Projects Back from the dead… and better than ever - Model A roadster build

Its funny, people ask me if I miss the T, but to tell the truth I don't feel at all sad about taking it apart. I achieved all the personal goals that I set out to accomplish with it, and I felt that it no longer reflected the quality of work that I'm capable of doing nowdays (its pretty rough). Building and driving that car was a great journey though.

 

Back on all 4’s. Man my shop is a disaster
Next up, Ill get the engine set in so I can get my pedals and steering figured out.

 

Glad I found this thread, maybe you should put a link for this thread in the Romeo/Juliet thread,
Looking good.

 

Thanks for the reminder! I told myself I would link to this new thread months ago and completely forgot…

 

Nicely done... and even cooler than the "T"!

 

Looking good! Couple questions, what did you use ton paint the chassis and what are you going to do for rubber mounting the trans? Sounded like you had a plan for later?

 

Your doing great, I love it.


And THANK YOU for posting here as I don't do Instagram.

 

I used Rustoleum black farm and implement paint and rolled it on with a small roller. It really surprised me how well it evened out. As for the transmission, thats a great question lol. I sorta have a plan but I’m still not 100% certain. Ill end up machining bushings of some sort more than likely

 

That Rust-Oleum works great for frames... last a long time too. I've found that if the paint is a little warm it flows out like glass!

 

You can warm the enamel paint on a hot plate till it starts to turn not boil and then spray it. The gun will make a different sound and you will see some cobwebs floating around, 2 coats is all it takes . Remember the heat is to change the viscosity of paint just like thinner and reducer.

 

Pulled my engine and trans out of the T tonight and installed it *twice* in the frame. The first time I realized my old torque tube was just a hair too long and the engine wouldnt sit as far back as it needed. Dropped the rear end out and then set the engine back in. For my transmission mounts, i whipped up some small steel pads on the lathe as a temporary remedy until I can make a proper bushing.

 

I like where this is heading, looking good.

 

Question on the bike. That's a crazy small front sprocket. What is the function of the bike?

 

climbing a rope perhaps?

 

Ramp bike?

 

Its just a BMX bike! The standard sprocket sizes for the modern bikes are 25 tooth front/ 9 tooth rear. Makes it nice for riding bowls and generally being out of the way. Gone are the days of those massive saw blade sprockets lol

 

Back on topic. Started getting my pedal location figured out.

 

Bicycle talk-ish: A crew of Amish guys just replaced my roof and siding. I’ve spent a lot of time talking with them. I called one of the guys dude. He got really upset. In Amish slang a dude is a guy who smells girl’s bicycle seats. Weird.

 

The last few weeks have been pretty packed for me between my house build and having family in town but I was able to spend some time in the shop last night.
Took some scrap rectangle tube and cut out my pedal mount and got it tacked in.


With the engine mounted up higher than it was in my T, my brake pedal was interfering with the clutch linkage so had to do some pie cutting to get it fitting right again. Ill have the neighbor tig weld it all back together.

 

My favorite shop helper

 

Took my torque tube and driveshaft off to get the rear end re-installed so I can measure the new tube and driveshaft length. Ive always been a vanilla 32 shell guy, but Im really liking the 28 shell.

 

Looks great from here!

 

Time to get the torque tube shortened.


That was a lot of work just to make it 3/16” shorter! Next up I’ll start on the rear wishbones. They need some love too.

 

@Texas36 I'm enjoying watching your progress.

 

The past few weeks I haven’t had a whole lot of free time and the things I was working on weren’t very picture worthy, but today I finished up a really cool project that I’m pretty darn proud of.
For my steering box, I decided to make a new flange for it rather than drill the holes for the old pattern. It would have worked but its another shoddy item from my old car that I wouldn't be fully content with.
First, I drew up my patterns in AutoCAD and printed 1:1 scale templates to use. The final product differs a bit from the original template but the important dimensions stayed the same.



Next it was time to start cutting some metal


The inner flange is 1/2” steel plate and the outer is aluminum. The slots allow me to adjust the angle of the box/column to get it set perfectly. I went over the aluminum flange with a needle gun to give it a cast look and I think it turned out awesome!

 

Now I need to get my 4 jaw chuck swapped over to the lathe and get the steering box turned down!

 

I really like your build.

 

Tying up a loose end tonight. Machined the splines out of this new driveshaft coupler and got my driveshaft length sorted.

 

Lookin good, love the backing plates!

 

Subscribed to this one, for sure!