Projects Project Mattitude: the Beginning

Dude I miss you!! Glad to see you're still chipping away on this thing. I like the hudson's turned sideways. Viva La Hot Rods!!!!

 

No I think they look pretty damn cool, but definitely run them sideways like you originally posted. I've never seen those on a hot rod before. Maybe you could modify the lenses if you think they stick out out too far.

 

While somewhat overused too, '50 Pontiac tailights look really good on that rear pan too.

 

I like those Hudson lights, but agree the lense sticks out too much. What about making your own lense that sits flush in the bezel?

 

Just been catching up on your build thread again. I like what you're doing Matt!

 

I'm not sure where I would start with that. I wish I had a shrinking machine, like a dryer.. Pop them in there, and in a hour, freshly-shrunk taillights!

 

You need a 3-D printer and some red plastic.

 

Make a buck, get some red plastic sheet, stick it in the oven!

 

Man you have came along way down the path everything is looking good I have been moving and stalled on my roadster .Reading your build gonna make me get off my ass and get back to work .Keep it up the smile on your face when you drive it is gonna make all the tough times go away !

 

I've always felt like my roadster is making all the decisions. Whenever I think of something I'd like to change or do, the stars align and parts become readily available. In this case, a '37 Ford frame I found at the Decatur swap meet for dirt cheap. Well, it was literally dirt. And cheap. The outer rails are roast, but the center X member is pretty nice compared to the outers.

I had grown to hate the little "backyard made" K-member I made over a year ago and couldn't bring myself to just roll with it. It also made brainstorming up pedals a nightmare. With the X-member, the frame will be stronger, prettier, and come with floor pedals that will put a "late model" Mustang dual MC under the floor out of sight to boot. So, hopefully this is only a minor detour.



So I was moving it around to get to some of the rivets and my roadster "spoke" again. This time, it knocked over the taillight lens to one of my Hudson lights.



I guess it's safe to say my roadster is not a fan of the glass lenses. Perhaps the buck/plastic idea may come to fruition. We'll see.. In the meantime, I got my spindles back from Bass, honed and rebushed. Thanks again, Brian!



All right.. Back to work..

 

Oh, I can't believe I forgot. My gas tank came in today as well.. 18 gallon tank courtesy of Sachse Rod Shop. Thanks, fellas!

I also ordered my clutch stuff from Wilcap today too..

 

I can hear it now "Fuck" because I have been there.
I was mocking up my front axle on a set of jack stands which had a set of 45 fin drums on it.when I was moving around and bumped it.
Boob it hits the ground and about five broke fins and a lot of mother fucks!!!
Hope u got a spare!!!

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

^^^ Karma Froma Roadsta. Get used to it, Matt. Too much resistance usually means that you're going in the wrong direction. In this case your car(ma) knew it even if you didn't.

 

That crossmember is a good move. They aren't bad to put in and like you mentioned they sure make the frame look nice, not to mention solid as a rock.

 

Dude, I miss you too!! I hope you saw that I have new front tires.. No more ribbing me on the motorcycle tires.

Buick drums!? Now I don't feel so bad about my Hudson lens.. It wasn't a great lens anyways. It had a hole in the middle and spiderwebbing like someone shot a BB at it.

Buick drums.. Gee..

I just now noticed that the X member is 5" thick while the A rails are 4" thick.. It'll take a little more work blending them to the A rails. But if building a hot rod was easy, everyone would be doing it, right?

 

Here's how I ended up doing it. More photos on my thread.

One thing to watch out for is drive shaft clearance over the X-member. I had to take some material out of the rear of the "box" in the middle so the torque tube could rest inside and clear chassis sub-frame. I hope that makes sense.

 

I like that splice down the length. That's a great way to tackle that. I was thinking a little kick up at the ends to get to 4" but the long taper is more gooder.

Thank God for new tires. I'll search for something else to pick on you for.

 

I'll try to not drop these..

 

Niiiiice

 

I hadn't spent much time on the roadster the last month or so because my best buddy who is in the military was getting sent out of state on a job assignment. He'll be gone for a few months. My dad raised me on WD40 and wheel bearing grease but he taught me that people always come before hot rods. My buddy left a while ago, so I started putting in long hours on the roadster again.

Long story short: I braced the frame, cut out the ugly hack-job of a K-member I was once proud of, trimmed the X-member, mocked it up, tacked it in, measured, measured, measured, welded it in a little more.. Cut out a couple braces so the drivetrain could drop in, measured, measured, measured, started welding. Everything has lined out beautifully with the exception of needing to make spacers for the rear of the transmission mount to level the drivetrain out. The cup of the tube only has a little room before it kisses the top edge of the cup retainer. So, spacers and rubber biscuits for that..

The top of the X-member dips in the middle and the top of the legs are flush with the top of the frame so the bottom of the X legs where they meet the frame will get pie cut ala @oldsboy's T. I also started making the steering linkage and am about to start fiddling around with getting the Packard steering wheel shaft spliced onto the F2 shaft.

I haven't taken a lot of pictures, but here is what I have so far. These are from over the last couple of weeks.

 

Now yer talkin'!

 

Good job. That is going to be a stout frame and done with real parts to boot.

 

That's looking good Matt, keep on it!

 

LSRU 2035!

 

You're too hopeful..

LSRU 2042!

 

You drive yours to 2016 and I'll drive mine

 

Great job. I wonder about your drag link angle. Might be an optical illusion due to camera angle, but it seems to be a lot higher at the spindle than at the pitman arm. Bump steer in the making?

 

Yeah. That area I've been worrying about forever. That was one reason why I was so hesitant to drop the spindle arms and get the steering set up until I saw the Texas Playboy at LSRU last year. I talked to Brian Bass about it. On the Playboy, the pitman arm is low and the steering arm on the spindle is higher as well. He said that it works out geometrically because the line from the steering arm to the pitman arm works intersects with the wishbone mount and..

.. Honestly, I think it's just black magic. I haven't fully wrapped my head around it yet, but I set it up, jumped up and down on the frame with the drivetrain. I'm no small fella, but the wheels stayed straight. I guess I'll find out when I take it out for it's first, albeit slow, drive.

Speaking of that, I was fortunate enough to get to work on the roadster today. From the front view, you can see I dropped the steering arm on the spindle so that it's not drastically higher. I welded up the drag link and started smoothing it out. It still needs some more attention, but it looks great. I got the '53 Hudson steering wheel shaft tacked onto the F2 shaft the other day but I'm going to wait until I find a seat and mount the pedals to be sure I don't need to move it further away. The shifter will have to get shortened though.

 

Looking good, stoked to see some progress

 

Texas Speed. It is a quality build. I'm sure you will get it sorted out one way or another. Details on what you find and what you do will be appreciated.