You are right on the money. I’m going to keep it as original as possible. No unnecessary updates or changes.
It’s much better than I expected. Turns over easily by hand, the crank is .010/.010, but it’s at the upper wear limit on the second and third mains. I haven’t pulled the head, but everything under the valve covers looks good. I’m not doing much with the 6 right now as I have just acquired a fresh 8BA for this project. But my long term plan is to put into the roadster pickup.
I shipped out my ‘41 Ford coupe to SoCal last week and now have enough shop space to get going on the roadster pickup again. Early in the week I found an original ‘27 hood and the matching grill shell. The car was originally built in 1950 with these parts. I’d been debating on changing the look with a ‘32 grill shell, just because I like it, but have decided that preserving this car and bringing it back to its original state is very important. Especially now that I have the original parts. Also, a few weeks ago I snapped up another ‘27 roadster body in much better shape than what’s on the car. Particularly the cowl. The new body has the seat base in it, so that’ll save additional fabrication time. I did a quick mock up and pictures are attached.
Finally some progress on the hot rod. I purchased a a stalled project. It’s a 1953 Ford F250 with a professionally rebuilt EAB flathead. I bought the entire truck just to get the rebuilt engine, which I pulled yesterday and set it in the roadster pickup, it’s just in there temporarily to see how it looks. I will be installing a vintage Edelbrock two deuce intake and a couple of 97s, a new distributor, and the restored original headers. New water pumps were installed with mounting bosses to match what’s on the car. I’ll clean up and paint the bell housing from the original 8BA over the next couple of days, and get the engine bolted in on new motor mounts
Fit the bell housing from my old 8BA to the rebuilt EAB and mated it to the Zypher trans. Sounds simple, but it took about six hours. The new engine is finally setting in the car with new front motor mounts installed. Once I got things aligned correctly it.went together pretty easily. Next project is to mount the radiator. I was going to use the Model T grille shell I recently acquired, but can’t resist cutting down a replica ‘32 shell I have in the shop. If that goes well I’ll fabricate a one piece hood top and leave the sides open. At least that’s the plan for now. Here are a few more pictures. Note the engine set back.
Raised the engine and pulled, painted, and reinstalled the water pumps. Also modified the engine mounts with a through bolt from the top. I just don’t like having a critical bolt like an engine mount bolt coming from the bottom with a nut on top. So, I cut off the original bolt at the 5/8” shoulder, drilled it to 7/16” and used a grade 8 through bolt. Test fit the original headers on the new block and installed the starter. It’ll be running soon.
Today I prepped the vintage Offenhauser intake and installed it along with two 97s. It’s came out looking pretty good.
Guess u know old frame has built in bump steer - angle/arc of radius arm versus arc of steering. Many guys get used to, sure u will also. And besides, how much will axle move with rod end sideways & hot rod suspension anyway.
The engine is stock internally and the intake only has 4 3:4” carb spacing. I'm running the progressive linkage based on advice from Charlie Price at Vintage Speed.
Temporarily mounted the radiator and used 1 1/4” surplus stainless tubes with 90 degree bends to connect the hoses. The next project will be to cut down a repop ‘32 shell to fit the 4 1/2” chopped radiator.
First start up going through the original dual exhaust. Much quieter than I expected. https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b8BEXWopJ3_AfnwK6gq_9b3w
Might also want to relocate the front brake hoses to exit out the side of the frame than the top; looks like they are kinked pretty bad in the pictures.
Yep. There’s lots to be done. I will probably run new hard lines and relocate the front hoses as you suggest.
Chopped the repop ‘32 grille shell today. It came out okay. Still not sure if I’ll go this route or use the original Model T shell.
I removed and disassembled the brake master cylinder today, and identified it as a Chevy 3/4 ton pickup part with a 1 1/4” bore. The combination of brake parts is a little unusual. Chevy master cylinder, Ford rear brakes, and Dodge front brakes. The car was driven quite a bit until it came off the road in the early 60’s, so the brakes must have worked. The question is, how well. Guess I’ll find out soon.
The Jalopy Journal
