Projects Track Roadster 16 yrs in the making

Top a new Easter Bonnet

 

Another good quip by my buddy LB+1.

OK I'll go with "Easter bonnet", but without all the "frills upon it" (apologies to Irving Berlin).

If you don't understand the comment above...you're not an old fart... good for you!

Cheers,

charlie

 

Note the color of clover - lol
For you youngsters

In your easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it,
You'll be the grandest lady in the easter parade.
I'll be all in clover and when they look you over,
I'll be the proudest fellow in the easter parade.
On the avenue, fifth avenue, the photographers will snap us,
And you'll find that you're in the rotogravure.
Oh, I could write a sonnet about your easter bonnet,
And of the girl I'm taking to the easter parade.

If she was mine I would be proud also Charlie
​

 

LB+1

The track roadster will spend Easter getting it’s new bonnet. I spoke with Don Kite and he has measured the top bows and stretchers as well as the 29 body. As expected the Brookville metal is not, ahhemmm..., symmetrical. Jack Presse complained about this too and spent several weeks (years ago) trying to get the sheet metal the same on both sides (drive/passenger). Jack got it pretty close and stopped. Don was concerned because the seams on the rag top have to be in the same place otherwise the top looks asymmetrical. After some fudging, bending and massaging of the bows Don was able to get the top within an ⅛ inch of equal right-left symmetry...which is excellent considering the passenger’s side sheet metal is about ⅜ inch taller than the driver’s side.

Don also had his buddy, Dick Easterwood, weld some stainless steel reinforcements (gussets) to the existing side bars that connect the front bow to the middle bow; this will prevent the top from drumming at high speeds. The top material is ordered and Don just received a stainless steel replica of a Ford Roadster rear window frame (Lebaron Bonney Co).

Don is staining and varnishing the middle and rear bows this week then he will mock up a cloth top. I’ll try to get out to his shop later this week for a final discussion of the top and how it will be attached to the roadster sheet metal. It looks like stainless steel snaps will be riveted to the lip around the cockpit and to the leading edge of the front bow.

I’ll take my camera to Don’s shop for some photos. By the way his shop is beautiful, a dream garage for a car nut.

More info soon with some photos.

trakodstr
aka charlie

 

You can't look at both sides at once - This is were a true craftsman can show his craft - All these things to me keeps the eye moving.

Ouch - on cost - I am quite sure on the L - B part - Top of the line stuff

 

Charlie, Looks like you are about to finish your 16 year build of TR ! Getting down to the final details. Hope you and "TR" enjoy your cruising together.

Dave

 

Dave,

I agree that the end of the tunnel is in sight. There is at least a 50-50 chance I’ll have the Maserodi at the LA Roadster Show. I spoke with John yesterday and asked him to make space for the TR during June. I promise to drive up to the high desert and visit you if I finally realize my dream of attending the LARS with my own car, .

Keep your fingers crossed.

charlie
aka trakrodstr

 

LB+1

Excellent point...ya can’t be looking at both sides of the roadster at the same time. Don is incredible. I told him I keep working with craftsmen who have higher standards than mine; or at least know so much more than I do that they know which details are most important.

Yeah the folks at Labaron Bonney are proud of their window frames. I tried to find an NOS or mint vintage frame and didn’t have any luck. Mostly my efforts are driven by time and it’s easier to pick up the phone and order a window frame and get the task moving.

I want to have plenty of time to get all my ducks lined up for the LA Roadster Show. In particular want to make a couple of 300 mile trips to get comfortable with the roadster on extended drives. If it passes the reliability tests with all colors flying I’ll drve the Maserodi from KC to SoCal. If I am still uncertain about its reliability I’ll rent a truck and haul the TR to Calif.

We’ll see...

Happy Easter Doug!

charlie
aka trakrodstr

 

You might want to get Don to stitch up a cover for it. Like now if you were caught
out in some Hale stones.

 

Sounds like things are looking up Charlie. I can't wait to see it with the top.
Here is the quick vid I tried to put up last summer. I thought I'd try again.



Come over when you get a chance and we'll make a driving version. Let's open that sucker up!

 

Wouldn't drive without them. This is at 65 mph on 395 Northbound north of Carson City, taking pictures of each other.

 

Hey Mike...thanks so much. I had forgotten about your video efforts. Cool.

I’ll drop by when Don has finished his canvas magic. Since I last dropped by I finally figure out that it helps to lubricate ALL the tie rods etc....Duh!

Brett has done all he can with the EFI so I’m running out of excuses about driving the TR to some events. Were you able to take your truck to Austin?

Thanks again for your interest and encouragement.

charlie
aka trakrodtr

 

Deck,

Looking good. See the difference is that you have that noble warrior look and I don’t.

I did buy a similar WWI-type leather helmet, so now I have to get over my delicate shy nature (?). My replica WWII RAF google are outstanding. Comfortable, good optics and lend me the savoir faire of an old timey racer (well sort of). I am shopping for a nice large sized white silk scarf as we speak.

I guess I have to start getting into the spirit of TR...right Doug?

Cheers,

charlie
aka trakrodstr

 

Good Idea. I had thought about ordering a cover for a stock model A roadster and just making do with a slightly wrong shape.

Maybe Don could modify a “stock” cover. I’ll ask.

 

I saw that post about the lube job. She steers a little better now no?

We did not take the truck to Austin. I drove it for the first time 3 days before we were leaving and a chickened out on the 12 hr shakedown trip, ha! She is far far far from finished but I've had her out the last two weekends briefly and am working out the bugs.



If you see anything around town that looks like it fell off this thing, pick it up for me would'ja?

 

Charlie,

Thanks for the "noble warrior" referance, I don't deserve it. Don't you think a "delicate shy nature" is going to be challanged everytime you are pumping gas into your roadster at a gas station. When I get fuel I plan on at least 5 minutes spent talking to other customers, just comes with the territory when you drive that rod your building.

 

Mike,

Boy-oh-boy can I relate to your qualms about striking out on a long road trip. I think my biggest (hobby) nightmare is breaking down somewhere for some dorky reason (no grease in the fittings). Of course since I didn’t build my car there is the added burden of being sort of a passive player in the venture.

You, on the other hand, have the sweat equity that lends your hot rod instant credibility. I sure hope we can take a cruise together this spring/summer.

Outstanding effort Mike, my hat’s off to you and all the DYIers.

charlie

 

Bob,

How right you are about gas pump conversations. I enjoy that aspect of the hobby. I’m mostly kidding about the my wardrobe phobia; but you do have to have a bit of swagger in your soul to carry-off wearing a leather aviator’s helmet.

The shot of you in your TR seems just right to me, man and machine.

Did you see the post in this thread of my buddy Steve and his wife riding in my TR with their Beaver hats? That’s a pretty good look for the cold weather.

Is the tail-dragger behind your roadster a DC3 (C47?)? Were you a deck office on a flat top? I ask because my best buddy, John, was a cat operator on the Ticonderoga for two battle cruises during Viet Nam.

Keep up the cruising.

charlie

 

Charlie,

Beech 18, smaller than a DC3 or Lockheed Electra and instead of Wright R-750's @ 330 hp, everything has to be a hot rod, right? So it has the P & W R-985's @ 450 hp. Your 2nd question, I'm a retired Deckofficer Mechant Marine.

I was visiting the old neighborhood in the T last year. I promise this will be my last picture post as I don't want to hyjack your thread Charlie.

 

Charlie, Have fun with your 300 mile road trips. Hope all goes well. Will be looking forward to your High Desert visit. will also be looking for you at the Roadster Show ! Would be neat if you could make it to El Mirage with TR.
Maybe leave TR at your friends for a cruise to the Walt James Classic. Nothing like turkey sandwiches and clay flying off of racers !

Dave

 

Charlie, the white silk scarf blowing in the wind dosen't shout low profile to me

For the winter rides I use a wool scarf, but keep it wound tight around the neck to keep the wind out.

And for the summer, a lighter helmet is better than the leather. Luckilly for us the Military has also taken care of that detail. The Navy calls them deck hats. Works well in sun and rain.

http://www.buymilsurp.com/us-navy-usn-deck-hat-size-714-p-3835.html


don't forget to rain-x the goggles.
Frank

 

Bob,

Not to worry, great photos of both machines. Beech is a big deal in Kansas, as you know. Where is your old neighborhood? I went to high school in the San Gabriel Valley.

c

 

The really old neighborhood is Glendora in the late 50's. The pictures are Cameron Air Park Estates, off of Hwy 50 between Sacramento and Placerville. Lived there in the early 70's.

 

Frank,

I’ll check out the deck hat, usually on older merchandise the bigger hat sizes are hard to find. I looked for a long time on Ebay for a 50s era racing helmet. The type that looks kind of like a baseball cap but is hard plastic; either the hats were too small or big $$$. Also there are some “boutique” helmets that are outrageously expensive.

I’m thinking that a fisherman’s cap with the neck cloth might be the way to go for summer, but I don’t want the neck cloth flapping around. I’ve tried a droopy straw hat, which works OK except when an 18 wheeler passes or vice versa. In any case these are good problems to have since it means we are out driving our hot rods in warm weather....Yeah!

The Rain X tip is great, thanks.

Old, bald and rarin’ to go,

charlie

 

Gang,

I drove out to Don Kite’s shop yesterday. To her credit Don’s wife, Michelle, took some great photos of the build process last week and I took some photos yesterday.

In a recent post I mentioned that Don had to tweak the bows and hardware to compensate for the fact that the body sheet metal is not symmetrical from side-to-side. After lots of trial-and-error Don was able to get the various elements pretty close to symmetrical, within about 3/8th.

Don then established the height of the top by positioning the rear bow. To do this he made some wood spacers as seen in Photos One and Two (arrowheads). To establish the final position of the second bow Don had to adjust the length of the stainless steel stretcher that connects the first and second bows. The stretcher is shown in Photo Three (arrowhead). From a design standpoint fixing the position of the middle and rear bows also establishes the angle of the rear bow with respect to the upper body edge, and more importantly, the angle between the middle bow and the back bow (arrows, Photo Three). These angles have a big impact on whether the top looks “old-timey” or resembles a more swoopy “hot rod” top. In this case we all agreed that we wanted an old-timey appearance.

Once he had these angles and dimensions Don took the stainless steel parts to Dick Easterwood’s shop up the road. Dick filled and re-drilled some bolt-holes in the stainless hardware. Dick also wielded a gusset or reinforcement to stiffen the two stretchers, which connect the front and middle bows (arrows, Photos Four and Five). Meanwhile, Don had stained, sanded, and varnished the middle and rear oak bows. The front bow (pine) was covered with a water-repellant fabric (Photo Four). The oak finish is beautiful, too bad the bows will be mostly hidden (Photos Five, Six and Seven). Photo Six shows details of the snaps for the top canvas, we all agreed that less is more so Don chose to rivet stainless steel snaps to the body. Snaps that attach via rivets do not have a flange, see the close-up photo. We all fretted over making holes in the paint/body and adding hardware to the Maserodi; however the roadster is pretty conservative in terms of do-dads and widgets. In my opinion the small stainless snaps do not look too fussy; what do you HAMBers think?

I have more photos Michelle took showing steps in making a mock-up of the cloth top; I’ll post those images later.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — the best part of this 16 year effort is having the opportunity to look over the shoulder of master craftsmen at work. I have been extremely fortunate at finding just the right expert for the job at every turn. My hat’s off to Don, for his meticulous craftsmanship, with many thanks to Michelle for capturing the images of Don’s work.

Charlie
Aka trakrodstr

 

Subscribe!

 

Glendora's close. I graduated from Arcadia HS in 1964. So we were in the same neck of the woods. I went to Citrus College, while I was waiting for the draft...by the seventies I was out of the Army and attending CalPoly at Pomona.

Have a great summer.

trakrodstr

 

I learned to swim at Citrus College. That is one old school.

Your build is going to win so much "hardware" (trophies) if your into doing the shows. I thought the injected hemi was over the top till I saw your dash's instrument cluster. Any chance of seeing a close up of the gauges? Where did you get them?

 

Snaps are a plus - Real world - clean, everything is coming together nicely.
Side Curtains?

 

Bob,

I don't plan to enter too many trophy based shows, but I would like to attend the L A Roadster Show.

Earlier in the thread I described the gauge build pretty fully. See posts #111 and #221 for details. Very briefly I found an old black/white Dodge speedo on Ebay. I disassembled the unit, scanned the face, and opened the file in Photoshop. I cloned the fonts and changed the color pallet. I also found an old printer's block for Dodge Bros advertisements. I scanned the face of the printer's block, opened the file in Photoshop and pixel by pixel I freshened and sharpened the image. I then imported the Dodge Bros wing logo into the new file depicting the tachometer face. I sent the semi-finished file to Classic Instruments. Their staff adjusted the image and made it compatible with their printers. They sent me a "proof" copy which I modified slightly and sent back; I also sent the old Dodge speedo to the company.

The Classic Inst folks then printed the newly designed gauge face on a new sheet metal disk, re-plated the nickel plating on the trim ring and mounted a modern electronic tachometer to the face. The other gauges are modern instruments printed with the same file after reducing the size and changing the text (temp, gas, MPH etc). Thus all the instruments were printed with similar colors and logos. The tach needle is the repainted original Dodge speedo needle. The other needles are copies supplied by Classic Inst.

Nowadays there are far more companies around that can print on metal surfaces at very high resolution; thus, I think it would be possible to customize instruments at a much reduced price today. If you can use Photoshop the possibilities are limitless.

Charlie
aka trakrodstr