Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Then of course we had to see what the weight of the engine and body would do to ride height, so we installed them. It pretty much sits where he wanted it.

He also got a top kit from Speedway and is going to use it. I think it makes the whole car look better.

Don

Don---Some very impressive work, I was looking at it earlier today over on that "other" forum. Does your son really intend the top of his side window opening to run downhill towards the rear of his side window?

Not as drastic as it is in the taped up version Brian. We saw the exact same top frame used on a rod at the show last Saturday, and Dan took lots of pictures of it. We also got the name of the local upholsterer who made the covering for it.

Here is a picture of that top.

Don

Don---I toyed with that idea when I layed out my top 3 years ago, as it lets you keep the top a little lower. However, I just couldn't get my head around that slanted down in the rear look, and since my rpu is a "highboy" with full fenders I went ahead and made the top a bit higher, just to keep the top of the side window parallel to the door top.

I understand. His will have to slope down a little to hide the bows in the back, but we looked at a bunch of roadsters at the show and they mostly seem to be like that too. As I mentioned before, your top came up when we were discussing them.........you did a great job on it.

BTW, he solved his wheel problem. After the fiasco with that wheel company not being able to deliver, he decided to go with original '40 Ford 16 inch wheels all the way around. He found a mint set on Ebay and is having them powder coated black. To avoid wheel adapters on the back he is having Moser make him up the same 31 spline axles he has but with a 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern. That way they will bolt right on. He has 5 on 5.5 already on the front.

Don

Talent just runs in your family! Did your dad fabricate as well, or is this something you picked up on your own, and your boys, followed suit?
My Dad was clueless as a mechanic, but had the racing part down pat. I grew up taking auto shop classes and rebuilding my first car, 1968 Mustang. My Dad always had foreign imports, that weren't sold here. He'd go to Italy once a year and comback with Lancia's, Alfa's, Citroen Maserati's, and my favorite tow Dino Ferrari's that cost him some jail time for excessive speeds in Texas, and failure to stop for the police. As my step mother told me at the time, a cop flipped his cruiser in a high speed chase. They sent out a chopper to stop him with a road block. Dad had his faults, but I loved the cars! We'd borrow them in high school to fix for him, take them home for a week, and have a blast!

Don---I tried to post this last night, but of course the site was down again. Here is some more inspiration for your boy.---Brian

Dan is a true artist. Making the brackets look like they're riveted is pure art and his method for doing it is pure genius. His patience and attention to detail are the things that create Ridler Award winners. I'm a pretty good fabricator and an inventive problem solver, but I could learn a lot about creativity just watching and talking with him. I am impressed!

Fake rivits !!!!!!!!! Too much talent I never would have thought of fake rivits.
As for the picture of some of them women, I've tried to drink enough of them cute, but you can't drink a fat women thin.
BradC

Nice work Don, the rivets are off the chart! I love the rpu look and I am going over to Brians side on the side window lines but being in construction everyday, things that are off balance or unstraight drive me nuts!!

Thanks guys.

No Steve, my Dad wasn't a hot rodder, but he and my Grandfather had that old time "make it work" ability that our forefathers had. They would mull over some problem and pretty soon they would be at work and have it fixed. My Dad's dayjob was being a diesel mechanic in the local steel mill, and he was a musician at night. (sax man) Unfortunately, he died when I was only about 11, so I never really got to know him as well as I would have liked........it has been a hole in my life. I also wish he would have lived to see my own Sons, they are sax players as well, and he would have been beside himself to see how well they play, and they would have loved knowing him as well. Below is one of the few pictures I have of him, taken sometime in the late '40's or early '50's. He is on the right.

Brian, thanks for that picture, I'll pass it along to him.

Jim, yep, he likes the details for sure. Me, I would have stopped with the brackets as shown in the first picture, but they bugged him, so he cut those ears and made them part of it all. Right now he is agonizing over the spring to frame mount, and to be honest I don't understand why. It is a simple mount, but somehow he thinks it has to be so complicated. I guess that's one reason his car will be nicer than mine.

Brad, I would have never thought of the rivits either. Funny part is, they won't show much when the car is together, but I guess he will know they are there.

Brick, you must think like him. You both have more patience than me, and a different vision of what the final result should be. That is a good trait, makes for a nicer car in the end.

Don

Don,

Of all the photos of Dan's project, the brackets caught my attention first. Very nice touch.

My dad wasn't a hot-rodder, per se, but he was an excellent mechanic, and ran a service station. He also built a pretty nice Harley from parts. One day when I was rebuilding the Stovebolt six in my '52 Chevy, whe walked in with a grin on his face and a Corvette six cam in his hand. Most of what I know about cars, I learned from him.

My dad was a musician as well, and so was my grandfather. My dad played banjo, and my grandfather played a dobro - among other things. Luckily, both my dad and my grandfather had pretty long lives, so I knew them well for a long, long time.

The first photo was taken in 1928, when my father was only 15. He's on the left, my grandfather is on the right. I don't know whose car that was, but folks would kill for it today.

The second photo was taken at the Illinois state fair, where the hometown American Legion post clown band won the band competition year-after-year. Dad's right in the middle.

I still have the banjo.

Great pictures Jack. What a different world back then.........funny how proper people were, with ties and suits and all (well, except for the clowns ) I hope others have lots of these pictures to post, they are great.

Don

Your son's RPU is too cool!

The fake rivets are such an amazing attention to detail! I'm looking forward to watching this one go together.

I have a question though. Do you or your son have any recent contact info for Hot Rod Carburetion? The link I have doesn't work and a search comes up with nothing. They may be out of business.

Mike

Those must have been great day's, a banjo player that does not look like the cast from deliverence, and did anyone else notice the dog and racoon 3ft. from each other and don't seem to care.

Ron