I started building the roadster years ago and finally finished in 2018. I have tons of pics and lots of posts on many forums but, I never compiled a complete build thread......until now! So here it is. All steel '27 Model T roadster power by a 300+ horsepower 2.3 liter four cylinder that's built and turbocharged. It's fast, reliable and gets 30 mpg! It took 9 years and I pulled it off for under $5k. It all started with a Craigslist ad. He was selling this '27 RPU and a bunch of parts for $800. It was 150 miles away but I jumped on it! Rented a small U-Haul trailer, hooked it to my truck and headed south. Came back the next day with gold! Began tearing down the body...... Was able to trade the pickup bed straight across for a turtle deck, minus the decklid. And yes, it came with 2 quarter panels. De-rusting time! Built a 4'x4' box, set the body pieces in place and filled it with a molasses and water mix...... The results speak for themselves! Here's a full write-up on the process I did back in the day. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/rust-removal-the-miracle-of-molasses.557996/ After de-rusting, the bun panels were deemed unuseable...... So...I decided to make my own. Scouring Pick-N-Pull, I found the hood from '80s & '90s Chevy vans have just the right contour...... Yep....it worked! Here's the full write-up I did on that for tech week. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-26-27-roadster-bun-panels-for-cheap.1229214/ Frame time! A friend called me and said he just bought a king sized bed frame off CL and it wouldn't fit through the door of his apartment. Asked me if I wanted it. Absolutely! Made a couple of mods and I had me a frame table! First off, I made a wooden mockup of the frame to get the dimensions right. Then, bought a few lengths of 2"x3" rectangular steel and started cutting them up. Got the perimeter laid out. I needed a front suspension so I picked up this '38 Ford pickup front end at Turlock for cheap.
Next, I fabbed up a front crossmember. Fabbed up a spring perch for the proverbial suicide front end. Starting to come together. Once I split the wishbone it wouldn't line up properly so, I 'bent' the radius arms somewhat. Gotta luv 16 penny nails! That'll work. Next up was rear suspension. I acquired an 8" rear from a '75 Maverick at a local swap for cheap then made a trip to Pick-N-Pull for some other goodies. Most notably, trailing arms from a '90 Land Rover, coilovers from an '88 Subaru station wagon and a trailing arm from a Kia which I will turn into a panhard bar. Land Rover trailing arm adaptation. Kia trailing arm to panhard bar. Boom!
Those rubber bushed trailing arms are interesting. Some compliance allowing some roll without being too rigid…
Now it's time to install the motor. I had originally built this motor for my '89 Mustang project and enjoyed it immensily, until some bozo in an Olds Cutlass decided to rearend me at 40 mph, totalling the Mustang! Here's a before shot. So, out of the Mustang it came and into the roadster it went. It was a little tight so I recessed the firewall to clear the water lines on the back of the motor. I just cut out a section of firewall and flipped it around. I only had 3-1/2" of ground clearance so I fabbed some spacers and raised the motor/trans 1" giving me 4-1/2" of GC. Still tight but better! Built a cowl structure out of 1" square tubing. It gave the cowl sheet metal lots of rigidity and allowed me mounting points for the steering column, pedal assembly and ECU. Picked up a $15 rollbar at a local swap that was originally for a Baja Bug. Sliced and diced it and made it fit. Made a small trunk lid frame and covered it with salvaged sheet metal from the dumpster at work. More metal work needed. Donor sheetmetal came from a TurboCoupe decklid I had laying around. Ghetto metalwork followed. Pirated a steering box off an '86 Suzuki Samurai. Grabbed the accompaning sector shaft and U-joints too. Still had a gap to fill so I grabbed another sector shaft from a neighboring Suzuki in the yard and cut it to fit. Tied it all in to the cut down Suzuki column too.
Mounted an Audi S4 intercooler in front of the radiator, inside the track nose to cool the air charge into the intake. Sealed the space between the rad and track nose to keep all incoming air directed towards the intercooler and rad. How about a Geo Metro gas tank mounted under the decklid? Had to relocate the filler neck to the top. Found a seat in the 'free' section of CL. It came out of a short bus. Later I wrapped it with a mexican blanket. Bought a chunk of cherry wood and started making a dash. Sanded, stained and shallaced. Not much cargo space in the trunk so I formed a small cubbyhole behind the seat to toss things into.
Got it running and on the road. So I drove it around town for a month or so to work out any bugs, make adjustments, etc. When I was satisfied, I blew the whole car apart so I could paint, polish and tidy up everything. Took the frame into the backyard and blasted it. Then brought it back inside and painted it silver. Started putting the chassis back together. Time for paint. Kirker Hot Rod Black. After the paint dried, I layed out the flame pattern. Came out pretty good! The car is a blast to drive although, you actually have to 'drive' it! Manual everything. Definitely an attention getter! Kids refer to it as the Hot Wheels car. I call it my 300 hp go-cart! I probably have 2k miles on it now and this thing is dead nuts reliable as well as being ridiculously quick! My grandaughter and I headed out for a night time cruise....... That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! If anyone's interested, here's my '54 Ford build thread. It's almost done too. As of tonight it's in the body shop getting paint. Evintho's '54 Customline build | The H.A.M.B.
Did you use a TurboCoupe hydraulic slave bellhousing? Thise 2.3's are great engines. I still have my TurboCoupe from when we were both on TurboFord 20 years ago.
Very nice! And what, $1.98 investment? Just kidding! You’re certainly good at recycling stuff. Lots of ideas to plaigerize…
I used the slave for a '63 Chevy truck to match my master cylinder but, I did use the TurboCoupe clutch fork cover!
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