Picked up a roadster 29 body in pieces last year, at the time i was building a little model t roadster pickup (first “hotrod” build)when the A body came along i tore the t apart, parted it out and kept some of the stuff for the roadster and basically started all over. It is a 29 body on a 28 frame, crossmember moved forward 2 inches, kicked up 5 in the rear and rear stretched another inch with a 40 style rear spring behind the axle 4 inch dropped axle juice brakes up front, 401 buick, edelbrock 6x2 1962 t10 with a speed gems kit, 36 bones in the rear with a 9 inch narrowed and centered with a 3.70 gear. It is still a work in progress, i am currenly still working on all the chasiss modification, i will continue to update as i move along. Just recently got it on all 4s as a roller, and everything is just mocked up and clamped together on the body in the last pictures. Been collecting all kinds of old chrome parts for the motor, have some old chromed 35 headlights with original lenses and reflectors too. My build is utilizing as much early stuff as i can and being built in my garage. the style is a little bit of a hodge podge of all styles i like, basically late 40s- early 50s style that shed its flathead setup for an updated drive train in the late 50s style but retained muchnof its early hotrod originality. hope you enjoy, i still have alot to do!
Nice build Eddie. What did you do for a torque arm off of that 9 inch to assist those old bones? And did you install a pan hard on the rear? That Buick with a T10 will make a sweet ride. Looks great. Keep us posted.
Torque arm is actually my next piece i am going to work on, looking at the room i have and what needs to be done at the moment, it will either be that, or modify the bones to be more like ladder bars. Either way i think i am going to add some strength to them, like i seen Harv do on here. Thats why i have just tacked the bungs on, to get everything where it needs to be. I am still on the fence on the panhard, trying to determine whether ill need it or not, if i feel i do, that ill be the next piece. Thanks!
"Nailhead powered 29 roadster" Rolls right off the tongue. So cool. Big old OHV V8 w/6 2s and a 4spd in a clean simple little roadster.
I like the story line...late 40's/early 50's era hotrod...that got an overhead and 4 speed transplant in the late 50's/early 60's. Probably chasing faster speeds and better time slips. Not to mention, keeping up with factory offerings. Makes perfect sense to me.
Exactly! or second or third owner young guy buys an old hotrod out of a wrecking yard for 50 bucks but wants to put the town on notice with a big bad buick! haha
Ok I have an update, I was able to figure some more out on the roadster last week. I decided I wasn't happy with the stance. I cannot stress how important it is to just tack weld everything together as you may make a change in direction or find out something needs modified later! That is exactly what happend with this instance. I wanted a little more rake in the stance, and I will need more floor clearance as I do not want to run a hump for the driveline. I decided to raise the rear 2 inches, this required a new leave spring mount and a reset to the angle of my rear radius rods which basically meant I had to cut it all out and redo it. I am much happier with it now and feel this will be the final ride height, but I am still just leaving it tacked together….just in case... The other thing I started plotting on is how to reinforce the 36 rods, that is still in the works. I played with a couple of ideas, but left that for another time and a little more thought.
Next I attacked the steering. Figuring this out has been on my mind alot. Running a nailhead, the starter on the driver side doesnt leave much room for a side steering box with a model A frame, but I am stuborn… I also wanted my steering box through the frame instead of on top, on top probably would have been more optimal with my 4" dropped axle, for proper steering geometry, but I didn't want it looking like I walked away sheepishly defeated, and just mounted it on top of the frame. I started by deviating from the "all old parts" montra, and added a 1 newer part, a hi torque mini starter from Centerville, this was my compromise since it was mostly hidden. I started with three 34 ford passenger car gemmer boxes and a 36 cross steer box, one of the 34s was partially disasembled missing the worm, and it made a perfect mock up box. I removed the snout from the 36 box and added a 3/8 inch thick flange…(to be honest it was already added from a previous project I had started, what sucked was carving on it to get it to work and fit into my frame. Because it was already set for the previous project and the flange was much too big and the clocking was wrong. After carving it up for a 2 bolt mount, I didnt want my bolt holes at some weird angle visable on the the outside of the frame, so i cut the sector shaft housing and reclocked it closer to what was need and just tacked it in place until I get it's final angle finalized. I then threaded the flange for 7/16 inch bolts to attach to the frame, and used a 2 inch hole saw to center the box in the frame, this will be reinforced inside the frame in the near future. Over all heres what I came out with.
So the pitman arm needed some attention, not only was the split bone in the way but it hung pretty low. I have been reading about setting up proper steering geometry, found posted here on the HAMB, and realized I should have mounted the box, butted up to the inside top of the frame, it would have gained me an inch for a better “draglink through bone pivot” angle. but with the hole already cut, I proceeded with where I have it, and i like how it looks centered in the frame anyways. For the steering I have collected 2 pitman arms, an F1 version with the ball, and one off the 36 cross steer box. with the eye. Since the 36 is my second choice to run, I decided to start experimenting and modifiying it to see what I could do with it. With some cleaning, a 3/4"cut along with some veeing/chamfering equalling 1 full inch of shortening, I preheated the weld area to cherry red and welded it up with multiple passes and let it cool over a period of about 4 hours. Now I am not sure im going to run it, but i figured i would share the results. These modifications would alter the steering ratio requiring less leverage to turn the wheel, but resulting in slower steering, but does give a much more favorable draglink to pivot centerline position. Eye to eye is now 4 inches. The results came out pretty nice, and works well for my mock up. If I run it in the final assembly I will add mulitple passes down the radius of the round part of the splined end, down the edge of the arm, and possibly ad a plate down the backside for extra measure. and then smooth it out again using the same process. The last pic illustraits the clearance gained for steering box by using the mini stater and multiple mofification. More to come! Stay tuned!
That was a lot of work, but you are making good progress. Just curious about one thing. had you considered cross steering and would it had made the steering design a bit easier?
Yes i did, and yes it would have. I only would have had to contend with the front mount to get around. One thing i decided on this build was it had to be a traditional side steer, 1 reason was the challange of making it happen with so little room. The other being the look i am going for. I was very close to going that route at one point though.
Looks good! I’ve always wanted to do cross steering using a rebuilt ‘39 steering box a friend of mine gave me. I’ve seen it in old magazines but it wasn’t as common as the side steer. I might try it in my Nailhead powered ‘33 pickup.
Eddie, as long as you are happy with the results that is all that matters. As they say, your car- your build. I did cowl steering long before Pete posted his thread about the hazards. I contemplated changing but we were just too far into the build to economically change. Fortunately for us the geometry is dead on so I am hoping that our bump steer is minimal or 0. Keep at it, what your doing looks great.
Hey Eddie, when you post your pics, hit the full image button. Man, I love the classic in-process Hot Rod build scene.
didnt realize i could do that, thanks! ill do that on my updates from now on. also went back and fixed the old posts.
So last weekend I swapped out the mock up 401 for the 401 that is going in it. The mock up was soposed to be out of a runner, but it had alot of small pieces missing and a mismatch timing cover and looked like it would require quire alot of work to get it fired up. I took a chance on an engine my buddy had sent me an ad to on the facebook marketplace a few months ago. My mock up was a 65 401 445 torque and 325 hp motor, which is probably the best 401 offering. I drove down to Valencia and took a gander. The motor in question, was pulled from a 65 Rivi with 103,000 on the clock. I could tell immediatley it was not the original engine for the car because the original Buick green could be seen under the grime and old half-assed paintjobs from years past. Rivi 401s were originally silver. It however was out of a running driving car that was in the shop for an LS swap...(yuck! to each his own though) I was told it was strong, checked the oil, looked it over real well and found out it was a 63 block that is the exact same spec wise as what I have, 445-325 hp motor, so I bought it. So fast forward to last weekend I stabbed it between my rails. One thing I realized is I will need a different pilot bushing but all else seems like it will work. After nieandering around my tiny garage most of the day and geting it all situated, I finally fired her up for the first time, and man, she sounds pretty damn good! with some tuning and adjustments, I think she will be perfect for my little roadster. I kept thinking about that 103,000 on the odometer on the Rivi it came out of. The Rivi was with the same owner for over 10 years, and looked very well taken care of on the outside. The motor seaps a little oil, and is a little dirty, but seems like it was somewhat cared for in its years. As luck would have it, While taking off some off the unneeded crap (alternator ac and power steering pump, I found a rebuilder tag. .010 .010 and .040. Seems this engine was replaced with a freshly rebuilt one between 0-103,000 miles. Being on a budget, this will help alot with pushing To get the car drivable alot sooner., my plan is to reseal, checkbearings for wear, and get it going as is with all my little doodads to make it look more of the part. Take a look below for the startup and a couple pics from last weekends fun and games.
I really like your roadster it's gona be good. I've got a 29 with a 425 nailhead and turbo 400 with a champ Q/C that I've been driving for 50 plus years, first with a 1957 364 then a 1965 425. You're going to love it when you're up against a new Porsche at a red light and you smoke it by a mile. JW
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