Turkeyjerk's Tailgate Torpedo Trad T

I figured we would have heard from you if you had trouble. Not running yet. It's back on all fours, though. We still need a junction block for the rear brake line at the axle, but for the most part brake lines are plumbed, fuel pump, tank, lines, and filter installed. I built a fuel log for the 6x2 on sunday. Matt finished all the metalwork on the bucket, now it just needs the bed welded on. Kevin buttoned up the steering sunday. He spent about 2 hrs filing the flats out of the pitman arm. Matt's going to put the engine and trans in this week, I think I'm coming down again next weekend to try and fire it. Sorry no pics till it runs!! J/K

Buncha piddly little crap to do yet...

wiring
mount the radiator
trans cooler lines
open drive install
make a driveshaft
other misc shit...

Gettin closer!

Thanks Flip, Matt spent a ton of time making pieces for the bucket structure so they would be plenty strong and still afford as much room as possible. One thing's for sure: IT IS RIGID! Turned out pretty well for a first timer!

 

Hey Andy, man you guy's are on a mission. Matt's little T roadster is lookin good. I'll see you guy's at the showdown. How's your project coming? later shawn

 

Thanks Shawn! We're focused, that's for sure. Unless we run into something catastrophic, I think we're gonna make it. 3 weeks to go! Aaagghhh! My project is coming around SLOWLY... Definitely not gonna make the showdown in it this year.

 

I think im gonna make filing pitman arms my job...you know cuz i love doing it so much...i know why your really coming down you left your beer there

 

I heard that it was more beer less work on sat night! I heard it from a tall, high ridin stock ford driver. with Cragars to boot! what a fag.

 

I don't know how I missed this. Real nice work. It's nice to see someone building a tasteful T. I hope you guys end up engine turning that stainless firewall, that would look awesome.

 

haha, yeah I've got a few you can file layin round here somewhere. Yeah, I REALLY like Sam Adams, that's it!

I wish it were true, I think a hangover would feel better than how sore my back was after workin on that thing all day saturday! Yeah, Harris keeps a roll of paper towels in the back seat to stop the frequent nosebleeds...

Thanks cretin, I hope we do too. Matt says his 80's trapper keeper decked out with it ruined the engine turned look for him, haha. We'll see...

 

Well, kwmpa just sent me a pic of their progress last night. Engine and trans are in and ready to be buttoned up for the first firing! Woohoo! Saturday's the day, can't wait!!!

Matt said he's finishing up the firewall mounting and doing the final install of the bed today. Big thanks to Johnny Ulmer and his son Terry for the hookup with a nice pinto radiator that should fit the mucho-chopped grille shell just right, oh man, I'm psyched! I'm sure Matt's on cloud nine.



HAY MATT, time to take out the trash! It's overflowing! hahaha!

 

Fine fuck you guys I was going to help but now I'll just stay home and lower my Ford.

 

You'd better! Yer gonna be hittin your head on low overpasses! hehe

 

Damn that looks pretty good, 6 dueces on a sbc? Is it worked a little or just mainly stock? later shawn

 

It's a 68-70 4 bolt main block bored .030 over. It's mainly stock, but it's a hell of a starting point. He's looking for some good heads now. A little port work, a cam change, and some headers ought to let it breathe well enough for all 12 barrels.

EDIT: we've since fired this baby up and it's a rowdy SOB... rough idle, hella compression, our mystery motor turned out to be a gem!

 

You almost had me until I saw the Auto trans. I even could have forgiven the sbc.

 

Umm, thanks, I think??? We'll be sure to add a faux clutch pedal in the final version to keep the critics from getting all butt-hurt about the trans choice.

Seriously, have you ever put on a pair of size 13's and tried to shift a channeled manual trans T? Oh yeah don't forget to add about 12" to the length of your legs too. Not gonna happen, not for us anyhow...

 

I can attest to that! 2spd powerglide in my '26 Roadster, if it wern't for that I could not drive my car.

 

Okay I'll forgive the auto trans. I didn't realize you had a height handicap. Serves you right for wooping all us short guys in basketball in high school. Yes it was almost 50 years ago for me but I still remember.
But please don't make any of the ugly mistakes so many people make by cutting corners. Like forward leaning windshield. Radiator and grill too high. Study the profile of the Kookie Kar. Windshield and steering column leaning back at same angle. Firewall and very low grill (almost can't be too low but one inch too high and it looks like shit) at same angle. No extra B.S. added on, like turn signals, carrage lights, any kind of fenders, brass anything. If in doubt contact Von Franko or me.
Yes I am an expert. Ass hole maybe but an expert one. If I didn't like you I wouldn't have spent the time writing this.

 

dont worry...grill shell is lower than cowl top! no junk on there! no lanterns or funky shit....windshield is canted back.....kookie car is cool, but we were far more inspired by the lightnin' bug! oh by the way if you wanna donate an early cad V8 i'll gladly accept!!!

 

Like this one. I don't like you that much. Just remember every corner you cut you will regret later. That is why I'm redoing mine. I originally had a Mustang engine, Corvair steering, and body set back too far. It looked ugly from the side with the big gap between the engine and firewall. Had a professional photographer tell me that. Kinda hurt but he was right.

Have since found Ross steering, moved the body forward 3 inches and installed Cad. engine.

 

No worries, no offense taken. BUT, neither of us were on the basketball team, Too klutzy for that! haha! I must say that's one fine T you've got there. I think we both get what you're saying. We've spent a lot of time pouring over old original T hot rods examining what made some of them so great and why some of them missed the mark. Also countless hours spent mocking it up and rolling it outside to look at it from a distance to make sure it flowed, sometimes just for some minute detail. If you take the time to go through the whole thread, I think the pics so far speak for themselves. Don't worry, it will definitely not be gunked up with a bunch of useless, tacky crap.

Holy Chit!! He speaks!!

 

WHoah! Nice mill! Where'd you find the horne? Looks great on there.

 

Wow you are alive and a real person. For a while I thought Andy was making you up. He posted these pics and thought hmmm. If everyone likes it, It is my car. If they say yuk it would be yours,.

anyway It looks kick ass!!!

 

THANKS! yeah, that sounds like something andy would do!

 

I wish it were my car!! At this point I think I like it better than anything I currently own! haha!

 

Sorry I haven't read the entire thread. Will do as soon as I finish this story.

Horne is one of those stories. I advertised in a local S.F. Bay Area swap rag, "wanted early 50's Cad speed parts." Got a call from a man who lived in Palo Alto, (an older upscale bedroom community south of S.F.) He said he had a Due Coil dist. and some other stuff. We talked about where and when to meet. So happened Billetproof in Antiock Ca. was the next weekend on Sat. and I was driving the roadster there. He said the next day he was attending a small charity car show in Palo Alto. So we planned to meet there. I got a room that night, got up early the next morning and drove there. I had described my car to him so as soon as I pulled up he came over and introduced himself. I was blown away. I hadn't thought he would be an older black man. Not many African Americans in our hobby.
Seems he had been in the hobby for some years. Bought a crate 50 Cad. engine in 1950 loaded it up, put it in his 32 Ford coupe, drove it to Bonn. and raced it. Built flatheads for others cars that raced at Bonn. He was mentioned in Rodders Jorunal. Art Gray was his name. He passed a few years ago. Great loss.
Anyway he pulled out the dist, a rebuilt water pump, and two intake manifolds. The Horne and an Edilbrock 3X2. I bought all of it.
The first picture is Art and Me. He's the good looking black man on the left standing next to his blue B.B. late Cad. powered roadster. I'm the ugly white guy. The last picture is of the roadster with the passenger floorboard stacked with all the parts, parked for a pit stop on the trip back just before we crossed the Golden Gate bridge.

 

Awesome story, so cool that you got the chance to meet Mr. Gray and use some pieces from his history to create some of your own. Thanks...

 

Just finished reading your complete thread. I now have a whole new respect and admiration for what your doing. You can't go wrong following the lead of Royalshifter, Von Franko or Grabowski's Lightnin Bug.
You guys show a remarkable skill level and have the right idea about what this is all about. Just have fun! Keep posting follow up pictures. I'll check back from time to time to keep you honest.

 

Haha, I didn't realize it was matt till you guy's started bustin his chops. Lookin good matt.


Steel rebel, thats a nice lookin T you got there.

 

Thanks very much, Rebel. Will do.

 

Yeah baby, it runs!!!!! turkeyjerk, kwmpa, and I put in some time getting all the necessary crap around to fire this thing up over the weekend. Needs some serious carb tuning/linkage/air cleaners, but we were pretty excited to finally see/hear/smell it run!

<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i56.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid56.photobucket.com/albums/g184/thunderbirdesq/VID00073.flv">

<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i56.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid56.photobucket.com/albums/g184/thunderbirdesq/VID00072.flv">

As of now it runs, steers, and stops. Just need to install the open drive setup and build a driveshaft and we're goin' baja-ing in the cow pasture!! Anyone who's put something together like this knows how much time/money you spend hunting all the little parts and pieces to finish it up. We just got the bare necessities to make it safe and roadworthy for our shakedown trip and we're absolutely spent after the effort of the last few days, but it was worth it just to hear it fire. Jalopy Showdown, here we come!

 

Congrats guy's it sounds pretty good. Can't wait to see it move under it's own power. later shawn