this is crossposted with an english forum so apologies already if images etc dont work straight away. So this long winded story is a lesson in never forgiving people. Going back 24 years to a rainy summers day at Goodwood, a much shorter, slimmer & definitely jollier me went along with my old man and a friend, because apparently some old motors were over from the states. We got there to see cars in the flesh that before we're just pictures in the books and magazines that I’d poured over non stop, along with the cars were some of the legends associated with them too. My old man got talking to Alex Xydias at length about alsorts of things on the so cal belly tank(which was there too) and then the Pierson coupe that he was stood next to at the time. At this point Alex turns round to him opens the door and says sit in it if you want. To which my old man turns round and says “no you’re alright mate, I’ll never be able get out the bloody thing again”. A line that’s lived with me ever since, Totally disregarding to ask if his lovely little son would like too instead, that same son who was then stood next to him with a proper face on! Bastard! Fast forward that story and that car have gone round in my head, telling it from time to time usually over a beer but Never thinking I’d actually be doing one to get it out my system until now. I’d been doing bits on and off on this car for a customer for a while making it look more period but keeping as much of the old car as possible, it then came to a halt and sat around my place for over a year.. it was an ex drag car that had run 9’s in the quarter which I wouldn’t have believed had I not actually seen it for my own eyes. I was over at my friend Clark’s(enbloc on here) one afternoon helping him out and talking rubbish as usual, when I get a text message saying that they had decided to sell the car. We’d been talking for a while about how it would be cool to do something between us he had a spare motor that had no real use At the moment. I then proceeded to tell him how shit it really was and continued to slag the car off for about half an hour in an Attempt to put myself totally off it. So as soon as I’d driven back home I rung him straight up sorted a deal out & bought it.. The next day the car was completely stripped, stuff I didn’t want was scrapped and the body sat in the garden again for another 6 months. All the while it was whizzing round in my head. With me Spending most nights scouring magazines, old photos, collecting as much information and inspiration as I possibly could in my usual autistic way until I couldn’t hack it anymore and I had to drag it out and make a start on it..
First order of things was a chassis. What to do with that? I didn’t bother looking for a original 34 chassis because I never thought I’d find one especially over here and in my price range.. next option was a later 35-40 chassis, on the chassis drawings they look similar albeit with a longer wheelbase. I found a couple and not for silly money, but the more I thought about it and what I was actually gonna use it would be a pair of rails and a rear crossmember( of which I already had one), by the time I’ve stripped it of all the parts I don’t need and repaired any things It needed it seemed like abit of a headache. So option 3, make one! Looking at a ton of chassis pics along with referring to the Wescott drawings it looked pretty straight forward no pressings or swages to deal with on the rails, so let’s go for that. as this project is happening in the evenings and weekends around my normal work, space is always an issue, when I made a start I still had a customers chassis on the table. So I decided to do the rear kick ups first. I started by making up a card template from the chassis drawing along with the parts I had here, but not before I had converted the drawing to metric(because I’m not an old git!). With the template made it was time to convert it into metal, tracing the template into steel and then tacking it to a channel to keep it all straight as they are fully welded and cleaned up. Once the kick ups were done I mocked it up with the rear crossmember to see how we were looking. It’s starting to become a thing! The chassis table was clear by now so It was time to get going on the side rails, some channel I had folded up again to the stock dimension were attached the the kick up. And then a aluminium template was made to get the chassis contour correct and easily copied to do the other side, this was achieved by slices in the top and bottom rail. It is a fairly gradual pinch so it makes life quite easy. Front rails were very much the same, kicked up, trimmed down and then a 3” round CDS tube was fitted for a mount to be fitted too at a later date. The rear crossmember was then flattened, and it really started to shape up so of course it needed axles chucking on it and pushing out side for a look! at this point an orignal 34 chassis came up on the classifieds on an english forum which I was ever so slightly bitter about! That would have saved me a fair few weeks of my evenings, Fuck it. But I was too far down the line with this to go back and atleast I knew this was all good needed no repair..
With the chassis half together it was time to chuck the body on and see if my measurement's were actually any good or not. It only bloody goes on and fits! Next was to get the body abit more where it will sit, its channeled around 3 inches lower than the bottom of the chassis with the nose on it is starting to look like what I had planned in my head. With the body back off I got the front axle in for good, making a mount up to hang off the tube front crossmember and then the wishbones mounted straight off the side rails with some brackets I had laying around. Did I mention this thing is being done on the cheap! A good amount of castor was chucked onto the axle to keep it in a straight line, trying to park this thing in Tesco’s isn’t a top a priority so heavy steering won’t be a problem. The front rails were then boxed in It was at this point Clark come over for the day and saw the stupidity for the first time, a few short hours later we had the chassis off the table, it on the ground on its wheels and the mock up block in. the old redundant gearbox from his 36 that we will be running was in place on a temporary mount. plus a torque tube he had brought over cut down and welded to the right length. The whole aim of this car is to use up crap we’ve both had lying around and put it to some use and I think we are doing that quite well!
So I’ve been as good at keeping this up to date as I fully expected I would be… Anyway. with a rolling chassis sat here it was time to fine tune things, first up was the to get the rear end sorted and to the ride height we want. The back I had flattened a ford pilot crossmember and tried running that on the A spring like the SoCal coupe but it sat way too high for the channel we had & wanted so plan B was to get an A crossmember and let that into the one that’s already on there ala the Pierson car. So that’s what I did and much better it sat too! Along with the crossmember the rear radius rods were added but to the top of the axle rather than the bottom this will keep the belly pan clear and free of unwanted bumps!
Next up was steering, I’ve had this box in my lock up for a while now don’t remember where it came from or a clue what it is from(any one got ideas?) it’s basically a gemmer box the same as an F1 but with the extra casting bracket added guessing maybe lorry? But all that was lopped off and cleaned up a new mount made up, the column shortened to suit and then finished up with a 40s ford truck outer column/drop & wheel cut down to aid in eye sight!
the gearbox crossmember was next on the list a super simple large box section piece with a notch to clear the torque tube joint and then sunken in flathead motor mounts with captive nuts worked nicely, another thing shamelessly stolen from the Pierson coupe. You’re starting to see a theme here aren’t ya. Next was pedals. In the pile was a 40 upwards pedal box, this is conventionally used with the clutch cross over shaft as the pedal shaft is a fixed piece, unlike the floating one on the much desired 39 box. Well with a lack of room for linkage’s we could really do with the aforementioned floating set up, nothing some heat and a drill bit won’t fix, the pedal shaft was knocked out of the housing it’s just a tight press fit. Then the housing was opened up for the pin to pass through easily and the pin welded to the clutch pedal to join the two. This will later be handed to the Devey engineering department for a bushing to be made, as his glasses and his patience are far greater than mine! So with no room for linkage and the clutch pedal now rotating freely I sacrificed the 40 style clutch linkage to make up a straight through set up, the piece I turned up In the lathe and then made up a weld & bolt on collar that joins the two together, the only down side of this is there is no way of adjusting free play on the clutch from this. But an adjustable pedal stop will be made so we have some movement to play with. With them sussed out I could make up a forward leg that came off the crossmember to mount it all up. This was made from the left over channel the chassis rails were made out of, with some extra holes added for jazziness! Finished off with another sit in it and a cup of tea for good measure.
Next headache to over come, how to change gear.. lots of head scratching on this, the box is the old sideshift one from Clark’s 36. Which he brought over along with the old column change linkage. A top loader was the obvious choice but again we’re being tight and lazy. So with using what we had we carried on, we had both seen some remote shifters made up from old column changes in period articles so had a rough idea of how we wanted to do just no actual idea how it would work in our world. It took me a fair amount of thinking time. Abit of back and forth and a first attempt at a mount that ended up In the bin. But it all came together, the levers on the box were reversed which in turn reversed the shift pattern. The column change was cut down and I had parts left over from one so two lower mounts were used at either end, onto some CDS bracketry got into a real comfy position and it works surprisingly well, with good solid shifts. So that’s the chassis roughed in still lots to do, but it’s getting there. Time for another push outside for a nosey.
So we’re getting closer to being up to date, this is all around mid summer now, progress had been fairly slow or what I feel like was slow what with lots of work, being away etc. With the chassis mostly there. It’s time have a better look at the body and some of the panel work. Well it’s just got to have a belly pan so let’s start taking a look at that. As the body is so channeled, it over hangs the bottom of the chassis by roughly around 2 1/2 to 3” so there needs be some crossmember’s to fix the pan to but also somewhere to mount a seat as we want to get as low as possible in there, so 3 x 25/50 rectangular box cross pieces were put in strategically. With droppers added to the top to get us down to the desired height flush with the body. ( don’t mind the engine, this is just incase the flathead doesn’t live up to expectations, I’m sure it will of course…) Next up some wheel wells needed making as there was nothing at all. The lower edge will be getting trimmed at a later date this was just to rough it in. At this point Clark popped over for another visit and to drop off the seat and we got a load more bits done & finalised which is always a good moral boost on it. The seat was in its place and mounted, front floor panel made up and pedals all bent to suit. So with somewhere set in stone to park our arses and with the indefinite need to run a roll cage looming, we worked out space inside with the current chop then ummed and ahhed with tape measures above our heads working out bar height etc. Clark left for the day and we were undecided on the roof. The next day was a nice sunny Sunday with not much else to do I pushed the car outside stood there looking at it for about 10 minutes and thought fuck it that roofs coming down, we’ll have no choice but to make it all fit inside then!! Grinder out, dust everywhere and then lots of little plates and self tapers to hold it all back together again, all whilst moaning “if this was metal it’d be so much easier” Now doesn’t that look better! It all needs tidying up and glueing back together again but this will do for sorting everything out until I psych myself up to do the bodywork but I’m in no rush for that!
So things stalled on this whilst I got on with other people’s cars (selfish git’s) and it didn’t really get touched for a month or so. Other than to be pushed in and out the garage everytime it got in my way. We last left it with its new height on the roof. With that as it was. I next started up on the front belly pan which could then lead me on to buttoning up the front of the chassis completely. So the pan evolved as I went with no real game plan in my mind just a void fill. Over thinking it as usual, with the possibility of us running two different engines I thought into different removable panels for oil drainage etc and then just thought keep it simple stupid that age old saying and I made the whole thing a removable piece which in line with the rest of the belly pan which is just a nondescript un fancy thing this falls in quite nicely. I could go mad with swages and lumps and bumps all over it which you see alot of on things these days, but I prefer subtlety and trying to mimic a race car of old it’s definitely function over form. [img ]https://images.vhra.co.uk/resized/vonmerkin/2024/19360a40162-0.94209ea26e8c3.jpg[/img] [img ]https://images.vhra.co.uk/resized/vonmerkin/2024/19360a47a62-0.71909f348b219.jpg[/img] With the pan done next up was shocks. I had pondered over what to use on the front for a while now even going as far as fitting a pair of tube ones which quickly got took off again, then I had an array of different lever shocks some ford some not that I tore my hair out over, all the while in the back of my mind knowing what I really wanted and what it needed to have on it.. so I contacted James at Goliath with a few questions about the dimensions of his shocks knowing I had quite abit of difference between my chassis and perch centres because I tucked my rails to run inside the nose, as you may notice on So Cal & Pierson car They both kept the stock width with the rails. But anyway. Messages back and forth turns out what I needed was the ‘BIG’ style shocks that he had stopped making! But he felt sorry for me and found a pair of casings left over so made me up a set especially for it. The swap meet rolls around James drops off the box with the shocks in and a big smile emerges on my face(it does happen, rarely!) so we can crack on now. Clark popped over for another day of abuse and what a day it was, what intended to be a simple job of fitting two shocks turned into an all day ordeal of bending arms, modifying shock links, the belly pan, the perches but we got it done and super chuffed we were indeed. LOOK at them! Eagle eyed amongst you may notice the front axle change that also came about at the swap meet the previous 42-48 was okay but in truth I fucking hated the holes in it and the turning circle wasn’t gonna be all that because the wishbones run parallel off the back, so swapped in for a pilot axle which is basically a 32-6 axle with some extra holes in, they’ll be getting filled and you’ll be non the wiser! With them on and hood back on I took another look at the glass nose again before shutting up shop for the night, I had previously cut and stretched it a little very roughly as it was always too small. I’m guessing it’s just a speedway ‘T’ one which looked terrible as it came. I removed the additional strips from the middle and bolted it to the opening I had, that’s a lot better, track noses are a funny one, they don’t take a lot to look really good, they take even less to look fucking awful! And there’s a lot more in the later camp than the first. I had wondered wether to retain it as a glass nose or use this as a template for an ally one and im feeling brave so Ally is the way I’m gonna go, which will stretch my patience I’m sure.
As another fan of radically chopped 33-34 Ford lakes coupes, I really like what you are doing here. You have an eye for what looks right and obvious all around fabrication talent. I don't know if chopping a metal car is any easier than chopping a fiberglass car, but what you have done improves the "look". I look forward to future posts.
Love your work, looks great. Pierson Coupe is a favourite of mine along with the Chrisman Coupe. Met Bob Pierson at Bonneville in 2005 along with Ed Iskenderian which was a real treat. Looking forward to seeing the progress thanks for sharing.
thank you, it’s not so much easier the luxury of being able to tack it all together from metal is transferred over into having to make up lots of plates to be able to screw into the fibreglass to hold everything together as you go! I’d much rather be chopping a real one but this is alot easier on the wallet!
great story, I luckily got to met Ed a while back on a trip over, a great guy although I didn’t know quite what to say to him that he probably hadn’t been asked a million times.
The Jalopy Journal
