Featured Hot Rods Building my first roadster in Kansas City

“The story teller”

A playful nod to @J.Ukrop I've decided to start a thread on this build.

I’ve had a little t roadster bouncing around in my head that I’ve always reasoned myself out of for about 23 years. For a long while every October was the time of year I fixated on it.

But it always came back to too small, too low, too loud too impractical. A couple rides in @BigJoeArt roadster and the resistance really started to falter.

But let’s rewind a little and get everyone to were we are at current.

This all started by “building a hot rod” with my son… who was three at the time. I thought I had enough random parts in the garage to mock something up so away we went

and then slowly some of those mock up parts turned into real parts

A g code olds with six carbs that went away to become Simon Gluckmans new monster motor, the 4 banger out of the A sat between the rails for a moment while a Stude went into the A, and now it’s got a Chevy.

Anyhow, after talking and parts starting to filter in from friends we settled on a 32-4 Chevy coupe would be within budget. A 4 carbed Chevy, heavy channel, mild chop, cycle fenders. Lots of old chrome. Something between how those Australian guys do it and the attitude of the late 90’s shifters cc cars.

I could see it down to the paint code and over the few years we had an enough left over body parts to scab a coupe body together. Years of day dreaming were coming to a head.

And then, disaster. My good friend Jimmy dies.

Weeks later and the coupe is just… gone. It’s a hard thing to explain to anyone outside of building hot rods. But you know how a car will just kinda tell you what it wants sometimes?

It’s like that, but the car was just completely gone. I couldn’t day dream drive it home. I couldn’t close my eyes and see the bits and pieces.

Eventually a spark showed and the T came back. It’s impractical, but I’ve got other cars. I’ve wanted it forever and after I have it I don’t necessarily need to keep it. It’s just time.

So while there are a bevy of T on 32 rail threads I’ve followed and loved this one going to be a little bit different than them. Largely inspired by the Phil Weiand roadster.

I’m changing a few things from the parts list to what I really want instead of what I could get, and including more things off the shelf. All of them with little stories about how I got them, who they came from, what they lived on before. Lots of stories.


So as it sits the list looks like this.

Real 32 rails from either a dirt track car that didn’t see a lot of duty or a Z’d on both ends hot rod that saw a lot of rowdy which is more what I believe it really was.

Model A front and rear cross members.

1960 283, speed gems adapter, merc pressure plate 39 ridge case trans with 46 guts, to a 41-2 banjo hung by a T spring.

40-8 16x4 and 16x4.5 wheels with beat caps and rings.

got a line in enough 46 ford steering box guts to make another working one, and some spindles to roll it around. Some decent 46-8 rear brakes that I think I can make fronts if I can find hubs and drums.

There’s more but that’s a good start.


Oh, and did I mention im going to build this 26-7 roadster body from skratch?

stay tuned

~additional inspiration photos, book photos are from one of JimmyB’s more recent publications if you havnt got anyone of them do yourself a favor and snag one or four

 

How are you fixed for a front wishbone? I can help you there.

 

Hey @osage orange I've got a set of flaking chrome split bones that need some love for it that you can just barely see in some photos set aside for it. I’ll try to get a photo of them later today

 

watching from the rafters....this should be cool

 

I dig it. Finish the A! Lol.

 

Roadsters are actually very practical....

-Abone.

 

I’m going to go along for the ride. Should be killer…

 

@05snopro440 tell me about it lol.

I kind have a different kind of “project” in each stall. The 46 I’ve been driving for 13 years so it’s typically maintenance, fix it, up grade but generally just try to keep it on the road. The A is a lot of fabrication and is actually very close to blowing it apart to finish it. It’s a very involved car with a lot of little details. Then you get to this one. This has always been an excuse to look for something at a swap meet, horse trade with some one for something and lean it all together and make hot rod noises.

So when I chase an ignition problem for four months on the 46 and it’s now fixed and looks exactly the same, I can vice grip some head lights to the roadster and lean back thinking “shit that’s cool!”

I tend to just focus on one and let the other play in the back ground but when the next step on the A requires saving up some money, or waiting on a part I can use my garage time on the roadster that’s largely just time investment.

It’s all kind of an excuse to get out in the garage and not think about everything else really.

That being said the roadster will be pretty stripped down and simple, boarding on under powered race car I want it to be nice but very simple. Not a lot of “figuring it out” chassis wise.

This coming week I’m scheduling some time to head to a friends garage and spend a hour or two measuring and making templates off his original roadster. I can make my buck from cardboard and test it with poster board or paper before I sink some money into some nice wood to make the real buck from off that cardboard.

I’ve been going through the car one area at a time working out how to shape/ form that certain piece for a couple days. Thinking about it from multiple directions and just really getting a good feel for it. I’m even considering making a 1/5 scale body in metal to find any “blind spots”

it’s an adventure I’m really looking forward to. I love metal shaping, I have a strong back ground in flat patterning and working with shape. Gonna make some scrap for sure, but the learning curve of metal shaping is something I really find rewarding.

I figure by the time I have the A finished and painted this roadster will be right on its heels.

Anyhow, enough ramble for now. Here’s a T roadster picture.

 

Go Man Go !

 

@Tim Subscribed, and one of these days I need to meet you and have a garage tour.

 

@osage orange this is what I’ve got for the front wishbone situation. this sides pretty decent the other not so much. I’m thinking I might clean them and try some polishing or some experiments with spray chrome on the empty spots. I’ve seen some rattle can chrome that looked a bit like nickle plate or old crummy chrome once it got dirty. Not really sure what my plan is. Maybe I’ll paint the bad spots white who knows

in a little story telling tangent, these particular king bees came off a friends car that was in a shed when a massive tornado came threw a bunch of years ago, it was on the ground for over an hour! Anyhow the shed came down and did some damage and I ended up with the lights.

the drilled lever shocks were on Jimmy’s Chevy with the big gmc engine before he ended up swapping over to some nice cast friction shocks.

 

@Ebbsspeed for sure! I’m always around man probably walked right past each other more than once

 

I'll be following along on your build. Looks to be quite interesting and a lot of fun. The Phil Weiand roadster is a real beauty.

 

@quickchangeV8 yeah it always stops me when I catch a glimpse. I wonder if there are any photos of the front? I almost always see the drivers side. @Jimmy B i figure if anyone’s got some reference it would be you!

I can see a 32 grill, an cancel hanging out front and some kinmount brakes but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a front photo of it, maybe I have when it was tearing around a track? I’ll have to go looking now

 

A t roadster is on my list myself. Not in my top five but definitely a close runner-up

 

@Tim you mentioned t roadster in another post, but I had no idea. This one should be great.
I dig the coupe and now get to follow along with this build.
I will mention something though.

Ask writers and they will almost all say a short story is harder than a novel. A simple car isn't as complex, but the crafting is just as important, if not more so.

 

Exactly! Heavy on the craft aspect you nailed it

 

Those bones look just fine. I couldn't add any better. I' m excited for you. I can't wait to see your Model A rolling down the road, too.

 

Go Tim Go!

 

Cool Tim! I’m following!

 

Love T roadsters and this looks like it will be awesome! Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

 

I definitely get you. Having a few to tinker with at various levels plus some projects to scratch the creative itch is necessary for me.

Inevitably, one of them needs to think about what it's done or wait for parts and in the meantime I can enjoy and/or tinker on something else.

I envy building the body from scratch. I don't think I'll ever get there in my ambition or skills, but I'm excited to follow along.

 

Keep the story going! Here’s some inspiration.

 

Oh boy! I have had the same fixation, so I surely have to follow this.

 

@A Boner Erics roadster is phenomenal! I actually drove the three plus hours to the Roc ( that’s where that photo was taken) to see the car in person. It was 100% of the reason I went and he was incredibly nice as I took dozens of photos and asked him all about the car.

I actually think his car is the reason I was looking for some love joy shocks in the first place lol.

@J.Ukrop thanks man! I think the lives parts and cars have lived before they got to me always makes me curious.

The tornado that I referred to was on the ground for over an hour and did incredible damage. I was at work as we watched its path wondering if we were going to be in danger as well when it finally reached the NASCAR track and it disappeared.

It left one friends property with out even a single blade of grass left. Those things are terrifying.

 

Wow. That's sweet!

Edit: searched and realized/remembered that it's Eric Black's car, no wonder it's so sweet.

 

That tornado sounds terrifying indeed. We get the odd one up here but usually not quite the same magnitude of destruction.

 

Yeah I think the trail it left was something like 45 miles long?

here’s some photos of Eric’s roadster. Check that exhaust just visible between the frame and radius rod the front end has a lot to find spring behind, shocks working off the wishbone and did you notice the brake hard lines for the front end? Sneaky sneaky.

I take a lot of photos so I can look back on them when I get home and see everything I may have missed or now have a question on.

little tow tabs added when they decided on a different grill and the width change made the end of the frame look out place. nope I wasn’t excited at all.

 

Very cool.

Looking forward to seeing it come together.