Projects Bruce's A coupe/roadster conversion!

Wished I had been up to speed on this project before now as you folks could have seen how bad this coupe really was. Here is the short story version. Have a friend who has been building and racing cars all of his life. He is now in his 70's and still has a work ethic that most of us wished we had. In the past ten years or so he has bought and built a '35 Ford coupe, a '37 Ford coupe, restored a 50's nostalgia dirt racer (think it is a 35 coupe body), scratch built a flat head powered Track T with torsion bar suspension, built a '49 Chev shop truck with IFS powered by a 63 Olds 330 Hydro, restored a Hillegas (sp?) midget, built a Curtis midget clone, restored a 60 hp midget and other numereous midgets that I just cannot remember.
Recently he has been looking for a '31 2 door sedan. We looked till we were going crazy and could not find one. Then I get a call that he has found a 31 coupe which by the way belonged to another HAMb member. So we go out west (western NY that is) and pick up this body which as the story goes was setting in a field here in the NE for way too many years. It was rough, no it was really rough. The bottom 2-3 inches of the coupe was eaten by the ground. It had been hit by a tree that had fallen at some point in it's life. The cowl was really rough but it came with another cowl (what a relief!) Forget the sub structure, nothing there. So we dragged this home and he started his project. Then he informs me that he is thinking of making a roadster out of it. So lets roll ahead a few weeks.....
He has rebuilt this body with all hand made patches, reskinned the doors, fabbed up wheel wells etc. Scratch built the sub rails, channeled it four inches to cover the A rails that he had in stock, then fabbed up all new floors and panels. Welded it all up and did the body work, then shot it in primer. Mounted it to the frame and then proceeded to cut the roof off to make his roadster. That is when I paid a visit and took the following pics. I will try to keep up to date on this and put some updates on here for those that want to follow along. The roof is for sale over in the cl***ifieds.
This A will be powered by a flathead with a 3 speed and a QC rear. He hasn't gotten to that part yet so stay tuned for page 2.

 

Great job

 

Great work,I'll be watching this one.

 

Beautiful work!

When the Dos Equis man needs to phone a friend, he calls your friend.

Stay thirsty, my friends!

 

Got a little more work done on the roadster in between running down to Hershey. Cut the rest of the windshield posts off and trimmed back the cowl to add a piece that will smooth off that area. Guess he is going to fab up new windshield posts to support the gl*** later.



Cut the bottom of the door openings off in prep for new pieces that will smooth these out and follow around to the back of the roadster.



Got most of the intial welding done on the new pieces around the back. More grinding necessary but it is taking shape.



And it apperars that he has the rear pan all fabbed up and in place with the tail light cut outs.

 

I see that since I have been up there the last time the engine and ****** showed up. Lots to do here!




More to come as we go along. I will try to keep the updates coming.

 

Few moreupdates from this week. Picked up a newly rebuilt late model flatty. Sweet deal for sure so he has it mocked up and getting ready for mounts. Cut back the firewall for clearance. Have to finish that after the engine is all mounted up.



Probably run a couple of 97's on the Offy. Might go with an alternator in place of the generator. Not very traditional I know but it is what it is.

Fell into a nice deal on a dropped axle with spindles and a set of bones so he threw that on to get an idea of what it all will look like. Set the ride height up with jack stands and now worry that the body is going to be too high off the ground despite the 4 inch channel. Wonders if he should have Z'd the frame front and rear. Be a ***** now that the floor pans are all welded in to change it. Will get some tires mounted up and see what it all looks like first.



Managed to get more grinding done and a little bondo put down. Beginning to take shape. Cowl is coming along. Will start thinking about a set of windshield posts soon.



Thats all for tonight. Will update more as we move along this week.

 

Man sure has talent!!!

 

Bruce is a master craftsman it seems. He did this in a couple of weeks. I think that he got the original coupe which the tree had fallen on, from me. Here are some pictures. It was much ruougher than it looks in the pictures. Nice job!!!!!

jk. I will have a very nice '27 Ford roadster body for sale later in November. Stay tuned if any one is looking for a nice body.

JK

 

nice work on the metal , the rebuilt flatty looks good sitting there to

 

Few more updates on the project. Bruce has fabbed up motor and ****** mounts and mounted the engine in solid as well as the ******.





Next he has turned his attention to the firewall. Wasn't happy with the old and wanted a new flatter design so he fabbed up some pieces and ran them thru the bead roller, tacked them in place. Looks kinda neat!



Looks like the next thing on the list was mocking up the steering. I had an extra late 70's CJ steering box that was new which I got from OldBlue Oval so I donated that for the cross steering. Bruce fabbed up some mounts and a shaft. Next in lne was the steering column so he grabbed some tubing and made his own using 3/4 stock. Little worried about that column drop though.

 

And lastly, Bruce is now fabbing up some floor boards and then on to the clutch and brake pedal ***embly. More to come...stay tuned.

 

More to come later so stay tuned.

 

And I forgot to mention that the rusty cross tie on the face of the firewall is just a support that is going away when everything is all welded up.

 

Nicely build I will be following your progress.

Frenchy

 

Work continues on the roadster. Bruce has fabbed up the remaining floor pans and is now waiting on the E brake handle to come. He has turned his attention to the windshield now. Fabbed up a gl*** channel and has modified the cowl to accept the stanctions that he is going to build. Here is shot of the floor as it was two days ago.


Pulled a stock '37 rear out of the barn and has started cleaning that up. Guess the plan is to install a quick change and slip it under the roadster.


Caught the old boy at work the other day. Rarely get to see the fellas that build these projects it seems so I thought I would at least give him his due here on the HAMB.


I should be able to get up there today and get some more updates. Really curious to see how the windshield is coming along. Stay tuned.

 

That friend of your doesn't live in Lake Hopatcong, Does he? Sounds a lot like a friend I have as well!.

 

Tell Bruce to "Keep up the good work"!!!

 

Stopped by the shop yesterday and looked over some of the progress from this week. Bruce has fabbed up some windshield posts and mocked up the gl***. Still some refining to do but it is taking shape.

 

He has mocked up the dash and fabbed up a column out of exhaust tubing and a piece of 3/4 round stock.



He had a nice set of headers for the engine but there was just too much interference with the steering box and it would have looked odd so he is going to make his own. Got the stubs made up. We will follow this one along as he progresses.

 

Great work thanks for posting I have been begging for info like this !!

 

Stopped by the shop today to see what progress Bruce had made on the headers. He has two of the three outlets mocked up and the exhaust pipe set in place to get an idea of what it will look like when done. He is going to make a baffle for the pipe to soften it a bit.





The template was out of the windshield posts so I took a quick shot of the frame for those that might be interested. Those bolts will be replaced with polished ****on heads when done.



He has layed down some more high build primer on the dash and has taken a seat out of a Chev truck and cut it down. Seems to fit pretty well. Will look good after the thing is upholstered.





That is all for now. I will be back up there later this week to check on the progress.

 

Stopped by the shop this weekend to see what progress has been made on the project. Bruce has finished fabbing up the exhaust system.Little bit of finish welding required and then I suspect it is off to the chrome shop.



He has concluded that the roadster would look good with a two piece hood so he rounded up a piano hinge and built some brackets to support it



Then proceeded to cut and bend up the first piece of the hood using some basic home built tools





More tweaking and t******* required but you get the idea. Don't know what he plans to use to secure the hood pieces but I am sure he has an idea in his head. More to come as the hood progresses.

 

Stopped by the shop yesterday to check on the progress of the project. Bruce has the hood pretty much finished. Few things to do to tweak it but overall it is looking really nice. Here are a couple of pics.





He has started on building out the trim pieces. Started fabbing up a piece of luan for the back of the seat. This will provide a tack strip for the material that covers the rear of the seat compartment.

 

very cool project man

 

A man after my own heart! Great work here. Keep posting.

 

Swung by the shop this afternoon. The new Super Bell axle came in which will resolve the issue he had with the previous axle that had been set up for GM spindles. Got to build up a spring for it and then mock it up to get everything else fitted.



He has removed the body so that he can work on the crossmember. Fabbed up those and cut holes in them. Have them just about finished up now. Little more to do and they will be done. Got the rear mocked up and is deciding what to do with the spring. He wanted to use coil overs this time around but is trying to decide what to do. Needs to find a 6 spline u joint for the rear of the ****** and then he can set up the drive line.

 

Been on the road for the last few weeks and on my return I went up to the shop to see what progress had been made. Bruce has fabbed up mounts for the rear and, in a departure from traditional, made a set of spring pockets and installed small coil springs for the rear. Can't get a pic of it now but will when the body comes off for paint.
In the meantime he has ***embled the front end, fabbed up a set of headlight mounts and installed a set of stock shocks. Made a pan hard bar after that and has that connected. Looks like there will be a little interference with the lower grill so he is going to modify that a bit for final fit.



He is still messing with the grill height. I don't think he is satfisfied
with the way it looks. Appears to be running up hill but after you measure it against his 32 it seems correct.

He had to come up with a way to hold the trunk down so he stole some parts from a Chev truck and fabbed up a latching system with the use of a spring sunk into a piece of conduit to act as the popper. The release cable will protude from under the rear pan. Had to fab up a small shelf for the spring to seat against. It works real slick.

 

And while back in the trunk area he has started to make the panels for the upholstery. Car will be painted black so I don't know at the moment what he plans for the interior color. More on that later.