1927 Chevrolet Jalopy project..."Chevrolopy?"

Hey all-
I started this project at the beginning of September of this year. I was chronicling this all on a different forum but have since parted my ways with them.
I'm moving it here if nobody objects...

The basic plan is this.
Build a safe, semi-reliable, (and most importantly FUN) "driver" for under $3000. And oh yeah- I want to have it done and on the road in a year.

For those of you familliar with the Killbillet (WWW.Killbillet.com) site you may have seen this feature on there (Under $3000 Club). I LOVE that section. In a world of mega-buck rods and muscle cars that cost more than my house I think these kind of projects really keep the average working person interested and from getting too discouraged by the cost of mega-dollar rides. It helps them realize it IS achieveable to do this themselves without spending the kid's college fund.

MY Basic Budget.
$500 Body.
$1500 Chassis.
$1000 Drivetrain.

The clock is ticking...

I need your help and input. Feel free to contribute, intellectually, insprirationally, mechanically, or financially.

Jay

The old guys around here know a little something about Killbillet...

Ain't that right Tripper.....

I'm not trying to bring up any fresh wounds- just trying to share the story and get some helpful advice on the build.

The start.

It started this spring. I read an article on a Model A roadster pickup. The article detailed how the car had been pieced together and built relatively quickly and easily.
It seeed "doable" to me.
Also- the fact that I'd be bringing this thing home in small pieces meant I could "sneak it in under the radar" and avoid the whole "Don't you already have enough projects?" conversation. A definite plus!

After a botched 1930 Model A cowl purchase (more on that later.) I found myself shopping at the Back To The 50s swap this June.
I was not planning to buy (or had ever even considered buying) a 1927(ish) Chevrolet cowl but it was there, it was cheap and the need to buy something and start this ridiculous project was irresistable.

After talking the man down from $50 to $40 this is what I brought home.



Some research on the HAMB confirmed that it was indeed a Chevrolet cowl from approximately 1926-1928. There is a freakishly limited amount of information on these vehicles compared to Ford and this is the most accurate estimate I can get on its age from other owners.

ALong those lines- one thing I found interesting was that I read that Chevrolet actually beat Ford in sales for the first time in 1927 or 28. That made me wonder where they all are now. Even at 80 years old it's not uncommon to see Fords of this vintage regularly. ANd yet the Chevrolets despite having at least as good if not better sales numbers are almost never seen.
I found this puzzling until someone explained their theory on this.
His theory involved the fact that Chevrolet used wood for the structure of much of the car. When the wood eventually rotted away the car basically lost its shape and collapsed in on itself. Therefore they typically didn't seem nearly as appealing as a simillar vintage Ford that would probabal;y have been much more solid. SO many of these old Chevys were lost over the years. Made sense.

Now I had the start and was ready to begin acquiring parts and coming up with a plan...

Box.

Earlier in the spring when I was still planning a Model A based project I bought an old Ford truck bed from Fordman75 for $20.
The box was cut into halves but it did have the front piece intact also.

This is what I came home with that day.



I'd thought that given the fact the box had already been cut up I could make at least one or possibly even two small RPU (Roadster Pick-Up) boxes from it.

I already had a matching Effie tailgate from the Roadsters swap last year which I picked up for $30. I thought if I made the bed four feet wide I could use that tailgate and the front box-piece and pretty much have a bed!

This did raise an important question.
How "pure" did I want the project to be? Just how much of it would/ should retain it's "Chevroletness"? Did it matter? I'm still not sure.

So far I was into it this much-
1927 Chevrolet cowl- $40.
1954 F250 (I think) truck box sides and box front- $20.
195? F100 tailgate- $30.

Total- $90.

The first very rough mock-up.
I couldn't sit still long among all of these parts without starting to imagine how this all might come together.

One day I got a little creative in the driveway. This was the result...


It's a huge pile of crap!
But if you squint a little and use your imagination you can kind of see what I'm going for here.

I knew the next step would be to find some doors.
I paid a trip out to French Lake and looked around...A LOT. I finally found one simillar era Chevy exceppt the doors were missing. :x Another thing that was sad was that the cowl was in better shape than mine! :lol: Oh well.

So I started checking on Ebay next.
I was looking for a pair of doors.
Ideally I wanted a pair of truck doors because i thought they would be the longest choice. If I couldn't get those I was willing to settle for some sedan front doors- if I had to.
Like I mentioned before- there aren't a lot of these left. What is left does not sell for cheap when parts do go up for sale. There is also a lot of competition with other bidders. I opted out of a few auctions before the spending go too high.
I was beginning to get discouraged. It seemed like every pair of doors was going for around $150 bucks prior to shipping. I was beginning to consider making my own simple doors. I did want to at least retain some of the original qualities of the car though. I thought it would be nice to have matchng body lines from the cowl through the doors.
I kept looking.

Then one day while doing some random search under "rat rod doors" or something simillar I found what I was looking for.
A person had three dorrs listed seperately. They had two fronts and one rear from the same car. They looked to be in good shape.
The best part may have been the fact that they didn't know what they were for. Ofcourse- I wasn't sure either. :lol:
I think the ad said something like "30's rat rod door- possibly GM?"
I asked for some dimensions and surpirsingly they looked like they might be just right!
Now all I had to do was win them. When I placed my first bid they were going for $15.00 each!
I thought this was going to be too easy who else would bid on these doors with the incredibly vague description the seller had given?
Long story short- all it takes is ONE other person that wants whatyou want also to drive the value up...
By the time I got the doors shipped I was into them more than I wanted to spend- but it wasn't completely ridiculous...oh, and they fit awesome!

Here we have the doors as they arrived.



Previous total- $90.
Front door pair (with shipping) $162.08.

Total $252.08.
Just over half my "Body Budget" was already spent.

The 2nd "mock-up".
(Or what $250 and some imagination gets you...)






Jay

I should elaborate slightly on the original "game plan" here to say that I'm not being completely delusional about this. With the $3000 budget I'm intending to use I don't expect this thing to be perfect or "done" within a year.
I want a running, driving, car that I can tool around in and have some fun with. It's going to be a foundation to gradually upgrade from as I choose.
I expect to ruffle some feathers with some of the choices I'll make along the way.
Some things may not be considered "correct" or "in style" and I'm cool with that. This is something I've wanted to build for a while and I'm going to please me first.
I expect to have to do a lot of Craigslist, swap meet hunting, and old fashioned 'horse-trading' to make this all come in under budget. I'm looking forward to that.

Infact I plan to hit the Roadsters swap pretty hard in the fall.
In the meantime I need to compile an actual "shopping list" and see what I can scrounge up first.

Don't forget- DONATIONS WILL BE ENCOURAGED! :lol:

Frame and Chassis considerations:

I've been giving this a lot of thought lately. I've been pouring through books and catalogs and having many conversations on the subject over the last month or two.

As far as the frame goes I'm seeing three realistic options.

First- find a useable donor vehicle and throw the body on that complete frame/ chassis assembly. Obviously the problem here would be in the selection of such a vehicle. Most newer style vehicles will have an independent front suspension. I'm not interested in going that way. I'm going to be keeping it a straight axle up front. Also most newer vehicles (with the exception of trucks) don't have a frame anymore. They tend to have subframes built in to the floor pans- this would not work.

It crossed my mind that it would be possible to remove the front frame portion of a newer style chassis and "graft" on a straight-axle front end but I'm not wild about going to that much trouble to accomplish that.
It seems that there are a few possible options out there.
AN older two-wheel drive Jeep seemed like it might be a good candidate. Although- two wheel drive Jeeps are FAR less common that the four wheel drive options. Also CJ/DJ plattform Jeeps are very uncommon to find in the boneyards at all. It would have a nice short wheel base and tons of available parts.
Another consideration has been a 50s style truck. There is a guy "Checker Jim" (maybe?) on Killbillet that has put a '29 Mopar body on a mid 50s Chevy truck frame. Could be cool. Definitely lots of those around for cheap now that so many people are using S10 frame swaps on them. ALso would have tons of available parts and options for the chassis.

SO that's one avenue I'm exploring.

The second possibility is to buy and use a pre-made T-bucket frame and chassis.
This would probabaly be the easiest way to go. This would probabaly also be the most expensive option.
Most T-bucket frames are pretty narrow (about 26" wide including the frame rails) and are pretty short (90" flat section, 9" kickup, 9" straight behind) although I think it could work. I've done some checking and it seems like the T-bucket frames for the '27 models are about 10" longer than those for the '23 models. I would for sure need the extra length with what I'm planning for the bed.
The nice thing would be that I could pretty much order the thing out of catalogs and assemble myself. The parts would be new and the assembly would probabaly go relatively well.
The cost and short wheel base are the main detractors to this plan.

The third option would be to build my own frame.
This might be my best option although it will probabaly be thwe most difficult.
Right now I'm jus planning something very simple. Ladder style frame with approximately maybe an 8" kickup in the rear and then three-ish feet of frame after the kickup. I'm not opposed to the idea of a small kickup in front (probabaly just stacking the frame on to the other section) but I'm not sure yet.
If I do decide to go this route I will definetly be building this thing out of wood first to test everything out before it goes into steel.
This option requires the most planning and preperation. I'm not afraid of that but it will probabaly be the most work.

SO those are my three options.

I guess it's also possible that I might end up using some combination of two of the plans from above.
Right now I'm leaning most towards building my own simple frame and then possibly using a pre-existing straight axle from a donor vehicle.

Still many things to consider such as the suspension and steering options.
That is for an upcoming post.

ANy body want to discuss these options?

Suspension options.

I guess I have a couple different options here for the front.

First and probabaly easies would be to run a Ford-style transverse leaf spring front end.
This would be pretty easy because parts are VERY readilly available new and used.
This would be the option that would be the smartest way to go.
Naturally I'm leaning another way... :lol:

The other main option would be a parallel leaf spring setup.
One nice thing would be that this is what te car would have had originally. Also from what I've read it seems like it would ride better than the transverse setup (not that I'll be expecting much anyway). It also would have the "different factor" working for it. Seems like it would be fairly simple to set this up also.
Another bonus would be that these front ends are under pickup trucks everywhere through the early 60's. If I could find one that was a good width I could nab the front end (steering and suspension) and throw the whole thing in for fairly cheap.

As far as the rear goes there are a few options as well.

One is a transverse rear leaf. I'm not sure if I read that this setup can only be used with a closed driveline or not. I'm NOT going to be doing that so that may rule this one out right away. Seems like it could be pretty simple to install although I've hear d ride will be terrible.

Another option would be coil springs. This is pretty commonly used on the T-buckets. I'm not especially fond of this one although like the transverse leaf setup it doesn't ake up much space.
Personally I thin k it looks least nice and reminds me of the back ends of those absurdly fat-tired T-buckets from the 70-s.

The other option is a parallel leaf spring arrangement. Currently I'm liking this option. One fault of this plan is that it takes up some room. I'm figuring on having to have at least three feet of straight frame back there to work with to be able to hang this type of setup. It would be pretty easy to install though.

Those are more things I'm considering. Again- discuss.

I am now imposing a "firm" deadline to finish this.
The date will be September 6, 2008.
(Reason to be revealed later.)

I've also come up with a basic "floorplan" for the "cab" of the car over the last few days.
Here's what I've got.



Basically the way it breaks down is overall length of 57.5" (15.5" for cowl, 30" for door and 12" from door to back of cab), cowl front 31" wide, back of cab 48" wide.

Overall it's pretty close to your typical T-bucket dimensions.
Going from the current Speedway my dimensions are approximately 3" wider and 5.5" longer. I chose to make mine a little longer after I laid out the rough dimensions on the floor and tried out what felt right. I probabaly could have gotten away with the length they had but I'm 6 feet tall and don't want to have the car be too uncomfortable. Also I think itlooks kind of funny when you see a guy in a T- bucket and his knees are into his chest. I'd rather have mine a bit longer.

Also today I've flip-flopped on suspension choices and am liking the Ford style transverse spring suicide-style front end.

Now- I interrupt briefly to explain what happens as I leave behind LOTS of back-and-forth communication from the other forum.

Basically one of the gus in my club sold me a good 300 straight 6 Ford motor with C6 transmission for $150. Majority of drivetrain covered...and somewhat different.


Slant six? :lol: No just the best I could do of righting the engine after it tipped on the way home.

In addition to tracking down a drivetrain I've also been busy planning and subsequently building the rear portion for the "cab" of the Chevrolopy.

If you look back at the "blueprint" I had posted earlier of the "floorplan" you'll see what I'm referring to. Basically it's the foot long section behind the doors and the four foot section that makes up the back of the cab.

I chose to keep this really simple. I opted for squared off edges despite other's encouragements to round them. Yes, it could have been done but I'm not trying to build an America's Most Beautiful Roadster award winner here- just make something fun and functional.

I chose to make this rear section out of one inch square tubing. I went with 14 gauge because it was the thickest metal I felt my welder could handle. I drew the basic plan out about 5 times on graph paper and then contacted Discount Steel. I intentionally overbought a little because I anticipated some "boo-boos" and "oops-a-daisies". I purchased four nine foot sections of tubing. The cost was just under $60 after tax. We'll have to add that to the total later.

In order to more effectively build this I made a few equipment upgrades. I have a Licoln Weld Pak 10 welder. It's a good little welder and I'd always run it on the flux-core wire as long as I'd owned it over the last 5 years or so. When I'd bought it I also purchased the MIG conversion kit for it but had never got around to hooking it up. The main reason had to do with having to get a contract with some gas company and rent the tank for the gas. So, I'd gotten by with the flux-core just fine.
A few weeks ago I made a trip down to Mills Fleet Farm and while walking through the welding aisle (You've got to love any store with a welding aisle!) I noticed that they were selling complete filled (and refillable) tanks of MIG welding gas (75-25 mix) for around $100 so I bought one. A few days later we hooked it all up and WOW! What a difference! Like most things in my life I haven't had much formal training- usually just learned from books and what others have shown me and that is true of my welding skills as well. I have to say the MIG really does a very nice job. Makes a 'welder' with my crappy 'skills' look halfway presentable!

I also bought a small chop saw from Northern tool. Rather than just butt-welding the tubing straight to each other I decided to sacrifice a little simplicity for structural integrity. I made a lot of 45 degree joints and I think it was a wise move. To do this I needed the chop saw. The one I picked up at Northern was only around $40. It uses a 7" blade which the metal ate up pretty quickly so I'd buy a few extra blades. It does do a pretty nice job though and I'd recommend it.

I began the work of measuring, and cutting, and grinding, and cleaning, and filing and re-measuring and welding on Friday after work.


Doing a little tubing cutting...why do I look so happy?

After some time I had the pieces cut for the first 'side.'

Then it was time for welding them into place. I found this old butcher-block counter top in the shed at the shop so I threw it on the floor to use as a welding table.

Check out my cool welding 'magnet things'- super fun...and FUNctional!

At the end of the second night I had this.


I added a couple cross-supports to it yesterday.
Tonight I made the other side.

Here is where I am at with it as of tonight.


Tomorrow I have to finish cutting out the 48" rear pieces that will connect the two 'sides'. Then I will connect all three pieces and do some finish welding.
I'm pretty pleased with it so far. 8)

On a fairly un-related note- I think I've decided to pass on the F1 front end I'd been emailing the guy about. He wanted $150 for it which was a fair price. Unfortunately he wants it gone by this weekend and it's in Wisconsin. I just feel like I've been running around a lot for this project of late and spending a lot of money on it and tools for it. I just want a day off to not have to run somewhere and maybe rake some leaves and take it easy. Things are coming together pretty well- no use to push it so much.

Jay

Here's what I've been working on in relation to the rest of most of the body.


Side view.


Rear view.

Gives you a bit of an idea of what I'm attempting.
I still need to put in a couple vertical supports in the 48" section across the back, clean up some welds and do a little better job on a few existing welds. Overall it's incredibly solid though. I stood on the back part today in the driveway and it held up fine.

It was surprising to me how quickly I've used up my tank of welding gas. If I'm reading the tank pressure correctly I've used up about 2/3 of the tank just on this. I'm going to have to look into getting it refilled. Hopefully I'll have enough to finish this up before I run out.

The cowl and doors DO line up in person- they are just slanted in this photo so they look 'off.'

And today- as of 11-04-07 that's where we're at.
Feel free to comment on questions I've raised up to this point and contribute your input.

I ended up running out of welding gas while finishing the back portion of the cab so that's stopped things for now. I'll be getting it filled this Thursday and then will begin connecting the back of the cab piece to the cowl...

I think putting a car together starting with a bunch of different peices is a crazy idea. Looks like it is going your way.

Al, why not consider 1/4 elliptics as a spring option ? High 5
on the six banger. I could see this coming together for way
under 3k. Great pix and commentary, going to be fun see how you
find parts and put it all together. Thanks for including us.

too cool!

Good for you! I read everything so far and dig it. I am in essence I am doing the same thing, for the same reasons. The only difference is that I have no "club", and I bought a falling apart dodge body. I intend to build my own frame. My running total so far is SBC, turbo 350 $0.00. 8.8 rear $0.00. 1952 farm all grill $0.00. Seats I cut out of beer kegs $60.00. Dodge body $400.00 (front half of a touring sedan) I have a ball joint VW front end and intend to use that, although the 1/4 eliptical has a good look to it.

there aren`t many old chevy`s around because they had so much wood in them , once the wood rotted they fell apart and ended up in the junk yard, cool project by the way , thanks for sharing it......`24