t using the stock gauge panel but, I needed to open two of them up for the Bee Hive oil filter mount from Doug Clem / Whygobye Garage.

 

PART 59

I ended up having a Friday cleaning and reorganizing session a couple of weeks ago which included swapping spots with this ch***is and my Dads ‘34 Roadster. I then dressed up the ch***is a little as I was hosting a Pasadena Roadster Club (I’ve been a member since 2005) Sunday morning post-breakfast gathering. Most of the guys haven’t been out to the shop in years and it was fun showing them what I’ve been working on.

 

Great work, AS USUAL! Thanks for sharing the shop pics.

 

PART 60

Back to work. I decided to pull the engine & transmission out of the ch***is for better access and comfort while making the front brake lines.





This is the first time I’ve seen all of the finished components I’ve made in the center of the frame with the trans out of the way so I thought I’d share some views of the area.













The finished front brake lines. Just like the rear, I used copper plated nickel 1/4” line, stainless steel armor coil on exposed areas and more Nystrom Performance clips. I also made a wraparound clip to go on one of the pedal bolts and put a standard clip tucked up in the center saddle.



































I was also able to find a nice pair of original 1932 shock links to replace the aftermarket ones I had installed. Got them cleaned up and installed. Much better!

 

PART 61

One of the last things needing to be done on the ch***is set up is drilling the 3 holes to mount the steering gear BUT, in order to do that I need to know what the angle of the steering shaft / column will be. To figure that out I’m going to install the body and dashboard so that I can make the column tube and fit the drop and bolt it to the dashboard. Once that’s been done I will match drill the frame to the steering gears position.

Before all of that I decided to have some fun and get the dash set up. I’m starting with a new, blank Brookville dashboard and didn’t like how thin the lower flange is so I formed an 1/8” thick X 3/4” wide spine to reinforce it. A series of 1/4” holes were drilled in the dash every 2” and the spine was rosette welded then the welds sanded smooth. Much stronger!













I made card stock templates of the gauges and other accessories then spent about 2 hours going back and forth with Geoff by text playing with the layout until he was happy and this is where we landed.



I then carefully laid out and punch marked where to drill and hole saw then went to work.





And, with all the jewelry installed! Beautifully restored 1930’s Stewart Warner 4 - 3/8” tachometer & speedometer and 3 - 1/2” duplex gauges by Abbot Instruments. Original 1950 Russetta tag. Han**** Mfg. Co. br*** hand pressure pump. I had to scallop the backside of the lever to clear the lower bead of the dashboard. The ****ons are still card stock place holders until my parts order comes in.























Next up will be creating a mounting structure to hold the back mounted gauges…

 

One of the nicest packaging jobs I've ever seen. Looks like the factory stuff just fell into the correct place(s). Very hard to do. .
Marcus...

 

It's going to be a shame to cover up all that beautiful, well thought out ch***is design and fabrication skillset with a body! Outstanding unbelievable attention to detail and quality work. 60 Special

 

Yes, Dennis, Great job! I've really enjoyed this thread.

Al Hook