Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

Thank you so much! It has been a blast putting years of research into play, and hopefully it'll help steer my build in the right direction. Thank you for coming along for the ride.

Hot damn! That is a thing of beauty, as is the engine in your avatar.

Hahaha I'm gonna have to have that stamped on my Alliance dash plaque.

 

Next, my parts hunt took me to Whittier, California, to the home of @kill bill. I bought a pair of windshield frames from him. One stock and one with a two-inch chop. I'm gonna mock up both to see which one fits better for this version of the build. What's neat is that underneath the old paint on the old one is old chrome.

The roadster's previous owner is going to give me the original lower stanchions when I'm back in Northern California. He dug them up after I left. Since the roadster is a '30 DeLuxe, the posts that came with it are stock height and chrome. If I end up going with the two-inch chop, I am going to buy some '32 posts to match. Does anyone have some that they'd be willing to sell to me cheap? The more beat the better. If not, I plan on buying some Vintique ones.


Also, while at Bill's place, I just about died of excitement when I saw he and his son's Deuce five-window. It was the subject of last week's Jalopy Jounral column, which you can read here.

Other points of interest from that trip. The little gas station building in on Whittier Boulevard—a street that I've wanted to drive down since hearing Randy Dubb's cruising tales years ago. For those who are interested, you can read about him and his Willys here.

 

So the reason for sticking with the original brakes for the time being is pretty straightforward: 1st, the space. 2nd, the money. I'm moving into an even smaller (barely one-car) garage next month, so I'm trying to keep the car as assembled as possible for the move.

If I had a space that was large enough—and one where I was allowed to work on the car without hiding it/being super quiet—I would be tearing it completely down and transforming it into an A-V8 with juice brakes. Unfortunately, I won't have that luxury for at least another year. I'm just trying to make it happen with what I have. Luckily, I don't drive over to North Beach often. Where I'm at in the Inner Richmond is mostly flat. That is, unless you're pushing your broken-down motorcycle

 

This month, both work and personal business brought me back to my folks' place in the Metro Detroit area. I've spent the past week working on the next issue of @TRJ, catching up with my parents and driving around in "Daisy," my mom's daily driven '61 GMC pickup. It has the original V6 and a four-speed, so it's really fun to drive around town. It feels refined compared to the A!
After studying Larry Watson's work, I tried painting some flames on my motorcycle helmet. I'll handle the wet sanding, orange pinstriping and final detailing next week.

Finally, I did some research for both this build and a future issue of TRJ in Melvindale today.

 

Shows how much I know! Hahah

 

Oh man, that would rule—and your five-window does too. I'm moving from the Inner Richmond to NOPA next week, but you're more than welcome to stop by anytime!

 

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved going estate sale hunting with my mom. As my Michigan trip wound down, we were able to pick up some parts for the roadster. The speedometers and floor mat were Craigslist finds, but the rest were great surprises. My mom gets credit for spotting the issues of Rodding & Re-styling in an old cardboard box, which I'm excited to add to my collection.

I was told the mirror was from a 1940s Pontiac. The license plate frame appears to be from a similar era and will clean up nicely. Does anyone know anything about these clamps? I picked them up because I thought they were neat.

 

Yesterday, my monthlong trip came to a close. Seeing that I flew into LAX, I was able to grab a few last pieces for the car down in SoCal. Thanks to the generosity of Cavalier George in Whittier, I now have four mechanical brake rods. While I was at his house, I was able to see his amazing Model A roadster that he has in the works.
After that, I hit the road, traveling north to SF. I spotted this Graham on the way. Maybe it belongs to a H.A.M.B.er?
When I got home, I was greeted by a massive pile of parts that I had ordered while I was gone. I'll get to those later. Even though I was pretty tired from traveling, you know that it didn't take me long to mock up the big pieces.

Here's the car with the stock-height windshield:

And the two-inch chop. I'm going to play with seating position, but I think I'm going to go with this. Still on the lookout for hand-me-down two-inch chopped Deuce posts.

The headlights will be quite a bit higher, but I just put them there to get a feel. I wish I had a straight '28/'29 headlight bar. Seeing that I already have this one, I'm just going to cut it up and use it for now. It's really starting to look like a hot rod!