"Loose Change" My '30-'31 Tudor AV8 build

It's called "Loose Change" because it's a low budget build (REALLY low budget). I'm divorced, huge child support payments, huge mortgage payment, etc. It HAS to be low budget, because there just wouldn't be any other way to do it. Besides, the loose change jug is funding the project (that's what my wife thinks )

Regardless, my kids first build with me literally saved our relationship, so it was time to do another since they loved doing it so much.

I've been lurking/asking questions since June of 2008 and collecting parts since November of 2010. It's time to start the build thread. My boys are now 18, 17, 15 and my daughter is 10. They cut their teeth on our '55 first series AD Chevy pickup and then we all decided to build a traditional hot rod.

First, got the 59 AB flatty in Jersey. Saw it on Craigslist. Picture showed the oil pan off and cross-hatching from cylinder honing CLEARLY visible, so I took a ride with the Suburban and picked it up. Guy wanted $700.00 for it. I offered him $400.00. He said, "But I'm asking $700". I countered with, "How many guys have come to look at it"? He says, "You got cash"? SCORE!!! Got it home, took the heads off, no ridge, beautiful cross-hatching from the honing, pistons stamped "30". Obviously, a rebuild with low miles.

The following July (2011), picked up a rolling chassis in Staten Island for $650.00. Not as good a score. After I got it home, realized the frame was probably too far gone to repair. Still got some good parts off it, though. Along the way. picked up a '38 banjo ($200) in excellent condition and rebuilt '38 toploader (a little pricey for the low budget build at $600.00, but the guy that did the work is a 70-year-old that has been building AV8's since he was 14). Bill Ketch is his name in Jersey and he is a true gem. Took the kids to meet him and they hit it off right away. Two of the kids pictured below. Middle boy and youngest, my daughter.

 

Picked up a SWEET '30-'31 Tudor Sedan body from a ex-Navy aircraft mechanic in North Carolina for a great price in September of 2011. Had to jump on it before somebody else got it. Found him on the Ford Barn. He posted it on a Sunday. I saw it the next day and figured it was gone...but he called me back and said, "The first guy that gets here with the money gets it". So I made him promise to hold it for me and told him I would be there the next day. He was incredulous because I was coming from New York, but the next day at noon I was knocking on his door after an overnight 13-hour drive with same Suburban and a trailer. It was unbelievable. I checked his profile on "The Barn" and saw what quality work the guy did. I was even more pleased when I saw it in person. He blasted the whole body, patched the bottom 4 inches of the body at the cowl, behind the doors, put new wheel panels in, new subrails from door openings back and then primed it all. Said he found something else he wanted to build and just wanted it gone. SCORE. Got the doors (one absolutely PERFECT, the other in need of a 4 inch outer patch only), cowl cover (gas tank cut out...dammit) and other assorted body parts. Pics below on the old chassis just to get the kids charged up.

 

Looking good, my friend! Keep the pics coming! Throw in a couple of the kids too!

Ken

 

Picked up another frame from a local Model A guy. Still had original paint on it. Missing the front cross-member and some real ugliness was done to it trying to re-attach a frame horn, but otherwise in really good shape for $300. Used the front cross member from my rusty frame, probably one of the only good things left, other than the rear cross member.

A friend of mine owns a structural steel shop that is huge. He's into cars and has all kinds of great equipment, skills and knowledge. I haven't done much structural welding since I was in my 20's, so he handles the mig as we did the frame mods.

First thing was installing the new front cross-member and re-attaching the broken frame horn and straightening them both.



Next was bracing and cutting the frame for the rear step. Tardel/Bishop says to cut 4 inches forward of the rear cross member, but after studying the photos in the book and scoping out the frame, we realized they probably made an error as a cut four inches forward of the rear cross member would make installing and welding the fillets really tough due to how close they would be to the original Ford cross brace for the rear cross member, so we cut the frame 5 inches forward of the rear cross member and that looked exactly like the pic in the book.




Cutting, shaping, installing the fillets at the rear step. Cold, rolled steel the same thickness as the original Ford frame. Bent on the brake the contour matched the original contour of the frame perfectly.

 

Finished the frame mods for now and decided to make it roll to keep the kids interested and psyched. It's all going to come apart again to do engine/trans/K-member mock up, but its' nice to see it on it's shoes.

Installed rear main leaf and then put a rod through the hole and compressed all the other leaves onto it with C-clamps. Learned this trick on the HAMB while lurking. Beats buying/borrowing a spring spreader and it worked easily.



Sent my original Ford front axle to Okie Joe at Joe's speed shop for the drop. He's amazing.





Wide fives blasted and powder coated by one of my patients on barter.



How it sits at the moment.

 

Very nice start.......good luck.

 

Lots going on with the build but no updates here on the HAMB until now. Been to Carlisle and Hershey multiple times and making some really good purchases, including a nice Edmunds Custom manifold for the flatty and the sweetest pair of vintage Edelbrock heads. The heads were nearly perfect with almost no electrolysis at all. Enlisted the help of my friend Bill Ketch in Jersey to setup the motor and give it his clean bill of health. Brought it to him in January. Picked it up in July (took him a bit longer than I initially thought. LOL). That's okay because I was busy finishing up the chassis mods and the torque tube shortening and driveshaft issues.

The engine runs fantastic. 145-150 psi in all 8 cylinders. 75 psi oil pressure and not a lick of smoke. I'm having trouble posting the video of it running at Bill Ketch's shop, but will get it up on the thread as soon as I can figure out how to post a video taken with an iPhone on a Windows computer.

Had a couple of friends come over the other night for a little thrash. My goal was to finally button up the driveline. After reading various posts and making some mistakes of my own, I was ready to assemble the drive shaft, torque tube and all the associated stuff at the front of the torque tube and install the whole she-bang up at the trans. Despite meticulous measurements taken at multiple times and agonizingly obsessive compulsive clamping and welding, I was very nervous about the final assembly of the torque tube and drive shaft assembly as to length, and straightness of the torque tube. Happily, it assembled perfectly and easily and was 100 % straight and everything was the proper length and mounted up well. From beginning to end, it was an hour and 20 minutes to remove the body and rear end, assemble the driveshaft and associated parts and install and put the body back on. Below are some pics during the thrash the other night. Rarely does something go this smoothly.




Yeah, I know it's a slow build that's been going on for a number of years but I work six days a week and simply cannot devote my only day off to the build every week. Got a great wife and awesome kids that need my attention too. So I'm building a little at a time, spending an hour or two here and there as I can squeeze them in. I'm excited to get the running gear finished in the chassis and that is now motivating me to move the project along a bit faster now, but funds are low and always have been on this build. I want to build it well and safely so I wait until I have the money to go every step. Hell, the driveshaft was literally paid for from the loose change jug. Just trying to squeeze out some extra funds for spending money at Hershey and Carlisle in a couple of weeks is stressing me out. Been looking for a '32-'34 commercial grill that doesn't cost an arm and a leg is nearly impossible. I don't need a show quality piece, but I don't want a piece of Swiss cheese either. I'm looking for a presentable original in patina condition.

The direction of the build is going to be early '50's. I'm going to run '35 wires on it even though it has the wide fives on it now. I just finished blasting the wires and have to paint them now. I would love to have them powder coated, but that's bigger money than this build warrants as the "look" I'm going for is as though it was built by a kid in his '20's back in the day. I will be brush painting it after the body work is done. That's what I'm shooting for. I hope you all enjoy this post. I'll get the video of the flathead running up on the thread as soon as I can figure out how to get it to load to photobucket. Doesn't seem to want to upload for some reason.

And a HUGE thank you to all that have answered my many questions. I could not be doing this project without the help of the HAMB. You guys are awesome.

Andy

 

It's looking good.
Those two pictures ^^^ look like paintings.

 

Give yourself a pat on the back- it looks great.And give the family a hug too ( not necessarily in that order!) Keep up the good work and remember what they say about Rome; it wasn't built in a day( can't believe you got that body for a grand- major score)

 

Here's the video of the Flathead running. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did when I first heard it run.

 

Way to go Andy ! .

 

Great looking build, I love AV8s. Keep the wide five wheels they look great imo. Jim Ford

 

Very cool build.....keep the wide 5's

 

Great photo and the flatty sounds sweet! HRP

 

Nice job. Flat motor sound strong
Walter

 

Looks like a very cool sedan , nice meeting you , I will send you some pics of my A truck .

 

Well, it's been a while since I posted on this thread. Busted my ass while working six days a week and now I am driving my first real hot rod. I have put about 600 miles on it over the last month and it's been a blast working out the bugs and getting used to how these old things drive. I'm going to post a couple of videos. First one from about May of this year on the car's first trip down the driveway.
http://vid1063.photobucket.com/albums/t505/chiro59/IMG_4042_zpspgwwnk3b.mp4

Followed by the second video of me taking my wife up the road in it (her reaction is priceless).

http://vid1063.photobucket.com/albums/t505/chiro59/IMG_4044_zpswv19mpyo.mp4

Final video is just this past weekend after much more work has been done. My son driving it back from an early Sunday morning "coffee and cruise" at the beach.

http://vid1063.photobucket.com/albu...D-67B8-47C7-879F-A64CB330729F_zpsity7v01j.mp4

Finally, a picture of how the little bitch sits right now almost. I actually have the cowl cover on it as you can see in the video of my son driving it. Lol

 

No pix for me in your last post. Gary

 

You have to right click it and open in a new tab, it's a link to video of it driving up the driveway .

Way to go Andy ! .

 

All fixed, thanx! Gary

So... who's excited! Have fun

 

Man those videos are awesome! I'm excited about it and I havn't ever seen this thread before! Let's see some more photos of how she sits! Congrats man that's awesome

 

Alright... First..... Subscribed!

Finally a real home grown garage build. Love the direction and style.

Can't wait to see more.

 

Ok ya got me, I'm subscribing to this one.

I'm thinking hard on using the wide fives rather than the 35 wires on my 31 Vic as my tear drop trailer frame already has them on it. Plus the look is growing on me.

 

Yah, I was going to use the wide fives but I was having a bitch of a time getting new studs to fit them correctly as the old studs were shot. Finally just said screw it because I have always loved wires, had some good ones laying around and good drums/hubs/good original bearings came my way at a fair price. No brainer. Love the freaking wires. Thanks for all the good words. I will post more pics next week after the rain passes. Sold the wide five wheels at Carlisle this past spring. Still have the four drums and hubs though taking up space.

Andy

 

Okay, here's a couple more. Oldest son wanted to drive the hot rod this morning so we took it down to the causeway between mainland and Lloyd Neck on the north shore. I hopped out to take a little video of it cruising by. Click the link to view.

http://vid1063.photobucket.com/albu...6-3B6D-4206-BBA3-B3F0CC7C2709_zpsrimqzmom.mp4

Here's a pic of how she sits right now. The exhaust is temporary until I fabricate and install the rear pan hard bar.

Enjoy,
Andy

 

Update to this thread just for shits and giggles. A few years ago I found this awesome coupe body from a restored car. The body was amazing and I just HAD to buy it. Not a patch panel on it save for two inches of gas welded patch on the lower wheel wells. Has great old paint on it. Fits the vision of the build perfectly so I sold the sedan body and did the swap. Totally different animal now and I just LOVE it.
Andy

 

Hot damn!

 

Looks good @chiro, you have a good eye for vintage Hotrod...too bad you couldn't have kept the sedan...it was looking real good...but the tradeoff is a helluva compromise...AND you're mobile...congratulations...

 

Coupes are cool

 

Nice coupe. Great look, have fun with that bad boy.