1927 Ford Roadster - First Build

[jmel]

Hello all - new to the forum here. Thought i'd share my first build on this forum. Backstory - my father-in-law is heavy into street rods. I've always loved cars, but never knew crap about them. Never even changed my own oil before this build. Been going to car shows constantly since marrying into their family, and have really wanted a car, but never had the money or knowledge to get started.

Last Christmas, my father-in-law decided that it was time to make a street rodder out of me. He happened across a '27 T-Roadster. His neighbor found it in Washington, and brought it back to restore in its original condition - disassembled the car, and had bits and pieces sent here and there to get worked on, but died mid-project. Nobody knew where much of the car was at this point. My F-I-L purchased the left over pieces from the widow, and gave it to me for Christmas. Had original body, frame, fenders (mostly good condition), diff (appears to have sat under water for a period of time - solid block of rust), original headlight buckets, and window frame. Didn't have enough to restore at this point, but had a great start to make a great rat out of it.

Was given the car under the condition that i build it, and fund the build....and he'd stand over my shoulder to make sure i didn't burn his shop down or kill myself.

Learned a lot, and am still learning a lot. Got really good at burning the s**t out of myself. Burned the hell out of my hand my first day of the build. Apparently metal conducts heat very well - you'd think i would have learned that after being on this planet for 31 years.

 

[jmel]

Moar Pics

 

[jmel]

Engine, floor, new decklid and rear panel. Original decklid was gone when we got the car, and rear panel was rotten. Used original frame for rear panel, and just put new skin on it. Made decklid frame from scratch along with new skin.

Painted chassis, cleaned up & painted engine/tranny. Not terribly fond of the dressup kit i have on the engine. I was torn on putting as much chrome as i did on it at first...i'm happy with it now, and glad i did, but not fond of the bow-tie valve covers. Need to find something else.

Engine is a 305 - not my first choice, but the price was right. TH350 tranny with manual shift valve body. .308 Positrack diff. Front end was from a '46 ford - modified the wishbones. Entire front end also sat under water at some point. Spent a lot of time trying to tear it apart and clean it up. Was one giant chunk of rust. As previously mentioned about burning my hand the first day of the build, that was from trying to disassemble the front end. In the process of trying to tear it down, some of the bolts were completely rusted solid. F-I-L tried to show me trick about heating it up sometimes helps break things loose - he heated a nut with a torch, and i tried to break it free with socket wrench & cheater bar. It wouldn't budge, he said he'd heat it up again...i took off wrench, but the socket stuck on the nut....my dumbass reached down and grabbed the socket that was on a bolt he just hit with an acceteline blow torch. He tried to warn me as i reached for the socket, but didn't get it out in time. After a few obsenities, and throwing the hotter than hell socket across the shop - he finally stated "thats gonna be a little warm".

I'm SMRT

Also, since front end was rusted so badly, front drums were toast. I figured that stopping was probably important, so i went ahead and put on purdy new disk brakes. Not a very rat/traditional rod thing to do - but stopping is good sometimes.

 

[jmel]

Moar....almost done. (Forgot floorpan pics).

Things started moving very quickly at this point. Was shocking to see how fast she came together. Started hitting it heavily, and completely slacked on bringing camera to the shop with me. Missed out on documenting a lot of the build.

Kicking myself for that now.

Only thing on the body that i slicked off was the firewall. Decided that i really really hate body work. And whatever a bodyshop charges for that kind of work is 100% worth it in my eyes. Filled in some of the seams & holes around the body, but thats it. Thinking about maybe slicking off the body this winter, but haven't quite decided if i should or not yet.

Played around with the checkerboard firewall in my head, but couldn't quite decide if i wanted too or not. Was kind of scared too - was afraid that it looked better in my head than it would in reality. My F-I-L got bored one day, and went ahead and did it while i was at work. Didn't know he was going to do it - came into the shop that evening and was quite surprised. Also toyed around with the idea of slapping a number on the car - thought it'd look cool on the radiator, but was also afraid it'd look silly. He took it apon himself to do that as well. I like it though...might be silly, but who cares, my car, and i likes it.

Most recently, and what i don't have pics of yet is the trunk is now floored in, and also have interior done. Although the interior needs to be completely redone. For some reason, the glue that we got didn't take, and the carpet is coming up and bunching up constantly. Very annoying. Also the thread that we bought is already fraying and coming apart at the seams. Interior was kind of a rush job, did it 2 days before taking the car to Biloxi, MS for Cruising the coast. Was good enough to get me through the week. But its about time to re-address it. The last pic is the only pic i took of my car during the week at Biloxi. Took it along side with the Jeepster and '30 Model A that we went with, but nothing else.

Haven't given the car a full blown proper photoshoot yet. Need to find time for that soon...before it gets too cold.

Anywho...thats my car. According to my F-I-L, its about time to decide whether i want to start dumping money into it and fixing it up, or trade it along with some cash and move up to something nicer. But at this point, i think i'm just going to enjoy it as is for a while. Although i am toying with the idea of dumping money into an engine...a flathead would be cool, although i'm afraid that i'll miss the power. If no flathead, a 3 duece setup would look cool on the car. That quadrajet carb needs to be upgraded - i think 3 two-barrels would look spendid.

 

[Lightning]

Hey - car looks fine to me as does the engine - although a nice flathead with finned aluminum heads would be killer!! But it looks just fine !!

 

[rainman]

I love the looks of you're car, but the cuts on the wishbones in the front worry me a little. Bump something with one wheel and its going to fold up like an accordion. You're also loosing some of the triangulation by doing it like that, JMO. Don't mean to be negative just like to see you safe.

 

[blacksheep]

I love the looks of you're car, but the cuts on the wishbones in the front worry me a little. Bump something with one wheel and its going to fold up like an accordion. You're also loosing some of the triangulation by doing it like that, JMO. Don't mean to be negative just like to see you safe.

I agree. Straight into the front would be much stronger in my opinion. Maybe a double gusset in that bend, I don't know.

 

[jmel]

Since this is my first rodeo, i'm not really sure. Don't doubt you, just don't personally know. Fully relying and trusting F-I-L at this point.

I'll start paying closer to other wishbones and see if i can re-address it.

F-I-L seemed confident in it, so i did too. Believe he learned that trick to keep wheels from bumping it in sharp turns.

 

[LarryH]

That's one bitchin' roadster. I'd drive the snot outta that.

IMO, since this is your first build, i'ld drive it for awhile to see what i liked best about it, or what i would have done differently.