Hot Rods Homogenized ‘28 roadster build

Here’s one I did at work. Mine will be a little different since the filler is a bit farther from the corner and I’m not using a fill-thru cap. I also reworked the decklid support on this one to move it over to the passenger side to be out of the way…but won’t bother with that here either.

 

Man, as always, your attention to detail is top notch.

 

Some small stuff. Made the fuel catch tray, went with aluminum on this one. It mounts to the bottom of the gutter and has a drain at the very bottom that I’ll run to the outside of the car. I actually measured the big rubber flap on a fuel nozzle to make sure it would fit inside. Also added floor bulkheads, made the final fuel line, and finished up the battery mount. Also rehabbed my tail lights. Stripped the anodizing from the housings and polished them, then installed new bulb sockets. Trying to find something for a rubber gasket against the body now as the one place that was making them seems to be all out. Lens gaskets are on the way.






The resin printed prototype for the tag light rubber block also showed up. The rubber printed one also came, and while I only ordered one, they sent two…both with defects. So looks like a silicone mold for urethane casting will be the way to go. Will be a fun project for this weekend.

 

Very cool

 

Dang that’s cool. 3D printing has come a long way. My son Jesse is an engineer at Ultimaker (formerly MakerBot) in NYC. He showed me some really impressive stuff last time I was there. I’ll be interested to see how your casting turns out.

 

I have been pretty impressed by some of the materials. The resin piece is so smooth. I’m not pattern maker and don’t have a mill, so if I had attempted to carve one of these from scratch I’d be dead in the water. I’ll say again this technology makes it possible for folks without access to expensive machinery to have really custom stuff for very little time and cost.

 

I have a 3D printed 1/25 scale 47 Cadillac waiting to be built. It was pricey but very nice, I just wanted to try my hand at something 3D printed. Sky is the limit in the modeling world with 3D printing.

 

Nice job on your fuel tank, but if like mine I have to be carefull not to fill above the tank. I have a long fuel neck as well and if I fill till I see fuel it is leaking out my vent line that is on the top of the tank. I have to pull the body off mine to get to that stuff but when I do I will run the vent line up to near the fuel cap. At least that is what I am thinking.

 

Patiently awaiting your tackling of urethane casting via silicone molds over here.......

Killer work!

 

I say it every time I see it, I love that '57!

 

It’s time for another weekend update.

Made a barrel nut for my headlight switch because the threads on the switch weren’t long enough to fit through the gauge panel. Got all the battery cables made. Ignore the ground cable…decided it was stupid to run the ground to a pass-thru then have a second cable to the frame. Ended up moving it to a body bolt that threads into the frame. Then made my floor boards. The toe boards are just inserts I guess since there’s sheetmetal on the front side, but at least it makes everything flush for when there’s maybe carpet over it one day. Might have overdone it with the stain but I like it. It’s still drying and will get a nice coat of sealer on top.

 

Shellacked! The reason I went with such a dark mahogany stain is in tribute to the Sam Conrad roadster and its wooden firewall. I didn’t exactly nail the color but it’s the thought that counts. I got all of my wiring supplies in and sprung for a nicer crimping tool too. Have to mount my gas pedal and fuse panel before I get started on the wiring but I’m damn close.


And I’ve made some progress on the tag light mold. The first time went pretty poorly, but the second time it seems to have worked for the first half. I just flipped it all over and poured the second half of the mold, so in a few hours (or tomorrow) I’ll know whether or not if I screwed it up.

 

Eagerly awaiting your expansion into the large Hollywood lights.

 

I need to acquire one first!

 

Attempted the first pour last night. The first time went pretty poorly then I figured out I needed to open up the fill ports so the urethane would flow better. This stuff starts setting up quickly so I have some work to do on my speed, but I got probably 90% of it in there. I’m honestly not sold on the urethane itself for its finish, but maybe there’s an additive or a different product all together that won’t be so shiny.

 

Even with a pit or two, it still looks better than 99% of the ones you find nowadays.

 

Boy I'd never throw a Junker motor together and try to drive it...



probably would only last like 10k. max.

good stuff as usual. I really dig the fuel-splash-cup thing .

 

When I was first out of high school my only car had a L-48 300 HP 350 SBC and I decided to reseal the oil pan and replace the rear main seal. Also pulled a couple rod caps to see the condition of the bearings. Those and the rear main were all into the copper. New bearings were definitely out of my budget, but I could afford a Melling High Volume oil pump. Bolted all back together and drove the crap out of it. Even drove it from Lake Powell to San Jose to stay with my Dad. Was my daily driver for 5 years and ran great when I sold it! (Stupid to sell that one!) It had a close ratio M-21 4 speed and I loved to powershift it a lot, I could make it sound like it had an automatic transmission! I bet your 283 will live a long time!

 

Mounted the PSI throttle pedal. Decided to go with my “Anderson Auxiliary” fuse panel. I’ll mount flashers and relays remotely. Installed seat belts to keep me from sliding around on the seat. Installed the spark plug wires and factory conduits on the side of the block. I really like these factory style AC Delco orange boot plug wires.


It’s too hot…I’ve been “Frieburgering” it a lot lately.



I also mounted my horns with a bracket off of the engine mount. They’re in this picture, but not visible which was the idea.

 

Looks good, full of little things to find in each photo.

I’m curious what the red thing is under dash above the throttle pedal upper arm?

 

That’s just a big magnet holding the pedal arm in place so I could get an idea where my foot landed on it.

 

Nice build really like it. By the way are you related to Donald & Mitchell Anderson who ran a 40 Willis and a 33 Willis ? They lived in Oak Cliff near Hampton and Clarendon Dr. they later had a shop in Cockrell Hill by Jefferson & Cockrell Road. It was the same shop that Carl Stone had before them ?

 

Thanks! No relation.

 

Haven't had much time to spend on the roadster the last couple weeks. But I did have an aluminum version of my fuse panel cover printed. I sanded and polished it and it turned out ok but there is a weird striped pattern in the material from the printing process. Would probably look ok if it were chromed though.


I also was on the hunt for tail light to body gaskets. I could run without them but I think they give a nice finished look. I had a couple ok original ones but needed 4. There was one company that had been making them, but they were all out and don't have any more in the pipeline. So again, I drew one up and had them printed in thermoplastic polyurethane. I got pretty close to the originals, and they fit the tail lights like a glove and look pretty good.

 

Haven't done much with this in a couple weeks...started back on the O/T project. But I did collect another 15x6 early American 5-spoke, and think I've got another one located...so I'll have a full set on the car eventually. I think I'll stick the Crestlines on the front of the '57.

 

I really like this build! It uses a lot of old traditional '60's parts effortlessly mixed with new 3D-printed parts.

One question: How much space is between the mechanical fuel pump and the Hurst front motor mount?
I was under the impression that they interfered with each other and therefore, were mutually exclusive.
Do the motor mount bolts prevent you from using a bolt to hold the pump rod in place during pump installation?

*EDIT*: Never mind. I just saw this photo back on page 3. As you were....

 

Thanks! I figured if I couldn’t get the legitimate vintage parts I wanted (or they didn’t exist) then I would make my own stuff by any means possible.

I was worried about the pump fitting. My Hurst mount didn’t have spacers with it, but I read up and found that there are supposed to be 3/8” spacers between the block and the mount. So I made some. And everything is very tight, but fits. I read a lot of stuff on which fuel pump to use as some are supposed to be smaller than others but never found a definitive answer or part number. I did have to tweak the fuel inlet on the pump a little to clear my frame bracket.

 

Wheel number 4! I wrote off having a set of magnesium wheels a long time ago. And while these aren't spindle mounts and 10" wide Halibrands, I'm still pretty excited about having collected these. And so far I'm into them for a total of just under $1150.

 

Opened up the HAMB this morning and what did I see on my Watched Threads feed…

Thought that was pretty funny! Your build is definitely NOT!

 

About time someone got the joke