Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

Some days I feel older than others haha. It makes me so happy every time I fire it up now!


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Yesterday, I was able to secure my 3/4-inch marine grade plywood for the seat base. The people at the lumber yard were very confused and in no way happy to help me. I talked to four different employees before one was able to point me in the right direction. After my positive experience at the steel yard, I was hoping this would be similar. I was wrong. Oh well, I got what I was looking for.



(The white wood is for my new bedroom shelves I’m building)

Also, my wheel adaptors from @13clicks showed up. Can’t wait to try them out!

 

Thanks Mike. That's the plan as of now. This is going to be a multi-stage project. I'm just in the pre-war hop up phase.

 

Last night I was able to get out in the garage and work on the car. My main project was the seat base, which I'll have more pictures of once it's a little further along. I also managed to spruce up the dash and install the driver's side door. It fits well but is a tight squeeze. I have a feeling once the body is 100% bolted down it should fit better.

Looks like somebody shaved the door handles back in the day and brazed the holes shut. Kustom.

 

Unfortunately, after some research, I realized that running the steelies with the mechanical brakes probably isn't the best idea seeing how short the rear axle studs are. My revised plan is to save the steelies for when I go A-V8. No harm, no foul. That being said, I'm now on the lookout for '35 Ford wires. I found two locally with original paint that I am going to check out tonight.

Question for the experts out there: when looking at a '35 Ford wire wheel, is there any trick to tell how straight it is? The seller says they're good, but I'm going to carefully inspect each spoke and lay the wheels on a flat surface to make sure they're usable. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

I planned to do that after I got it home. I'll see if the seller has a disassembled car and we can potentially test it there.

 

Update: I got a pair of nice '35 Ford wires locally. It appears as if they are straight without any broken spokes. I purchased them from H.A.M.B.er @Steven Ginsburg, who has a trio of amazing '34 Fords—a chopped five-window, a roadster and a Woody in the works. Now I just need to find two more wheels...and hubcaps...and trim rings. One piece at a time!

@catdad49, that truck bed looks really nice! That must have been a fun daily!

 

Keep going young fella.

 

Here is David's website: https://difalcofabrications.bigcartel.com/

 

I'm sitting here eating my lunch and figured it would be a good time for an update. It was a productive weekend where I directed my attention to some of the louder tasks that are best handled at my old garage. The car will be moved to the new space early next week.

First and foremost, I focused on the seat base which was actually cut out of a ragged piece of driftwood found at Ocean Beach just south of the Cliff House.
Large area washers are used on top and bottom.

Keeping the seat frame in position with a little help from the front tire.

As I was working with the garage door open on a foggy San Francisco night, two cyclists rolled up. It was Mark, one of my new roommates, and his girfriend Darragh. They were celebrating an anniversary but wanted to stop by to see the roadster. It was fun to show them what I was working on, have some beers and test out the new seat base.

Three across? Why not!
The following morning, I tried out the new old floor mat that will still need to be cut to shape.

 

Then I turned my attention to the staining and sealing of all the wood items. I took the Triumph to the hardware store to get my materials.




The spar urethane is currently drying, but I really like how it's looking. Also, all the hardware has been painted black so it won't stand out too much. The channel around the seat base is now black too, but I'll show that in future photos.

Sunday I was able to finally remove the running board mounts. They were welded on by a previous owner. I'll completely remove the tops of them—rivets and all—when I have the frame apart for the A-V8 conversion. I have to be pretty careful about doing too much cutting and grinding due to noise reasons. With those gone, it really feels like a highboy now!

 

Last night, I took an evening drive to Morgan Hill, California, which is about an hour and a half south of SF. Over the weekend, I had seen a Craigslist ad for a roller that had a pair of '35 Ford wire wheels on the front. The ad made one thing clear: he was not going to part the car out, and the extra parts will not be sold individually. Nonetheless, I called and asked him if he had any more early Ford wires elsewhere on his property. Lo and behold, he did.

It was dark when I arrived at Rick's place in Morgan Hill. He showed me his collection of rare Volkswagens, Volvos and the MG he plans to have as a prop at his daughter's wedding. I learned that he's from New York, and he still has the Model A coupe that he bought while he was in high school. Unfortunately, he gave the body to his son who chopped it and lost interest. With a flashlight in hand, we looked through his stack of wheels and I picked out three of them. They'll need to be sandblasted, but they look pretty good to me. I'll test them for runout before sandblasting them.
I brought the yellow one with me to make sure I was getting the right thing!

Rick had a ton of good parts, and I was able to pick up a headlight switch while I was there. It's a small piece of the puzzle, but I love filling in the blanks.
Next up, installing the rear brake rod, seat and floor. Then it'll be making its maiden voyage to the new garage!

 

It was a beautiful fall night in Morgan Hill, with temperatures in the low 70s and the main drag all lit up. I grabbed dinner at Trail Dust BBQ, took it to-go and enjoyed it at a park in the middle of town. It was delicious and the staff was extremely nice. What could be better? I snapped this shot of the nearby Granada Theatre, which was built in 1952 and now serves as a banquet hall.

 

"Three across? Why not!"

Cripes a 3 way in a Model A ......Get a room