Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

I'd like to run one with the key, if possible.

Thank you for looking. I realized I should probably mount the body on the frame before I can start thinking about the column drop. I was getting one step ahead of myself!

I'm sending it home with my brother when his trip to San Francisco comes to a close. I already sent her a picture—she loved it!

So so true. Every day with Version 1.5 is a bonus. It's wild to think that it's been on the road (basically) in this form for three years.

 

New (old) parts, new updates and more are all in the works. In the meantime, here's a snapshot of life on the Terrace from Sunday.

 

Look who joined the fun! It’s my brother, Andrew, all the way from Michigan. We took the car to lunch and enjoyed a picnic on the driveway. It doesn’t get any better!

 

Thanks my friend! It was such an action-packed weekend. We burned through at least one whole tank of gas, maybe even closer to 1.5. Fun with family and hot rods—it doesn't get much better!

 

Car shows, swap meets, flathead wrenching, estate sale-ing and much more, it's been a busy couple of weeks. I just got back from Thanksgiving in Portland, but I'm hoping to have some updates on here in the next few days.

Yes, I know the mirror is crooked. But do you notice anything different here?

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

 

Yes! That's exactly.

I had a feeling. When we were driving, I had to stop for a quick photo. You know how it goes!

 

When Andrew was here earlier this month, we put a lot of miles on the car.

We didn't let the rain slow us down.

All we had to do was latch the hood and throw on our rain coats. Just like they would have done back in the day.

The following day, we made our way over to the secondary spot to work on the flathead. Before we could tear into it, we hung up my corner store sign. It was one of those jobs that would have been very difficult by myself, but having Andrew around to lend a hand made it much easier. Thank you, AU!

Once we had all the right tools in the right location, we wasted little time pulling the pan and the flywheel. I'm currently hunting down an earlier style pan that I can modify to clear the wishbone (more on that later). With the flywheel removed, I'm having it re-drilled for my new 9-inch clutch and pressure plate from Van Pelt. If anyone out there has any use for my brand new 11-inch clutch and pressure plate, please let me know.

 

One night, we buzzed over to North Beach for some Golden Boy Pizza. San Francisco's finest!

The following morning, we went to the car show at Ocean Beach.
I loved the details on this Kaiser.

And it was hard to beat this ultra-clean 1955 Chevy.

As we were leaving the show, we saw a hot dog vendor set up in the parking lot. "That would be so good," I said. "Maybe next time?"

"Why not now?" Andrew replied.

He had a point. We stopped, parked and picked up a pair of dogs, fresh off the grill. We sat on an old concrete wall and watched the waves roll in.

These really are the good old days.

 

From there, we hit the Hunter's Point motorcycle swap meet and then cut our way back across town.

We then spent the afternoon at a friend's birthday party in the Sunset, where Yama snapped this timeless shot on 35mm. It's important to note that soon thereafter, he took me up on the offer to drive the car. He was a natural!

 

That brings us up to speed. Oh, and I'm planning to do a larger transmission rebuild recap article on The Jalopy Journal before the end of the year.

Here are a few snapshots from here and there:

It's always a treat to see @bushwacker 57. He supplied me with the much-needed driveshaft and a neat lightened flywheel that I plan to use on 2.0's reserve flathead.

Trying my friend David Bright's twin-engine drag bike on for size.

Mid-century appreciation just south of Portland.

A '39 Ford someone was selling for cheap.

Upholstery from a high school hot rod in 1962.

My latest record store score.

 

We'll wind things down tonight with a quick "State of Things" report.

Later this week, I'll be shipping my flywheel, clutch, pressure plate and hardware to the machine shop to get re-drilled.

I'm hoping to secure my new (old) oil pan by early next week, so I can take it to 947 Works to modify it to fit the wishbone. While I'm there, I'd like to weld my master cylinder bracket, bend my tie-rod ends and narrow my tie-rod.

Once the pan and flywheel are back, I will install them with the engine on the stand. With that, the engine will be ready. I'm finishing up the transmission next week. I'm also sending out my spindles to get reamed.

Then it'll be time to measure the driveshaft per Vern Tardel's Hot Rod Your Model A. I'd like to send it out to get cut/balanced before I head home for Christmas. Once it's ready, I'll re-install the engine and transmission to see how everything fits.

At this point, I'll have the brakes plumbed, e-brake set up and backing plates loaded. @Hitchhiker has a line on my final rear brake drum, and I'll work with David to turn all four of them.

Once the chassis is to this point, then it'll be time to install the body.

Although it may sound simple, I'm not in a rush. We'll tackle every assembly as if it's its own project, one day at a time.

Thank you everyone for sticking with me. We have a lot of fun on the horizon.

 

Ask and ye shall receive. I'll have the story of the interior—with photos—in tomorrow's Jalopy Journal column.