Getting warmed up for the cool down

Making plans for some winter work, once we get through the holidays I have a few updates to make on the car. I had a great season with it, can't wait for the next!

Best Traditional Rod

Rockin' Rods was a blast. I was there with family & some good friends and I had a great time - plus I took home an award for best traditional rod. The awards are peer judged so that felt very affirming since my goal was building what I thought a traditional rod to be.

Anyway, here are some recent pics of the car from the show and some after I got home.

Rockin Rods n Rochester

Next Sunday, August 12th I will have the hotrod down at one of our local shows that I always enjoy. Going down with a couple buddies and their cars - always a great time. I will put up some pics afterward. Anyone looking to go, it's free for spectators more info here: Link

Back on the road

I ordered a rebuild kit for the carb even though everything looked as it should, during that time I also grabbed a couple new air filters and put everything back together. It's been unrealistically hot here (mid 90s) for the past couple weeks so I haven't had it on the road just yet but all signs point to better.

Recent workings...

I have been having a rich condition for teh last few runs I have made in the hot rod and noticed a bit of fuel puddling on teh intake manifold one evening. I decided it was a good time to tear the secondary carb apart and see if anything looked askew.





Everything looked fine but I gave it a good cleaning and reassembled everything, cleaned up the engine and tried to crank it - I was met with a small whirr and a resounding click. I pulled the first spark plug and fuel poured out of the block, a scene that continued for the other 7. Next up was draining the oil, I filled up one drain pan and then another. Flooding doesn't describe it.

For the past day it has sat with the plugs out and everything trying to evaporate, I fogged the cylinders as well. I will put it all back together this week and see what's what.

My first Model A hot rod build is finally on the road - and nowhere near done. When I got the body (or parts to a body) a couple years back it arrived like so:

Fast forward to about 30 days ago I decided to thrash this car together as I was getting tired of missing out on some good cruise time year after year.

I decided that I needed to get this thing on the road in 30 days or put it aside for awhile while I attend to other parts of life. I spent every single day out in the garage from the time I got home until I couldn't stay awake anymore but it paid off (I think). I drove it for the first time on Saturday and besides a bit of squeak and rattle everything seemed to go just fine. I have some tuning to do and some NVH work but its up and going and I can enjoy it. Anyway, on to the (large amount of) pics!









































 

Hi-Res pics available here

Finished up a couple little things; brakes are bled, all fluids are done, everything tightened up and all woodwork is complete. Just putting a few thing together tonight and hopefully will make the first shakedown run tomorrow. I also came up with a solution for the front shocks that I am happy with. I ordered lower shocks mounts and some small body shocks from Speed3way and fabricated the upper mount. Everything is bolt on so it can be changed pretty easily.

Current state

So as of now, here is where we sit. The last few things remaining are bleeding the brakes and mounting the gas tank. Really. Now it's still nowhere near finished and that will probably take years but at least it's on the road - or damn close.

Back that blog up

So giddy I was when it was getting so close to firing up I had to forgo the blog for the past week or so and get it done. The last post was the first start vid after dropping the distributor in. The car runs a bit better now after some tuning and I will be sure to post another video soon enough but for now, here is what you've missed.

The aftermath of the floor debacle last week, this was after I started scraping the goop off

But that got finished and re-coated

I still had one door to finish so I did that as well.

Need something to sit on and not willing to put too much time in this portion right now so here is the best I could do in 3 hours





Moments before putting body to frame....  

Hi-Res pics available here

I know I owe an update - but I was busy getting the car road ready. I did take a bunch of pics and will update with the work that was done during this 30 day thrash but for now - here is a video.

The first real setback

I don't have any pictures of this one, was just too disgusted when it happened. The paint & body work is complete and the car is sitting in base coat - that's the good. Once I removed the masking, I started to lay down the bedliner coating for the floor, here comes the bad...

Everything went on well, however a few minutes later it started bubbling and peeling - it had a reaction to the black paint that I had already applied to the floor and everything just basically peeled off in sheets. What was left was some nasty, rubbery goop. I will be cleaning that all up tonight and hopefully starting that section over and with some luck I don't have to re-do too much of the completed paint work.

The home stretch

A great deal of work was done this past weekend, some not in pictures as it's just bits and pieces of finishing work. I finalized the wiring harness, made& installed the rest of the brake lines, made & installed the fuel line, finished up headlights and actually finished up the rest of the sheetmetal work - yes really. I still have some odds and ends to do over time but the major creation of a body is completed.

Finished up the seat area metal.

First coat on cowl, some body filler on passenger side



Loading up the cowl



And last but not least, the first layer of color.