Projects 1930 Oliver Roadster Build

that side bead is almost the same as a '28 chevy roadster. think hugh tucker

 

Got the covid round 2...or a cold, still not sure I believe the test, my wife got sick too but she tested negative everyday... anyway, birthday party for me tonight (day early) and figured I would try her on and make some vroom vroom noises....Hey! My wife even fits!

 

she is cute from her hair to her toes.

 

Yeah, shes a special lady! Just started doing pinup contests at car shows this last year too! Im a blessed man

 

i have always believed that beauty should be noted .

 

Well I did some measuring and I determined 2 things....1st, firewall to fan tips my lincoln 337 is 29 inches long and I have 32 inches of room for it in the roadster! So thats great! And 2nd....the back half of this thing is wonky as hell, the drivers rear quarter is just in the wrong spot and I created too much tension by narrowing the seat back as much as I did....so I took out a sawzall and...snip snip.... I will be starting with more new structure and lots of measuring and get this thing sorted out so it will be pretty in the end!

 

Well....I cut the drivers rear quarter off. It was about a half inch north of where it needed to be and an inch west, got it tacked back on in place. Some sub frame in, will get some floors made and some permanent structure to get this floppy body secured. It had to be done! Ive known for a while that it would come to this and I definitely was putting it off...

 

Little side mission today, dissassembled door latch and fitted some random handle to it. Grinding, filing, sanding, wire wheeling and cursing later and I have a functioning door handle! It has been one of those little annoying things that slows me down every time I need to open it. At some point I will have to address the nightmare on the drivers side.

 

If anyone has a handle that matches that you can part with give me a holler! I thought I had 2 but it appears I was wrong

 

Hey, Oliver;
Eons ago, when I did my '32 5w, I didn't have the oem handles - inside or outside. Since it was a severe-low-budget-build, what I found to work well, was to use acvw inside handles, both the door latch & window(from a karman ghia circa 64 ,almost a perfect fit on the square shafts, & they look good, too). On the outside, I used the locking-handle version of a generic aluminum-pu-topper latch handle. The square-shaft was also almost a perfect fit into the latch. The mounting holes were slightly different, so I just made a thin adapter to allow the machine screws to angle in easily. No cross thread issues. If I hadn't wanted to *not* alter either the pristine doors or the chromed handle-base, it'd been easier. Both were inexpensive, looked period.
Which look similar to your handle.
FWIW.
Marcus...

 

Good idea! Thanks! I found a few on fleabay that match but theyre around 50-80 each. Im sure at some point I will get a nice matching set as this is going to be a bodyworked and painted car but i figured maybe someone has a junky one layong around til then. I wouldve given the one Im using away before I found a use for it! I will look into the volkswagon handles

 

Oliver;
Hope you can find a match.
Early acvw stuff is getting spendy, but if you're lucky... . The early handles used nice small white tapered knobs, not the ugly clunky black discs later ones used.
Those latch handles worked surprisingly good. & were very cheap, like ~ $10 usd, maybe...
You could also look at the-repop modelA outside handles = almost perfect copies of each other. ModelA being a whole lot more expensive, & since you're modding the sheetmetal anyways, <shrug>.
Marcus...

 

I might go with these...i kind of dig em

 

Same idea, using what you can find, not necessarily an auto part. Lots of old auto parts were adapted &/or repopped for commercial industry applications, & sometimes became much cheaper...
Marcus...

 

Well i bought a trailer load of rusty old stuff (mostly model a) for scrap prices and this crusty old tank was on it...trailer was last touched in 1982 so odds are its off of an old rod! It just happens to be exactly the right size for the trunk of the roadster and capacity will allow some long road trips! Knocked the crusty junk off and started spray bombing it, heavy walled. Pretty solid old tank

 

Little by little...

 

The 49 lincoln trunk lid was calling to me, i dig the inner structure as well as the ridge down the middle. Will have a bit of clean up and massaging to do before its a trunk lid but I think its on the right track. Also replaced an earlier patch I did with a better one, the previous patch didnt have enough contour and was causing a buckle. Definitely little by little. Have a cpl options for hinges(49 linc and some exterior hinges off of a humpback) I think it will end up with a really neat look! Slowly looking more and more like a car and my vision

 

(Other side of the inner structure and the 49 linc hinges)

 

Little more sub frame, beginnings of rear floors, gotta get some more weld through primer tomorrow and clean up the insides of the quarters before I put the floors in permanent. Also want a good coat of weld through on all the sub frame so rust doesnt start next week. After rear floors go in I can add some quarter supports that should really tighten this thing up. Not gonna be any wood in it so it needs a lot of structure added

 

Funny thing is....once I get the body sort of put together....I will be at the point many of you start your builds at! Once its a car, I have to tear the whole damn thing apart and start makin it nice hahaha the things you do for love

 

Ooooh I think the 49 lincoln trunk treatment might just work!
Will need some trimming and fitting but I really dig the look! Also tried a low headlight mount. I dig it, not sure I am sold yet but used an existing hole and a bolt so no harm no foul. Headlights are chevy, I dig the big chrome. I dont want too much chevy on it but they do look good on there

 

some states have height requirements.

 

Good tip! Oregon has many laws this roadster violates. Cops dont tend to enforce em though, I will likely chance it. The stands came off another oregon rod anyway

 

Knocked some rust off and sprayed some primer on. If I find time tomorrow, Ill do the other side and perhaps even get the rear floor in!

 

Started off today by knocking the crusties off the pass side. Got it sprayed in red oxide and then tackled the floor The floor is primered on the underside; once I got the floor spot welded in, I added two rear quarter supports. Pretty amazing to have a semi solid car to work with! More supports are in order and more floor but pretty big steps today! Also mocked the trunk and tires back up as well as raised the rear to where I think itll sit... it will get shorter front tires as well
Might have too much windshield still as well...I can see through the gap well but the overall profile with the car seems a touch tall

 

Little more floor seat back supports

Getting stronger and stronger!

 

Tackled drivers door today...since it got run over or stomped on or something, I had to cut some of the sheet metal off to release some of the tension holding it out of shape. Then welded up a bunch of cracks in the structure. Then I fitted it with what I think is a gm door latch, seems to work fine!

 

Tackled the dash this evening. Yes, as others have astutely and rudely pointed out, I have A.D.D. and I work all over the place. Oh well. I make it work. I have had a plan in my head for this dash since I first saw the front half of the 25 dodge touring tub in the wrecking yard. So much so that I went and purchased guages immediately for it. Tonight I started that plan into effect! I am going to cut out the entire center section and replace it with a custom 18 guage panel blended to look stock
The first thing I did was stencil the existing dash shape onto my piece of steel. Then I cut it out.
After that I measured and marked and erased and measured some more until I had my guage location in the exact right spot and then I drew on and with the bead roller, stepped my guage panel
Next I am going to cut out the holes for the guages, ignition and toggles

 

Speedo...aint she purdy?