Projects 1930 Oliver Roadster Build

Tail lights are going on my 33 5 window. The steering wheel is beautiful, the rings in great shape i need to recast the wheel itself, id love to use it and the column if i can shorten it on the roadster, i know the engine is massive! I talked to an old fella at a show recently who had a cad flatty in his roadster and it just looked so kickass. You could tell from 30 yds away that it wasnt just a regular flatty. I love that it says lincoln on the heads too, if i can make it work its gonna be pretty cool lookin

 

Trunk hinges are for the roadster as well. Theyre pitted but will look cool. Not sure if they can be replated but i dig em. I may just run the 4 speed hydro in the roadster too, i know the lincoln was driven up and down the driveway and its tempting to just stick it all together, plus the roadster will now be ford, chevrolet, dodge bros, and lincoln. Something about that just tickles me. I will be selling some lincoln parts, there are a lot of unique items on the car like 4 hydraulic power window mechs and the pump, dash is all there and in great shape. A lot of the little stuff, dome light, ash trays, the 5x5.5 6" wide licoln wheels that guys used to like to put on the rear of their model a's

 

Ill be watching how you mount the body to frame. Havent seen subrail condition.

 

Well...my plan is this. Now that the quarters are on and in a spot i like them. I am going to mount the motor and trans then build my subrails and floor on the frame with the body off. I will cut all that crap off of the body (old rusty sub rails, seat riser etc) and set it on after the floors are done. Then sit in it and figure out trans tunnel and pedals etc.

 

Im wondering if the 46 ford front leaf packs are beefier than the small car packs? Heavier cars and all. Its definitely gonma be heavy but so are cad flattys and after watchin some hot rod lincoln vids on youtube im even more sold than before. So so cool

 

Finally back on my homemade drum puller... juuust about there

 

Kind of thinking about going this route...gonna give it a trial run in a bit

 

Well shucks haha....didnt budge an inch! I worked it til it mashed the tip of the puller and bent my 1/2" thick contraption. Hit it with a sledge. HARD, nothin

 

If at first you dont succeed, hit it with a hammer some more...
Then came more issues.... so i had read somewhere that 36 ford drums dont work on the fronts with juice backing plates. I also read that 37 ford rear drums were the same part number as fronts and that those would work which spurred all of this nonsense. Well...they definitely dont fit on the front....
So i suppose this means I am on the hunt for some wide 5 front drums from 37-39? On the plus side, the drum I pulled looks to have lots of meat and be in good shape, even had nice shoes! I stuck it back n. After I move it to the new shop I'll tackle putting a set of juice backing plates on. I'd like to run the 36 housing instead of the 37 though so I can use the 36 style arms (I've always loved the swooping look of em) mine need to be repaired since some dipdinkle cut em off but I think I can handle that. With the 36 being siezed I think its all gonna come down to swapping the 37 internals into the 36 housing then juice backing plates with the 37 drums! It will all come together

 

Might just run adaptors on the fronts...gonna have hubcaps on it so youd never see

 

Made a new acquaintance today and traded my 46 ford front end away....in exchange I got a 39 front axle, spindles, backing plates and drums, split bones and a spring...6 front drums to be exact! So my wide 5 woes are at a seeming end! One cool idea he showed me was if i switch to modern brakes with wide 5 adapters i can machine and drill out the face of a 2 part wide 5 drum to make a cover so it would still look correct without hubcaps. As of now though my plan is to run the 39 brakes. Also made a deal with dave for a 4 inch 32 heavy reproduction drop axle. I THINK ill end ul with the drop axle, round back 39 spindles, 39 backing plates and 39 wide 5 drums and likely vega or f1 box. I also think Ill be going to a spring over setup

 

Well....progress!! Little insulation, little drywall and a model a frame!

 

Just playing around, definitely thinking drop axle, drop crossmember and reversing my main.... may stay spring in front but those things should give me 4" and with 4 more inches i think ill have enough room for suspension travel

 

Finally got my welder moved to the new shop and 220 hooked up for it so away we go! Started off with an easy one! Welded in my bungs
Okay so im not a proffessional welder but my welds penetrated well and thats why we have flap discs! Preview of coming attractions!

 

Sub rails/ floor are started. Lots of measuring and pie cuts and I have my profile. My plan is a cross support at the rear and then cut out and bead roll the back half of the floor pan. Then I can cut the old sub structure off of the body, set it on and attach the new floors. The more I look at the pics of this thing the last time it was mocked up the more I am.leaning toward and inch or two of channel up front to bring it down over the rails. In the end I want a very slight rake so this should help get me to that look since the rear is already low and I am chasing it a little

 

Went back out and made a little more progress. Tapered the front of the pass side (still need to do drivers side)
cut up an old 21" tire and made some body mounts.
Also robbed these mounts that were on some rusty junk in the scrap pile and made some additional body mounts for a little more support since this things a bit wider than an a!
I welded a nut inside of course...
Felt like the traditional thing to do, grab some junk I had and grind and weld until I have what I needed

 

Well I spent the day picking up, tearing apart and prepping some parts for a guy who ended up thinking a hundred bucks for a model a front axle, spindles, perches, unsplit bones and a main leaf spring was just too gosh darned much money.... so while most of my day was a bust I still snuck into the shop and stripped the old grease out of my front wheel bearings and repacked em by hand....always a satisfying job for me...not sure why

 

Hacked my 36 driveline for some down the road headers!

 

Pluggin away. Finished the duplicate body mount in the rear on the pass side and got the cross support in! My welds were half decent this evening.... also figured I would hang up my pretty stop light since I finally got it wired to a plug!

 

Body is here!

 

Also got the grill shell mounted up! Definitely not gonna look like any other roadster youve ever seen

 

Well...vroom vroom...cowls on

 

Little more progress! Will likely duplicate the new piece for the other side so they match

 

Well....picked up a part of my new hoard today.... so many 20s parts idk how I am going to i.d. it all. Lots will be for sale, some will go toward my projects. In the process I grabbed one of the 20 hoods out of the pile without a bead line on it and I think this will be a much better fit, may run different sides though. I have a great set of blue chevy sides. Also scored this seat as a freebie add on. I think with a little work it could be a good fit for the roadster!

 

....new hood is an inch longer than the mock up hood...and the mock up hood looks better on there and i cant tell if its the body line or just the fit. Head scratching, sit in a chair and stare time

 

Food for thought...

 

...the top view is minus a wheel...the hood is slid forward more over grill shell...stuff like that makes one wonder more because fit is less proper...

Albeit the smaller louver panel is more correct to the body, I feel the side hood on what I think is Model A goes better with the package...

 

I had to slide it forward being an inch longer rather than shove the rad forward. I think hood in pic 1 fits the mid 20s date of the cowl but the way im building it is definitely more late 20s so hood in pic 2 fits that better. yeah lower hood pic is 29 model a sedan. I feel the same way, it looks best. Now just need to figure out how to make body lines work or eliminate it from the hood. Thanks for the input! Easy to get hung up on the aesthetic details sometimes

 

Can you swap the A side hood panels to the other top hood? Then body line is no more?

 

I can, will have to cut and weld, they hinge differently, also would have to adress the length issue. Had this idea also. Going to measure and mark with some chalk on the side tomorrow and see how itd look