Thread: retro street rod

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Hi guys (and gals). My first thread. I've just retired early and moved to FL. I've got a notion to have a retro street rod. My vision must be like that of many others.... 32 roadster highboy, flattie with pipes, steel wheels and whitewalls.

What am I missing? Anybody out there done that and kept track of costs? I'm going to research for a while. I have to wait anyway until I get a place with proper facilities.

Thanks

Originally posted by topgeek
Hi guys (and gals). My first thread. I've just retired early and moved to FL. I've got a notion to have a retro street rod. My vision must be like that of many others.... 32 roadster highboy, flattie with pipes, steel wheels and whitewalls.

What am I missing? Anybody out there done that and kept track of costs? I'm going to research for a while. I have to wait anyway until I get a place with proper facilities.

Thanks

Welcome to CHR topgeek. Sounds like a kewl project. Haven't built a street rod in years, but i imagine the price range would vary greatly depending on the build. I'm sure somebody will have some ballpark figures for ya' shortly.

Originally posted by topgeek
Anybody out there done that and kept track of costs? Thanks

Probably thousands of people.

Welcome aboard.

It all depends on how you do it and what your commitment and skill sets are. While you'll hear all manner of "low buck" tales, the reality is it's hard to do a '32 cheap. It's the most popular hot rod platform so the prices are bid up. If you were very, very, very diligent, got lucky, and had a totally uninformed seller, you could find '32 body and chassis stuff cheap............now back to the real world. Anyone who's done one, and really kept track of the parts costs (not counting labor), it's real easy to hit $30k for a collection of middle of the road quality parts with a decent quality glass body. Junk quality bodies cost less initially, but usually extract more cost in making them useable, or in grief cost. Same with ready made frames, and, quite frankly most other parts. You've chosen one of the more costly engines too, be glad you didn't think you wanted a hemi! For example; you can do a mild mannered, fairly well dressed out small block Chev (probably the most economical V8 engine) for around $3k, or a "good running" take out with a bomb can rebuild for $7-800.00. The best you could probably do on a decent take out flathead with a bomb can rebuild is $1500-2000. To fully go through and dress out one of those would look more like $5-6k on the low end. Yeah, again you'll have guys give you war stories about cheapo deals, and if they're being honest, those are lucky strokes. I'm just talking about average here.

Same thing for everything else on the car. The nicer you want it the more it costs. Good paint work is more expensive than junk paint work. Ditto interior. It's all about choices and priorities and your quality standards and perceptions.

If you shop around and be patient, you can often find a decent glass bodied '32 roadster, with a neat flathead, and the other things you're talking about, for around $25k already done. Yup! That's less than the cost of just the parts to build one! That's how it works.

As you've stated, research is the key. The more you learn the better at it you get......................and the less likely you are to make costly mistakes. Just remember, any genius, cost saving idea you come up with has most likely been tried by someone else..............and many times didn't work the way they thought it would. That's life ain't it?

Hello Top;

Welcome aboard, you've come to the right place for answers, and alot of opinions, " even Streets " All good no doubt, so your new to Fla, well there's an up coming Rod Run in Daytona, Two Hours N.E of you, it's every year on Thanksgiving weekend , Here's the Link http://www.turkeyrodrun.com/. This is the South East's Biggest Run, usually draws 5 K plus cars, and has a monsterous Swap Meet. You may find your next project ,Shell, car, or parts there, and if not that there'll, be loads of Ideas. it's Thurs, Fri, Sat ,and Sun, the best days are Fri and Sat. Bob had alot of good info and is right on the mark. Good Luck with what ever you decide upon. Tim

Man Streets ; Don't you ever Sleep ? It's 03:08 , stay up all night giving advice. Or are ya working on yur Rod. ?

Welcome to CHR top, and have fun on your search. Would be a great plan to pack yer wallet with cash and head to the turkey run!!! Was there once a number of years back. If you can't find what you want at THAT swap meet, you don't need it!!! Huge affair, and a great time to boot.

Nice to have another Roadster guy on the forums... I think Hemi Bob is real close on his estimates of the build process... Let us know how you progress through your project...

Dave Brisco

I want the same thing you want. 32 bodies are more expensive (for most) than model a roadsters........so i'm going with a model a body


check out this site......best money i've spent yet

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

Mike Bishop/Vern Tardell

How to build a traditional ford hotrod

I have built 3 rods from the ground up, over the last 18 years. The first, an all steel, full fendered 1931 Desoto coupe running custom frame and chev small block, cost me $15,000, and I built everything myself, built the frame, patched/built the body, painted, upholstered, the whole 9 yards. That took me 6 years of evenings and weekends. The second was a 1927 Ford roadster, again building everything myself, but using a Glass body and doing it Hi-boy style, with chevy small block. This one took 3 years of evenings and weekends, but cost $20,000 to build. Last April, I started to build a 31 Ford full fendered roadster pickup. I currently have a finished steel body and bed, with glass fenders, a reworked Model A frame, 4" dropped I-beam front end, S10 rearend, and 1985 Pontiac small block. So far, I have invested about $11,000 but I cheated? a bit and paid $2500 to have the final bondo work done on the much modified cab section, by a qualified bodyman. I still will have to spend $1000 on tires, $500 on paint (painting it myself), $500 on upholstery, (again done by myself),$500 on cooling system, $300 on exhaust, and probably $500 on gauges and wiring. I expect that if I'm lucky, I may have a finished streetable rod for between $16,000 and $18,000. The big caveat here, is that these prices are only real if you fabricate everything yourself, use recycled (we can't say junkyard anymore) parts, and buy an absolute minimum of aftermarket or speedshop parts. You want to be a good welder, with the right equipment, you should know how to paint, bodywork, upholster, wire, etcetera, etcetera. If you farm out much of anything at all, the cost to build a rod will be between $30,000 and $50,000 dollars. I live in Canada, where the costs are marginally different than the USA, but the costs to build a rod don't really differ that much.

Welcome to CHR, a great place to learn a lot from the practical experience of many others that is not in many, if any, books. I guess I have been in the lower economic class most of my life and it shaped my values but I have been shocked by prices after 50 years. I had a '31 Fordor as a teenager and then a '47 Ford convert at 17 but always wanted a A/B roadster. Now you can buy an entire metal replica '32 roadster from Brookville for about $10,500 or a replica A roadster in steel for about $6400 plus about $1800 for fenders. If you are in that price range you should get a Brookville (Ohio) catalog. I just got the Brookville A-frame and plan to get a 'glass A roadster body , probably from Bebops with fenders for about $4500. You can build a mild sbc 350 for about $1500 or buy a short-rod (400 rods) 383 for about $1800 and then a 700R4 for about another $1400. If you go the route of a '39 three speed that may be up to $500 while a junk '40 rear with a closed drive line can probably be found for around $200 in an unknown condition. However if you are thinking of Zephr gears you get into big buck territory for maybe another $400 just for parts. Then a real quick-change rear center section with gears will be another $1500 or so. You could probably build a running flathead drive line IF (?) you can find a useable block (59AB or 8BA), use a rebuilt standard 3 speed and put new bearings in a used '40 rear and then try to find a brake kit for a front end with a $400 Moredrop front axle. However, that whole drive line is a bit fragile and the parts are so hard to find you will not want to keep or even find duplicate parts AND even after stroking, a flathead will only give 250 H.P. with a lot of work while a rebuilt SBC 350 can easily be built for 270 HP with mild parts. My solution to this situation is to build an A roadster with a SBC driveline and by the way a 8" Ford rear from a mid-'70s Maverick will be just the right width for an A. Consider the hood alone. A steel hood for a '32 can be $1000 while a reproduction A hood is only about $340. Then there is the '32 grill compared to a simpler '29 chromed or painted shell. A recent shock to me was a speedometer with a built-in tach dial for a mere $600! I will try to buy cheaper gauges from J.C. Whitney and build my own fluted wood dash with a Dremel router bit with all the gauges and tach for less than $150. I guess what I am saying is that the only thing that is important to me is acceleration quickness with a 3.55 rear gear and a 700R4 OD for 4th gear mileage and the rest of it will just have to be "functional" plain vanilla with a simple one color in Dupont acrylic. The Model-A roadster has eluded me economically for my whole life with prices just out of reach each time and I am just going to build what I can and only pay high buck attention to the drive line since that is what interests me the most, but just for street use and attending meets. So what if I don't get a "best-in-show", the fun is in the to/from travel for me. Weigh your wallet, but before you commit take a look at a '29 highboy on a full-bracket Brookeville '32 frame as a middle-cost option and after you look and look for a useable flathead block you can pick up a rebuildable 350 SBC a lot cheaper and end up with more power.
I bought three (3) flathead blocks which all turned out to be cracked in one way or another before I got converted to a SBC 350.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Well TopGeek ; you got a lot of bang for your buck on that post, lotsa good info, But Dave's right , bring your wallet to the Turkey Run , I forgot to mention the " Car Corral " lotsa nice cars for sale here, some maybe in your price range and you may go home with a new project, if you ready for one , not sure if you knew about it or not but in October ( second week end ) is the South East Street Rod Nationals in Tampa at the Fla. State Fairgrounds, it draws ~ 1500 street rods, also just last weekend in Zephyrhills, Fla was an Antique Meet , large auction and swap meet , the main one is in February, super meet, good place to buy cars or parts, vendors are there also. Alot goes on in the Sunshine state, besides Hurricanes, and we can drive our cars year round, eat your hearts out you snow birds, Good luck to ya,