Technical The Geoffrey Skene 1932 Roadster

Hey, Everyone! It’s been a lot of years since I’ve been active here on the HAMB other than occasionally selling parts in the classifieds. Last time I was around, some 8 or 9 years ago, I did a massive build thread on my 1932 Pickup that went DEEP on early chassis tech and proved quite popular. Welp, I have a new 1932 project, a Roadster, that I’m building for my customer and friend Geoffrey Skene of Wyoming that’s a full, from the ground up, every nut and bolt build that is on an order of magnitude bigger scale than what I did with my old truck. If that sounds fun then please give this thread a follow as it’s my plan to document every step of the project.

IN THE THE BEGINNING…

Back in the summer of 2020 (yes, THAT 2020…) Geoff reached out to my Dad and I asking if we could store a ‘32 Roadster project that he had bought. Our mutual friend, Dave Simard, got word that the project was for sale down in San Diego after its previous owner/builder died (cause unknown.) He went to have a look, as an accomplished body and paint man liked what he saw then thought to call Geoff and tell him about it. Geoff ended up buying it, Dave went and hung the car back together (it was apart for body work I believe) and hauled it to our place and pushed it into our storage building. There the car would sit for the next couple of years.

I’ve worked on a lot of cars at our shop, Early V8 Garage, over the years but most of those have been pretty straight forward. Many of them installing our hydraulic brake conversions and lots of chassis / running gear overhauls. Not that there’s anything wrong with that BUT I had really been hoping for a project to come along that would be heavy on custom fabrication to challenge my capabilities and make my mark as a hot rod builder. These days with my dad in his later 70’s I handle 100% of the work happening at the shop, including the hydraulic kit production. As his involvement is winding down we’ve had the BIG TALK and I’m going to be transitioning the shop away from parts production & sales and towards car building as that’s where my passion is.

Enter the ‘32 Roadster. Having a lunch visit with Geoff while he was out last January (2022) for the Grand National Roadster Show I got proactive and pitched him the idea of letting me build this car for him. He was immediately receptive and after a very positive conversation Geoff was on-board and we started brainstorming a basic plan as he told me of many killer parts in his stash. I told him I could get started as soon as I finished the 1940 Convertible that I was restoring, a car that originally had come in to have the brake system overhauled then turned into a body-off!

Jumping forward some months to June, 2022, that ‘40 Convertible was finished and delivered so I shuffled the shop around and made a cozy spot for Geoff’s Roadster.



The car as purchased had been another fellows (fairly long-term) project and had an impressive assortment of parts attached to the original, stock frame. Like a completely chromed original dropped axle and suspension, even polished Buick drums. Out back was a fully chromed and cut-down 1942-1948 banjo axle. Under the hood sat a mildly hopped up 8BA Ford Flathead hooked to fully chromed 1939 trans! The car even had one of our 1932 master cylinder kits installed. The guy must have exhausted his budget on all the plating because the wheels and tires were totally lame cheapo chrome solids (like Pepboys trailer wheels) with crappy radial tires. The exterior was extremely resto-rod with lots of aftermarket stainless steel and chrome. Inside they had built a very sturdy bracing system. The body is nice and square and the doors “click” shut perfectly.

















I’m sure many of you would be absolutely elated to grab a project with all this awesome chrome under it but the thing is, all that chrome isn’t Geoff’s cup of tea. He prefers a painted chassis with a bit of accent or bare aluminum here and there. He bought this car for the nice sheetmetal and original frame. That said, the first order of business was to completely dismantle the car and he commissioned me with finding a buyer for all of the running gear. After listing the chrome assemblies on my Instagram account it took all of 3 days to find a buyer and shipment was arranged to the Northeast of the country. Unfortunately, I recently saw that the nice fellow that bought it all died unexpectedly so I have no idea what will become of all of this stuff.











As it turned out that despite it’s refurbished appearance with all-new external parts, the long-block turned out to be thoroughly used so all of the dress parts were parted-out and (finally) just last weekend a guy saw my ad for the long block here on the HAMB Classifieds and picked it up as a rebuilder for his ‘34 hot rod project.



So, there is the project’s introduction. I’ve got some catching up to do to get us current and I’ll chip away at it consistently. This is gonna be one of those builds with a thoroughly customized chassis and drowned with killer, rare hot rod parts. Just wait until you see some of this stuff! I can’t thank Geoff enough for the opportunity.

- Dennis -

 

Awesome, looking forward to following along

 

Thanks for sharing your story and pictures

 

Oh boy!

 

Great project.

 

WOW !!!!
Love it !!

 

Looking forward to following this.

 

I remember following the pickup build; great details and photos. Watching this one as well. Thanks.

 

Looks like a great project

 

Thanks for sharing! I followed you on IG... I love IG but always came back to this forum... It's the best! Keep posting!

 

This should be fun to watch!

 

Hey Dennis, looks like a great project . . . best of luck with it and I'll keep coming back to see how you are doing. If I can help you in any areas of the Flathead build (if you're sticking with a flathead), let me know.

 

I just happen to know Geoff and when he bought the car.He's picked up a few flathead engine parts unique to France and maybe they will be incorporated in this build.

 

@NealinCA

Chromed parts possibly for sale

 

This will be good!

 

Thanks for following me! Agree, I like IG but there’s no replacement for a forum when it comes to detail.

We are using a Flathead, a very stout one that is already built and test run awaiting a home. I believe it was Dave Tatums last engine and based on previous experience with his Flatheads, it should be a good one!

I’d say the chances of that are 100%. More on that later…

 

Neal was one of the first people to contact me when the parts were originally for sale last year.

 

I’m definitely following since I traded my sedan body for a roadster and kept the sedan’s traditional chassis and running gear.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-yessir-see-below-update-may-6.1284263/page-5

Dennis is the perfect guy to have for a guide.
Thanks for sharing this with us!

 

Any idea how much was removed from the top rail to create a 2" sweep?

 

The frame is stock, unaltered, aside from a few extra holes. The 32 frame has a natural sweep from the firewall forward.

 

@Dennis Lacy is the brake setup still available from the chassis?
Thanks

 

Glad to see you back with us, I'm sure this will be a well documented, quality build. I'm anxious to see the vintage speed parts that you're going to use.
Tom

 

That one is long gone but I do still make them. Send
me a private message for info.

 

Welcome back @Dennis Lacy, the prodigals have been coming home for a while now. Myself included
Looking forward to seeing this roadster come together.
I had a re-read of your truck thread the other day

 

Nice! People still reference the truck thread to me fairy regular. I guess it made an impression…

 

PART 2

With the car stripped down to a bare frame and all of that unsightly chrome tossed aside (LOL) a thorough exam was done including cross measuring multiple points to ensure that that the frame was square and thankfully it was. With the shape and dimension confirmed the next step was a trip to the steel yard for some 2 x 2” square tube to build fixtures on our jig to hold the frame securely. This jig was passed on to me back in 2005 (to build my custom 32 frame for my 27 Roadster) from my Dads best friend and my mentor, Chris Wickersham. He had received it a couple of years prior to that after his shop neighbors passing, a hot rod builder in Monrovia named Large Leon.

To get started I fit 4 cross members and using some additional short pieces of 2 x 2” put some risers on the inner 2 to get the frame up for some working clearance. (The main jig had sat outside since 2007 so cleaning it good enough to TIG on proved to be a bitch!) The frame was placed and very carefully centered then clamped in place. On the risers alignment tabs were added on both sides.









With the center locked in place and the frame square to the jig I then made fixtures at the front and rear frame horns that secure through the spreader bar bolts.











With the frame now fully secure a magnetic angle finder was put on the flat centers of the front and rear cross members. I’d say the frame is level!





The finished product. All secure and ready to start carving on!

 

PART 3

When laying out this project with Geoff and learning what transmission it was going to get (more about that in a later post) I knew right away that the original frame center “K-member” was not going to be very accommodating. Geoff showed me some pictures of another fellows chassis where he had modified the K-member to make the particular trans fit but it was less than ideal. It was then that I suggested ditching the K-member and finding a 1933/1934 Ford frame center “X” section to graft in. We talked about aftermarket “X” kits but I insisted on original. I put some wanted ads out and it took a few weeks but a guy came through with one and it was right here in Southern California. I enlisted the help of my friend John Olaerts and what he calls his “Church Van” and after a 3 hour round trip with a breakfast stop, I had an original 1933/1934 “X” in-hand. Only caveat was that it was still attached to chunks of frame rail and a couple crusty running boards. The center saddle did not come with the pieces but I had a spare on the shelf to make the “X” complete.







I went to work grinding and punching out the original rivets holding the inner X to the outer rail pieces and after about an hour I was rewarded with separation.



And the cast off outer rail and running board carcass’.



The undersides of the top flanges had 7 captive nuts for the 33/34 floor and trans cover tin to attach. I won’t be needing those and half of them had screws broken off in them anyways.









I also trimmed all 4 ends even and laid the pieces out.





With an original X secured and happy with its condition I went to work on more rivets and got the K-member pulled out with zero damage.



With the K-member removed I propped the X pieces up into place. Kinda like that! Now to make them fit…

 

Really enjoying the ride along, and it's barely started!

Chris

 

Somebody in the past did just that to my 32 frame, now under my ex-sedan that now identifies as a roadster.
In fact, I bought your 34 E-brake kit for it. Of course, it fit perfectly!
The old unknown builder also used a 34 rear crossmember to drop the rear down.
But you know that.
Keep this cool build coming!

 

Dennis is so awesome; you are on here and willing to show how you build traditional cars. Next time I am in town I will stop by again and say hi.