Hot Rods Homogenized ‘28 roadster build

I took the body up to work this past week. It’s where all the good equipment, my good tools, and the air conditioning are. Also got the body out of the way at home so I can wrap up the frame and get some primer on it soon and start reassembly.

I had ordered fender well patch pieces knowing that I would have to add the flange around the top to meet the quarter. Why doesn’t anyone just make them that way? Anyway…the ones that showed up were junk, and they sent me one for a roadster and one for a coupe. To hell with that, I decided to make my own. Other than the advantage of having the Pullmax with some pretty good beading dies, the rest was just flanged at the bottom on a sheetmetal break, and the top folded over with some tipping dies on a bead roller, and shrunk with a shrinker/stretcher. The lower quarter panel patches that had been “done” by someone else long ago were really bad. Literally a tack weld every 3”-4” then mudded over inside and out. I was able to salvage most of the passenger side and get it properly welded back together but the drivers side is going to need a filler strip. Then both quarters are going to need a lot of straightening and some mud…but that’ll be ok. The sheetmetal is all going to be pretty rough for the Roc, if I make it.

I gotta get the doors and latches sorted out after the quarters are done. Then I need to make the distributor recess, and finally make a dash…then the body can come home and I’ll finish bracing and get the pedals mounted. I think I found another gas tank/cowl top that is on the way too since the one I have is Swiss cheese.

Some more shots of the shiny stuff, and a little tire detailing.

 

Hope you can get this to the Roc. I’m planning to drive my coupe down. Would be good to see you again.

 

Been staying a few hours every day this week to get the quarters knocked out. I made some pieces to extend the subrails down so the fender wells would have something to hammer the edge over. Also wrapped up tying the subrails into the rear body crossmember. Then I tackled welding all the quarter pieces together. It ain’t pretty but it’s solid. I feel like I have to preface this by saying that while I am pretty good at metalfinishing, I will not be metalfinishing this thing. I will pull the quarters off this weekend and get them pretty straight but since I’m not getting paid to do this one, good enough will be good enough! Both patches and the fender wells welded in. The passenger side lower patch I was able to trim and re-fit and weld in, but the drivers side was too short so I had to weld a filler strip on first. I think floors are coming this weekend so stay tooned!

Side note…machine shop is running a month behind so I’m working on a plan C…

 

Passenger quarter panel is done. Drivers side and more subrail work tomorrow.

 

Best treatment here EVER

 

Drivers side done.

 

Looking good.

By this point plan C might be borrowing a runner til the real engine get finished?

 

The runner was for a car in the shop but we didn’t use it because there is an issue with the heads…ends of the valves and rocker arms are all chewed up. Customer bought freshly rebuilt 283. But we did hear it run. And I don’t want no slouch stocker either! So I’ll swap my cam and top end on there and should work out.

 

At lunch I popped the heads off of plan C and it looks good enough. Might get it home this weekend and pull the pan to check a bearing or two…and if that’s good then I guess I can put it together.

The new-to-me cowl top showed up today and it’s going to work pretty well. I have to drill the spot welds out of my current one to use the firewall panel. Will fill the gas cap too. After work I made the floor pans. And again, they’re not perfect but they’ll do the job. Not bad for a couple hours anyway. I still have to clean up the old subrails before I weld these in and make the very front floor/toe board pieces.

I messed with tinting some primer before heading out this morning and I like it.

 

Cut the upper firewall piece off of the old tank. Hammered the lower flanged flat and trimmed it, then cut the flange off of the top of the lower firewall section. Fit it all together and scribed the overlap. Then trimmed the lower section and welded them together. No more flange. Now the cowl top will bolt to the outer flange of the top of the firewall. I filled all the holes but kept the stampings. I needed the slightest firewall recess just to be able to get the distributor out of the engine while in the car. So I carried the recessed area in the lower half up into the top and rounded it off. Tomorrow will be filling the fuel filler in the top, and working on the cowl feet…if my back can handle it.

Add on…I also blasted my front drums, painted the hubs, trimmed the studs, and assembled everything last night. Had them freshly turned this morning.

 

Awesome build. Keep the updates coming.

 

Hot damn! Lookin good

 

Bit the bullet on a new cat walk panel. My original was too hammered. Got it fit first thing today. Then filled the fuel filler. Filled most of the holes in the front lip of the cowl top from when the last guy drilled the spot welds. But kept 6 of them, and welded bridge nuts to the firewall lip. Then worked on getting the cowl feet boxed in. I’ll cap the bottom of them once I have the body fit back to the frame. Tomorrow will be dashboard work.

 

Man, you’re rolling right along! That thing will be on the street in no time.

 

Mostly done, except for all the loose ends that will probably take just as long. My dash rail was too rotten to use, even just for cutting up. And I didn’t want to buy another original one, or spend the money for a reproduction…so I made one. I left out the little widows peak in the middle. Then I made the rest of the dash. I didn’t want to use an off-the-shelf ‘32 piece that bolts in behind a stock dash rail. I wanted it all to be one piece and have more of a set back Auburn look to work with my Knecht gauge panel.

 

Like a grew there man

 

Some work on the ends and gauge panel hole cut.

 

Nice! You should really think about doing that professionally…

 

Thanks Dan!

Never turn your hobby into a job

 

Looks PERFECT!

 

The dash is done! Except for some more mounting points. Finished the drivers side. Added a strip of 1/8” inside the bottom flange for reinforcement. I’ll make brackets off of the inside of the cowl and bolt to the ends of the flange. Also makes for a strong column drop mounting point. And made some mounting tabs for the gauge insert. Tomorrow I plan on welding in some of the floor pans, and potentially bringing the body back home on Friday.

 

That dash really turned out great.

 

Beautiful job on the dash!

 

Beautiful work. I think you like the air condtioning.

 

I was looking at this pic on my phone and the paint on the back wall was tricking my eyes that there was a tinted windshield in there with no top windshield frame circa 1990 and I was like nooooo then I zoomed in and breathed a sigh of relief haha

 

Haha! Didn’t notice that at all. Nice clear glass in a chrome frame for me! Maybe one day I’ll build a Buterra roadster though…

Thanks for all the kind words on the dash. I’ve had it in my head for a long time and it feels good to see it come to life. It isn’t perfect, I rushed it a little bit…but it’s pretty close and will work just fine for me.

I finished all the dash mounts tonight, then took the whole back end apart and welded the floor panels in. Brought home everything I took off, and I’ll bring the rest of the body home tomorrow for a busy weekend.

 

Got it home and reassembled on the frame. Figured out the seat. I’m using the original seat cushions I took from that grey car…I don’t have anything else to use. And they aren’t in horrible shape, just ugly. I was able to use (what’s left) of the original seat riser too and move it back 4.5”, which let it drop down from on top of the subrails to on top of the floor pans with a little notching, about 3/4” difference. The drivers side is rotted at the bottom so I’ll have to rebuild that, but it will work. I welded some square tubing in from the subrails to the top of the quarter panel braces. I used that as a support for my seat back. Then welded some angle towards the bottom of those braces for the seat cushion to rest on. It’s a really comfortable seating position for me. I was then able to figure out where the steering column needs to be. Started working on column mounts too but didn’t get far.

I also got the gas tank mounted. It’s a universal one from Tanks Inc. I’ll build a battery tray to set over the tank on the passenger side. It will be filled from inside the trunk. Tank isn’t crooked, I just set it in there for a picture, it wasn’t bolted down.

 

Steering column mounted and it took all day. Lower mount is a simple tube/clamp thing bolted to some original holes in the firewall. I’ll cap the firewall opening on the front side now that the column is positioned. For the upper mount or column drop, I decided I really liked the early Moon drops. But best I could tell, they never made them for 1-3/4” columns and an original one wouldn’t fit my dash anyway. So I found a fuel filter mount from Jegs that got the hard part out of the way since I don’t have the equipment to machine the clamp end. From there I welded some 3/16” aluminum plate together. It’s definitely not a perfect copy of a Moon drop, but it’s pretty close.

I had hoped to get to pedal mounting this weekend, but I’ll start on that this week. I also have a plan to move the steering column wiring and might add a rag joint to the linkage.

 

Looks just like a Moon drop to me! Good on you for seeing a fuel filter mount and envisioning a column drop.

Here’s the drop in my Big Deuce… looks just like yours.

 

Pedals! I started with an Rjays assembly. It’s made for a Chevy truck master. I wanted to use dual ‘40 Fords so I made a new front plate. It also required the side plates to be spaced out more so I got a longer pivot bolt and some spacers. Got it in position and drilled the firewall.


This part isn’t going to impress anyone, just some angle iron for bracing. It definitely stiffens up the firewall, but I’m a little worried about flexing the whole cowl at the subrails. The front cowl mounts are gone since I notched it for the exhaust…might have to find a way to add another mount or a support bracket to the frame. I need to finalize all of the subrail welding (after cleaning and rustproofing) and see how it feels. I might be adding some pieces from the firewall bracing to one of the body bolts at the bottom of the a-pillar. I need to make longer pushrods too.











I went ahead and installed the tach too.