For months I went back and forth on what I was going to run for a motor. Early Olds or Caddy motor would have been nice. Small block Ford would have been nice. Then I saw this green 3W coupe at Ty-Rods. I had seen the car numerous shows before, but never heard it run, and never saw what was under the hood. But at Ty-Rods, the hood was open, and there was a 471 blown small block Chevy. Instantly brought me back to 1978 when building my first Deuce. Many of the parts ( and a lot of advice) came from Chick Brignolo (RIP) and he had 471 blown small block under the solid hood sides of his chopped full-fendered 3W. Killer car( can't find the picture of his car . And last was this other 3W that has been around for years( It's owner passed away not long after these pics were taken). So, needless to say, another "small block Chevy" it is. It's a 1962 327 that I have saved for a future project, and this seems like the perfect home. 471 blowers and manifolds are scarce as hen's teeth today, so once again I posted an ad in the HAMB wanted section, and in less than a week I had a reply and made the deal. So, the Rdstr will be powered by a blown small block, solid lifter Chevy, with a Muncie 4spd and 4.10 gears. And the best part is that it will all hidden under the 25 louver hood. View attachment 4187639
DAM, KILLER choice for the engine, 4 speed, and gears. And I'm a diehard ford fan. It should scoot along quite nicely.
This all worked well. (note the Turbo 350 was just for mock up purposes). Able to tie the wishbone mount to the Deuce Frame Co center cross member. Always liked the looks of the 36 wishbones, and will work perfect with the Model A rear spring/spacing.
Along with the cowl vent this hump for the stock windshield will also have to go. Fortunately for me, a good friend of mine, Jay Herbster, operates his restoration shop right next door to me. Jay is one of those guys that does amazing metal work and did 95% of the following modifications. I showed him pictures of the Doane Spencer Rdstr and told him I'd love to do the same to my cowl. "No problem" was his reply, so I'll post some pics of the transformation in the next few posts. To watch and help him with this project was great. Talented young man ,to say the least.
Lot of compound curves in this panel that are crucial to retaining the stock cowl lines and having it fit the Duval windshield perfectly.
Glad to see my 471 went to a great home! Can’t wait for more progress pics. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
And thank you again Jason. Looking forward to hearing the new motor run in the next few months. Stay tuned.
Once Jay got the panel in shape, he fusion welded it to the cowl. In order to get a nice dash transition into the doors, he cut the door tops and made the new tops so the dash line would flow into the doors.
Here is the corner piece being installed. There is also an inner piece that goes in toward the dash. Also note the inner pieces that continue the door jam up under the new dash and door to eliminate the open gap. Once his finished pick and filing the little imperfections, he leaded the top of the doors and dash. From here on in I just needed to give it a tight skim of filler and drill the rest of the mounting holes for the windshield.
A ton of work and a lot of hours, but well worth the effort. This will be the last Deuce Rdstr I build for myself, so it might as well build it exactly the way I have thought about for the last 30 years.
Looks good Baron. There are probably more than one way to go about this but that is definitely a project better left to a good metal man, looks like the guy knows what he's doing.
Couldn't agree more. If I did it ,I would have bent some tubing to give me the line I wanted and cut and welded sheet metal to the existing cowl and tubing, etc (much like the Doane Spencer car was done back in the day) . The finished project would have looked pretty much the same, but a lot more welding and bondo, and no where near the same quality of work. I've seen Jay make doors and various body panels for Ferrari's, Aston Martin's and Porsche's,etc, so doing a "little job" like this was pretty simple. Extremely talented craftsman. Normally he metal finishes every panel so no lead or filler is needed. I had to twist his arm on this to leave it as it was( close to perfect), lead it and I'd skim it with filler. We have been friends for years and 2 1/2 years ago I moved into the shop next door to his, so I have learned a lot about metal finishing and moving metal around. And just watching the stuff he has done has made me have more patience and a better fabricator( who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? ) I've also learned over the past 40 years that's best to let somebody else do what they do best, and you do what you do best. I am thrilled the way this came out, and a big thanks to Jay.
Cut and fit the floor boards and fabricated the trans tunnel. The floor boards bolt in the Brookeville body just like the originals did.
By drilling out the spot welds on the sides, I cut and raised the section of the trunk floor above the differential. This let me make templates for the kick up and with the inside pieces welded in place, will let me remove the body and finish the kick up and no have to worry about body to frame clearance. Made the rear panel to finish the trunk floor kick-up that can be removed for easy access to the Model A spring in case I need to add or remove spring leaves to dial in the ride height. Also made a couple of cutouts to give me room to run the tail pipes over the Model A cross-member and keep them out of site.
Had the seat temporarily covered so I could set the height of the seat, locate the pedals, steering wheel and shifter. Nothing worse then going through all this work and having a car that is not comfortable to drive , or your knee hits the steering wheel when you try to step on the brake or clutch. Or you have to reach for the shifter to get into the next gear. Making it as ergonomically correct as possible.
Let's buy a windshield frame and build a car around it. Great job and I would not change a thing. Frank
Here is how I completed the rear kick up on the frame and install the Model A rear cross-member at the same time. By tack welding the inside plates on while the body was on the chassis gave me the shape and height I needed without needing to put the body off and on a few times. Welded the outside plates on , than made the filler strips to cap them off. To weld the rear A cross-member in the correct position (and proper angle to prevent any binding) I installed the A rear spring ( less a few leaves) which located it perfectly. Once this was done, I flipped the frame over and cut out the "C sections" (should give me about 4 inches of axle tube clearance) than capped these off like I did on top. Wanted a nice flowing line from the bottom of the frame rail where it disappears up under the body. Still need to cut the body to follow the new cutout.
Awesome! Great roadster you have going! love the windshield, the cowl and door modifications, the 4-71, all just a great combination!
Back when I built my Deuce 5W back in the eighties, I used a 56F100 box in it . In order to clear the wishbone, I heated and bent the arm outward. Worked fine, but the turning radius on left hand turns was a lot less than right. While putting this chassis together, I did the same thing. Than I remembered the lack of sharp turns to the left. So I decided to move the front wishbone mts inboard about 4 inches. Now I can run a stock 56 pitman arm and turn almost equally sharp as to the right. And it gives the wishbones a better look, disappearing under the chassis. Sometimes we grow older and wiser.
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