Hot Rods First Hot Rod Build - Glass '27 Ford Roadster

Alright, its probably time for a build thread.

But first, I’m going to ramble off some backstory first.

So, around 5 years ago when while I was working a dead-end desk job, I was surfing the internet to kill time (as one does). Something or other led me to looking up project cars and similar. During this particular research rabbit hole, I stumbled across the Tribute T from Speedway motors. Now before this moment, if you would have asked me what a T-Bucket was, my mind would have conjured up a typical Fad T and nothing else. I do not recall ever seeing a T-Bucket built any other way. My mind was blown. After seeing this, I decided that after my car was payed off, I would order up a kit and go for it. Unfortunately (or fortunately), life got in the way and that never happened. It was during this time that I rediscovered the HAMB. To this day, I can’t remember what originally brought me here the first time, but I do remember finding the thread explaining how to build a set of deuce rails from scratch. That idea stuck with me too.

Fast several years and the thought of building a T-Bucket is still hanging around in the back of my head. I randomly decided that I would start keeping an eye out and starts collecting parts to build later on down the road. This all “officially” started about a year ago in when I found a set of old speedway round-back spindles on eBay. They had a little bit of surface rust, but cleaned up nicely. Next logical step was to find some brakes. I was looking for early Ford juice brakes, but wasn’t coming up with much. Then I read somewhere about using early F1 or F100 brakes. Well, wouldn’t you know that there was somebody not too far away selling a complete front end out of a ’56 F100? I arranged a buddy that lived close to the seller to pick it up for me and began pulling the brakes off. Eventually, I sold off the rest of the front end (minus pitman arm) to recoup half of what I payed for it.

The next parts that showed up were a bunch of axle shafts from an early bronco. Two short side and 5 long side axles were now taking up space in my garage and annoying me wife, but the price was too good to pass up. $40. I kept the best long side and the two short sides and sold the rest off for $30.

Around this time parts collection kinda stagnated. I was looking for axle housings, T-Bucket bodies or anything else that might come in handy. Nothing was showing up in my limited price range. There was a Dodge bucket 4-5 hours away for a good price that I was thinking about, but was gone before I could do anything about it. There was a ’37 or ’38 ford pickup cab ~3 hours away that was very tempting after seeing the Rudy Truck. There were a few ‘glass buckets that popped up here and there but were either too far away or too expensive.

Until Labor day weekend.

Something woke me up early that day and I couldn’t get back to sleep so I grabbed my laptop and sat on the couch with my oldest kid and finished up some homework. That last part may confuse some of y’all, but I’m going back to school for a career change that will be explained later on. For now just now that my thinks a bit of a mid-life crisis (which may have something to do with me wanting to build a hot rod from scratch). So I finish up that assignments that I had and pulled up Facebook Marketplace for shniggles. The VERY first ad that I see is for a ‘glass ’27 roadster with a bunch of parts for CHEAP. $750. I got cash burning a hole in my pocket so I message the guy. He’s about 45 mins away and I need to figure out when I get a truck to get up there and get up there before my wife has to go to work. As I explain this to the guy, he offers to deliver the whole package for $50. Sold. I bought the whole deal without seeing anything other than a crappy picture.

After the (super nice) guy drops everything off, I am now in possession of a fiberglass 27 Ford Roadster body, a T-Bucket frame that had been Z’d front and rear, a 9’ out of a late 70’s Ford Van, a fully chrome straight axle front end completed from spindle to spindle, a weird IFS looking thing with what appear to be Chevy spindles, some tubes and heims for a 4-bar setup, a 4L60E core and the thing I was least excited about originally, a somewhat complete 327 from the mid 60’s. My wife was not exactly thrilled about waking up and seeing the body in the driveway and more car parts taking up space in the garage, but the deal was too good not to pass up and she (kinda) understood that. The best part of this was that I was no longer collecting parts for some unknown hot rod project, I now had a body and was collecting parts for a ’27 Ford Roadster.

So now the process of selling stuff off that I wasn’t going to use. The first thing to go was the frame if I remember correctly. It had been sitting outside for a while, but seemed solid. The thing was Z’d probably about 3” in the front and 5-6” in the back. It was setup for a Mustang steering box and suicide front end. First guy to come look at it said it was too far out of square for him, but the guy that bought it was planning on chopping it up anyways so that wasn’t a big deal. That’s 100 bucks back in the pocket. Next to go was the weird IFS front end. Another $75 back. The next item sold was the chromed tube axle front end. If this had been a dropped axle or I was still building a bucket, I would have kept this. Instead it ended up going to HAMB Moderator @Royalshifter. Turns out he and his wife are super nice folks. More on that later. I ended up selling off the bars and heims for $100.

Next I tore apart the rear end and started calling around to have it narrowed to fit the axles I already had. $400. Ouch. That stung, but it is what it is. That is until I discovered Speedway sells brand new 9” housing with the new style ends in the correct width for ~$400 shipped to my door. Well, that wasn’t a very hard decision for me. So I kept the brakes and pumpkin and sold off the housing and axles for $200. At this point I am pretty much even on the whole deal.

Now back to that 327. When I was planning things, when asked about the engine I would run, I would say anything other than an SBC. I’m a ford guy at heart and would have preferred a Y-block or a 260/289 to go in it. Hell, I would have loved to find an early Cad or Olds, but nothing shopped up in my price range. So considering I was now in possession of a free 327, I figured why not. The catch to this basically free engine is that it is mostly in pieces. The story I was given is that it was freshly rebuilt and the person that had it before the guy I got it from never broke it in and started hammering on it. I was told that the rings sheared off the pistons or something along those line. Everything on the engine looks good and it came with a brand new set of pistons installed on the rods and a new set of rings. It didn’t have an intake or distributor, but I probably would have wanted to replace them anyway. So now I have engine stuff that is in the back of my find when I’m looking for parts now. At a swap meet last year, I ended up scoring a set of Cal Custom finned aluminum valve covers since the engine didn’t come with any. Next I found a complete Edelbrock C-357 intake with the front oil filler and 3 Rochester carbs with progressive linkage. The last big piece of the puzzle was cylinder heads since the set that it came with were crappy smog era heads. That just wouldn’t do. I found a set of complete 461 heads at the swap meet that still had the receipt for magnafluxing.

OK, so back to that bit about going back to school. I am going through the Welding and Fabrication program at the local community college. It turns out that for the final fabrication class, you have to come up with your own project to build. Well, this realization is what really kicked this thing off. I bought the CCR T-Bucket plans soon after I realized how simple they are. Well, after getting the body, I decided that I preferred the look of 26-27 roadsters on Model A and 32 frames that suicided T-Bucket frames. So I bought the Model A frame plans from HotRodPlans.com. After some looking and figuring, I decided on combining the two and basically building a 2x4 T-Bucket frame with A style front frame rails.

 

Wow, that is a giant wall of text. Sorry. I should probably add some pictures to entertain y'all.

Well, last week, I finally brought the finished frame home. And then got it all put back together to make it a rolling chassis again (unfortunately, that is not my home garage...).
Well, of course the first thing I had to do was throw the body on it and see what it looked like.

So that is where we sit now. There is still a ton of work left to do, but it at least looks like a car shaped object now instead of just random parts strewn about my garage and back yard...

 

Small block Chevy is way prettier than a small block Ford, all else aside.

 

Pretty?

 

Are you going to put opening doors on it ??
I have a similar project I bought over 25 years ago ( Old Speed way kit ) and every time I get started on it something else becomes more important .
Now that I'm 25 years older my old fat ass is going to want and need doors . I plan on cutting the doors out and making them work at some point . I wish I had bought a body that had the doors already done .

I have bounced back and forth from a 4 cyl chevy to a SBC a dozen times as well as even considering a 331 Hemi that I have in it that's like 300 pounds heaver LOL .
I have went from channeled to on top of the frame as well recently .
( I like the frame you built and the axle under the cross member instead of in front like mine is )

Ill say this if you want to keep it some what simple, and less expensive and actually get it done its hard to beat the SBC in one of these.
That said its all up to you lots of choices but none are as simple , cheap or light and easy as the SBC . I wish i had just bought every thing I needed 25 years ago instead of scrounging for everything and got to enjoy it VS looking at a plie of crap in the garage and yard.

MY current plan ( Today ) is 327 chevy , T5 , Bronco 9", reversed Corvair side steering ,
spring in front of the crossmember.

Good luck on your project hope you can stay focused on it .

 

Good start! Going to follow along. Might steal an idea or two along the way…

 

A while back I decided I would use the 327 since it's basically free, and budget is the underlying theme here. I just picked up a Camaro V8 the other day so I'll have to figure that situation out eventually.

After seeing how high the body sits unchanelled, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to cut the doors. And since I'll be adding the doors, I might as well open up the trunk too...

As far as steering, I have the box and column from a different 56 F100 that I'm planning on using.

Thanks for all the encouragement guys. I know this is going to be a long, slow process and I'm looking forward to getting it together.

 

A working trunk is a good thing as well the f100 box will look good Id have used one if I could have found one .

My thinking or plan on the doors is to glass in a wood inner door frame and then wood for the body/ door jam spaced apart and then cut between the two so it has to fit LOL .
Id love to see how others have done it .

 

The other day I stumbled across this (https://www.tbucketplans.com/how-to-put-a-door-in-a-t-bucket/) that seems to be a pretty good guide. I was planning on consulting with the HAMB hivemind when i got closer to that step.

 

Some 27 stuff I have saved on the computer to get ideas from that I liked.
My stalled out again project mocked up

 

Close to what I had in mind .
One of the replies in that link you provided were its suggested to make a single cut wiht a wider board . My thinking is use two sanded and fitted and glassed in place boards spaced apart to the desired door to body clearance plus room for some glass and fabric on the edges after and just cut the body between them. this should give a perfectly fitted flush fit door .
one could plan all the stuff for the striker and latches and even hinges before hand and mill it in to the wood before hand . basically build the door frames and body support and then glass it in and then cut between and sand back as needed and add a layer or two of cloth over the edgesd or use really mice wood and leave it exposed may be . I have been collecting oak from the pallet company I go tot for a few years .
One could add a steel door cover to the inside with holes ot the wood frame to mimic a steel factory door like in the pick I posted above maybe .


"
Leon Renaud
September 2, 2018 at 11:10 pm


If you had used wider wood and placed it so it straddled where you wanted to cut your door you would have re enforced not only the door skin but the body side as well also creating a matching door & door opening at the same time . I have seen this done by using 2X6 lumber sanded to match the body curve before bondoing it in place over the door/door opening line in the body ."

 

That's a good idea. Here's a post that I stumbled across that did something along the same lines. (https://www.tbucketplans.com/how-to-put-a-door-in-a-t-bucket/)

 

I have seen were guys took a 15/16" or so plywood square with the center cut out and made a bunch of partly/ mostly through cuts every half inch or so to allow the wood to bend then glassed that into the door and body before cutting as well. cheap and easy

I like the idea of a solid piece sanded and fitted with the corners dove tailed into each other to make a frame that is then glassed in . A lot stronger and maybe some better side protection if something bad happens .

Ill have a hoop made of steel tubing welded or bolted to the frame under the dash that will support the steering column and add some side protection as well .

 

Great to see the start of this! Keep chipping away at it, even if it seems like you aren't going much. Baby steps still move you forward.
@Tim_with_a_T documented his door build in his Belly Button thread. The trunk is either going to be just a close out panel (especially if it's not sealed under) or require a flange and drip rail which is a bunch more work. I will tell you it looks like the side height is going to be too much to step into, so it's either up on the tire and clamber in or cut door(s).
In that last picture, it looks like you've primed it and got the radiator shell down, so waiting on hearing the progress to date. There is a thread of another member who is attempting to hand fabricate a '27 body. If yours is fairly straight, you might be able to help by taking measurements.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/building-my-first-roadster-in-kansas-city.1335438/

 

Good luck on your project, the info in the link on installing doors was the one I used primarily to put doors in my 27 glass body. I used fiberglass filled bondo to adhere the wood to the glass and after that was done I cut the doors out so they retained the original shape. I used some Stanley hinges for the door that I modified, I would suggest getting a heavier hinge than that. At some point you may want to replicated the wood that "trims" out the cockpit opening, I tried to find an oak repro piece but it seemed pricey at the time so I glued up my own with thin plywood that bent, glued and trimmed fairly easy.

 

Nice work, @vtx1800 ! @Tim and @trevorsworth take a look!

 

I would concentrate on getting the mechanicals together and working before cutting into the body. Keep looking while you are doing that and you may find another body with working doors and trunk. If so, buy it and sell what you have. If you can't find one, you always have the option to cut doors and trunk, but it may be cheaper and easier to buy/sell than to do all the cutting and bracing yourself. Glad to see you finally got it going pretty well.

 

Cutting the doors is still a ways down the road so I have plenty of time to figure that out.

I'm planning on doing a steel hoop under the cowl also. Glad to see other folks with similar ideas.

 

Yep, the plan is to get all the big stuff out of the way right now and deal with all the body stuff later.

 

The grille shell is just sitting on the crossmember for now. I'm on the lookout for an early mustang radiator to start figuring out if I'm going to chop it or just lower it down.

 

I'm on my phone right now, but that looks awesome! Definitely some good info. Thanks!

 

A couple of other thoughts, the cockpit in these cars is pretty small, when configuring the steering I thought I'd done a fair job...I now wish I'd have raised the steering wheel dash mount an inch or two, which would have made entry and exit a lot easier. Once you are seated it is fine for me but tight for a big guy.
The second "mistake" I found was when my cousin (over two hundred pounds) got in and couldn't shut the door as the weight tweaked the door fit. I resolved it by putting a brace from the frame to the forward seat mount. I had a body mount close to the rear seat mount so I didn't have to make any changes there. I always use Rustoleum to paint the frame so it was not big deal to grind the paint off, weld a brace and brush on some new paint.

 

I’m going to have the same problem. My current attempt at a work around is a quick release on the steering wheel. Probably a decent attempt at an anti theft system as well…

 

“I remember seeing a T roadster with a steering wheel that flipped up. Someone called it a Fat Man Wheel.”





Hello,

A long time ago, I took some photos of a cool T-Bucket. The seating arrangement was typical T-Bucket… almost non existent. But, the T-Roadster was an outstanding build. I sat in the driver’s seat and it was tight. I am 6 feet with big shoulders. I managed to squeeze in the seat and felt comfortable behind the wheel. It was not my cup of tea, but I would drive it… as @anthonymyrick would say.

I felt much better sitting on the passenger side when we went for a ride. The acceleration was almost instant with the slight touch of the throttle. An open roadster feel was evident and the wind blasted us as we went down the street and back.


Jnaki

Then, a thread about T-roadsters not having a lot of room for entry and exit was discussed. Here is an excerpt from that thread.

The late Freddy Castro's great looking ride from the San Diego Prowlers Club...
“Fred’s steering wheel was referred to as a “fat man’s” wheel. It folded up toward the windshield. Dan Biggs now owns Fred’s roadster and he told me 6 months ago that the old wheel wasn’t safe anymore and he has had to replace it.”
From Jim Reid, San Diego Prowlers
a flip up steering wheel for tight fitting hot rods...YRMV

In our teenage/20 something years, we were limited as to what we wanted to build, mainly because of the comfort while driving. Also entrance and exit played a huge part in our choices of hot rods. But, the adjustable back, bucket seats were so much better than the stock seats in any old hot rod.YRMV

Note:

The smooth flow of a set of headers into a collector instead of a “sticking out” in the way Lakes pipt exhaust.

A few months ago, I drew this version of a 27 T-Roadster with early claw flames for a Friday Art thread. . I got the idea from several old drag racing photos showing one of the earliest actual “claw” flames known to the hot rodding world.

Long time, Long Beach drag racers’ roadster

1932 Ford Roadster Leland Kolb and Fritz Voight... Original “Crab Claw” flames

 

Much easier to jump in and out of when its a track T or it has step plates. The look of that deuce frame cant be beat , probably no big deal for the young guys to run and jump in but Im too fat to do that anymore.
Might consider reinforcing that body with steel ,maybe look at how Wescott does theirs, I gave up on wood myself, it was too weak and I could replace it all with steel and bond to to the fiberglass with 3m 5200.

 

I was under the impression that bonding metal to fiberglass was a no-no since they expand and contract at different rates leading to cracking...

 

Corvettes and boats have done it for years, check out some boat forums, they have tons of info for bonding metals to fiberglass.

 

I'll have to look into that. Thanks!

 

There are a number of adhesives to bond metals to fiberglass. One of the older ones is 3M Marine 5200. I’ve used it numerous times on racing sailboats. The rule of thumb was if you ever want to to disassemble the parts don’t use the 5200 because you will destroy the parts before breaking the bond. I’m sure there are others that have been developed maybe even stronger.

 

I see where the import crowd has a steering wheel adaptor that flips the steering wheel up like the old fatman wheels did. I've seen them on more than one car, so I know it's not a one off. I will be on the hunt to find out what they are doing. If it works on an import, it will work on a Hotrod. Hopefully the guys are not just sitting the steering wheel on the top of the column. I'll find out.