Thread: Roadster pickup getting closer

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After talking about english wheels earlier, I got fired up and went to Melbourne and bought one. They were on sale for $239! I'll let you know how it works in a few days...

August 16th! I'll mark it on my calendar. Who all is planning on it? Do we know?

Thanks Brick. Yep, he has to continue tying the skeleton into the firewall, then he can start putting the skin on. That will require a lot of welding and grinding, and will probably take a few days at the shop.

Jim, so you broke down and bought one, huh? That is a good price. Like I mentioned, we have looked at them when we visit HF and they look pretty usable to us. Knowing the way you crank out stuff, I fully expect you to build an entire body on that thing.

BTW, last night we went to the shop and Don came over too. He talked us into taking our 2 T's out for a little spin to go get some dinner. He let Dan drive his T home to stimulate Dan to get his done, and then Don had this great idea that we need to fire up Dan's engine for the first time to hear it run. We sort of made plans to get together during the day Saturday to do that, but we may postpone it a little more. We are going to sand down and repaint Dans engine and transmission black, so it doesn't make sense to put oil and coolant and stuff in it until that is done.

Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

He is (or was......is Tex still with us?) ........Don

He's apparently moving to Oz. His first wife died a few years ago of cancer, he's since hooked up with an Auzzie gal, so he's moving down under to be with her. His "dollar a pound" roadster was for sale a couple weeks ago on Hotrod hotline.

I got the harbour freight one on sale awhile back and it seems to work fine, but i can tell when it flexes though. For the stuff we do they work just fine. It sure beats hammering out a panel and smoothing it with filler.

What??? He's going to cover that beautiful dark red with black? Too bad; that's a good lookin' color in the pics. I'm looking for a dark red metallic for my roadster's undercarraige... What color is that?

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

He's apparently moving to Oz. His first wife died a few years ago of cancer, he's since hooked up with an Auzzie gal, so he's moving down under to be with her. His "dollar a pound" roadster was for sale a couple weeks ago on Hotrod hotline.

Hmmm, that's pretty interesting Bob. I remember the $ 1 a pound roadster, but never saw the completed form. How did it come out, and did he hit the $ 1 figure?

Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

............. but never saw the completed form. How did it come out, and did he hit the $ 1 figure?

Don

Supposedly he hit the number, also, somewhere along the line the name was changed to "junkyard dawg". Probably could do a web search and find more pics using that name and his together.

Originally Posted by hotroddaddy

I got the harbour freight one on sale awhile back and it seems to work fine, but i can tell when it flexes though. For the stuff we do they work just fine. It sure beats hammering out a panel and smoothing it with filler.

There's a tech article on the HAMB on how to brace one so it doesn't flex. I don't have the link, and wouldn't know how to post it if I did.

Ron

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

I loved Hot Rod Mechanix and always enjoyed Tex's articles in the other magazines too. He is (or was......is Tex still with us?) one of the true grass roots hot rodders. He came across as just a good old boy who could take the most common parts and turn out a nice, running car. I envy you for meeting him, I would love to have been able to shake his hand.

I was sorry to see Hot Rod Mechanix go away. I know it merged with Rod and Custom for a while, but then that stopped too. I still have almost every issue of HRM, and love to go through them occasionally. I think it was my very favorite magazine of all time.

Don

Don, I did a search on Leroy (tex) Smith but I couldn’t get results as to where he is or what’s happened to him. I would hope he is alive and well. I have all of my old car books also but it’s about time to stop the subscriptions. I really liked Custom Rodder but it’s gone like Hot Rod Mechanix, Rodders Digest, American Rodder, or Rod Action, I’ve lost track now. Some day I’ll try to get them altogether and sell them but for now I like to sit down with a stack and look through them. It was great when I didn’t have to have the reading glasses. I would get comfortable in my easy chair, cigarettes, ash tray, can of Pepsi, wasn’t much of beer drinker, drinking beer made me hurt, got me knocked through a plate glass window, to many black eyes. I did quit smoking though, and that was good.

Richard

My friend Doug bought the wheel and anvils from HF and going to build he's own frame.
Around the world in 80 day's........hmm I wonder what to do with the other 60 day's'''''''LOL
BradC

Don-Dan's work is superb!
I bought mine from William's Low Buck Tools. It has to have a shackle around it to keep it from flexing when I get in a hurry.
Ken

Thanks Ken. As for English Wheels, I remember that episode of Monster Garage where Jesse James was using one and his comment was "these are great for making blood shoot out from under your fingernails!" Maybe that is why we haven't bought one yet.

Don

Any updates Don or has he changed his mind and going another direction.
BradC

Yep, he has decided to turn it into rock crawler, and..................

No, still plugging away, but piddling tasks so not much is post or picture worthy. Last night we worked on the underdash support bar and will finish that up today. Then we can install the steering column and get the steering box fabbed to the frame.

Dan finished up his transmission hump, well, at least for now. Still some body work to do to make it straighter and a skim coat of filler so it can be painted body color............he is not going to run upholstery or carpeting, so it will all be bare metal inside. He also got the mounts for the bomber seats all done and can now bolt the seats into place.

While he was doing that I pulled and tore down his engine so we can strip the paint off and repaint it a different color. Latest plan calls for it to be sort of an Oldmobile engine gold instead of the maroon that is on it. While we had it apart he considered going to an even more radical cam, but I called Crane the other day and the guy tells me the one we used is actually too radical for normal street driving....................exactly what Dan wants. Gotta have that drive in idle, ya know.

But here are a couple of pictures of what we have gotten done.........nothing major, but we seem to still be on track timewise, at least I hope. Dan is going to take two weeks vacation time in August, that way we can put in some long days in a row and hopefully get some major stuff accomplished.

Don

Why did I believe the rock crawler comment .

That tunnel sure turned out nice.

Sean