Some of you might remember this old roadster pickup. After 8 years of driving it into the ground, leaving it outside in the rain, 3 engines, you know, the typical life of a hot rod, it was in dire need of a thorough overhaul. Hey this is normal right! Right before the teardown, it really was showing how tired it was, mismatched tires, rust, shakey frame. and under the knife it looked really forlorn, like a dog at the pound. I figured this would be quick, but this all started over a year ago! TP
Ok, real quick. We've been calling it "chief" cause of that little green thing on the dash. Can't see it? Ok here. This was the second plastic indian glued onto the dash. Most of us that drive these things know there's something about good luck trinkets. Unfortunately the elements destroy the plastic, as you can see the guys ankle is broken! TP
Ok, this pic is kinda embarassing to show but I have to, but the backstory will go with it, first. Well, this thing started back when you could find A sedan and coupe bodies for $400, so the frame was originally for a 29 sedan.('99) This was right before Mike Bishops roadster book came out too, and this place was in its infancy, I don't think I had a reliable internet connection even! So I kinda just experimented with what I thought would work. Yeah yeah excuses excuses. Anyway through some horse trading I ended up with this beat stocker RPU, and tried to retrofit the cab/bed onto what I had already started for the frame. It was already set up for a flathead/3spd overdrive and a banjo with a HRW open kit. Damn that was ugly, but it was even worse with the original rear crossmember. I got away with it as there was a full length aluminum bellypan covering everything! It did take a beating though, but it felt like riding on a magic carpet, a little to flexible. It's amazing how fast something can be destroyed! But it was time. The first thing was to get rid of the funky middle crossbar/motormount deal. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking even though it did work and was ok, it was just really tricky to pull the engine out, as it had to be the exactly right angle to slip through. before My goal was only to clean up the structure of this mess, not change the positioning of anything really, so the engine had to be located at the same spot. Okay hold on... TP
Okay, so I've been wanting to start a thread for this thing for a long time , but there's always something. However today I have kid duty and what did I see.. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=537087 (1935-40 rear crossmember as transmission x-member - by hitchhiker) Well that really spurred me into going on this typing frenzy - thanks Hitchhiker! However, mine is different. I really wanted to stay away from round tube, angle iron or square tubing. Nothing wrong with it just not for this car. I had a junk front ford crossmember that looked like it could work with a little wittling. okay alot of wittling. and welding... and grinding... But it ended up a perfect fit. now the engine/tranny position is perfect. the rear crossmember is actually angle iron, channel and flatbar! I think it only took a night to cut up the crossmember, and the next night to mount it. somehow it just missed the solenoid. that little bracket on the left framerail is the clutch bellcrank pivot, which had to stay the same to reuse the old linkages and pedals. TP
I've seen your RPU before, at Paso I think, and I liked it then. Keep the updates coming!! Great idea for a tranny crossmember too!
The next decision was to box or not box the frame. Since it was so flexy I figured boxing would be a good idea. This was christmas time last year and I really didn't have alot of extra coin to spend, so I had to think hard about blowing $50 on steel or a new grinder. There was this old A frame lying around though... Since I love cutting and grinding metal so much... wow amazingly they fit almost perfect! unfortunately that original 2nd crossmember had tweaked the frame down, and it was really hard to bend it back up without twisting the whole frame. It wasn't alot, maybe a 16th, but the weld line will be visible. I can live with it. I really wish I had sandblasted everything before but oh well. There was the exact right amount left for the rear of the frame too. Notice that over an inch was trimmed out of the thickness of the frame, so its not a double thick frame, its barely an inch thicker, I think 3/4". It will be way strong, and it is heavier but about the same as if it was boxed with 3/16 plate. Through all the welding and grinding the frame seemed to stay square. It was tricky as I'd do a couple inches here and there matching side to side, flip it over, grind the starts and stops, repeat til finished... I've done a couple other frames and it is worth it do do those slot holes. A little unnecessary weight is taken off, but more importantly all the wiring and plumbing can be protected inside. It just takes some time. TP
After all this it was finally time to mount the engine. I had experimented with a Hurst style mount on another roadster (red dot II - look in my profile if bored) and I really liked how it looked like the engine was floating, well after the stock waterpump mounts are cut off anyway. Fortunately this is hard to see when mounted, I really don't like the way it looks. There's a possibility of making an aluminum one in the future. However it does the job. didn't cut off the stock mounts yet. It will be alot easier to remove the engine at least. Now it was on to the rearend. TP
Hey Zibo! don't know if you remember me or not, but I'm Chip Quinn, and I spent the whole day camped out next to you at Del Mar in 2006 with the ugly fast '48 Plymouth and the weird cute chinese chick! Glad to see you back on the Roadster pick up. It's been noticably missing from events and stuff for the last couple of years. Coincedentally, I'm the one that is working on your old red dot car for Grant here in Phoenix. It was weird that day back in 2006, 'cause we had the only two primered cars in the lot. Felt like invading high tech territory! Hope the build goes well for you- and I hear what you said about charms and or mascots in our cars... Mine has been my little plastic "guardian tree frog" for several thousand miles now!
Yeah that was a good time, even though it was my first and only street rod show! I've been missing out on alot recently that's for sure. That is trippy you are working on the old Red Dot, I didn't put 2 and 2 together when I (wrote) to you a while back. (Hey, I'm not taking any credit for ANY bondo or fiberglass on that poor car!) Please show & tell me any progress, stories or finish pictures if you can, I miss it! perichbrothers@yahoo.com Glad you're still doing your thing. TP
Okay on to the rearend. The rearend was located using '36 rear radius rods with the ball pivot of a '34 front wishbone. It's a sufficient design for a low horsepower setup, that is if you make the frame square! I had trouble wearing out the rubber cover bushing ball, and even the cast removeable ball housing had cracked a while back. while this is probably a $6 piece, I felt the need to rebuild it. brazing the cast iron lotsa grinding With that all fixed up, I figured it best to realign the rear crossmember. The problem was I had imagined the spring being at more of an angle to the frame, so the crossmember was just wrong enough to blow through the plastic perch bushings, than the rearend would be set weird and on and on. It wasn't that tough just alot of grinding again. I also lowered it a small amount to raise the rearend a bit. There's not much travel and it wasnt uncommon to bottom out on a hard bump, so hopefully that extra 3/4" will help. Now the problem was how to locate that pivoting ball. TP
This thing was originally designed with a track nose using a shortened '36+- radiator, so it covered the front end/crossmember. Kinda like this but with a bottom. During its first run to Paso the radiator was so clogged up I went back home, changed it using a friends stock '29 radiator and went the next day. (fortunately I had made room for the stock shell before the track nose idea!) Anyway its been there ever since! TP
Okay excuse the delay had to work! Than had to figure out a locator for the rear ball setup, and found this in the junk pile. After a couple cuts it fit perfect, fortunately was able to use the original plate that the cast piece fit in. Probably overkill! So with this done the majority of the frame was almost done. TP
After that it was remounting the body. The subrails were made of this half-channel steel, and it always collected sunflower seed shells, water, dirt etc. So first I cut some square tubing into basically angle iron, it was the way to get that nice soft corner. Than bolted it to the footprint of the body on the frame... And reset the body on to the new subrail, using a flatbar filler piece. There is still a ditch to hold water and seeds and stuff but its not as bad. With the body mounted, I could now focus on stiffening up the cowl. There was alot of flex because of the cowl steer and hanging pedals. First I made these hokey firewall panels I figured the headers would cover them and they'd be black. They really stiffened up the cowl. Originally there was basically nothing there, just a one inch wide piece of sheetmetal. This section had always bugged me. It was hacked together long before my time. Using a cardboard template made some pieces of some scrap. for both sides it really cleaned it up, enough for me anyway. Okay let me reload here. TP
ok lets start this up again... The cowl steer and hanging pedals required alot of bracing, which I had modified into a package tray. The problem was the uprights were never really that strong. The forward hidden ones were 2 pieces of angle iron, and the rear ones by the door posts were 1x1 square tube. I had never liked the square tube. So bent up some 1 1/4" tube. Made some ugly bases and replaced the front uprights to position everything. One side had to be notched for the steering box. Than it was easy to follow the line back. There's a screwup but I'm not going to point it out. This thing came out so shiny I got a wild hair, or is it wild hare. Here you can see the master cylinder mounts and the pedal pivots easily. Than all of a sudden the whole thing was shiny. kinda. TP
That track nose looks like a couple of 55/56's Ford truck rear fenders used to build it? Looks pretty clever.
With that all shiny, I figured I'd better finish off the windshield. For some reason I had made these little pieces, they were always just a bolt on. I love old road bike frames with the brazed lugs, and figured what better place to learn how to silver braze! First I decided to actually weld the pieces on. Not sure if this was necessary really, but than I didn't need clamps. Than bought some kinda expensive high silver percentage solder. actually I bought the 15% first and it was kinda crappy, so went back for, I think 45% which really flowed. I studied the method for road bike frame lugs, and found out its all in the finish work. I wish I had practiced on something else first but oh well. It looked ok, lotsa work. Now I was at a crossroads. Just clearcoat all this stuff or nickel plate. There's a chromer/polisher around the corner from the shop, (getting a quote was how I found the place). I wanted a tool style finish, not mirror-like perfection, so I decided to do all the polishing myself. This saved on the $$ a great deal. Some old PLOMB tools have a stamped label on them - "WAR FINISH". I figured that would be a great excuse to have a chitty finish! the only thing I didn't want to screw up was the grill shell. I knocked out some dents but let them do the stripping and stuff. So now I had a pile of massaged stuff to drop off. TP
Ditto - two levers, one for each shift arm? BTW, is that a Saginaw 3 or 4 speed w/ OD? I've always liked this truck, its one of my favorite RPU's on the HAMB. Later, Kinky6
Travis, Just read this thread for the first time. I also would like details on your "Twin Arm Shifter". It is totally RAD ! Dave
The Jalopy Journal
