Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

Hi all, I'm back! Over the weekend, I celebrated my 32nd birthday with 31 friends in the backyard of our historic San Francisco apartment.
It was a true feast with friends, and I was even able to bring back the now infamous Terrace Times bar that some may recall from the early days of this thread.

Now that I'm a little bit older, I'm excited to post some updates.

My actual birthday was on Monday, and I had the best day with Gen hiking Mt. Tam and eating BBQ oysters at the Marshall Store. When I got home, I knew I had to do something on the roadster. As luck would have it, my brass terminal nut arrived in the mail. As easy box to check, but progress is progress!

 

The next update comes from down south. Last month, I reached out to @Dennis Lacy about making a battery box for the car. "No problem," he said, "but you do realize the master cylinder will be in the way?" I wasn't aware that his usual kit locates the battery near the pedals. Being that class act that he is, he made a custom right-side mount for me. This will help me run shorter cables when it's time to wire. He's wrapping up painting and shipping it out this weekend! If you're looking for a setup like this, give him a shout.

 

Last two items for tonight:

1) I figured out the fuel line. The fuel pump is indeed clockable. Thanks for the tip!

It'll be getting a slightly longer piece of hose, and the clamps will get flipped next time I'm down in the garage.

2) Traditional watermelon carrier, patent pending.

That's all for now! This weekend, I plan to put in a lot of hours on the car, and maybe even stop by Pac Heights Hardware.

Upcoming tasks include:

• Installing radiator brackets
• Installing radiator, hoses, grille shell, and headlight bar
• Install passenger-side header
• Ride my motorcycle
• Finalize fuel pump stand
• Drink a cola
• Sit in the sun
• Torque and cotter all backing plate bolts
• Torque more bolts
• And much, much more!

Oh, and Petaluma swap meet for a little bit on Sunday. See ya there?

 

It will be accessible through a cutout in the floor on the passenger side. I'm going to make a little trap-door panel for it.

 

What a whirlwind of a weekend. It was filled with hot rodding on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm leading with a picture of this vintage Craftsman brake fitting wrench because I thought I mislaid it. Come to find out it was in the top tray of my toolbox the whole time.

On Friday night, I bolted on the radiator brackets and put my new Johnson's radiator into position. At that point I realized that a few things needed to be adjusted. First, the lower hoses were about two inches too short. Second, the radiator needed to go back an inch to be closer to the fan. I had everything roughly mocked up in the fall, but now that I'm finishing the car, it's important to get this right.

With the sun out on Saturday morning, I made my marks and adjusted the brackets.

Clean bracket install.

 

Next, I called a couple of parts stores looking for 1-3/4 radiator hose. As luck would have it, my local O'Reillys had three feet in stock.
A quick rip over and I was in business.

One of the newer employees took interest in my roadster project. He has a 1954 Chevy, and he told me to drive the A-V8 over when it's finished. I promised him that I would.

Back at the house, I bent the new brake line that will slip under the radiator hoses. Backyard hot rodding.
And front door hot rodding too. Here I used the school's fence as I created a brake line support tab.

Oh, and the vise too.

 

Sorry, I wasn't able to finish my upload last night.

This bolts to the bottom of the u-bolt and works like charm.
And here we have it. The whole process took longer than anticipated. Looking at this picture, you'll notice the correct fan-to-radiator clearance (about one inch), the shortened upper radiator hoses, and the new brake line. It's spring-wrapped to protect it from rocks and vibration, and I made sure there was ample clearance for any radiator movement.
Best of all, you can remove the brake line without removing the radiator, and remove the radiator without removing the brake line. This thing will inevitably be coming apart, so I'm planning for the future.

Next, I'll be massaging the grille shell to improve the fitment. That's all for now!