Thread: Roadster pickup getting closer

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Stay more than an hour I would have to get a Hotel room.......LOL
BradC

Don are you and Dan on vacation?? Haven't seen any update photos since 5/26. I know you've been on Don's car, but surely the work hasn't stopped on Dan's. When can we expect an update???

BTW, Dan says you are a picture taking fool, so let's see 'em.

Brick, sure, you could build everything behind the cowl out of either other car parts or fabbed up from sheet metal. There are always doors and back panels at swap meets or on Ebay. I bought 4 nice doors for $ 60 one time on Ebay. (of course it cost me $ 280 to ship them ) but they are out there.

Brad, I hear they have finally built some hotel rooms in Daytona Beach. You might be actually able to get one of those and stay for a while next time.

Bob, the reason for no updates is because we really did come to a halt for the past week or so. Not only did Dan spend some time helping get Dons car running, but he has been in a "pondering" mode. He is at the stage of putting the body together where he has to channel the subframe and he has been trying to figure the best way to do it.

The original plan was to cut the existing subframe up, move it up 4.5 inches and reweld it in place. But after a lot of thought he has decided to have some 1/8 inch steel cut and bent up to form angles that will form the sides of the drop and then run 1 x 2 inch steel crossmemembers off of that. We just finalized that last night and he is supposed to be ordering those pieces today from the local steel supply house.

What hurts a little is that he spent $ 500 for a subframe that will mostly not be used now, but there was no choice, we needed it to set up the body and will be using some parts of it.

So, maybe in the next couple of days when the new steel is ready we will have something to update on.

Thanks for asking,

Don

I think we have finally got this body thing figured out. If we were just building it as a stock highboy it would have been somewhat easier, but it is being channeled 4 1/2 inches, so we not only had to build the body from parts, but then we had to figure out how we were going to cut it up to lower it over the frame.

The original plan was to simply cut up the stock Ford subframe, drop it over the frame, and fill in the gaps with fresh steel. After a lot of thought (Dan's not mine ) he finally decided to have some steel bent up to form new side rails, and then simply insert 1 x 2 crossmembers under it to join them together. The steel shop did a great job bending them up, as we needed one leg 5 5/8 inches and the other leg 2 inches, and we needed them bent to a 110 degree angle to match the door jam angle.

Friday night we went to the shop about 7 pm and worked until 5:30 Saturday morning, but we really made some progress. Today we put in another 12 hours and got to the point where the body is now temporarily sitting on the frame. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but it is finally shaping up into something that looks like a car.

Here are some pictures of where we ended up.

Picture one shows one channeled subframe and one stock subframe.

Picture two shows one channeled subframe and the stock one cut off all the way.

Picture three show the body installed with temporary bracing to see how it would fit.

Picture four is the mocked up car

Picture five shows the door jam with the door open.

Don

Looks really good to me, you guys have a good plan !
Ken

Thanks Ken. I have to admit it was a clean way to subframe it........really strong too.

Don

Great description and photos. I'm lost when it comes to this kind of stuff, Dan it is looking great.

Don - it's really looking great, with nice workmanship. I don't think I could do what you are doing tho - I'm too tall and would probably look like I was sitting ON the car instead of in it .

Just a note - with the Brookville doors - you will probably have to weld the door skin to the inner panel. Take the upper and lower corners while they doors are bolted on and lay your thumb at the joint at the bottom and give it a bit of a twist. You will probably see or feel some movement. I cursed mine - aligned it - and the bottom back was worked fine opening and closing. Came back the next day and the @#$% door bottom hung out again - out came the mig. Problem solved .

Thanks guys. We're gonna have to check the doors out. They looked ok from what we've seen but haven't really checked them out closely yet. Thanks for that info. Ever since we started putting this body together we have cussed out Brookville a couple of times, only to find out something we thought was wrong actually did fit once we lined it up correctly. If we were off a 1/16 inch in one spot it threw the rest of the body a half inch off in other places.

Getting the cowl straight was the biggest and hardest job. Once that was right the rest of it started fitting ok. If anyone else is thinking of doing one of these unassembled bodies the best advice I can offer is to drill 1/8 inch holes and use small bolts and wingnuts to hold it temporarily together. We did that and everytime we would have to break it down to do another step the holes and bolts assured us it was going back together in alignment. We tried using Cleco fasteners, but they didn't clamp the panels as tightly together as the bolts did. We plan to weld through the holes when we are all done, making the body all one piece.

We also thought at a couple of points "what the h*** did we buy an unassembled body for? " There were times we thought we would never get it together properly, but looking back, if we had bought an assembled body we would have had to tear most of it apart anyway to do the channeling. Plus, we would have had to deal with Brookvilles thick primer on the entire car. So I guess this was the best way to go.

We are down to 160 days before we have to leave for Turkey Run, and although that seems like a lot, there are still a million things to do on Dan's car. I don't want to get down to the last couple of days like we did with Don's T and try to take an untested car that far from home. We have to keep hustling on it every chance we get. And one way or another, this car is going to Daytona in November!!!!!

Don

Tha'ts killer. You guys are definitely doing a really nice build over there.

Jimmy Shine's '34 completely changed the way I look at these old trucks - I liked them before seeing that thing, and now I love them.

Don, tell Dan it's looking great, I like the stance already.
BradC

Thanks Steve. I'm like you, Shines truck is really cool. He does some very nice work........I guess that's why he does it for Pete C.

Thanks Brad. The way it's mocked up is the way it will end up sitting, so it is pretty low, but with a slight rake.

Tonight we put in a few more hours when Dan got home, and decided to work on the back panel of the body. It is made up of a rear section and two side pieces and they have to meet up perfectly at the seam on either side. Out of the box that didn't happen, there was a fair amount of trimming and grinding on each side, and we probably had it apart a dozen times until we got it close enough to call it good.

After that we slid the front part of the body up against the rear section to see how the gaps and alignment were. We still have a bit more tweaking to do but it is a lot closer than it was a week or two ago. Now we have to concentrate on getting the rest of the subframe done and then we can start installing the floor, transmission hump and driveshaft tunnel.

Here are a couple of pictures of where we left off tonight.


Don

Whoops, forgot pictures.

Don

Gotta love that new sheet metal! It makes me jealous just thinking how nice the paint is going to lay on there!

Don,
Whenever I see one of your photos, I know that I should have completely disassembled my Brookville and reassembled it "right". Mine has so many out of spec/alignment panels, though will never be seen by most, but I will know they are there and know what I had to do to even get it close(I know, more whine from me ).