Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

Thank you, Dennis! You know it. I love all the artwork, and the people around me do too. Hope you had a great holiday season and a happy new year. Here's to a big 2024 of hot rodding. Can't wait to make my way back up to your part of the world.

BAHAHAHHAHHA this is amazing. I love it!

We'll have to film a pilot episode with the 'banger car, then really get the show on the road with the V8!

Hahahaahah

 

I didn't get to spend a ton of time on my car tonight, but I did make a little bit of progress. After work, I stopped by the hardware store in North Beach to get some touch-up paint for the transmission. I also, thought I could guess the size the front wheel cylinder bolt, but I ended up being slightly off. No problem—I'll bring one with me next time.

I pulled the tie-rod and measured it so I know how much to narrow it after un-dropping the ends.

It'll be nice to check this off the list. Once I have the tie-rod sorted, I will have the spindles reamed. Then it's paint, brakes, and final assembly for the front end!

That's all for tonight. Hope everyone has a great Friday!

 

Oh, while I'm here, I figured I'd share a few things that caught my eye in CDMX over the holidays.

I was shocked to see this crazy, wind-up toy Chevy in La Condesa.

Such a great color palette.

Orange paint inspiration.

Horsepower.

And, of course, cacti.

Next time I'm down that way, I'll be working on my ongoing research of the origins of the word jalopy in Xalapa, Mexico. But more on that later.

 

On Saturday, I got to go to one of my favorite places in the world: David's shop. The whole drive up there, I didn't listen to music or talk on the phone. Instead, I just thought about the projects we were going to take on that day. I soaked up every mile of highway—the traffic, the trees and the exit signs—and I appreciated everything I saw. Driving up Petaluma Boulevard, I just felt so glad to be there. It's hard to explain.

And when I walked in the door, the fun began. First, a photo shoot with one of his customer's cars.

See more on his Instagram here.

Then we dove into modifying my oil pan. To keep everything square, we used the original block from his yellow roadster.
It once had Grancor heads and 3x2s.

But on Saturday, it was only wearing a very fresh 1936 Ford oil pan.

We bolted them together and prepared the torch. Then we paused. "Where would the metal go?" we asked. The more we looked, the more we realized that modifying this piece of the pan could cause a misalignment with the starter and ring gear. Since I have not yet tried this pan in the frame, we decided to not make the modification. Maybe it won't need it? Or, if it does, we can modify the wishbone instead.

Happy with our decision, we paused for lunch. Rain? No problem for these two daily drivers.

 

The old one was a two-piece pan where the flange hit. I was just being cautious with this new pan that should—in theory—clear the wishbone. We'll paint it up, bolt it on and give it a try a little later on.

Oh, I'll see what other info I can gather on it!

 

Back down to business. I actually had a little more of last night's update but my computer ran out of juice. Here are a few quick updates before I'm off to sleep. Picking up where we left off...

Next, we directed our attention to the tie rod ends. If you can recall, the Speedway ends brought the tie rod too close to the frame with the engine and transmission installed. Unsure if this would work, I contacted Speedway months ago and they confirmed that they were indeed forged. So, after lunch, we dove right in.

First, we used my piece of wire as a guide to draw our new drop on the bench in blue Sharpie. Then, David used his expertise to figure out the best way to clamp the ends in the vice. He reminded me that figuring out how to hold the part is often the most difficult part of a job like this.

With torch in hand, David tackled the first bend. We alternated sides to allow for some cooling. Just like with some of the other assemblies, he took on one side and I did the other.

After measuring the altered tie rod lengths, I cut 1.5 inches out on the Grizzly bandsaw.

 

Throughout this project—and all my projects—I've had issues with over-grinding welds and creating low spots. I asked David about this, and he was happy to show me the correct technique using the belt sander, files, and sandpaper straps. Note the vintage plumber's vise.

I enjoyed the process, and I was very happy with the final result. This car is a learning experience, and I couldn't think of a better teacher.

The final order of business was addressing the chewed-up threads on the power terminal on my rebuilt, 12V starter. I pulled it from the bed of the truck—along with another 6V starter—for inspection. We looked at them and, much to our surprise, the 12V looked completely fine. All it needs is a fine-thread nut. Talk about good luck. One more thing off the list!

I admired one of my favorite signs on the way home. "We'll park our roadsters out front for a photo one day," I said. "We will make it happen."

 

As soon as I got home, I dropped the tie rod into position. It was a perfect fit with plenty of room for adjustment. With a little bit of primer and paint, it’ll look right at home on the nose of 2.0.

Up in the living room, I unboxed my fresh flywheel and clutch setup that David so graciously picked up for me at the machine shop while I was at work. It's been drilled, resurfaced, and had the ring gear re-seated prior to balancing. I have to buy six new lock washers and then it'll be time for installation next week.

I also bought a new six-spline coupler to use on the driveshaft. It has a much more snug fit than the original, which will be good with the lack of rivet pin on the quickchange.

On to the rear it went. I re-measured everything three more times (both on and off the car) and prepared the driveshaft for shipping. Anyone want to guess how much a 66-inch 1940 Ford driveshaft weighs?

 

At this point, you're probably wondering: why modify the tie rod now? That's a great question. The reason is that I need to send out my spindles to get reamed and I wanted to have everything else finished first. So, along with driveshaft shipping prep, I focused on the spindles tonight.

Our starting point (with everyone's motorcycles looking on).

After pulling the loaded backing plates, I had to mock up one of the old chrome ones from @Johnny Sparkle. Talk about exciting stuff! I plan to paint the spindles white once they're ready for action.

Disassembly continues.

Spindles and kingpins ready to be packaged.

That's all for now! (Note that the wishbone yolk has been disconnected in this photo, hence the wonky axle angle.)

We're 10 days into the new year, and I feel like I'm making some steady progress. My next projects are:

1) Installing the flywheel, pressure plate and clutch to wrap up the engine
2) Load the chrome front backing plates with the contents of the painted ones (and buy the Vern Tardel book explaining the finer points)
3) Work with David to turn the drums
4) Paint, grease, and final assembly on the front end

Those are the broad strokes of things. I'm off to Idaho this weekend to play hockey, but I should have a few more updates to share soon. Also, I have a mini road trip planned for version 1.5, so stay tuned for more on that.

Thanks again for being a part of this journey. Let's make this happen!

 

Good call. I used orange last time. Should I be going red?

Thank you for being here for the journey. Great perspective. I'm sure there are easier, quicker, and more effective ways to build a traditional Ford hot rod, but I haven't discovered those yet. I couldn't do this without everyone's help—and it gives all a good excuse to hang out together!

Thanks, Tim! We narrowed the tie rod the same way as we did in June 2022. Bandsaw to belt sander to David's homemade V-jig. As a matter of fact, we actually cut it in the same spot.

As far as the re-threading is concerned, there wasn't enough room in the threaded "pocket" to do that. We ended up cutting out 1.5 inches. Plus, it gave us the perfect opportunity to fix my less-than-perfect grinding.

 

Agreed! And I most certainly will be digging into the H.A.M.B. archive to help with all those time-honored assemblies.

As for the condition of the car, I don't plan to refresh any of the parts I've previously painted. (I'll scrub the engine to get rid of some of the fingerprints.) I've grown to like the look of the weathered axle, and it won't be long before the rest of the parts I paint match it too.

I have no concrete plans for Version 2.5. I'm thinking that one will have a 394 Olds or a 4-71-blown smallblock. Actually, scratch that. That'll be for my brother's roadster!

Hi Warren, I looked for them online, but I couldn't find any. Do you know of any good sources? I am running the original tapered Ford bolts with lock washers and Loctite. These were the ones on the flywheel when it was balanced by the machine shop.

Thanks Jeff! We're both picking up steam in 2024!

Thank you! More posts to come soon.

Thank you, Brian. Hope you had a Happy New Year. No GNRS for me this year. Hopefully I'll be there in 2025!

Thank you, Terry. I always appreciate your posts. We're just getting started! I can't wait to see the journeys this car will go on in the coming years!