Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

As promised, I hit the garage right after work. First, I installed the new low-profile zerk and slipped the steering arm back into position. After mocking everything up, I realized that I had almost forgotten the grease shield. Luckily it was close by. I had to modify it to allow the socket to clear. Once I did that, I broke out the torque wrench and tightened it to spec.

(Grease shield not pictured here, but this gives the general idea.)

 

With that buttoned up, I was able to install the wheels with the new tires.

Apologies for the poor lighting. From what I can tell, the new tires are slightly taller and slightly skinnier than the rollers. It’ll be interesting to see how it sits with an engine full of oil and a radiator full of water. I will say this—Version 2.0 has never been easier to roll.

 

There’s more to share, but that’ll be tomorrow. Feels great to be back out there!

 

Thank you so much, Brian! I love the process of piecing everything together. I wouldn't consider myself a patient person, but it is something that I have been working on. Won't be long before the cotter pins make their way on to the car!

 

As I work on this car, I'm realizing that the biggest thing that's missing is time. With that in mind, I dedicated this afternoon to checking boxes.

Elsewhere in this thread I've mentioned the limitations of my shop space here at the house. Being on a cul-de-sac where all of our buildings are butted up against each other, I work to be respectful with power tool usage. Sometimes, however, things just have to get finished. I brought a bunch of pieces out to the back porch to cut and grind away.

For today's first project, I wanted to finish my anti-chatter rod bracket. I had actually started this earlier in the week, but it needed some finessing (even though it will be 100 percent hidden beneath the floor).

Due to the location of the 1939 Ford pedals, I had to re-route the rod. The new layout is inspired by early 1940s Ford rods that mounted to the top of the frame.
Keeping it very simple.

Nothing too crazy, but it accomplishes the task at hand.

 

The next order of business was fitting the ignition wire tubes to the intake manifold. For whatever reason, the tabs didn't line up with the ones on the intake. Most would cut and re-braze, but that wasn't in the cards for me. Instead, I whipped up a pair of relocating tabs out of some thin aluminum that spent most of its life in the form of a Petaluma street sign.
I love the CAD. Note the vintage scissors.

Taking this to heart in more ways than one.

Dunlap x Vise-Grip makes for a great combo.

Drilling on the planter box on an old deck board.

Fin. Once they get some miles, they'll fit right in.

 

Although they may seem small, it's these little odds and ends that will make this car more solid in the long run. For the day's grand finale, Yama joined the fun. The task? Setting up the emergency brake.
The job was fairly straightforward thanks to the @Dennis Lacy kit. While we were at it, we also torqued the backing plate bolts to spec.

Unfortunately, we discovered one of the long bolts had been damaged. I tried chasing the threads, but I wasn't happy with them. Does anyone out there have a single one of these long bolts that the could sell me?

 

That aside, I'm super excited to have a functional E-brake in the car. I've ordered a '32 pawl that will bring the lever down an inch, but other than that it's good to go. A huge step forward.

It's incredible to see this view as I remember how far we've come. And if you'd like to watch the new E-brake in action, check out our video here.

 

I have a couple of minutes before I call it a night, so I figured I'd keep the ball rolling. I'll try to get around to replies tomorrow; thank you all for your patience.

The other night as I was bolting down the intake, I noticed one of the bolts was having an alignment issue. Knowing how important it is to take my time on these things, I slept on it. Then, yesterday, I approached it with fresh eyes.

First, I unbolted the intake.

Using a rattail file, I enlarged the bolt hole ever so slightly. With a little finessing, it all went back together. I then tightened everything to spec.

 

My reward for getting the intake torqued down? Chrome acorn covers. Acorns that gave me grief were given a small tap with an even smaller geological hammer (that we once used to split geodes).

I have a lot of great things to say about many suppliers here on this thread, but I was pretty disappointed with Speedway's packaging.
Does every acorn really need its own individual bag? They need to do better—especially during Earth Month!