Since the Turtledeck T is now A driver, is past the 5000 mile mark, and has become mostly my daily, It was time for another project. I know what you're thinking, "wait, didn't he just say he wanted to work on the other roadster next?" Yes, But, this wont be a short term project. I'm sure unless you've been living under a rock, you've seen my buddy, @Austin kays thread for his Speed Coupe Well now I own it. (photo from Austin's thread) Now I didn't get all of it, but I got the important parts, the body and the killer frame. It started last night, when I convinced my buddy mike to let me use his truck and trailer to go get it, and come along to provide comedic relief. Part of the deal was a few old 215 aluminum motors that I had amassed over the years (those that know, I still have two, and yes THAT project still exists) once we had unloaded the motors, loaded the coupe body, and disassembled the 5 window mockup to get the frame, we sat around and BS'ed for awhile and before we left, I had Austin snap a photo of me. Yeah, it's another tiny car. And it might wind up a little smaller, if I wind up chopping it a touch more, Like I did when I photochopped the below picture for Austin. But we shall see. I have a shop to clean, and A frame to mockup. I'm sure it will tell me what it needs. Stay Tuned!
My advice is don't make the window openings any smaller, to make the car look "more racy", take some loft out of the roof skin.
Thanks! My plan includes a lot of mockup and pictures, and cutting up stuff to make it look right. The above photochopped version actually has the roof thinned out a little bit. My first concern is getting everything square and somewhat solid. then I can start to worry about how/where the rear quarters are mounted, and then figure out what else needs moved. The car will let me know what it needs.
Yep, that was part of the deal, those parts went in the back of the truck. The body will look roughly the same, at least to start.
Glad you're the new caretaker of this car, if it turns out half as nice as the last project it will be amazing. So what's the new name going to be?, my vote is "Recycled Speed Coupe".
Thanks! It will definitely take longer than my roadster, But I hope it turns out even better. We've taken to just calling it "the Speed Coupe"
"Speed Coupe" works for me. I just want to see how it comes out. One of the more interesting projects I've seen.
Well I fed Austin a compliment on this one, but I’ll hand the attention over to you now. Really enjoyed your style and creativity with the T, so I know I’m gonna like this one too. Definitely subscribed to this one. Just so I’m following correctly, you traded away a couple 215’s as part of the deal? I kinda have a thing for those too….
Well I'll tell you one thing, it wont have a flathead. if I can pull it off, it will have a very cool motor. That's all I'm gonna say right now.
What I will say is that I've had this thing on the brain constantly over the last few days. this is the mockup photo Austin sent me awhile back And after some tweaking, it with raised quarters, lowered grille, rockers and adjusted stance. Looks like the proportions are coming around. So I fiddled some more. Here is with some better defined rockers, unchanneled frame, hairpins. and flames. Now we're getting somewhere. I also did some chicken skratch drawings of it. And yes, I'm gonna run weedburners, I've always wanted a set. I also took some photos of the pile of parts waiting to go in my shop. I bought these Hairpins made from early ford wishbones a few years ago, and I think this is gonna be the home for them. I'll mock it up, but I will probably have to shorten and tweak them to make them fit right and get the right caster. Annnnd the body, its a little worse for wear after a bumpy ride home with no bracing in it. Its very clear in these photos how much the back just falls off, I'm gonna have to tweak it to fit and look right with the rest of the body. Its rough, but its a start. hopefully here in the next couple days I can get stuff sorted in the shop and get it indoors.
Ya know I’d be tempted to make some 33/34 style blisters for under the front edge of the hood and belly the rockers a bit more. I think you’d still see plenty of the holes in the frame
I think Joey will actually do this car and make it something neat and most importantly driven. Haha as for me I've complete dedicated myself to my 34 its a dream long time in the making, and couldn't for lack of better wording waste any more time or money on the speed coupe to meet certain dead lines with my 34 and the interest just kinda fell off seeing it next to it haha. But as they say on here "GO MAN GO"!!
Progress! Picked up an axle from on here last week from @trailer-Ed Had to mock it up. still undecided on how I'm doing the front end, I may go spring behind, spring over, quarter ecliptics, ect... gotta see where the frame wants to be under the car and where the axle needs to be. The only thing better than parts showing up, is hot rods showing up! my buddies Erik and Taylor showed up, shaking down the latest version of Erik's hot rod. We went to lunch, and talked about some ideas for the speed coupe. after lunch They headed back to Omaha and I went back to work on the great shop remodel, and later that night called a buddy over to help move a couple things, including a certain body.. that's right! it finally got inside! And since it was inside I had to throw a beach chair inside and get a rough idea where stuff needed to be. Long ways to go, but I've got time. I spent Sunday running around Kansas, picking up a index card file cabinet to be used to organize nuts and bolts, and going to visit friends. hopefully this week I will get the garage sorted enough to bring the chassis inside and start actually mocking it up.
The Jalopy Journal
