Featured Hot Rods Building my first roadster in Kansas City

I think standard trucks have two stars this is my buddy Chris’s big red truck Clifford.

Brians dash is phenomenal! He built that dash and had the entire thing chromed and then painted it leaving the stars and edge bead chromed and exposed. Dudes a genius

 

I didn't know that about having two stars as mine has the hole where the right-hand star is and it's the only one I'd ever seen.

 

I think there are several different inserts for these dashes. I’m not into them enough to know which came on which. Or if maybe it’s a year to year thing. I’ve also seen some with ribs instead of stars.

 

yes, you could have 'two blue stars' .....

instead of tube type....

 

Dunno if you saw it but on marketplace theres a t style cowl super cheap. It may actually be a Dodge but would still be a good start on a fabricated body. They have it listed as for a t

 

In progress of making some legible drawings for reference. Some great hambers have reached out with cars for me to continue measuring and comparing to. I’m going to try to line some visits up in the coming month or so.

making some templates off my buddies roadster here in then next 2 to 12 days. Anyhow here are two of the half dozen drawings I’m working on dialing in getting closer! Really looking forward to making the small scale body. Been doing some refreshing and test shapes in my non existent spare time but putting them all together for one project is sounding enticing.

 

I know this is a budget build, so here I go spending YOUR money! 12 bucks.
https://www.homedepot.com/pep/QEP-6...nal-Profile-and-Contour-Gauge-10038/311091558

That and drawing various diameter circles on sheets of paper to compare will give you some good data.

 

@RodStRace ive been wondering if those existed! Thanks man good tip

 

"Nearly all the beads are gone..." Is that a song by The Mamas and the Papas ?

 

I have one of the $11.97 ones that I've had for over 50 years. I seldom use it but when I need it it sure comes in handy.

 

Digging through photos of belly pans and stopped to scribble out the jist of how I’m thinking about bracing this thing and the sub rails. Nothing is to scale I just made it all sorta 3x1 box tube to make it easier to get out of my head quickly.

I put the vertical in the wheel well to imulate a quarter brace you’d see on an A coupe, and I’m still thinking about a horizontal section from the b pillar to the curved back sections.

Green marks are holes for a steering column support, door hinges, door latch and shoulder belts. Red is obviously a generalized body outline. Didn’t mark it but this also allows beef for mounting hanging pedals.

I think the trunk will get an additional cross brace across the top of the side rails. The 32 frame rails kick up inside the flat subrails into the trunk space a little. I’ve seen some brackets reaching from the subrail to the frame rail, and I’ve seen the rear frame horns redirected to land under the tail of the body again to support it. But I think I like the idea of leaving the bobbed horns and running a full cross piece over the rails. I’m fine with 18” or so of body cantilevered off the back of the frame. It’s that way on basically ever stock one or T on A rails. I don’t see any reason to over think it.

As far as how this all would attach to the skin of the body I haven’t really figured it out yet. I’m leaning towards plug welds, some in the flat areas and some the panels will have a bolted together flange that could be bolted to or welded to the structure. I think I’ll gather some ideas and then when I’ve got it in front of me do what makes the most since.

edit: I’m aware of no floor cross pieces. It’s because at the moment I’m planning to have the floor at the bottom of the frame. Effectly making the frame rails a sandwiched bolted on part of the body. This also checks some boxes on belly pan visuals. I’m also not opposing some cross pieces for the body maybe around the A pillars. It could drop down into the floor or be in a section that’s under my knees.

I noticed the Mumford track T located the trans cross member basically under the drivers knees with the seat pan dropped way down

 

You might find this page and illustrations interesting.
https://fordwood.com/roadsters1913-27.htm

 

That’s a good link, I spent a fair amount of time last night flipping threw a Snyder’s T catalog looking at the diagrams and illustrations like those.

 

This may be poor advise, but it should be fairly cheap if you use wood. How many supports can double as bucks?
The door openings for sure. A cowl loop probably.

 

Ya know you probably could with out much trouble but every roadster I’ve ever ridden in either had a full cage or I thought “shit I wish this was a little beefier” but there really isn’t really any room to play in one of these so my current thinking is basically replace the wood and stamped inner structures from the stock version and replace it with stronger pieces.

I also love the behind the cockpit roll bars like those shown in a lot of my references. I didn’t show any of those ideas in the “sketch” but they will be thought out and planned before I start anything.

 

True, but it's easier to carve out a curved door opening to the shape, get the sheetmetal to fit, then shape the metal replacement to match. Just tossing out ideas.

I'm no woodworker so it's not simple for me, but I've read about building a simple car by placing the major components on the floor, then mocking up a basic frame out of 2x4s before cutting the metal.
It's an additional step, but proof of concept and changes are not in the final frame.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...gster-marty-strode-chris-kopp.1313966/page-13

 

Boy you move fast. Sorry for the delay.





It's 7" exactly in the center and 7.375" at the edges following the profile. There is a lot more shape at the edges compared to the center.

 

Really poor picture but my stash of T decklids is coated in years of dust. You should probably come up for Back to the 50's and pull thorough patterns and measurements or better yet just throw the stuff in your trunk and drive away.

 

Tempting!

for now I’m saving up some gas money and gonna go see Atch and grab a few bits and pieces.

I snuck in an hour, maybe hour and a half this week to go start taking more deck measurements and start making templates. Did a fair amount of laying a straight edge on the car, opening the doors and trunk to look at the edges and inside. And just laying poster board over shapes to see what’s really going on.


Feeling encouraged. I’ll share a few pics of that later on. But I think I’m on target for making the small body this summer still

 

Went to our, once a month, east mountain cars and coffee
This is an old build and has a 265 under the hood

 

It is a favorite of mine

 

That's a pretty dad gummed (© 3W Larry) sweet ride.

 

I don't know about earlier ones, but a '31 Model A has a bead on each side of the trunk lid.

 

Well I had to go back and take another look! Almost looks like it’s not there doesn’t it! Looks like the earlier A’s have a bead that’s much smaller, closer to the T strip used in the vertical seam on the back of a same year sedan.

Now I’m curious if it isn’t a T strip on the 28/9 like it is in the 26/7. Also would explain why I thought I’d seen early cars with out it. Would be very easy to remove the T strip or have it go missing and the person who finds and builds the car never knew it was supposed to be there.

anyhow there we go lol

 

Yes, 28-9 A’s have a T strip on either side of the trunk like a T does. It’s thinner though.

 

Seems the T stripes are pretty beefy I’m curious how a guy would go about making some.

This is kinda how I’m picturing all the folds , loosely obviously.

 

I think the bottom of the T folds back up in between maybe?

 

Could be. Outside of maybe a pull max I’m thinking maybe you could bend the four 90 deg bends and then maybe make some sort of inside form for the inside and a C shaped/
Cupped roller to push on the outside.

sorta like a bead roller except the lower die is inside the piece not under it. You’d have to bend the curb after the fact but shrinking and stretching the vertical parts.

or maybe roll the bead first and then use one of Baleigh’s magnetic brakes?

wondering nine of the old ford assembly line videos has some
Clues how they did it

 

@justabeater37 any idea how you would fold some up? Looking at that photo it seems you could fold it all flat and then hammer the crown into the visible “bead” area