Hot Rods The Arin Cee Roadster

Okay, a couple more hours stolen from work in order to make more progress on the roadster. Stupid stuff, really, but things that must be done before I get going on more complicated and artistic things.

The motor has to sit where it's going to be in the frame before anything else which attaches to it can be done. So today I did the painful cutting of the original '32 front cross member to allow front pulley clearance. Yes, I could have raised the front of the motor a couple inches to get this clearance but there are a lot of unintended negative consequences to doing that so I just prayed for forgiveness and made the cut. Then it snugged right down on the biscuits and all was good...even the distributor clearance was right on the money.

Getting the body down where it belongs was next. I made the cut in the toe board support to clear the bell housing - not really a big cut, but necessary. And then I trimmed the body around the rumble lid hinges to clear the frame rail stubs in the rear. The body had already been modified by the previous owner so not much was required to get it to sit down properly in the back. Now that its sitting properly I can cut the previous owner's rear floor work out and replace the subrails and floor properly.

Yes, I'm aware that the body will come up a little bit when I put the new subrails and floor from Steadfast Manufacturing into the body and shim the body as required for proper frame fit, but what I did today will make the body fit nicely for now. It'll fit even better a little higher when all that stuff is in place.

 

Little by little the parts for Arin's roadster are accumulating, thanks mostly to fellow H.A.M.B. members.

To bring off the 1955 vibe I needed a pair of nice '55 - '56 Chevy exhaust manifolds to give the illusion that the mill is a then-brand-new 265 Corvette OHV from a dealership. As luck would have it, I located a pair that were only used for a couple of years back in '56 or so, taken off in favor of headers and stored in HAMBer Bob G's cellar ever since. They don't get much better than this!



Then, to build the lakes-style under-car pipes, HAMBer Josh came through with a pair of '36 drive shaft tubes which will be used pretty much full length with motorcycle baffles.



And then, as luck would have it, HAMB Alliance member Kiwi Kev found the internals to fill out the rear '41 Ford brake backing plates, parts that had been missing since I bought the chassis from him.



So, we're a couple of steps further along with Arin's roadster. Yup, building it like in the early days of R&C - one piece at a time.

More to come. Stay tuned!

 

Man, if you don't make some progress on this stoker pretty soon, I'll be even older 'n' you before I get to take it around the block. Get to it, Dad!

 

I want to see some pics, after my (your) manifolds are installed and passing gas !

 

Waiting

 

Dad it's almost impossible to build a middle '50s rod and still have it fairly dependable. Believe me I've tried before adding an electric fan and overflow tank. Although I've resisted the alternator. I try to build so that someone that's been around like you look at my roadster and not be sure that it wasn't built in the '50s and then upgraded later.
I like what your doing though. Sure you will come out with something nice.
Gary

 

I do have a early modle Delco duel point that's sitting on a shelf in my shop, PM me if interested.

 

Thanks, Gary. There will be compromises, that's for sure, but hopefully they will be small ones done only for safety and dependability. I've mentioned some of them before, and as the build progresses I find that there will be even more. Hopefully old farts like yourself won't be too hard on me.

And, I've got a tight budget to consider, plus the fact that I'm not getting any younger and I hope to enjoy this car by driving it rather than spending my years searching for vintage parts to keep it authentic. For example, it will have an alternator and a Snow White water pump. This is Texas after all and I hate cars that overheat. It will also have a Muncie 4-speed instead of the 5-speed I'd envisioned earlier, mostly because I've already got the Muncie.

I will do what I can to "retrofy" these parts so they don't stick out like a sore thumb. Just painting the alternator black will do wonders. And using an early Ford shift lever will help disguise the modern tranny. I'm still collecting parts so we'll just have to see what drops out of the sky...

 

My kind of build.....a fun build, no need to get anal.

 

Looks awesome man, keep it up!!

 

This evening my friend Frank - known as 1-SHOT here on the H.A.M.B. - calls up and tells me he's in the neighborhood and can he come by? Sure, says I.

Next thing I know he's shoving this mint early Corvette dual-point distributor into my grimy mitt, telling me it will be much better off as part of my roadster than sitting on the shelf of his shop. And he won't take a dime for it.

So, what can I say but "Thank you, Frank!" This is the one part I really didn't think I'd ever find to put the finishing touch on my faux '55 Corvette engine. It's perfect!

 

That's great. Very nice of him.

Ryan.

 

Yes, and it isn't a ratty old part, either, it is a rust and damage-free first-class unit with all the guts in great shape, complete with a good rotor, cap and wires, ready to drop in and go. Doesn't get much better than this! Thanks again, Frank!

 

More progress...at last!



Slow going lately, but I did get the new Posies rear spring from Nostalgia Sid's in Oklahoma installed...almost. Cut short by a rain shower, but it's almost done. Had to grind the spring quite a bit to fit the curved '32 rear cross member but eventually got it to fit just fine. Hopefully the rain will stop soon and I can get back to business...

Edit: The chassis I'm using was built by Kiwi Kev (regular HAMBers will recognize his name and his shop in Ventura, California) and employs a '41 Ford rear axle. This is a one-year-only axle and Posie's doesn't make a Super Slide spring for it, so I had Nostalgia Sid's (www.droppedaxles.com) order me a custom one from Posie's. Took a few weeks but it's really nice and should allow the car to sit the way I want it to and ride great as well!

The curved '32 rear cross member is something to be aware of - I wasn't. The late model rear spring is 2 1/4" wide and won't fit up into the cross member until it's been ground to approximately 2" in width, primarily on the back side. That done, the spring fit right up where it was supposed to. Learn something every day!

More later...

 

Good on ya, Frank.

 

It's about time you got back to work on my ride, Dad! Spring is coming and the chicks won't wait...

 

Great progress Frank. Hope that won't throw off the center of the wheel on the fender well.

When I used to see those 32 rear springs at the swaps I thought they had been bent in a wreck.

Gary

 

No, the chassis was built with a modified '41 spring so changing to another modified '41 spring won't change anything. Also, the body isn't nailed down yet so I can still make adjustments as required, if any. Thanks... Oh, and Frank is my friend who donated the distributor to the project. My name is Eric, and my pesky little buddy for whom I'm building this retro stoker is Arin Cee. You remember him, right...?

 

Sorry Eric. Yeah I remember Arin Cee. Really like your build. Really how mine started out.
Gary

 

Okay, I finally got the custom-made Posie's rear spring installed...after much wrestling and cursing.



Once I got the spring to fit up inside the stock '32 rear crossmember I had to compress it in order for the Pete & Jake's shackles to fit. With virtually no weight on the rear of the car this proved problematic until I figured out that a pair of large C-clamps would work. Sorry, no pictures, but I put the clamps on the top of the rear crossmember as far outward as possible and under the spring and cranked 'em to compress the spring. Worked like a champ with zero danger.



With Posie's Super Slide lowering springs now on both ends the car sits at exactly the stance I wanted. Late '40s hot rods still sat quite high, but dropped axles were becoming available so many were noticeably lower than stock. My car will sit slightly lower when it's finished as a function of weight being added. It will also have a slightly steeper rake to the front once the big 'n' little tires have been installed. Should be "just right" in a historical context...

 

Keep the updates coming

 

Eric,
Sweet Hot Rod your building ... love seeing builds done the "way-we-did-it" 60 years ago.

 

Next order of business seemed to be adding the pedals for brake and clutch. I have a firewall-mounted set of swinging pedals which use a Chevy pickup dual master cylinder, but these would be out of place on a post-war hot rod - too new. So, I decided to utilize the mount already attached to the frame (see photo) and just find the brake/clutch assembly that bolts too it. It will be under the floor so won't detract from the early flavor of the car.



Didn't take long to find one, new-old-stock but shelf-worn, on eBay. Good price, great seller, and arrived just a few days later. Nice part, as advertised. One eeensy-weeensy little problem: The bracket is too low on the frame so the master cylinder and booster tangle with the crossmember. And, if that wasn't enough, the bracket also mounts the master cylinder and booster too far to the center so they tangle with the Hurst Competition Plus linkage on the Muncie 4-speed. Unh-oh...

So...the next order of business is to cut the bracket off, shorten the legs and remount it higher. Looks like that'll take care of the problem...I think.

(I should probably say here that this chassis was originally built for a flathead / Flat-o-Matic C4 combination. The pedal assembly for a single pedal probably fit just fine, but nooooooo, I've got to have a stick so the clearance problems are all of my own doing. I never do stuff the easy way...)

 

My bud Ken Smith can read my mind pretty well...'cept for the whitewalls. I think gifting me this tee shirt is his subtle way of kicking me in the ass to get moving again...

 

That's a really cool shirt! And a good idea. Now get goin'

Ryan.

 

Any thing new with your build

 

Eric did you get moved yet? Frank

 

Yes...finally. Now comes the big job - figuring it all out. The Arin Cee Roadster is tucked tightly in the newly-built shop and ready for work to continue. Can't wait to get all the figuring out done and get on with progress on this project! Thanks for asking.

 

So...what's up with my new kemp, Daddy-O...? Made any headway or just goofin' off again? Spring is comin' and the chicks'll be ready to do some serious cruzin', so get on it, man...!

 

C'mon, Arin, give me a break! I just got through changing my whole life and all you can think of is are your new wheels gonna be ready for you to go pickin' up chicks when the snow finally melts. Sounds pretty ungrateful to me, but kids will be kids...

As it turns out, Arin's roadster is about ready to surge ahead towards completion after being pretty much ignored for several months while I renovated my new digs, restored and restyled the two small shops already on the property, and built a new 24 x 40 foot shop from three steel shipping containers.

So, while I won't be able to work on Arin's '28 as much as I'd like 'cause there's still lots of settling in to be done, I will be able to tinker a bit of an evening and make some progress and keep the kid off my back...for a while.

Okay, enough talking. Back to the shop...