Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Yeah i was pretty bummed when bill called and told me i just missed you guys, i will definatly be at the other two shows, so maybe it will work out then.

We're baa-aa-aack!!!! And boy is my butt tired from sitting on 2 inches of foam for 5 hours each way, and my legs are killing me from walking 1,000 miles around the swap meet for 3 days. But I wouldn't have traded it for the world.

Brad and Hotroddaddy, I am so sorry we missed each other. I and the other guys were really looking forward to doing that. Brad, I got the note, and the money, but I don't think $100 bills are supposed to have Hillary Clintons picture on the front, at least that is what the guy at the convenience store told me, so I am not sending you the title. I laughed my tail off when I saw the note though, and thank you so much for the kind remarks on the T. I guess hotroddaddy just pulled out as I was coming in.........something about a hot date or something like that took him away suddenly. (Mrs Hotroddaddy, that is a JOKE !!! lol) You are right, we will try again at Billetproof in March.

Thank you Gastrick and JRobinson for the nice words too. You guys have a lot of room to talk, your cars are both amazing in person. I couldn't get enough of looking at the details on each one. I'll touch on that later on.

As Jim hinted, only one of our cars made it to Daytona. We started out about 11 am Thursday with Don in the lead, me in second position, and Dan driving Don's Tahoe as a support vehicle. All went well for the first two hours. People almost running into us on route 75 snapping pictures with cameras and cell phones out the car windows. That was really cool and fun.
Then suddenly I see smoke coming off of Dons rear tires as he is braking hard and pulling to the emergency lane, so we all got off. He says suddenly his engine started making a huge racket.

We started it up, and it was rapping really badly, so we pulled the drivers side valve cover and found the first valve stem had broken in half. We removed the remaining pieces of valve spring, roller rocker and other pieces and found the stem was frozen into the guide. We have no idea what happened, but will pulll the head tomorrow night and see the extent of the damage. I towed him a few miles up the road with a tow strap onto the Tahoe, and we got a trailer from Uhaul and he took it back home. I kept going to Daytona and he and Dan came up after they tucked his T into the shop.

I felt horrible for him, and he was really bummed. He kept saying he should have gone with his instincts to trailer it there because at least he could have cruised around Daytona at night while it was still unbroken. I look at it more positively though. We were lucky to be able to get it off the interstate and find a Uhaul place open on Thanksgiving. It could have been much worse.

Ok, here are some pictures of us starting out and driving up 75 prior to the engine problem. I'll be bck in just a minute tol post some pictures from Daytona.

Don

As I mentioned, I kept going on to Daytona alone because I didn't feel like driving back to Ft Myers then off to Daytona again. My T is fun around town, but it is a handful to drive on an interstate for 5-6 hours.

I got caught in a rainstorm, and worried about the slicks skidding so I pulled under a gas station roof for a while. But I got brave and drove on in the rain and surprisingly it went along fine. I just took it easy on the gas pedal.

The highlight of the trip for me was getting to meet a couple of guys from here in person. We arranged to meet at the track festivities on Saturday night at 8, and when I pulled in the place was a madhouse.........cars and people everywhere. After a few minutes two guys walked up to my car and introduced themselves........it was Jim (JRobinson) and Bill (Gastrick). I am not paying cheap compliments when I say they are two of the nicest people I have met in my life, and I felt immediately like we had been friends for years.

We spent a couple of hours trading lies, and my Sons were engrossed in their two cars. Dan was fascinated by Jims coupe, especially the torsion front suspension. He also loved Bills attention to detail on the '32. Don was thinking about ordering a '32 frame and glass five window body, and after seeing Bills coupe he is now convinced of it. Pictures do not do these two cars justice, and just hearing how they put each little detail into them was so cool. I always knew this forum and a couple of others I frequent were made up of some really super people, and these two are right at the top of that list.

I also got to meet Chevygirlrox and her Hubby from Rodding Roundtable. She had a very serious accident August a year ago when she totalled their T bucket. I had never had the pleasure of meeting her till Daytona, but had heard about the accident. Glad she is now ok. Also met a couple of Dan's fellow members from the HAMB........also super nice guys with some cool rods.

Here are some pictures we took of Jim, Bill, Dan, Don, me, and Jims friend Mike. We also had to take some pictures of the three rods of course.


First picture is Jim showing Dan the fine points of his front suspension.

Second picture shows from left to right, Mike (Jims buddy), my Son Don, Bill (Gastrick) and finally, Dan.

Third picture is Bill, Jim and me.

Fourth picture is our rods all lit up.

Don

I didn't take a bunch of car pictures at Daytona because I figured Bill would do that as he has an impressive picture collection and loves to snap them. But here is the view out our back window at the hotel, and also one of Bel Aire plaza where lots of cars congregate at night. The plaza finally relented and let the rodders park there because the merchants were pretty upset that they would be losing all that revenue.

Don

Finally, we got in tonight around 7 and I tore into Don's engine a little to see what I could see. The stem is frozen solid to the guide, and the head of the valve is protruding a little into the combustion chamber. From looking into the spark plug hole it looks like the piston has one gouge in it, but it looks like it will be ok. The valve looks intact, so maybe the head isn't damaged either. Tomorrow night we will know more when we tear the head off.

Maybe some of you will have some ideas what may have caused this to happen???

Don

Glad to hear you and your crew made it back safe.

Looks like you had a ball!

Other than being a "handful" sounds like your car had no issues.

Sorry to read about your son's engine. Really sad after all that work, but no one got hurt and that's what counts. Hope you get lucky with that piston.

Mike

Thanks Mike. Yep, I really feel for him, he was so planning on it. I also feel bad that I talked him out of trailering it there. The problem still would have happened sooner or later, but it might have held out so he could drive it around Daytona some.

FMX, sorry, I missed your question in there:

Don, I tried looking back and I know I asked you this question before but is that frame a stock Speedway Motors frame or did you Z it more to get it to sit that low? How about the front and rear suspension, are those a Speedway Motors set up as well?

No, we built a new frame entirely with about a 14 inch kickup in the rear. The front spring is Speedway, but on about '40 Ford wishbones. The rear spring is original model A Ford, and I think I am going to replace it with a Posies down the road. It has settled down about an inch because I guess of it being 80 years old, and maybe getting tired. The rear shocks have almost bottomed out, and I am going to order ones that are 2 inches shorter to take care of that. It presented no problems on the trip, but it is something I want to address later on.

BTW, I got just about 20 MPG on the trip! That was pretty good news especially at about $ 3.50 a gallon.

Don

Don, sorry about the engine.... You sure that money is no good I have a bed room full, some with Bill's some with Hilary face comes on a roll.... LOL
Like I said 15 hours arrive at 8am wait 1 hour in line to park, walk for 5 hours found your car waited as long as I could drive home 15 hrs. My leggs are killing me too. Next year going to have to plan better maybe get a room and stay till sunday. I told you I do crazy thing sometimes, just had to see the car. Was worth every minute Life to short as it is not to do thing just for the he....ll of it.
BradC

Wow, you REALLY did that?? I thought you were in town for the show and just happened to pop by. I had no idea. It would have be great if you would have stopped by Saturday night, you would have enjoyed meeting the other guys too.

You must be like the guy in the commercial who drives clear up into Maine to get a lobster dinner.

Don

Don,
I was anxiously waiting for the recap, thanks for the photo's. Can't do much for your sons disappointment, but you can fix the mechanical stuff and look forward to your next trip.
If your son is going to channel the next project, I am close to having the frame done. If I can help after I show it to you let me know.
Ken

Must have been a great feeling to get to do this . Meeting some of the local guys also .

Man the break down on Don's rod stunk. Well get out the wrenches and do a repair get him back up and running .

Hi Ken. No, he is going to do a highboy coupe. He is in love with the Graffiti coupe and was going to do a semi-clone. It has been done a million times, he realizes, but he wanted to do one with some similarities, but also some differences.

After seeing Bills coupe and a few others he is rethinking the final look. Thanks for the offer, we would love to see your pictures and progress.

BTW, Dan is about to get some time to actually work on his own '29 for a change, now that Don and I have ours pretty much done. He bought a beautiful chromed and drilled Superbell axle and four new blackwall 16 inch tires at Daytona. He also picked up a set of the repopped 682 C Guide headlights that have the parking light on top. They really look like the original and are nice. Tonight he was already mocking up things to set ride height and all. We are going to try to get it done for Billetproof in March. I've been letting him drive my T around, and I can see him getting more antsy to get his done now. At first he would fight me when I told him to take the keys, but now I get very little resistance.

Don

Bobby, it was really so nice to finally put some faces with the names on the forum. We all sit here and have this same interest in cars, but it is great to actually hear the guy tell you in person about how he did this or that on his car.

When I looked at the 20 bazillion very straight holes Gastrick drilled into his interior tin work, and saw things like the beautiful wood dash JRobinson built for his coupe, it gave me a whole new appreciation for how talented many of our members are. There are so many ways to build a car that it's very interesting to see how others approach it.

I really would love to go to more events and meet lots more of our members some day.

Don

Don, do you think if I just order the Speedway Motors frame kit with the 10 inch kick up and just cut it and add a 14 inch kick up then it would be as low as yours? How about the front? I see they have a few different front and rear suspension set ups and I like the arch spring in the back instead of 4 link and coil overs since it is more of a vintage look. Like I said, I still have a 302 here, 3 speed tranny (probably put in a automatic for more room like you said but have access to a C4), 57 Chevy rear end or even a 9 inch housing and have access to the internals and I have old axles for it) and I have a few other parts laying around too. As for paint and body work, that wont cost me much at all since I will be doing it myself and have most of the materials already for that.

Sorry to hear about your son's car, but it's fixable (it happens). Great to hear you had such a good time and yours did good.

It's a great feeling to put one together, do a long road trip and make it back with no problems.......just seems to turn the car into an instant old friend, and a great payoff for all the hard work.