I decided I should go ahead and start a thread catching up everyone on what's been going on with my roadster. Yes - I still have it. No, it's not driving.. yet. We'll get to that in a minute. I've been largely absent around these parts and realized I missed this. Posting elsewhere is a magnet for bullshit sometimes. Not here. Ryan and all of his henchmen (moderators) do a great job keeping the off-topic shit to a minimum and I like that. I left Austin Speed Shop almost three years ago and moved back up to Arlington. I started working at Murray Kustom Rods and I love it. I've seen my skills grow and I'm consistently challenged and learn so much from it. While at Murray's, within the first few months, the inevitable question was asked .. "Where's the roadster?" I didn't have room for it up here at the time. It was being hidden at a friend's in Austin while I got my shit together. What do I say? "Down in Austin." "Bring it up. We've got room in the back." Flat-Top Bob did the deed of transporting it from Casa de Anderson up to the shop where I was inundated with "What's left?" What's next?" "Does it drive?" The cam in the early 283 I had built in Austin ate a lifter and I lost all motivation to work on it. "Well .. We have a few small blocks just sitting around that all have various issues. See if there's one you can throw in there and get it on the road quickly." A mystery 350 had developed a knocking noise from the bottom end. I quickly diagnosed it as a rod cap turning loose. A quick trip to Summit Racing for a single set of rod bearings put the engine back together. It was driving again! Next, I set on making the Weiand WC4D work on the mystery 350. Josh, one of my co-workers at MKR, helped with dialing in all the carbs and getting it running as close to right as he could. Things were going great! I was slowly tackling all of the bugs with the roadster! And then a new guy got on board at the shop - Mark. So I invited him for a ride in the roadster. Little did I know it would be his first and last ride in the roadster..
What had happened was the rear end had worked its way forward under heavy acceleration, introducing the fan to the radiator. This is the exact moment I learned why early Fords with torque tubes have anti-chatter rods. So I set out to make my own. Since I love re-purposing discarded items I started with a discarded Model A wishbone yoke, milled out the center of it, made a bung that uses a generic bushing rod end and welded it in there. Then I filled the pockets of the yoke.. For some reason, I can't find the other pictures I had of this mini-project. But I made some "reducer" bungs that welded inside of the bone ends that took half inch bar stock. I cut threads on the end of the bar stock a few inches long and made some brackets that bolted to the bottom of the legs of the center crossmember. The bar stock slipped through the brackets so I could tighten the nuts to "pull" the drivetrain backward and locked the anti-chatter rods in place with grade 8 nuts/lock washers on both sides of the bracket they slipped through. I also made a bracket from scratch that bolts to the Hurst engine mount that the anti-chatter yoke bolted to. I was pretty proud I got these to all clear the oil pan. This is the only picture I could find of the yoke bolted up right after I made it. Of course, all of that work has been undone. I'll get into that in another post..
Oh yeah - I should mention the M/T covers in the video didn't stay long either. I had a pair of Cal Customs. One of the covers had some damaged fins, so I figured it wouldn't be a loss for me to modify the damaged cover to accept a PCV valve since I was having trouble keeping oil in the engine since swapping over from a 4-barrel carb/intake to the Weiand WC4D. Since I didn't want the PCV to stand out too much, I decided to mount it to the side of the cover and hide it underneath the generator. I think it worked out pretty good.
So if you don't mind me asking, you mentioned Marks first and last ride on the roadster, I sure hope it was because it's undergoing repairs and Mark didn't fall ill/etc.
Oh, no! Mark is perfectly fine. He just swears he won’t get in the roadster until I have a windshield. We tasted antifreeze for quite a while after. It wasn’t hot then, thankfully. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Eventually the roadster made its way home to where it is now. I drove it out to my bar one day just to see how it did and it drove great aside from there being a little too much steering play. The steering has always plagued my roadster as well as charging issues with the generator/regulator. I would occasionally give all of my non-car family and friends rides around the neighborhood and scare the bejesus out of them. This thing pulls hard and will break the tires loose in all gears. But every time I took it out for a ride, I would always fret about the early Ford parts. It has a ‘47 Ford three on the tree but I’d always wanted a hot rod I could jump in and stomp on the pedals and scoot around in without worry. And I worried. Every time. About the early Ford case and banjo axle keys. I had been mulling over a Muncie/9-inch swap. There are so many great hot rods that have Muncies/Tremecs and 9-inches that I’ve admired. What really drove the nail in the coffin for me was the Root brothers trip to Central City. All of those pictures they posted were amazing and I felt incredibly jealous. I wanted to be able to drive this roadster all over if I felt like it. This should be the driving force behind every hot rod build.. drivability. So I would occasionally look around in the Facebook marketplace and a Lakewood scattershield popped up at a ridiculously cheap price. I scooped it up quick and brought it home.. then when they postponed the Round-Up the first time, I bit down on that bullet. Hard. A prompt trip to Austin netted me a Muncie and shifter from Jeff Peterson (thanks, Jeff!) then a pair of slicks and some old ladder bars with some heavy duty joints that I figured I could use from Rob at Shamrock Speed Shop (thanks, Rob!). I started tearing out the drivetrain to play mock-up. I found out the hard way that I had the wrong scattershield. It’s a discontinued Lakewood shield that mounts a Mustang Tremec behind a Chevy (d’oh!). So I quickly got back on the FB marketplace and found yet another Lakewood scattershield for dirt cheap close by, went and grabbed it and started bolting shit together the same day. I started stuffing it in the roadster, chopping away at the firewall until it was in there and snug. Check out the homemade inspection plate they made on this scattershield. Makes you wonder who ran this and in what.. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
The early Ford drivetrain in my 40 sedan was one major reason I sold it. I was afraid to beat on it. I know, I know, guys have abused early Ford drivetrains for decades, but I didn’t have peace of mind. Looking good! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Exactly. I want that peace of mind whenever I take it out. I don’t want to lift off the clutch too quick one day and have to find a flatbed or shear an axle key either. Thank you! I’m glad you get it! Where are the cookies at? Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Minor update: I finally got around to lifting the body of my roadster off and stashing it away. It’ll double as a storage container for all the junk in my garage while I work on the frame (win-win!). The plan is to modify the frame where needed and mount the Muncie so I can determine the pinion angle of my new-to-me ‘57 Ford 9-inch and make all the suspension components from scratch. I’ll also be changing a few other things - namely going from the early Ford pedals to an Ansen-style pedal set-up I’ll be making myself, redoing the steering box/column angle, oh and the headers... Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Life got a little hectic towards the end of 2020 and the roadster had to go on the back burner for a bit. Then starting late spring of last year, I started working on what I could work on while my roadster sat in storage. I made brackets for the 9-inch and started gathering all of the parts I needed. I posted my updates on Instagram but for those of you that aren’t on Instagram: here you go. Eric Carter was kind enough to give me some pointers on how to zero in my scattershield which has an old modification. Someone cut the bottom and made it removable - I suppose for easier clutch disc replacement without removing the scattershield? Then I had the drivetrain all buttoned up, shifter assembly dialed in, and then dragged my chassis out of storage to finish up mounting the Muncie and 9-inch so I could make it a roller again! I thrashed on that chassis and got it rolling all within a weekend. I was pretty doggone tired then. Haha. Then I dragged it up to my uncles since I don’t have a garage at the moment. My Uncle has a ‘66 El Camino that I also wrench on every now and then. Here’s one of my cousin and nephew giving it a look over. Then the big day came. I brought the roadster body up to my uncle’s to throw on the chassis and found out that I had made the brackets just a tad bit too long, pushing the rear end forward of the center of the wheel wells. No problem .. I can fix that later. More to come in a bit..
One of the issues with the roadster I wanted to address was the steering. My F1 box, no matter what I did, never got tight enough. It was just simply too worn out. So I scored a F100 box from Eric Carter (thanks, buddy!) and cut the old flange off and made a new one. I located it in my frame and tacked it then brought it to work to weld up. It’s not pretty but it gets the job done. Then I got some news that I can’t share just yet. I decided I needed to finish this thing up at work with my boss’ blessing, so I brought it back over and got to work on fitting the pitman arm with the help of a co-worker and made a new drag link. I also got to work on correcting my rear axle so the wheel is centered in the wheel well. Now that I had it fixed, I went to address the issue of changing from a F1 box to a F100 box. The steering shaft is on top of the box and my Hedman header wouldn’t fit well above it. I didn’t want to use anything else so I came up with a creative solution to my dilemma. The entire header is made from scratch but the generator mount flange is original Hedman gifted to me by Anderson (thanks, Eric!). I also needed to make some torque arms but there wasn’t much room under the body so I plagiarized a method from Matt Bryant (@hazecity36 on IG). While I had everything out, I sanded and painted everything I could and reassembled the roadster. Here are some shots of it outside. I also had Ronnie Marshall cut me some glass for my windshield! Thanks, Ronnie!
Man I’m so stoked to see you back on this thing! I meant to ask you about it at the Burger Box but forgot. Keep it going man! And you’ve got me on the edge of my seat with your mystery “news”…. What’s next on the list?
We come and go like the wind and many times we end up where the mood harkens back to the good Ole days...your roadster really has the look...glad your back and revivals are facts of life here...I'm sure you're going to be happy with the upgrades...
I drove the roadster around the block today! A few weeks ago, I started bringing stuff to work to work on. I blasted then painted the header I made from scratch then sanded and primed the exhaust system. I put some turn-downs on the ends for now and will put my flared ends on later when I can drive it to work. I also made a mount for my PowerGen off my Hedman style header. Before I put the exhaust system back in, I finished the brake lines, mounted the fuel pump and made all new fuel lines and replaced all of the rubber hoses after I battled an issue where the fuel pump wasn’t picking up fuel. Eric Carter came over and helped me diagnose it. He found that one of the old rubber hoses I had left on had a crack and was sucking in air. Installed the driveshaft, filled up all the fluids, and did a nut/bolt/cotter pin check. I had a buddy help me bleed the brakes and we took off to see what would need working on. I can’t find the Packard wheel I had before despite finding the horn ring and emblem, so I made a quick coupler for this ‘41 Chevy wheel that was destined for the dumpster at work. It kind of resembles a F1 wheel and it’s kind of growing onto me but it needs quite a bit of filler and paint to look decent. I’m not sure if a nicer wheel will take its place before the Round Up just yet. I made at least a dozen runs to O’Reilly and two to Summit Racing (it’s amazing how convenient it is having a shipping center 10 minutes from your house) and I got just about everything I needed to make it drive. I need to adjust/bleed the clutch and brakes some more, shorten my column drop, and probably adjust my F100 steering box some more before I can start driving it further. When it’s reliable enough to drive to work, I plan on making lower shock mounts for the rear, properly securing the brake lines with clamps and not zip ties, making a front floor and transmission cover as well as adding some bracing to the firewall. It flexes a quite bit with the pedal assembly on it - but that’s because the bottom part isn’t really attached to the floor aside from at the passenger floor. There’s some weird bucking issue at low speed with the clutch that goes away when I accelerate that I need to look into. But other than that .. I’m pretty glad I got to take a lap around with the new-to-the-roadster Muncie 4-speed, Ford 9-inch, and Wilson Welding brakes up front.
Oh yeah. That’s all getting replaced before the Round Up too. I forgot to mention that. Thanks, Eric!
Awesome sauce! I love your perseverance on this car. You don't give up you just make a new plan and go for it! Can't wait to see it in person. How far is the Burger Box from you? Sounds like a good maiden (again) voyage.
Great roadster and great thread. The one thing that you pics reminded me of it’s that I really need to coin a new term for my welding. Your welding and mine are not the same, yours being very, very nice.
From where I’m living right now, it’s about 5.5 miles. Definitely doable. Not tomorrow but.. I plan on hitting up Burger Box a couple times before the Round Up.
The Jalopy Journal
