Looks like the Easter Bunny visited the East Side Speed Shop! Looking good! Now get back to blocking!
Another busy Tuesday's With ***us . . . Eric and Jeff have been busy with bodywork. After the coat of DP, they hit it with Slick Sand and got busy sanding. Last night Eric was busy with spot putty while Jeff and I worked on the rear nerf bar bumper. I am really pleased with the way it turned out. Final tig welding still needs to be done and a small bracket added over the license plate for a Hollywood or Lucas license plate light. I ordered both styles to see which will look right. The bumper will then be powdercoated white by FalconMan. Hollywood light: Lucas light: The body will be getting another coat of DP most likely today. Then the fenders and aprons will head to the blaster before bodywork. Soon the body will be coming off the frame again so a bit of bodywork can be done on the frame before it gets coated in gloss black.
just read this and your other crash threads. All I can say is Wow! A: 2 bad azz cars and B: a heck of alota perserverence on your part! I'm not sure I could rebuild a car from the ground up for a second time knowing how much it takes out of you the first time around.
As soon as this car is on the road, the wrecked Tudor will be coming into the East Side Speed shop to have ***us finish up some fab work on the ch***is before it goes back to Wright County Collision for paint. With any kind of luck, I'll have 2 A's on the road by Summer - 3 by Fall. This winter the "Survivor" Tudor will get blown apart for final bodywork and shiny paint. I'm hoping to do some bodywork and paint on the roadster too.
Nothing new to report really. A little more sanding has been done and another coat of DP. ***us has also been working on fabbing up the battery tray, gas tank and rear seat mount that will all work as a unit. I'm heading down to the shop tonight for Hot Rod Thursdays armed with my camera. Hope to have updates soon!
Time for an update . . . With Eric (thritytwo) moving back to CA, ***us is back to being a one man band. More blocking and sanding done before the body came off the frame . . . again. Just waiting for another coat of DP. The frame will also be prepped and shot with a nice coat of Centari gloss black. Fuel lines and battery cable run. Starter solenoid mounted. Battery tray and mount fabbed. Then ***us got busy fitting the aprons, running boards and front fenders. All items came from different sources. Some being aftermarket and some being original tin from various cars. As you can imagine, nothing fit right without some persuasion. Looks great now. Should look even better with the tuck & roll covers by ***us' wife, Stich*****! With the aprons and boards fitted, Jeff could finish the exhaust and kickstand lake pipes. Can't wait to hear the sweet sounds of the flatty through these babies!
Live from the East Side Speed Shop . . . ***us sent me a pic of the kickstand lake pipe he just finished on the other side.
More updates from ***us . . . Exhaust is fully welded and ready for the powdercoater. The headers, downtubes and exhaust will be getting a nice coat of semi-gloss white -- leaving the stainless kickstand pipes for me to polish. The gas tank has been built by ***us' neighbor, Brian, to fit behind the back seat. The front nerf bar bumper has been fabbed and fitted for my club plaque. Next up was to modify the A splash pan to fit the Deuce shell. Unfortunately we found the seemingly nice pan I bought was actually butchered. Back to the drawing board on that one! Next ***us blew everything apart to get the frame ready for paint. While the engine was out, he built a stand to hold the heft of the flatty while the shop coats it in a healthy dose of baby blue. While the frame was bare, Jeff flipped it over and added the notches in the front crossmember for spring clearance. This baby HAS to be low as can be! Really coming together now! Still aiming to drive this car to Back to the 50's here in MN in just over 2 weeks! Go Jeff go!
***us and his dad have been busting *** the last few days! Pretty awesome to have 2 generations of ******** hot rodders puttin in work on my traditional Tudor! Can't wait to get down to the East Side Speed Shop to play tonight after work. The day is just dragging while I wait for the 5 o'clock bell! Nerf bars are now tig welded and ready to go to the powder coater for a nice coat of gloss white. Frame is stripped and up on the "rotisserie" bodyworked and ready for primer. Ch***is components are being bodyworked and prepped. Look ma, no more Superbell logo!
***us opened up the motor and found that she was in awesome shape. No ridges on the cylinder walls, no burnt valves . . . ready to go. Not bad for a flatty that a guy building a street rod gave me 15-20 years ago. Engine and ****** are cleaned up and ready for primer and paint. ****** was re-gasketed and had the reverse idler gear replaced. Not too shabby for a 36 toploader that I ended up with for free after some horse trading! Edmunds head were pressure tested, surfaced and bead blasted. Heads on and torqued. The plan is to leave the heads as-is, but polish just the tips of the fins. Can't wait to see what it looks like with the Edmunds 2x2 I just got done polishing! Should look pretty nice. New Speedway water pumps installed on the flatty. I had also picked up a new Mallory dual point distributor for it from Speedway, but found that it would not fit due to interference, so a nice stock unit will be rebuilt for it. All taped up and ready for slick sand and epoxy primer before getting a shiny coat of baby blue.
Steering shaft cut and fit for 50 Ford wheel. Driveshaft has been cut to length and finished for the torque tube.
What year F1 rear motor mount did you use, looks better than the crossmember that I built for my V8 A.
***us is this stuff your full time gig? I am also counting the days, my wife's car goes to paint 1 week from today for some touch up and I started metal work last night. I have some long nights infront of me.
Live update from ***us . . . too damn humid to spray any primer or paint so he's been busy blasting and prepping everything. Puzzle anyone? Name that part? EEK!
Update: Hot Rod building til the wee hours of the mornin . . . I talked to my powdercoater on Friday. Given our tight deadline and my schedule, I needed to get the headers and exhaust to them by Saturday morning. This meant that Jeff and I spent some quality time in the shop til 4AM Saturday morning finishing up the headers and exhaust. The headers caps look killer and I was also able to polish up the stainless kickstand pipes (no pics of the kickstands after polishing unfortunately). I am VERY happy with the results! I also spent a good deal of time working with my favorite piece of equipment too . . . the blast cabinet. Not fun with 90 degree temps in the shop and the gun getting clogged up due to the humidity, but I got the nerf bars blasted and ready for powdercoating too. I took them to FalconMan on Saturday after dropping my headers off and we got to work putting a nice coat of white powder on the bars. Can't wait to see them on the car now!
Jeff spent Saturday night with a paint gun in hand. He primered everything . . . by the looks of his shop, he probably managed to catch a wicked buzz too.
Man, you guys are crazy! Looking damn good though! I was thinking of P.M.ing you guys 'cause I spent the last week hanging out at my uncles place on Summit, but just never had time with family stuff thrown my way. I wouldn't trade Staurdays humidity/heat for my 106 degrees yesterday ever! Now get back to work, and I'll make contact next time I'm up that way... When it gets too hot here, probably!
Yesterday my dad came down to the shop with me and beat some dents out of the fenders, While I did some more sanding and polishing on the Edmunds 2x2 and Jeff putzed with other misc projects. The only pics I took were the following: It was a great day to go ******* . . . so cool to see two 30-31 A roadsters (Stacie's and mine) built in such different styles parked next to each other eating up the sunshine. And I just had to capture this image . . . two good lookin ladies (Stacie and Stich*****) wrenchin on Stacie's hot rod . . . doesn't get much better than that in my book!
The Jalopy Journal
