Thread: Moving ahead rebuilding my '27 roadster.

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About a month ago it dawned on me that I was trying to get the wrong car done in time for the Billetproof Drags in October and Turkey Run in November. I had been working on my 30 RPU but it still needed a lot of fabrication work and welding, and I really didn't want to pull Dan off of his own project to do any welding for me. However, sitting there waiting to be refinished was my '27 roadster that I tore down for a rebuild almost 9 years ago. It was a running driving car that I drove almost daily for 7 years, and it just got tired and needed redone.

Most of the car is fine, and the biggest thing that I need to do is repaint everything and build a fresh motor for it. The purple paint was ok in 1988, but had worn out it's welcome with me over the years. First thing I did was DA the entire frame, then hand sand it. After that I shot a couple of coats of epoxy primer on it and finally painted it black. When I looked at it the next day I wasn't really happy with the finish, so I sanded it again with 320 and scotchbrite pads and shot it with more black that I had added some flattening agent to. This time it came out ok.........not perfect but fine for what I want it to be.

I also took a bunch of suspension stuff to the powder coater and should have those back Monday or Tuesday. Tomorrow I am going to paint the rear end black also. Plan is to have most of the car black with maybe an offwhite grille insert and interior. That isn't set in stone yet and I won't be sure until I see the frame and suspension sitting up on wheels.

Biggest change is going to be in the engine. The car always had a 302 Ford in it, and I had considered building a 347 stroker for it. But after doing some thinking I am going to go with the 30 over 302 block, add some Scat internals, and a set of decent aluminum heads. It had ok power the first time around, but I want this one to be more radical. For sure I am going to run an X cam because after hearing Don's and also the way Dan's idles, I can't let them outdo me.

Here are some pictures of the frame as the purple was starting to go away, and how it looks now in black.

Don

Got to agree the black looks better than the purple, and the application looks pretty good, too!

You're one sick puppy Don------------Tooooo many cars and waayyy too much time on your hands!* You need to get an after work job, give you something to do----------Wow, sure looks better than that purple/pink job!* I think you should get that Dodge going, junk the RPU, Seriously, I am glad you are rolling again.* We've all missed your posts, to be sure!* Best Regards,* Perley

RIP for the PINKlegendary car.

Thanks guys. Funny how our tastes change over time. At the end I couldn't stand looking at that purple any longer. Even the red suspension and wheels were starting to get to me a little.

Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Thanks guys. Funny how our tastes change over time. At the end I couldn't stand looking at that purple any longer. Even the red suspension and wheels were starting to get to me a little.

Don

PINK is hard to live down! Ha Ha
Seriously the black looks great, the frame looks brand new. Black and white has always been a favorite combo. What do you think about white diamonds on black for the seats? I was thinking of posibly doing that on the truck towards the end of the build(hopefully in this lifetime!

Steve, just to keep Bob happy I'll paint the body fuschia. Poor guy is going to be so depressed now that there is no more purple to pick on.

I got the last of my painting for a while done today. Sprayed the rear axle housing, backing plates and drums gloss black. Also painted my steering column and headlight mount. I had to keep moving my stuff outside because it kept raining just enough to mess me up, but I finally got a clear spot and got it all done.

Hopefully tomorrow I can pick up my powder coated pieces and start assembling this thing. Dan made some progress this weekend too, he got his dash rail modified to fit a little better than Henry Ford intended, so now he can move on to getting the floor finished.

No pictures tonight, but maybe tomorrow I'll have some freshly coated stuff to post.

Don

Maybe we should all start a trend! Pink rodders unite!
One of my favorite movies is operation peticoat with Cary Grant and the pink submarine. My wife rolls her eyes whenever I watch it. Maybe if I paint the truck pink, she be willing to help lift the bed on and off! Tomorrow I'll hopefully be getting my radiator, and will post some shots if I can get it in. Keep posting it'll be nice to see some more rods rolling out of the "triple d" garage!

Don, good idea to lose the pink/lavender frame. I have a friend on another site that had temporarily put pink wheels on his 37 Ford Cabriolet a few years back. He is still living that one down. God only knows how long you would have had to deal with people'e memory of a pink/lavender frame.

Best not to even go there.

I got my parts back from the powder coater this week and started to assemble them onto the frame. Some of the original chrome bolts and nuts were still in good shape, but some were showing some age, so I placed an order for new ones, and put those in the stressed areas like the radius rods. I was actually able to salvage quite a bit of the old car which is going to save me some time and money. For as many hard miles as I put on this car it fared pretty well.

Things are going really well and parts are going back in place pretty easily. I put the rear spring and radius rods on the rear end housing and when I bolted it in place we ran a tape measure to triangulate it into the frame. After just a little tweaking the rear end was right on the money..........surprised the heck out of us that it came out that close first try. Next we installed the front end and adjusted it until we got the same wheelbase side to side. The car should be totally square now.

I finished installing the rest of the front end parts and got as far as the backing plates before I decided I had had enough. We were at the shop until 4 am last night, and I am feeling it today. My goal for tomorrow is to finish up the front brakes and to take my tires off of the 4 rims so I can have them powder coated this next week. Still not sure about rear tires.......I found out the Hurst slicks I was thinking about are only 28 inches tall and I want something closer to 30. I am going to look at Radir slicks website tonight and see what theirs are.

Here are some pictures of where the frame and running gear is tonight. My goal is to have it as a complete roller by the end of August. The guy I am getting my center section from is at Bonneville until the 16th, which means I can't get it ordered until then.

Thanks for looking...........


Don

Wow Don that black is beautiful. Looks like a brand new car, not a resurection!

Iwas getting used to the pink frame......The black looks great.
BradC

I'll have to say ...... the black is a step up from the "gold chain street rod" purple.
Not that that was a bad thing ......

Nice work Don.

Ratty 46

Looks great Don. am i gonna see it at daytona this year?

Thanks guys. Yep, the purple is all gone and the last of the red undercarriage is in the trunk of my car ready to go to the powder coater for some black. I got my tires dismounted today at Tire Kingdom and should have the wheels back next Friday hopefully.

I planned to do my front brakes today but had to work on my daily driver instead. I bought Dan's Honda from him and he had those funky projection headlights in it, so I pulled them out and went back to OEM lights. Now I can actually see where I am going at night.

John, I sure hope I have it done in time for Turkey Run. I think it will be a stretch to have it running by the Billetproof Drags in Oct but Thanksgiving is a more reasonable goal probably. I've got some heavy duty buying to do over the next couple of months so I will have to do that as my budget allows. They cut out all of our overtime at work and that was my little buffer to keep this project funded. Oh well, with things as they are I'm glad to be one of the 80% who are employed here in Florida.

Don