"Gowjobs": Depresion Era Performance and Early day hop-up tech

It may be a home built job from the late 1930's or very early 40's....when T stuff was really cheap and even more plentiful then today.

That is actually a stock large-drum '26-7 passenger car rear axle....have the same one in my roadster

 

Gosh, I thought the pumpkin looked to big for a T. I coulda swore it was a 3/4-ton Ford truck rear.

Maybe the scale of the car fooled me into thinking it was bigger than it is.

I just noticed the steering wheel - think it's a cut-down saw blade?

-Dave

 

Whippet grilles being kind of thin on the ground, has anybody given any consideration to Poli-Form’s Speedster Grille Shell as a substitute?

I occasionally go ogle their ‘15 runabout, and happened to click the wrong button and discover it.

-Dave

 

Naw....it's just a REALLY small car!

The 1-ton TT rear axles are actually worm-drive and substantially larger:

 

I was thinking actually of the '38 to '52 truck axle. They look like a giant T pumpkin and were the basis of the Champ quickchange. See below:

-Dave

 

Ok, I gotcha! Thanks Dave!

 

Just remember those wheels are much smaller diameter than stock T.

 

That and the axles have been cut down quite a bit. It's tiny..like a go-kart!

 

Someone got a good deal on that T based Midget. The Franklin steering setup is worth about a third of the winning bid. Note that all four wheels are made from 1926-27 Model T brake drums. It was standard practice back then to go to SEARS and buy four 12" utility rims and weld them to the T brake drums. That Model T 6 bolt wood wheel hub bolt pattern became the standard on Midgets up into the 1950's. I've always thought the real early Midgets were in a class of their own, lots of inovation, no two look the same. I had one less engine years ago that I should have kept.

 

The quick change reared and the Franklin box are really neat .

Looking at the tires I'd guess the last runs were on pavement. They don't look like just some worn out old skins.

Looks like two brake levers on the left side. Am I right? Why?

 

Patented underslinging attachments for your Ford. I believe Mr. Wheat's patent has probably expired, and that we can just copy him now.

-Dave

 

Awesome thread! Wish I'd found it sooner. Mister-T, you have MY 5-star vote!

 

Bump, 'cause it just stole an hour of my life!!!

 

Thanks for the bump and the 5-star rating!

There have been so many great contributions to this thread, I hope we get some more coming in!

 

"Radiator shell and body are easily hammered from sheet aluminum." Say, what?

 

Here's my grandpa in his little speedster he called "Lincoln Pup"....about 1925 or 26....my mom came along in 1927 so the car disappeared and he passed away the year after I was born. Wonder if it had a Lincoln under the hood.

And his little Dodge roadster with buffalo's I think - I'm told he courted my grandma in...

 

Pretty snappy rides! No wonder she caved! What's that song, something about a sharp dressed man? Gary

 

Haha! That's exactly what I thought when I read that too!

 

I think this is the entire article.

 

Want to see a gow job in action? Get a load of this 1932 movie, Hot Saturday starring Cary Grant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRwSvG_9dbM

To see the car, jump forward to 14:25 17:40 24:40 26:28 32:35 34:10 and 38:10. It may make other appearances but those are the ones I caught.

Car appears to be a cut down Model T with lots of chrome but in one scene, the driver is shifting a standard floor shifter so who knows what it had for a power train.

Enjoy

 

Thanks july08....very kind of you.

rusty.....that car is one hawt potato

 

looks like 25 t with a franklin axle and buffalo wheels....i love the chrome hood and sides....must have been someones pride and joy and used for the film....too cool to be a prop.

 

At a glance, it looks to resemble Bob (?) Estes's Ford described in the beginning of the Dean Batchelor book. It's not exact, though. Maybe it's the copy Clark Gable's girlfriend (Carole Lombard?) had made.

Or it could be that Estes's roadster wasn't the only one in that style running around LA in the early 1930s.

-Dave

 

This thread has to be one of the best kept secrets. I've posted this pic on other threads but here it is again. I liked the look of Brent's front xmember and had an extra T rear xmember so .....



the 1/2" plate for the spring perch was set at 7 degrees up. As planned it is at 5 degrees on wheels.

The frame is a '29 narrowed to 23" from the front xmember back to the area of the stock center xmember. There is a 4" kick about half way back to another T rear xmember. This pic was before it was painted.



Ron

 

nice frame. well thought out.

 

It have to do with mounting the tire
the part of the tire you start with
goes down in the ditch so you
can get the rest of the tire over
the rim

 

it also has to do with the way the bead seats ....with the drop center ,as heo2 says, you can get a tire small enough to seal itself against the rim tighter. the old way the tube forces the tire into groves and holds it there till the tire goes flat. i can't remember what the old style is called at the moment but i had two made up for my 27 harley.... never mind ...they are called clinchers.

 

DE SOTO,

Don't know if you're still looking, but I sent you a Craigslist e-mail with a '20 Dodge roadster body just now. Of course, it's in Tawas, Michigan, which might be too far away to do you any good.

-Dave

 

That really is a nice looking car! ..Do you have any better screen caps? I don't doubt there were more of these stalking the streets back then. The only ones we know about really are the few that survive or the ones built by now well known names....but there were countless more built that didn't and are lost to time and the past.

I am quite pleased that this thread has become popular and continues to soldier on

Nice looking cross member layout by the way...

I just got done messing with the new front end on my T as well. I'm quite pleased at how the front end turned out.





I pie-cut my wishbones in order to lay the axle back to 6 3/4 (between 6 1/2 and 7) degrees of caster angle. Stock T's are at 5 1/2...I dialed in a little more as that is how the T speedster and race car boys would set their cars up

 

Clayton, This thread is just chock full of ideas. The front crossmember mounted upside down with a perch off of the front crossmember is just what I had been planning on. One difference on mine is using "A" axles/brakes front and rear. Hope I can make the "A" mechanical brake linkage work on the "T" frame. Oh, forgot the springs will be Model "T" front and rear.

Dave