Projects Carter's 29 Roadster Build Thread

Haha, I'm trying. I 've been doing a lot of little things that have taken forever. Welding up 3/16 holes in floor pans and re-punching them in the correct spots, measuring, tweaking, etc. Now I'm at the point where I need to get some rivets in and can't find a soul to help me out. I've been asking people for almost a week with no luck. Hope to get some riveting done this week.

But, my engine isn't done yet. Was supposed to be 6 weeks, going on 9 now. My distributor, well, I won't even go there. I'm just hoping to get it back at this point. And hopefully Brinkman's comes through on the resilvering of my reflectors.
It's funny, I was waiting on several things, and the one I expected to be the most trouble is the only one I have. I had sent my title in to the state to be corrected and I got it back already.

I also went and bought a huge media blast cabinet and had to rearrange the whole garage to find a temporary home for it.

Hope to have some pictures of progress by this weekend.



Dave

 

Hey! My name is carter... I've always wanted a roadster

 

Make it happen, man!

I did some riveting last night. Kinda hard to get them right doing it by myself. Had to drill a couple out and redo them.












I'm going to try and do some more today after all of the family picnic stuff.

 

Oh, yeah, and one of the blast cabinet. I just put some wheels on it as I have no room to give it a permanent home.

 

Carter, you are my new hero!!!!!

 

You have low standards, my friend.

 

Are you going to be at the Jalopy Showdown invitational on the 28th? I'd like to shake the hand of the man that puts rivets BACK into his model a frame. You should be finished with the roadster by then right

 

I'd love to have it done by then, but am waiting on parts that other people have, so it is hard to say at this point. My engine is a big question mark right now, but I do have a back up. My cast iron Mallory is another one, but I have a stock B I can run.
We will see.

 

Wow, this is the real deal, I can't wait to see this beast on the road!

Very nice work and choice of parts...

Eric

 

awesome car!

 

Small update.
Had a friend drop by Wednesday to help me with some riveting. We got a few more panels in.




My distributor finally came back. Looks good inside and out.



Thinking of using this coil. Not sure when they came out with this style.

NOS.





Also picked up a decent original e-brake handle. I installed it and pulled on it and my rear wheels still turn. it's not running out of throw, i adjusted the e-brake rods up. The handle only pulls about 2 clicks and that's all it will go. Guess I'll have to pull the drums and have a look.




Still not sure what I want to do with these quarters. They had patches brazed on and everything was overlapped and poorly done.





There were little patches brazed and spot welded into the front corners of the wheel wells to fill the gap and then bondoed over on the outside. Also, the wheel wells are not correct, and they are overlapped also. There must be about 60 spot welds on each wheel well, though. Those ought to be fun to get out of there.




That's my next big undertaking, I guess.

Oh, and I called the engine shop about my 'B' at the 9 week mark. He initially said 6-8 weeks. Now, he said at least another 4-5. Lovely. I may have to give my newest 'B' a quick check and use it for now.

If any HAMBers are going out to Canfield for the weekend, I'll be set up out there some where. Stop by and say 'hi'. I'll have a 33-4 truck firewall, a really cobbled together 28-9 pickup rear window section and some other odds and ends laid out for sale.

 

Bump: cool roadster man

 

Very cool build. Nice job

 

Lookin good Dave, keep it up!!

 

Amazing job Carter. I'm glad you hipped me to your thread, I had missed it as I'm not always on here. What a job!!!

I'd be honored to have a car like that at my beach race. Keep it up, hope to see you there. Please stay in touch as we get closer to the Oct. race time.

Killer, killer, job!

 

Oh, it's guys like you and cars like this that make me kick myself in my own ass for letting any of my 29 roadster stash go.

Somedays I trade my 32 or 34 roadster for a well built stripped down little 29! It just doesn't get any cooler. Yours is right on.

 

Thanks a bunch, Mel. It means a lot coming from you.


Hadn't had much time to work on this thing the last week. Had some roof repairs to do on the garage.

Got a little done tonight.






Got my e-brake problem figured out. What a dumbass I can be sometimes. Just glad I didn't pull the rear drums yet. I ran the link from the handle on the B trans thru the slot on the passenger side of the K-member to the Model A E-brake cross shaft. Well, that doesn't work so well. As you pull the handle, the link just runs up into the top of the slot and binds there. So, I just have to make a little bracket to drop the whole handle assembly down about 2". Started making that today also.


More to follow.

Dave

 

Anybody have any info on the old Champion plugs? Like how does a 5M compare in heat range to a 7?
I only have 2 NOS 7's but I have several of the 5M's. The depth looks right, just wondering about the heat range.






Also, anyone know the vintage of the Mallory coil I posted above?

Curious if it fits the era I'm aiming for.

 

Very nice work!!! I love threads like this because it really strips everything down and you can get a good glimpse on how these things were original put together so if the time ever came that you found a car like yours you would know where square one is. But at the same time it's still very much a hot rod and not just a restoration. Great work!!!

Mel, I think what you need is a '33 coupe and I will relieve you from your 32 roadster duty. I don't know how many times I can say this before it either get old OR it finally sinks in.

 

Wow NOS period spark plugs..... not that's picky but in a good way!

 

Small update.


Made and painted the bracket to drop the e-brake handle down.



Welded up the rivet holes in the rear spare tire brace and re-drilled them to the correct size and repaired a crack. Also knocked the brace out of the below decklid panel so I could rivet the spare tire brace to it and get some paint in between there.








That was it for tonight.


Dave

 

Looking great!! Brings back a ton of memories when I was doing my 29 roadster

 

Your car was a big inspiration for this one. Seeing your build thread also helped motivate me to get started on my car. Glad you sold those sill plates. I kept looking at them and thinking they just wouldn't be right on this car but I wanted em anyways. Now I can stop thinking about them..

 

Thanks man, yeah My Brother (who now as my ol A roadster) and good friend Devin have 29 roadsters and they both thought that same thing. They need to go on a good late 50's-60's build with lots of plating.

Keep at it!

 

Another small update.

Got the spare tire brace riveted to the rear panel brace and spot welded it back in after getting some paint on the hidden parts.







Also fit the e-brake drop bracket and tested it out. The car will still rock until the brackets on the e-brake bands contact the carrier. Is this normal on an A rear? I thought they still weren't working so I pulled a drum off and found out what was happening.




I also got the holes drilled in the sides of the below decklid panel and in the reproduction triangle braces so that's all ready to go together.

Dave

 

Time for an update.

I couldn't come up with an original inner trunk panel brace, so I made one and got it in.



My headlight reflectors came in the mail from Brinkman's Plating today.



I cleaned the surface rust off of my NOS B exhaust manifold and shot some Cast Blast on it.




Installed the tulip panel.




Assembled the firewall and cowl panels and got the spot welds done.





And I fit the curtain pan, just need a hand with the rivets and then I can put the seat riser in.





And that's all folks, for tonight anyways.

 

One step forward, two steps back.

I got the inner trunk panel installed. I needed some flat head slotted machine screws and hadn't had a chance to pick any up, so I stopped today to get what I needed.








So, I got the rumble braces attached to the quarters and got the trunk gutter in. I set my decklid on for a test fit and the fit at panel below the decklid wasn't great. I expected that, being a repro panel and all.
But, the fit at the tulip panel was even worse. The curve on the panel was way off. I started looking, and the flange that the gutter bolts to had been repaired or something at some time, and in the process, the panel lost its arch. So, I grabbed another one I had here and checked the curve against the decklid. it was good so I rolled my new blast cabinet outside and did some blasting.




Before:




After:





It is an old repro panel, but it fits better than the butchered original, and won't be too hard to change if a find an original to replace it later or fix the one I've got.

Also put the anti-rattlers on the brake rods, smashed my thumb with a hammer, broke one of the anti-rattlers, and tried to drill a hole into my stomach, destroying my old Mad Fabricators T-shirt in the process.. All in all a successful day.

Hopefully tomorrow goes a little better.

 

That's going to be a killer car when finished, Dave. The attention to all of the little details makes it great. Super job...

 

I'm diggin' this build.
Very cool!