Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Oh and Don, I am not bored with your thread of posts, KEEP POSTING! Teach me more!

FMX---A word from someone who's "been there". I bought a 27 roadster fiberglass shell---no floors, uncut doors, no firewall, no cut out trunk area. I bought it brand new, out of the mold, for $3500 cash, from a no-name glass body manufacturer. Now, this post is not about trashing the body. It was a very good repop of a 27 T roadster, and when it comes as a one peice shell, there are certainly no issues with "fit" of doors or anything else. I worked for a year on that puppy---glassed in the 3/4" marine plywood floors and firewall (marine plywood is made with waterproof glue, so there is less chance of it "seperating" if the bottom gets wet a lot) I made all the internal bracing from laminated 3/4" plywood, glassed into place, and I framed and cut and hinged and latched both doors. I had a lot of fun in that year, and I learned/improved a lot of really neat skills working with glass.---So why am I rambling on like this???? Well, at the end of the game, I had a really nice 27T roadster---BUT---for very little more money, and the same amount of work, I could have built a hi-boy 32 roadster which would have had a ton more room and been worth twice as much when I went to sell it. I could have bought a one peice 32 roadster shell for $5000 when I bought the 27 body. The car ultimately ended up costing about $20,000 by the time I was finished. When I went to sell it, 5 years later, it took a long time to sell, at only about half what i had invested. It wasn't the quality of the work, it was just that 27's are only about half as appealing to the "hot-rod market" as 32 roadsters. What am I trying to say here???---just that when going into a projext, don't let "cheapness" dictate the body style you build. The $1500 you save up front will come back and bite you on the butt when you ever decide to sell that project and move on.

Brian I will take that into consideration for sure then and you are correct. You have much more experience first hand in this than me so I will listen to you. That is a reason I am just going to wait and see what happens. I will wait, sell one of my projects (maybe two), save up some money, buy some tools that I have been wanting and then if I come across anything around here for sale that is REAL then I will buy it. Heck I wouldn't mind owning a roadster and a pickup both if I found them! Hahaha

Don, don't get me wrong I think what you did with your rear suspension is awesome, I absolutely love seeing parts fabricated. I never found a need to fabricate anything for my 72 Monte Carlo.

I guess my problem is I don't know a 32 split wisbone from a Butterball wishbone. I really can't see any other way than what you've done, believe me I spent a lot of time looking. My radius rods are 40" long and run pretty much parallel to the ground. The frame has about 8" of rake, I would just be happy with it sitting close to level.

I am also looking at cutting pockets in the floor to sit my butt lower, so the idea I had to let any of the suspension swing into the floor pan is out, even if it would work.

Really appreciate the time you put into posting, Ron

Ron: Do me a favor. Post some pictures of your bucket. It would be a nice suppliment to this thread, because it will show some different ways that T's are built. Also, we can maybe offer some suggestions as to how you can get it a little lower, as you have indicated you want to do. Take some shots from all different angles, and also some of the rear and front suspension. You can only post 5 pictures at a time, so use a couple of posts if you need to. If you need help in posting the pictures, let us know, we will tell you how to do it. A picture is worth a thousand words, which is why I try to post as many as possible.


Hey, my new 350 turbo showed up today. It was on a pallet and shrink wrapped, and made the trip from NC without a scratch.. Don't you just love it when car parts show up? I'm like a kid at Christmas and couldn't wait to cut the package open. Our Parts girl saw the trailer truck show up and knew instinctively that it was for me. She said "Well we won't be seeing Don for a little while, he's got some new toy to play with." She was right.

Don

From where at in NC did you get your tranny from? I just remembered about you saying you didn't have room for a clutch pedal and so now I only have an engine I can use and no tranny. I would need to get a C4 I guess. lol Oh well, not like I am getting one any time soon or something haha.

Jackson Racing Transmissions, Hendersonville, NC. Here is what you do. Find their ad for some transmission on Ebay,(they run several ads all the time), then go to view sellers other items. It will give you whatever units they are selling at that time. They always have a starting bid and a buy it now. I watch until I see a transmission I want is getting near the end of the auction with no bids, and I put in the starting bid. Sometimes they have no reserve on them and you can win it for the starting bid. My first one I bought from them was a built C6 that is good for 700 HP. It had a buy it now of $ 1350.00, but no one bid and I got it for $ 450.00. Aamco won't even change your tranny fluid for that kind of money.


Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Ron: Do me a favor. Post some pictures of your bucket. It would be a nice suppliment to this thread, because it will show some different ways that T's are built. Also, we can maybe offer some suggestions as to how you can get it a little lower, as you have indicated you want to do. Take some shots from all different angles, and also some of the rear and front suspension. You can only post 5 pictures at a time, so use a couple of posts if you need to. If you need help in posting the pictures, let us know, we will tell you how to do it. A picture is worth a thousand words, which is why I try to post as many as possible.


Hey, my new 350 turbo showed up today. It was on a pallet and shrink wrapped, and made the trip from NC without a scratch.. Don't you just love it when car parts show up? I'm like a kid at Christmas and couldn't wait to cut the package open. Our Parts girl saw the trailer truck show up and knew instinctively that it was for me. She said "Well we won't be seeing Don for a little while, he's got some new toy to play with." She was right.

Don

Don, I will post pictures later this week, I've got Buckeye ticket's for Saturday, and have a lot of work to get done before then "real work".

I know what you mean about getting parts at work, my brother and me are asked all the time when we went into the car parts business.

I've mentioned that my Son is building a '29 Ford. It started out as a Fordor that he chopped and channelled, but a couple of months ago he found a very solid 2 door sedan body that he is going to build, so he decided he really didn't want two sedans. The solution was to turn the fordor into a roadster pickup.

He cut the body in half, and fabricated brand new quarters out of new door skins he sectioned, and he and I bent up and bead rolled a new bed for it. This put him ahead by months over what it would have taken to build the fordor, and now he has a roadster too.

I thought some of you might enjoy seeing the most recent pictures of it.


Don

One more shot.

the roadster pu is beautiful.. every thing you and your son build looks perfect

Harmon

Don
Is the P/U baged??? How about a shot from the front. If I live long enough I'd realy like to build one of those.
Charlie

Yep, bagged front and rear. He modified one of the kits that they are making for model A front ends, and mounted it suicide style, and then he got a triangulated 3 link set up from Suicide Doors for the rear. The bags in the front are pretty hidden, and it sort of looks like a cross spring setup when you first look at it.

I loved it as a sedan, but have to admit the RP is pretty cool. I don't have any current shots from the front end, but will get some and post them.

In case any of you haven't seen the frame and what the car looked like as a fordor, here are a few more shots.

Don

Here is what makes all the bags work.


Thanks for the nice words guys.

Don

Looks like post 385 shows you got the automatic trans in your project. Hows the linkage working out.