Thread: Roadster pickup getting closer

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Don
Thats where you come in. You yell at dan and throw stuff around the shop. Then you and your bulldog stomp out of the shop, to the office where you talk about your massage appointment, to the beautiful blond secretary!
Best of all the shop becomes a tax writeoff as you guys are now earning a living doing the reality tv thing!
Seriously, this is a great thread to watch, for a ground up construction using a kit as well as home made stuff and modifications, that Dan is becoming famous for!

Hi Don---I have to post here, just to ensure that I get email notification when you add to this thread. The Brookkville body looks really nice.---Brian

Steve, you got my interest with that "beautiful blond secretary" thing. I want that as part of my contract.

Brian, I was thinking of you and your rpu last night as we were putting this thing together. You and Dan did pretty much the same thing, both of you constructed rpu's from sedans, which in my opinion would be harder than the one we are currently doing. It takes a lot of foresight and planning to create what you both did from scratch. I've seen a few attempts people have made at doing what you did and most of the ones I saw fell short. Your's looks like it was a roadster pickup from the beginning.

BTW, I called Rick at Brookville today to thank him for all the hard work he did and they did to get this thing out to us on schedule. Dan and I are very pleased with them in all respects so far.

Don

OK If youre gonna do a show, i want mikeys part!! Ill be more than happy to play dumb and mess up the shop.

Hey Hey you guy's are going to get Dons head to swell you keep talking about TV shows...........LOL. Don if your going to get a blonde for the office, make sure there is only one chair (she will have to sit in your lap). I like the jig you came up with to square the body (had to be Dans idea) .....LOL How much for the DVD of this build?
BradC

John, you got the job as Mikey if you want it. Look at what TV has done for him.

Brad, yep, that platform was Dan's idea. I would take credit for it, but he reads these threads once in a while and would catch me in the lie.

Tonight he and I worked on the subframe and cowl section a little. We got the subframe all squared up and setup according to the specs off of Wescott Auto's website. They show a diagram of the exact spacing of the body mounting holes in the frame, so we were able to duplicate those dimensions and screw the subframe down to the platform.

If anyone ever tells you one of these bodies is easy to put together, they are wrong. Maybe for someone like Brookville with their jigs all set up to do them, but each piece has to mount to every other piece in exactly the right spot or it throws everything off. Another problem is that Brookvilles pieces are nice, but far from a perfect fit. Lots of fudging and prodding is needed to get them to mate up correctly.

One example is the cowl top cover. We fought with it for a while, trying to get it to mate with the cowl side pieces. Finally, we pulled the fuel tank from Dans '30 Tudor sitting in our loft and it dropped right in place. Brookvilles top panel was just enough out of spec to prevent it from seating properly. After we installed the old fuel tank stuff started to line up. We aren't sure yet if Dan is going to gut the stock tank and use it or modify the new piece to fit.

Here are some pictures of the front cowl starting to resemble a car. You will notice the top of the fuel tank is the old Ford piece. Assembling this body is a little bit of a challenge, but still fun and sure better than working with a rusty stocker.

Don

Keep up the good work!

Don,
You are making this look very easy, with your grid on your platform. What a great idea.
Ken

Thanks Steve and Ken. One thing I can't say is that it is as easy as we thought it would be. The platform is making it easier to keep it straight, but there is still a lot of "I think this fits here" to get it together. Part of the problem was that Henry wasn't real good on his tolerances and Brookville is evidently using the same presses. Rather than the parts fitting together with tight gaps there is quite a bit of prodding to do to get things reasonably good.

I bet Dan a steak dinner last night that when we go to Daytona next year and look at the assembled bodies Brookville has displayed we find lots of areas where they don't fit together exactly perfectly. I don't think they could possibly afford to spend the time we are going to put into making the body gaps right. Dan thinks that because they have perfect jigs and do this job every day that their bodies are right on the money each time............from a cost perspective I don't see how they could do it. We'll see who buys whom a steak dinner.

But it will come together, it is just going to take a little more work than what we anticipated originally. Isn't that what makes this hobby SO MUCH FUN??

Don

Don,
I think you are going to enjoy that dinner
Ken

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

........ it is just going to take a little more work than what we anticipated originally. Don

Yeah, whoever conned you into buying that in pieces sure put it to ya!!



About the jig thing. I don't know what Brookville uses, I'm sure there's something to keep production going. Here are some pictures of the jig that Steve's Auto Restoration in Portland Or. uses to assemble Brookville '32 roadster bodies. I would guess his are a bit better than those that Brookville has just based on the praises he gets for the quality of assembly. For us folks in the west getting the bodies from him is a better deal. No funky primer, tighter tolerances, less shipping cost, same list price and shorter wait.

Ken, I can taste it now!!

Bob, no way, you did us a huge favor. I still think this was the way for us to go. We saved almost $2,000 bucks when you factor in difference in initial price, no crating fee, and lower shipping costs. Plus, it is sort of an adventure putting it together.

That jig you posted pictures of is fantastic. They spent some time building that, but I bet it insures exact repeatability and a very good fit. You figure, a '32 body from Brookville is about $ 11,000 plus, and then there is a crating fee and a very big box to ship via truck. If Steve's can put one together on site they have to be making a few bucks to make it worthwhile.

Thanks for posting those pictures.

Don

Nice Bob.

I have a question concerning reproduction model A parts.. If I got reproduction cowl sides and cowl cover for a '30-'31 could I assemble it with my own subframe and build a simple tub body for it? how many peices would I be missing? would it look right?

I think you would be better off finding a complete stock cowl assembly Matt, and I'll tell you why. The side pieces and top are only a small part of what it takes to make this assembly done. There is a firewall, cowl top section, cowl side panels, dash support rail, side support rails, and numerous braces that have to be installed to make it strong and rigid. The cost for all these pieces is really high.

On the other hand, we found a mint complete cowl assembly at a swap meet a while back for $ 300. It came with everything in front of the doors, including the windshield. I think the same assembly from Brookville would be in the neighborhood of $ 1200 to $ 1500, but I am guesstimating.

Here are a few of the parts that go into that cowl assembly. In the first picture the subrails at the bottom, the wooden blocks, and the windshield posts are the only parts not part of the cowl. As you can see, there are a ton of pieces that make up the cowl.

Don