Alf, You are making progress. Just pick an area and keep plugging away on it. Some day you will be out cruising in your "A" Roadster ! Looking forward to continuing progress on your build.
It's always an inspiration for anyone doing their own body build to see other like minded examples! Keep it going, you are really quite close to having a driver there, Maybe this summer?! It just goes to show what a guy who's 'on a mission' can do with a little encouragement! Thanks for sharing! Dan Stevens dba, Steelsmith
looks killer, keep up the good work! I've thought about doing this before..now that I have seen it done it may be in my future
Impressive work and skill, looking forward for some picks when the heap is on the road!! Keep up the work! Lars
I read that as a light hearted dig to the post above it about the limited photoshop skills rather than about the builder...
Kool...Kool!! I have read several posts of building cars from scratch and am Very Impressed with each build. So much so that I'm going to start one soon, thinking of washing machine/dryer panels recycled. You have one Swwweeeet ride going on there, gotta love those 2.3 Fords with stick.....I had 3 different Pintos in the past. Been looking for 3.0 4 cylinder for my build. John T. ps...git-r-dun!!
So it's been a while since I have updated this project and a while since I have worked on it at all. The car was stashed away in a corner of our shed, put on blocks of wood, and covered with blankets, not knowing when the project would be resumed. I had the opertunity to do some work on an aquaintaces car and I needed the space. So after a summers worth of sheet metal repair I had aquired some much needed tools, knowledge, and experience necessary to complete my roadster project. Before I knew it the word got out and as soon as I was finished with the first car I was out picking up another one with plans to do a full restoration. For the past few months I've been dissasembling and bagging parts and pieces instead of getting anything done on my project. A few weeks ago I decided to take a break from my restoration project and push the roadster in the shop to see if I could make any progress. I haven't touched this car in over a year. I got frustrated with it after I got the engine running and the driveshaft shop kept dropping the ball. After a few run arounds with them I gave up on it. Like they say, sometimes you just have to walk away, if you really want it, you'll come back to it. Well, lately I've decided to get the body together so at least it looks like something and gives me some motivation. I started with the grill shell which is a late twenty's or early thirty's Chevy that I chopped all to hell to fit over the Mustang radiator. Needless to say about ten hours later I had a part that actually fit and looked finished. I then decided to build the lip of the cowl where the hood will rest, I have no idea what you would call this area. Once I finished these two parts I moved on to the hood and sides. After some trouble making the hood template, I cut it out of aluminum and proceeded to shape it to the body. his proved harder than I thought and though it fits, I'm going to have to make another one. From there I moved on to the hood sides, which turned out very nice. I'll let the pictures do the talking. This was the only way I could figure to make a template. Luckily the car is symetrical and I just taped up half of the opening and flipped it while tracing for the template. A paper hood, I wish it was this easy. Finished template, ready for tracing. One hood, minus the curves. I had a lot of problems trying to shape this aluminum basically because I got the wrong type. I bought 5052 instead of 3003 because I was afraid it was too thin. I ended up anealing this which would have worked, but I only have a cutting tip on the torch, which is too concentrated for a sheet this big and it warped it. Good practice I guess. So since my hood lined up well to the marks I set for it, I decided I could make the sides and make another hood later. I screwed up the first one with a crooked flange, but I got it on the second time. Even though the hood is sub par it still looks good. Then I moved to the driver's side and again the template fit almost perfectly just reversed. This side was a little more difficult because I had to figure out how to get around the pitman arm. You can see the first mess up in the back ground. Success on the first time with this side, you can see where the arm cantacts the panel. This is my solution marked out. With a little grinding I had clearance, now I had to do something about the hole.
She is coming along great.I love builds like this. I build a hood for my T and found it easier to build in two half's with a lip in the middle much like the 52 Chevy hoods are done. this give you a nice center line that is straight. here is a few pics. Sorry for the picture quality.These picture were taken 10 years ago with a disposable camera!!
I hammered out this clam shell looking detent to fill the hole. It's not perfect, but that's not what this car is about anyway. Riveted in place and looking good. Another issue I've had with this car is the stance. I almost regret making it so extremely low because it has caused so many problems I otherwise would not have encountered. One thing I have been planning is re-arching the springs to give it a little more rake. So I made this simple jig from pictures I've seen on the HAMB and went to work. First I marked the original arch of the spring ( the lower line) and then just bent it a little at a time untill I reached one inch of added arch (the top line). That's all I got for now, but I'm getting into this build again and I hope to get more progress done before I have to push it out of the shop. As always I appreciate the compliments and interest. Alf
Hey Alf, You go, dude! I love seein' jobs where the guy said I don't need 100k in sheetmetal tools to build panels! I'll bet you're learning alot as ya go? Yeah, 3003 & hot rolled sheet sure bends easier! " Life ain't no Disney movie "
I'm back with another update. I appreciate the complimets, they keep me motivated, and it's nice to know I am motivating other people with this project. Once I finished the hood sides I decided to move right down the car and finish the cowl. The top is basically finished, but I had never gotten around to the sides. Here you can see the side portion of the cowl with a nice finished looking body line. I stared at this for what seems like hours figuring out the angle of the bottom of the body. Does it look right to you? Here's another angle. The lower body line is bent 90 degrees also which gives it a ton of strength. After a lot of thought I realized that the body line looked good level with the ground, so I made a jig set to the height I wanted to keep it all level. You can see it in action in the picture. Since I have started doing restoration work for customers, and because I'm tired of grinding rust off of old parts, I treated myself and picked up this cabinet sandblaster. It really helps to have the tools you need to do this kind of work. I also grabbed this brake from Tractor Supply after hearing good things about it. It's 36" and for what it cost I can't complain at all, plus now i can make use of my shinker stretcher. That's all for now. I'll be sure to have another update soon. Let me know what you think of it, I'm always looking for opinions. Alf
Read the whole thread twice, but didn't see this... What are the front wheels and tires? I saw the rear are 17" with 700-17's.
The rims are 17" Ford wires and the tires are Excelsiors and I can't remember the exact size, I'm not near the car right now or I would go check. I looked on Coker's website and I couldn't find them on there anymore. They are very similar to Firestones, but these were cheaper that's why I got them. I'll get the size when I get back to the car.
So since I made some good progress today and I just got the new TJJ iPhone app I decided to write a small update. If you have been following this thread you will know my car has no brakes on the front axle. The hub and spindle setup I was using were literally pulled from the woods not far from where I found the original cab, but they were in bad shape and hardly useable. So I realized I needed a front brake setup. I picked up a nice set of drums and backing plates today from HAMBER Mark T, thanks again Mark. This is what I got, one square back spindle too. Now I need another one. Here are the drums after I blasted them and painted them So for now I have the new drums on the car on a set of 35 spindles. I was looking at how much heavier the later spindle is and it looks like it takes a longer king pin, is that true? I also did some sheet metal work. I attempted to make the passenger side piece of the cowl, but I rolled the body line in backwards, so I don't have any pictures of that. Also, the front tires are 5.25 - 5.50 17s. That's it for now, the app works great.
I really like how you have gone about building this body. This car should look great when finished. Good on ya buddy.--TV
You've come a long way, Alf. And bravely, I might add. This was an ambiguous project, and you walked it through with a minimum of material waste, biggest 'change' was the rear height adjustment! There's a large number of us proud of you... Great work.
Its turning out much nicer than I imagined it would from the first post. Looking forward to seeing how it ends up.
The Jalopy Journal
