Thread: Roadster pickup getting closer

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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

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 ).

Looks great Don! Maybe a bit overbuilt, but it sure as heck shouldn't suffer from the "bouncies" like some of the featherweight cars I've seen... Should be a very nice, stable car for cruizin'. Certainly no corners have been cut on the chassis or body supports that would comprimise safety issues....

Really NICE guys! Dan is as close to a true perfectionist as I've ever found (I think). I thought I took a lot of pains with things, but he sure goes beyond that. Extremely good craftsmanship (from all three of you). Great going. Perley

Thanks Dave, yeah, I don't think he will be able to hurt anything on the car when it's done. With that heavy Olds up front it's probably a good thing he is building it as stout as he is.

Thanks Perley. He used to drive me nuts when we worked on things together because he analyzes every little detail and if he is a hair off he cuts things off and starts over, but I'm starting to appreciate that because he does get good results. When I see him get into his thinking mode I just go off and pet the cats for a while or sweep up the place until he gets it figured out in his head, then we start working again.

We want to get some time in working on it again today, but Dan and Don tell me we are going to knock off early so we can take our two T's and go out for a bite to eat for Fathers Day. That should be fun.

Don

Happy Fathers Day

Don, I’m sure your Sons are proud of you, and the dinner will be a well deserving treat.

The Roadster pickup is really top shelf; Dan will be a popular builder if he wants to continue doing this, and will have plenty of people standing in line for one of his builds, with help from his No 1 Dad. Good job guys.

Richard

Happy Fathers Day Don. Have a great dinner. Sounds like a perfect day, shop time with family, car cruise and Dinner out!

Thanks guys, and Happy Fathers Day to you as well.

As far as Dan or me doing this for other people, we sort of have a running joke about that right now. When we ordered his body and saw there was about a $1500 difference by ordering it unassembled, I told him we should order a couple and take one to a big car show and sell it.........how hard could it be?? Well, after fooling around with for the past 4 weeks Dan keeps saying to me, "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we buy a couple of these bodies and put them together to sell???" After all, we would love to work for $ 1.00 per hour!!

No, we are too slow to ever earn a living at this stuff. Picking up soda cans would be more lucrative, I think.

The guys bought me new chrome shocks for Fathers day and I got them on the front of my T. Really made a difference over the worn out ones. We are going to Hooters tonight for dinner. Yeah, the food is ok, but the scenery is about as good as it gets.

Don