Projects Building a Traditional 32 Roadster Beater

Sam, I appreciate all the info and feedback ... keep it coming!

I don't blame you for keeping the grill and shell.... they looked awesome. I do have a gennie grill with the perfect amount of patina to use on this build. Thanks for leaving the near perfect early firewall... I guess I would have kept it with the grill if I was selling the car

I love the car. The ch***is and components is absolutely perfect for what I am trying to do. Trying to chase down all the gennie parts one at a time would be difficult to do. Buying all new stuff just wouldn't be the look I was after.

I like the term 'beater'. All my cars are 'drivers', and are in the barn dirty as hell. This deuce will have the wheels driven off it and probably will be my main transportation during the car season here to 'beat' around town.

Doug

 

I love this project and I am definitely partial to drivers .....

 

Very cool

 

Ok.... finally made it out into the shop again. While waiting for my front end parts, I decided to make the x-member behind the seat. I looked at several threads here on how others did theirs, I combined some of these ideas into my design. I knew I wanted the battery in the truck to save the room behind the seat. I attached the battery tray to the rear of it.

This roadster body does not have the metal package tray, which I really didn't want. I prefer the leg room. The best solution I could come up with to attach the X-member to the body was to bolt it to the rear deck structure and the floor. Now, the x-member can be removed..... which works well for painting the interior.

The difficult part was getting the flat stock that will support the side panels symmetrical, fairly flat from top to bottom, and proper placement from body. Hopefully this will help when the interior is done.

 

In my opinion how you make your ride unique from all the other builds is a difficult but fun task. I have looked at lots of traditional builds and I love what guys did to them to make them their own. Part of this journey for me is picking out the taillights, a**** other things. I had a criteria for the taillights ....

1. Something from the 30's - 40's
2. Something that is not available as a re-pop
3. Something that is somewhat unique and looks good

I decided on the 35 Pontiac. A very cool looking teardrop, just bit fatter than a 39 Ford taillight. A little difficult to find cheaply.....

I have been staring at the tail pan for some months. At some point in time you have to tell yourself ..."just do it".... so I measure at least 1000 times and cut once. After trying to figure out the best way to make a bucket, I realized I had a pair of 39 buckets laying around that worked well with a slight modification. Here is the result.

 

Nope. Gray Baskerville.

 

Stroker said, "Street is Neat." Then, "East is Neat." (after the Peoria NATS)
Someone then did license plate frames with "West is Best."

@ FlatJan: Love to accommodate you, but that arm is still attached to that early ******, which is attached to my '27 Hiboy tub, behind the .040" over '47 Merc flattie that Deuce Moretti gave me!
I could use the money...

 

@FalconMan
Beater you say!
Getting harder and harder to "individualize" a deuce roadster, but those taillites are extremely cool. One thing that always catches my eye is when a guy puts (any model) taillite points in line with the gas tank stamping, to me it just looks better.
The work you did on the X/bulkhead turned out nice also.
Gonna be a pretty neat beater, I don't care who says it.

 

Nice work, great car.
Tail lights look perfect.

 

Thanks for the complements. Yes, "individualizing" a roadster is pretty much impossible these days with as many cars out there. I just don't want to do the "cookie cutter" thing where possible. It was not intentional to line up the lights with the stampings, but now that you mention it I like it. I looked at a lot of cars... some were all the way out, some were inward quite a bit. I placed them on the back to where I liked them and moved them to the closest inch increment... which turned out to be 5 inches ....

 

So, are you saying the 35 Pontiac housings/bezels are not being reproduced, that's a shame because they are some of the coolest taillites I've ever seen. I would even consider replacing my roadsters' 39 Ford taillites with those, and I bet others would also.
The (red) lense is all one piece correct, I can't quite tell by the photo.
I can't believe that I've never seen those before, I guess I've never payed much attention to 1935 Pontiacs before. I also bet you were reluctant to say what they are, now there will be a bunch of (us) using them.
So much for breaking out of the mold huh!
Doug also.

 

x2

 

I've got a set of '35 pontiac tailights stashed away for one of my builds. They're kinda hard to come across and alotta time the stamped bezel is full of cracks. I've read folks have used '39 ford buckets but it's nice to see it actually fleshed out. Keep up the good work, it's really coming along nicely. JohnnyA

 

Cool build!!

 

I'll trade you something for them.
What ya looking for, anything I might have ?

 

Really dig the direction this build is headed, the Pontiac lights are a great addition.
Looking forward to seeing more.

 

The 35 Pontiac lights look great. I sold my 35 Pontiac last year , I looked for lights that were nice for a long time . Finally had to make a bucket for the right side and ended up with some nos chrome bezels and made a lense to sort of match. I should still have at least one bezel. That car was a 55000 mile orig.

 

Doug, as far as I know they are not reproduced. I googled the piss out of them when I bought the ones I have. The lens is a one piece gl***. They typically go for $100+ each. I have never seen them on another car, but I am sure I am not the first to do so..... and perhaps not the last now ....

Here is the comparison to the 39 taillight.... the Pontiac looks much better ....

 

KOOL TAIL LIGHTS

 

Those '35 Pontiac tali lights are really a great choice.
Wonder how it would look with those '35 Pontiac taillights turned upside down
to give a more ' tear drop" look ?

 

Looking good!!!

 

Could someone please photoshop my car with the 35 Pontiac taillites.
With teardrop both up and down, preciate it.

 

Here they are upside down for comparision .... not sure if I like it though ...

 

.... sideways maybe ?? Yeah I can shut up too. So no worries there. Sure you already sidewayed, up/downed and everything already. What's it look like though ??

 

The right side up; original orientation looks the BEST, don't over think it.

 

now that you show em' both ways, definitely right the first time

 

There's been a few folks out there that have used em. I first saw em on the black 3 window coupe and had to find a pair.
Got lucky and found one at the local swap for $10....the guy simply asked what it was off of before he took my money. The second one was found here in the cl***ifieds for a $100 bill. JohnnyA

 

Here you go...





Glen.

 

can someone tell me what is attached to the front backing plate on this car?
tom

 

You guys are the best, thanks Glen.
Point down is the only way to mount them if you ask me.
Portland Swap Meet here I come!