Well, maybe not quite so dramatic... This roadster was my first car project more than 10 years ago and started out with a Brookville body and frame, P&J ladder bars with a 9" rear, '48 front axle, 255" flathead, etc. It was a nice roadster, but as time went on I felt I had tochang some things, which had started to bother me over time. Anyway, here is a before shot. Don't mind yours truly and the bike in fornt of the car, but this is one of the few shots I have handy. I started to tear down the roadster almost 3 years ago with to intent to lenghten the frame for a '32 tank (I couldn't take the ugly rear roll pan any longer), chop a couple of inches out of the radiator to drop the grill shell, and some shiny paint. Well, once everything (down to the last bolt) was apart, I added new rear frame horns, a fresh '40 rear with a NOS F1 3.54 ring and pinion to keep the open drive F1 box, fabricated ladder bars from a set of reinforced '36 radius rods, new Lincoln brakes all around, full exhaust, all new plumbing, guages and paint. I had a hood top for the roadster, but didn't like the lines with the full height '32 grill shell. I had a radiator shop take 2" out of it while I nothced the sides of the shell only to find that I had take about 1/2" too much. So back on with a 1/2" strip of metal on the grill shell! I have not yet redone the hood top, but plans are for a full hood with sides and cut outs for the exhaust. The exhaust was a tight fit going over the rear end parallel to the drive shaft and then following the contours of the gas tank and ending in stainless exhaust tips. The lakes headers are welded from stainless pipe segments and are approximatley .120" thick. I initially sanded them by handand and polished them bwith a little bench top buffer, rags and such. When I had the chrome redone by Spacecoast Chrome I splurged on having them professionally buffed and given a coat of flash chrome (directly over the stainless) to prevent them from yellowing. The engine was only supposed to get new heads and a coat of paint, but once I pulled the heads I found I had water damage in two bores and decided to do a complete rebuild with new mild Schneider F254 cam and new Edelbrock made Holley 94's on the origingal Hexagon Tool intake. The new Egge pistons had to be recrowned because they left me with about .010" clearance to the heads, which seems to be an issue with those pistons as I learned from several people on here. Egge didn't even want to talk to me when I brought it up with them... I am still fighting a pinging problem, even after I had the Mallory dizzy rebuilt by GMC Bubba before I tore the car apart. The timing seems correct with the timing light, but I still get pinging under heavy acceleration. I am starting to suspect a lean condition as it also runs hot and has a hard time to transition from idle (stumble or hole). I frogot to check what size main jets the new 94's came with, but they are supposed to be made for multi carb set ups. What main jet size should I start with? Any other ideas? I decided to use a '40s Chris Craft instrument panel with all mechanical gauges, which I found here and there and had "professionally" restored. This amounted more or less to a cosmetic restoration, when I opened the restored ammeter, it had the same 70 year or **** on the mechanicals as before I sent them out, and the temp gauge is permanently 20 degrees too high (check out the temp gauge in the red in one of the pictures when I just parked the car). I decided against having the panel rechromed as I would have lost the engine turned finish, but it also meant I had to try to solder up half a dozen cracks in the paper thin br*** that forms the bezel and the insert in one piece. I used Caswell hand plating wand to replate the soldered areas. It was not a full success and I'll keep my eyes peeled for a panel in better shape. The hand fuel pump is a recent evilbay find and is a nice touch as the engine turned panel matches the gauge panel. Here is a picture showing the stock '46-'48 front axle. The problem with these axles is the short distance between perch and king pin, which limits the turning radius when the wishbones are split. It bought the axle / whisbone combo when I first built the car never giving it a second thought and somehow decided to stick with it as it rides nicely, and not having the head ache of dropped steering arms - makes it easier to crawl under the car as well... Paint is all PPG OMNI acrylic enamel. It is my first shiny paint job and it looks decent enough. Never really intende to spend so much time on it, but one thing leads to another. The frame was taken down to the bare metal because of all the fabrication, but the body still had decent DP90 on it, which I sanded and used as a base for a new coat of epoxy primer. I figure I have $700 in the paint job and that includes a couple of HF guns and a buffer. Somebody who knows what they are doing could have probably done it with have the money. I touched the finish with a wet rag the other day and the paint didn't seem to rub off, which is a good sign! Still plan on putting the top back on (roadsters weren't made for Florida climate and/or readheads...) and putting some miles on it. Thanks to everybody for the wealth of information and inspiration, which kept me going back out in the garage when I didn't really feel like it. Sorry for the large pictures. They are supposed to be resized the same, but something must have gone wrong. I'm off to bed. Over and out...
I liked it in the before pictures, but it really looks great now. What octane gas are you running with that pinging issue? If you have a Chevron station in your area try their hitest. We had a car that pinged on EVERY hitest except Chevron Supreme. Don
AV8 perfection. Just the right amount of details to separate it from the rest. Love the taillights. The un-bobbed rear rails with the '32 tank is the icing on the cake.
Mike! Im always inspired by your attention to detail. I loved your roadster when i saw it 8 or 9 years ago, and i love it even more now! Great job!!! (Youre my 1000th post btw)
Nate - great hearing from you and congrats on the big 1-0-0-0 haha! I am anxiously waiting on updates on your 5-window. I was looking at a chopped 3-window last year for a bit and then found a stock 39 Merc coupe that's waiting it's turn, but right now I am enjoying not doing much of anything.
looks nice.. I like the upgrades you did while redoing it. I'd imagine its a fun ride with top up or down.
Jimmy B - the taillights are 40 Plymouth. I had to flatten the bezels and solder some nuts to the inside to screw them on from the inside of the body. They originally only hold by two flat springs attached to the lamp holder, which grab the inside edge of the bezel, and I could not get them to hold reliably with the changed curvature.
Don - I am using hi test, which lessens the pinging. I start to think a purly cnetrifugal advance is not a good solution for the flathead. Maybe I should consider a stock Ford crab with the vacuum brake, which reacts to load reather than just engine speed.
Very nice, lots of fine details, one of those cars you keep looking at and having things pop out that are right in front of you. Bob
Fantastic little roadster. You could put it in one of Al Drakes books and it would be right at home. Frank
Nice car. I'm impressed with the fact that you do so much of that detail work yourself. I do miss the Florida east coast. Nice cars and folks there.
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