Projects 1940 American Bantam Woody Convertible Build

Not necessarily a custom, and not really a hot rod; this project is barely on the cusp of the HAMB. Then again, it’s not really a project just yet- it’s a 28 year old’s dream and a growing pile of parts. The anticipated result is a 1940 Bantam Woody Convertible, a Sportsman; a sporty economical car- resplendent in nonchalant luxury. (I can't take credit for 'nonchalant luxury' that is how Bantam described their woody line when they introduced them to the world in 1938.)


The Bantam Hollywood, how it came to be:

Without delving too deep into Bantam facts and lore, here is the most important part of Bantam history besides that whole Jeep thing. Before the Bantam’s exit from civilian car production, Roy Evans, the president of the American Bantam Car company found himself in California. Driving a Bantam roadster around, he wished the car was a little more weatherproof. Seeking better side curtains, he asked around until he was recommended to the right man for the job. That man was Alex Tremulis. Rather than trying to seal the roadster, Tremulis pitched the idea of an all-weather cabriolet.

555_39Bantam-1 by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 1:58 AM

Evans took the idea hook, line, and sinker. He promised Tremulis a small allotment of money and provided him a standard Bantam coupe. Afraid of Evans changing his mind, Tremulis intuitively cut the roof off of the coupe so there was no going back. Sure enough, the president tried to change his mind, to only find the car beyond the point of return. With that, Tremulis set to work on what would become the Hollywood, the finest and least recognizable Bantam built. The visionary designer knew he was designing something on a shoe string budget, a halo economy car of sorts.

After taking a little off the top, reshaping the doors, and fashioning sections of a REO Royal into a bustle; the coupe was being transformed into a Hollywood. Capable hands made short work of the project and the car was a fully functioning convertible. The front sheet metal was standard Bantam issue and the rear was finished off with teardrop taillights, either 1939 Ford or Plymouth. In the end, it was part tasteful custom and part prototype.

With Evans satisfied with the way the car was turning out, Tremulis ended up with the prototype Hillmaster engine which was new for 1940. The engine boasted 3 main bearings and overall better performance, a whole 25 hp. The engine was a few leaps beyond the improved engine Harry Miller had created for Bantam when the company resumed production in 1937. As part of the deal to design the car, Tremulis had to deliver the car from his shop in California to the Bantam factory in Butler, Pennsylvania where he had earned a position as the in house designer.

Prototype1 by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 2:02 AM

Prototype Tremulis by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 2:02 AM

Prototype Museum Better by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 2:02 AM

6460914705_25203d9ea6_z by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 2:06 AM

The engine proved so stout that it made quick work of the trip while sipping fuel. Buzzing along in the 1200lb car, Tremulis found it to be remarkably agile for the economy car it was. Mixing speed and exhaustion, he rolled the one of a kind Hollywood over. Rolling it back onto its wheels, he continued on his trip, looking for a shop to take care of some scratched paint and damage to the top material.

Making it to Butler in record time, some changes were made to the smart little car’s design before putting it into production. In total, over 150 of the convertible coupes were built. Out of the 500 cars built for 1940, a large number of them were the redesigned Tremulis models. It’s unclear how many of these have actually survived, but they keep coming out of the wood work in various conditions.

Hollywood Front by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 2:02 AM

Red Hollywood by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 2:07 AM

Hollywood Rear by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 2:07 AM

Hollywood Rear 34 by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 2:07 AM

Why I’m telling the story:

About two years ago I gave into the dreams of ten year old me and began my hunt for an American Austin or Bantam. I fell hard for a 1933 Austin Roadster I found on craigslist one night, but missed out on buying it. Two years later, I finally had the chance to buy that, leading me to an unexpected trip to Boston where a HAMB’er let go of the car I lusted after.

33austin63121-1 by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 1:53 AM

However, in between finding the roadster, and finally buying it, I ended up buying a 3 main Hillmaster engine. Then craigslist lead me to a frame and a few other parts thousands of miles away. Getting those parts is a story in itself, but somehow, just having these Bantam parts was comforting. As time rolled along, I found myself with most of the parts to build a running Bantam frame.


The Bantam Sportsman:

Then, craigslist sent another sign, a heap of parts on the other end of the country including the remnants of a 1940 Bantam Convertible. That car was destroyed enough that a thought occurred to me, I could turn it into a Hollywood. By this point, I had missed out on buying at least three or four Hollywoods. However, never liking how 1940 Bantams look from the front, with their wide set headlights; I thought of the changes I could make. Inspiration struck, Bantam built some very handsome woodies so why not take a page out of the Ford play book. Then the idea hit me, I should build a convertible Bantam woodie, a Bantam Sportsman. I missed out on the lot, but tracked down the man who bought it, a man with a great sense of humor and an equally twisted mind when it comes to buying these things. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with the body, but assured me it was worse than garbage.

Woody by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 2:06 AM

In my Bantaming, I ended up meeting a fellow HAMB’er who is also in the Bantam club, Greginjax. If you haven’t read his thread, you must. Driving through Florida earlier this year, I stopped by and saw his cool roadster with the v8-60 nestled carefully under the hood. Seeing Greg’s penchant for perfection and improvement, I shared with him my idea and a rough sketch of what would be the Bantam Sportsman. Greg was immediately on board and encouraged me to pursue my dream. His perpetual encouragement and enjoyable conversations have helped keep this dream alive.

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The man with the Convertible I mentioned above came to an arrangement with me. Relatively soon that body will be working its way to the east coast, a place more fitting of its current rotted state. The man in with the Convertible has is also very encouraging, he must like the project, otherwise, I don’t know how he could have put up with my badgering over the past few months trying to figure out how to get it to NY. It's easy to also get lost in a good phone call with him. I realized, if the body made it to NY immediately after finding it, I would have missed out on a good friendship.

On a quick side note, there are a lot of people who have encouraged this idea as well as my other recent Bantam endeavors. I would mention them here, but many of them don't frequent the HAMB. Most of these people I found through the Austin Bantam Society and American Austin Bantam Club. Almost everyone in the club is very passionate about the cars, the club, and keeping the Bantam hobby going. So, thank you to all of the people willing to take the time to share their advice, wisdom, friendship, and most of all patience with me (you know who you are). Even if you don't have an Austin or a Bantam, it's worth joining the clubs if you're even remotely interested.

More pictures came of the Convertible and I thought I was doomed with most of its sheet metal devoured by Mother Nature. Luckily, a cut down car in Ohio found its way to me through ebay. A friend brought the car in and suddenly I realized I would actually have to start planning the project. This project will take place in the a small heated and air conditioned storage room I have secured for this endeavor, which only has a standard sized door frame leading into the generous space. Whatever I do, I will need it to enter and exit partially disassembled and sideways.

A1 by rg171352 posted Apr 2, 2015 at 2:02 AM

V__7B1C by rg171352 posted Apr 7, 2015 at 9:01 AM

Why this on the HAMB:


By now, you may be wondering ‘Why is this on the HAMB?’ This is a car that when finished will pay homage to a great designer who turned a whimsical car into an admirable cabriolet. This car will be a custom 1940 Bantam drawing some inspiration from Tremulis’ original Hollywood, the stylish Bantam Woodies, and those great Ford Convertible Woodies (or Chrysler if that’s the way you lean). Although most of the parts will be Bantam, a number of improvements will be made to the build quality and aesthetics. Further, the engine will be the kicker as there are a few choices. There is the original Hillmaster rated at 25 hp, a Brennan IMP (a marine engine based off of that Bantam engine) rated at 40hp, and there is a Pepco blower that would fit under that tiny hood [the pepco is no longer with us]. Whichever way I go with the engine, it won’t be exactly stock. The rest of the drive train isn’t quite safe from change either. The goal is to have a car that looks good and lives up to Tremulis’ recounting of an exuberant little car.


At some point after I fit the body into the storage area, I plan to begin mocking the body up in foam to get an idea of what it will look like in all of its glory. Once the design is finalized, I should be able to use the foam pieces as patterns for the creating the final wood parts.

Now that I’ve talked your ear off, I should actually start the build. Besides being a bit of customization, this will also be a restoration. Dealing with parts that have been unearthed from barns in the south, streams in the west, fields in Middle America, and garages of the east will require some refurbishing and consideration of the parts. Every installment may not the attention grabbing, but, check back, you never know where you’ll catch me!

 

Congratulations! I wish you nothing but success.

 

Thank you very much!

 

You've got my attention. I'll be following along. This sounds really interesting.

 

Thanks Saxman!

It's amazing how little there is to these cars. As these were light weight cars, and the designers supposedly made sure every piece added to the structural rigidity without adding too much weight. Removing some of the garnish beading and the roof took away a good deal of structure from this body. Even on resting on the frame, the body twisted a bit from transporting it with about 100 lbs of weight in the car. It's very hard to see, but the body is sagging enough that the doors neither door would latch, if there were latches.

From my research, factory built convertibles were reinforced with some sort of iron which ran from up the front frame mount to the A-pillar by the door hinges and a heavy cast piece following the B pillar around the wheelhouse. I'll need to see if I can get extract this reinforcing structure from the Convertible when it gets here. In the worst case, I'll have to fabricate some sort of other parts to keep this body straight; after it's been straightened. With this in mind, before the wood phase of the project can begin, I need to straighten this body and reinforce it will also be structurally strong.

After all of the thought and preparation that has gone into this build and the hard work that will eventually happen; I really don't want it to break in half.

 

I have a pair of '38 Bantam pickup front fenders you are welcome to. Rough but no rust. U haul. If you are interested contact me at V4GMR@yahoo.com for pictures.

 

Very cool, I like your ideas and direction. Jim Ford

 

Thanks for the offer Rich, I'll email you. Thank you Jim, I appreciate it.

 

After all of this build up, the project is finally beginning. I don't have many of the parts for the car in my workshop yet, especially the important bits. However, I do have the dashboard which I bought from another HAMB'er north of the border. (Thank you again Ron!)

I know starting a build with a dashboard is like putting new windshield wipers on a car with a broken windshield; but I need to start someplace. At first glance, the dash is very straight with only a few extra holes drilled into it. My plan was to take it apart quickly so I could strip it and repair the holes. Quick and easy is a thing right?

 

Nope! Quick and easy is not a thing. As I'm sure you are familiar, the best laid plans often go astray.

Like other cars of the era, Bantam coupes have a cowl vent that opens up in front of the dash. However, unlike other cars, the cowl vent is closer to the dash, basically amounting to a water scoop to make sure the gauges never overheat. Carefully spraying down the backside of all of the switches and the novel gauge retainers with pb blaster, I hoped that after a day there shouldn't be too much of an issue taking the dash down to a stamped piece of steel.

 

Well, I didn't use enough oil and everything was still rusted solid the next night. So I sprayed it all down again. Using a wrench and a vice grip, I managed to get the throttle pull and headlight switch apart.

 

Get a sketch drawn up of the project, I did with my '29 Steelback and it really helped get a clear picture in my head. Good luck with your build. Bob

 

Thanks Bob, Just curious, who did you get to do the sketch? My skills are fairly limited as you can see above. I can trace and elaborate... but that's about it.

 

I've never seen a light switch quite like this one, fortunately the mechanism still moves, so I have to hope it works. Since I will be using different knobs for this car, I will need to locate or make a new pull rod so I don't destroy this piece. Only the 1938 Bantam used these metal knobs, the rest used plastic.

Getting the bushing off the rusted shaft was a pain, however, carefully undoing the area where it was stretched out to retain the rod from pulling out of the switch and then out pulling it from the outer ledge helped free it. When it comes time to reassemble this, I can't forget where this little spring goes. (Between the ledge and the switch actuator.)



I was really making strides. Having the switch out, I was able to take the gauge retainer out from behind the gauge. I wanted to get the gauge out so I wouldn't cause any further damage to it. After trying to pull it out with my hands, it wouldn't budge. Then trying to pry it, it still wouldn't relent. Finally, I gave it a good soaking, hoping to separate it from the dash. Hopefully tonight there will be more progress.

 

The gauge relented! I've heard there is better than PB blaster, but after soaking all night it only took a little a little coaxing to get the gauge to ease out of the dash. Still left to do is to get the remnants of the choke pull out of the dash. I have a feeling a grinder will be involved.

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The next time I post, the dashboard will hopefully be blasted, filled, and painted in some way. There is a person at Hershey selling wood graining kits, I may take it to see if the rollers will work with the lips on this. Let's see how it goes.

 

How did I miss this thread? Will watch it now that I know that it is here. Great! BTW, look for a junk Morris Minor for the rear end and rear quarters. I knew that profile was familiar!

 

A HollyWoody! You've got the Tremulis family support!

 

Greg, I see what you are saying about that Morris Minor profile. I wonder where I could find one of those rear clips for what we had discussed.

Gyronaut, I appreciate the Tremulis family support! Does your family have any other pictures of Alex and the prototype Hollywood other than the few I've been able to find through google searching?

Also, in terms of progress, the dash is now entirely sand blasted and ready for welding. I also started the rebuild on the hydraulic shocks which I am hoping to upgrade the chassis with. Now I just have to find the time to finish these rebuilds too.

 

I have purchased a wood lathe and a set of old Craftsman lathe chisels. Since the body will be made of wood, I've decided that custom wood knobs would look good on the head light and choke pulls, as well as the shift lever.

After searching, I haven't found too much out there on the topic of turning wooden knobs for cars except for a couple of youtube videos:

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The shift knob will probably be my first endeavor, once I get the set up going, I'll post some photos. Also, I uploaded a photo of they style of knob I will be trying to emulate. If anyone has some suggestions, please feel free to post.

 

Thwarted in my first attempt at the shift knob. The hunk of wood I bought to practice on was about 30" too long to start. I decided to use my flea market band saw to cut off a 3" long piece to practice working. The lighting in this shop is terrible and I can't see what I'm doing. They make these saws with lamps to illuminate your work piece.

It may be time to invest in a better bench top band saw...

 

Hey, rgl71352.
I have a 2 main bearing Bantam engine that came out of a 39 Bantam Roadster, that was restored by a fellow named Leonard Davis out of Michigan back in the early 80s. We took it out many years ago and put in a 3 main bearing engine. My dad wanted the better 3 bearing engine in the car. It was a running, rebuilt engine with no issues and is mostly complete, less carb etc and has been in dry storage ever since.
I would like to sell it if you are interested.
Bill

 

Hi Bill, Thank you for your reply. I just sent you a PM.

 

So, I started with the worst part of the wood I had. As you can see I didn't get too far. Last night I assembled the new Skil Band Saw and am hoping for better luck. I was happy that it came with instructions on the appropriate gaps for all of the bearings and guides. I'll try my hand at this block some time after posting this.

 

After setting up the band saw, I realized it was far too late to fire it up lest I may wake up the people who live above my little shop. Wanting to keep working on the project, I spent some time with the gauge last night. The bezel is lightly crimped over the housing. Amazingly a few small crimps kept everything together through the last 70 years. A shocking thing for me, is that even though there is no gasket or tight seal between the bezel and the housing, the inside of the cluster where the individual gauges are mounted is in very nice shape. All of the needles move freely and there may be hope yet!

The channel that holds the lens in may prove the most problematic piece to remove and repair. Another HAMB'er and A/B'er helped me find the curved glass lenses I need to rebuild this cluster, and I'm working on getting the correct oil pressure gauge gauge for a 3 main engine. It couldn't hurt to have the 50 lb gauge with whatever engine ends up in this car.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what would be the best coating for the housing? I was considering seeing what the local plating shop would want to zinc plate the unit. Thoughts?

 

There was a little positive progress on the project, although nothing substantial. I finally set up the lathe. At first, I was determined to just take the edges off of a turning block. Next thing I knew, I was addicted to this machine trying to finagle out the exact shape I'm looking for in a shift knob. I figured a shift knob was the best place to start since its a nice big part. Once I have this shape squared away, I'll find a nicer piece of wood to remake the knob out of and then make matching dash knobs.

Slow progress...

 

There is a plating facility near me that charges by the bucketful. I think the last time I had a load done (a couple years ago) it was around $65 for a five gallon bucket for white zinc. Turned out looking like a new hardware store bolt. Kinda shiney silver. I have had a dozen or so gauge housings done with this and it works great. Make sure to blast ALL the paint, rust, and old plating off first though.

 

Alchemy, thank you very much for the advice. I'll have to see what other parts I'll want plated at the same time. So far, it's just this one piece. I'm supposed to send some photos to the plater, but I'm hoping to clean it up a bit before doing so.

 

I'm sure there are many details to this build that can be skipped. However, I know that as soon as I skip one; it wont be difficult to skip many. Today I began turning a piece of wood to experiment with the shape I would like for the headlight and choke knobs. I will post a few photos later today.

As I had stated above, I have been practicing turning wood on much cheaper Poplar from Lowes. It was never my intention to use poplar in the final product and I've been doing a lot of research into ornate wood which would look good in the cockpit of the sportsman. The wood I had set my mind upon is cocobolo, a rosewood like piece of lumber. However, in researching the wood in trying to find worked examples of it; I learned it and many other woods are very toxic to people. I knew saw dust isn't the greatest, but I had NO idea the extent to which wood working can harm a person. Cocobolo is apparently a sensitizer, which can cause worse reactions to it everytime you are exposed to it. Working the wood seems to pose the most hazards to people as the dust can irritate your lungs, exposed skin, eyes, etc. Just touching the wood doesn't seem to cause the same levels of irritation, if any at all.

I'm rethinking my wood choice, or rethinking how I will work with it. Does anyone have any good suggestions for workable wood?

 

First attempt at choke and headlight dash knobs and what I am choosing not to use:

 

After tweaking the knobs and making a second style pull knob, I wanted to post my current results to see what your thoughts are. On the shifter knob, I like the size and shape, but I'm wondering if I should taper the profile of the part of the knob where it threads onto the lever? I'm not a huge fan of the large step in diameter between the two profiles.

On the pull knobs, I made a second knob with ribbed edges and concentric circles on the face. The knob with the penciled on lines would be engraved rather than drawn on, and is more like the correct Bantam style knob. What are your thoughts? I have one vote for the ribbed knob, but with a smooth convex face.

Feel free to chime in, I'm planning to order that fancy wood tomorrow, unless I am swayed otherwise. Also, I uploaded a few photos of the wood I am thinking of using for the final knobs.