Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

Thank you, Dennis! I always appreciate the things you notice throughout the garage. The dustpan was a gift from TRJ publisher Steve Coonan. It belonged to his father. When we finished clearing out the old office at 263 Wattis Way, he handed it to me. I'll tell you his quote sometime down the line.

Thanks! It was 100% handmade by my friend Patrick Knight of Louisville, Kentucky. He surprised me with it at the Street Rod Nationals back in 2021. There's a much bigger story to tell there, but I'm thinking it'll make its way into my first full-length book.

 

After Yama, Blue, and I removed the body, I was able to focus on breaking down the rest of the chassis. I scooped up the ol' orange hoist on the rainiest night of the year, and I was finally able to bring it out this morning.

It's amazing how well the hoist matches the chassis.

Eight minutes later, it was out. Takes way more time to install than it does to disassemble, that's for sure.

 

With the driveline removed, I then pulled the front and rear ends. Sometimes you just have to take a rest among your model kit pieces.

 

Traditional transport.

 

With all that over with, I had two choices on what I wanted to do for my last activity of the night. The first was to start cleaning up the frame and getting it ready to weld, but I wanted to be a good neighbor and not bug anyone during their Sunday night dinner.

Instead, I took on everyone's favorite task of disassembling the rear spring. It wasn't 100% necessary, but I'll be replacing the shackles, installing bronze bushings, and painting the spring. While I'm at it, the axle bells will also be painted white.

One thing they don't tell you about building your first roadster in San Francisco is that sometimes you just need to sit in a lawn chair and clean every leaf of the rear spring. It was a slow, relaxing process that I know moves me even closer to having this car on the road.
Only tangentially related to the build, but I was out for a post-lunch walk and I fell in love with this building. The colors, textures, and materials feel very similar to my car. I'll have to stop by for a picture next year.

 

You know I fully support that plan!

A guy can dream, can't he? Hahah one day when I win the lottery.

Man I love that. The studio where I work is in a repurposed 1920s foundry. It's all concrete and gets pretty cold during the rainy months. Space heaters help a lot!

Ayeeeeeeee

 

Tonight was the first night in a while where I didn't really have anything that I could do on the car. Since it was raining, I couldn't clean up the frame or spray any paint on the leaves. I'm heading to Yama's to work on the frame next week, so I'm just going to hold tight over Thanksgiving and dream of the next steps. I did, however, buy bronze shackle bushings for the rear as well as bumpstops. It beats doing nothing, I suppose!

 

Yes, they most certainly are. It looks like someone primed the whole pack back in the day but only painted it once it was assembled!