My goal was to build a long distance cruiser car, since most of my past hot rods have gotten a little out of hand. So did my best at keeping this one docile enough and not overcammed to make it suck to drive in traffic. I actually did the first 50% of the fab work at a friends shop as I was going through a divorce and kind of shop-less for a bit. Then got resituated and finished in my own shop. Whole build was about 20 months start to finish. Brookville body. OG hood that I added some louvers to, cheapo aftermarket grill that took way too much work to make right (never again). 3" chopped windshield, pillars leaned back a touch. Whipped up some aluminum interior panels. A killer set of leather seats from FB marketplace that a local guy had made for a roadster back in the day but never ran... Made a bunch of fun aluminum pieces and parts for the car. Started with a brookville frame, but heavily reworked the K member and bobbed/kicked up the rear. 4" heavy dropped axle with some Model AA heavy wishbones that are heavily modified. Reworked the horns/made a stainless spreader to mount the spun tank to, Speedway buick drums on speedway self energizing backing plates. Borgenson Vega box to a basic stainless column with a boat steering wheel I polished up. 69' 351w I put together, .030' over. 180cc aluminum heads, a 280/280 .540 lift roller cam (114 lobe separation, so great street manners) with Morel link bars, some little tricks here and there, with a price motorsports 2x4 intake and holley 390's. Made some valve covers to give it a 60's trans am vibe complete with some stellings air cleaners. Built a 2.5" Stainless exhaust for it. T5z with a good McLeod diaphram clutch, hydraulic slave off some cheap swing pedals I reworked, remote shifter setup I made, out to a 9" with a 31 spline 3.50 chuck that a buddy at Eaton setup with a true track posi, mounted on a set of ladder bars I made with a 40' rear spring. Et mags with some 11.00-15 trackers out back.. Car is ALOT of fun, great street manners, very quick, turns 1800 rpms at 75 mph, drives/rides great. Couldn't be happier! Now just waiting for Sids tops to get reproduced...
Love it, especially your fabricated bits in the interior & trunk! They're so much cooler than the COTS stuff from Summit/ Speedway/ Jegs/ catalogs. Got any close-ups of the switch panel at the left end of the dash?
That's one righteous roadster, I dig everything about it, I could own that thing but I already have one in the works, I bet it is really a fun car. Whats the skinny on the engine?
The Jalopy Journal
