Projects Project Mattitude: the Beginning

Very true! Some day..

 

Looking good Matt!

 

Thanks Steven!

 

Keep it up brother!! If you take JJ's advice and decide you want some chrome drawer knobs I got you covered!

 

Naw. Plain 'ole boring Model A grille shell. Nothing more. Thanks though!

 

Add my name to the list that thinks you shouldn't channel it...you're kinda tall and you want to sit IN it, not ON it...

 

Yeah, I'm leaning towards that side of the fence, Larry. Painting the frame black will make it disappear underneath the body and save me a bunch of work cutting and welding over and over.. I've sat in it on a cinder block and there's plenty of room for us Texas-sized guys too.

The look of a roadster with the room of a coupe. Best of both worlds.

 

man,,i love a good mock up! i can see it now.....totally loving the upsweep in the rails,,, and they way it "FITS"

badd ass...

 

if you channel it you wil loose the coolness of the upsweep in the frame,, i dig the flow of it, and a channel might confuse some as a Z'd frame?

 

Thanks, man! Now, see, a lot of the guys on here all whine about the upsweep frames looking "broken." Thank you for the kind words! Realistically, I think it takes a good eye to pull off an upsweep. Bob Bleed is responsible for corrupting me with the upsweep. You're right.. A channel would certainly take away from that. Very, very good point..

Duly noted.

 

The only time "I" think they look broken is when the front part of the frame doesnt actually go up making the body point down alot insted of being parallelish to the ground. Like the blue T roadster that was at gnrs this year.

 

I quite agree with that.. Do you think mine looks "broken"? One of the things I tried my best at was not letting that happen. I think having the hood sides on there helps the side profile out a lot.

 

Don't know how i missed this before, the hamb moves so quick i guess, Interesting project, subscribed

 

Super-mini update:

Using the tech that Andy (ThunderbirdEsq) posted on the HAMB a while ago, I was able to mount one of the back tires to the 16x4.5 wheel and mount it on the car. Then I burst out in a fit of giggles of excitement.

Don't worry.. They were manly giggles.

Andy's thread on mounting bias ply tires all by yourself in your own garage:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=462011

I got some shackles from Vern along with bushings for the back and a reversed eye main spring for the front. If nothing turns up at the swap meet next month, then I'll order one of Okie's dropped axles which LSGun turned me onto. Thanks Jake! I should be able to start messing with the suspension next month with the motor and transmission. I just need to find one more 16x4.5 for the other side which I hope I'll find at the Amarillo swap meet on June 2nd. Speaking of that, anyone else going?





I REALLY dig how the body line flows into the tire. That was my goal and it looks like it'll come out beautifully. The back end of the body is just hanging there as I cut the subrail out to make room for the Z. I still need to cut the ends of the crossmember off so the body can fit around the frame better. But that's the least of my worries.. The rust and absence of clean and smooth metal is really annoying me. I'll be hitting that hard as soon as I get the motor/trans and suspension sorted out and it's a roller.

I can't wait to order the 5.50x16 tires next month from a source outside of Coker that JJ told me about. Thanks Jeff! My 2 Ford wheels are sitting here waiting for them. Oh, and another interesting thing that I learned from wasting the wee hours of the night away on the HAMB that I thought I'd point out on here. Hopefully someone'll learn something new from this..

I searched for more information on early Ford wheels from the '40's and stumbled across a thread that explained that the '40 Ford wheel is an one-year only deal as the inside of the wheel has two right angle corners as opposed to one right angle corner and one slope. In the picture below, the '40 wheel is on the left while the newer wheel is on the right. It should also be noted that the outer sides of the wheels are both facing out, so these wheels are back to back.



Anyhow.. I'll only be doing small things here and there in the garage before I make a serious update. Thanks for following, guys.

 

That looks awesome, you'll really get a good idea and even more drive to finish it when you get it sitting on all four. 16" early Ford wheels are weird, I've heard all kinds of stuff about them including the '40 16x4 inner bead area difference. 1941 was also a 4" wheel like the '40 but it has a slope like the 4.5" wheel and the center is slightly offset in comparison to a '40 4". I have a 16x4 that has two straight right angle corners but it's dated July of '41, who knows.

 

That's real weird.. Henry liked to keep things interesting, uh?

Thanks. Just that one wheel alone is getting me really motivated. Haha. Imagine what three more will do.

 

Dude, Just went through the whole build, Its looking great. I want to see more on how you're going to finish the body..I dig where its going. the mock up looks great. Theres another fella on here thats doing a coupe conversion cant wait to see both how they come out. Keep up the good work..

 

Lookin good Dude! Keep it man...cant wait for the next update!

 

I'll have my phone on me Saturday morning Matt. Text me a piC of anything that might work for the '55.

 

There's still a buttload of work to do.. The major ones are finish narrowing the A-post and the door, cap it, finish the top of the rear quarters, get the door hinges and latch on so I can make the body line go around the top of the rear edge, body line replacement on the quarters, rust repair etc, etc.. But this will be pretty different from all the other coupsters out there. That's my main goal.

Thanks, man!

Not much getting done here. Just learned yesterday how to wield the mighty torch and just a while ago put the end of the '46 axle in a bucket of ATF so I can try and get the perch pins out tomorrow. The 'bones are what I'll be using. Thanks!

Will do! Hopefully there's some old guy that's been hoarding rare speed parts and has no idea what they're worth!

 

Dude, you're kicking some major ass on this thing. I love the stance, and I agree with the "no channel" crowd. Dare to be different! . If I end up surviving my build and not being consumed in a ball of exploding shop vac hellfire, we should totally meet up somewhere and do a photoshoot of our coupesters when they're done. That's, of course, providing mine doesn't end up an abortion!

 

You're probably going to finish yours before I do. You can drive it over and I'll push it out into the driveway for those pictures!

 

At a certain point it all starts falling into place....Keep at it. You'll be driving sooner than you think.

BTW looking good.

 

Thanks, Matt.. You at that point with your coupe yet?

 

Love the way it's all coming together!!

 

Well I was putting a 29 on duce rail's together but that will wait now but I think I like low better it's cool get you some 29 on a roll and get to welding !!

 

Not yet but on the down hill slope....at least as far as getting it running and driving. still lots to do, need to get the drive shaft cut and get some new brake parts.

 

Thanks guys! If I had the moolah, I would have went with deuce rails. It's funny how throughout the build, I would catch myself thinking how I wish I had done some things differently. I still love how this one is turning out however and am going to keep those thoughts for my next project..

Sweet. Get back on that thing soon, man. Can't wait to see your next update.

 

Wow not sure how I missed this thread. Really cool build so far and great work. Can't wait to see more progress.

 

I respectfully disagree. My car is like that, as is Piero's and Bob Sr's. I love the way they sit. Not trying to influence your direction Matt, just for reference purposes..