Ok, the cat is out of the bag!!!

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

I promised Dan I wouldn't post any pictures of the modifications he is making to his '29 RPU until he had a chance to do so first. Well, he just posted some pictures on the HAMB, so all bets are off!!

For those of you who might not be familiar with this story, my Son Dan has been building a '29 Ford for about 3 years. It started off as a Fordor Murray body that he chopped and channelled. It looked like this when he was done:

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

It was Olds 455 powered and he built a custom frame for it using airbags on all four corners:

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

But then he found a nice tudor body on Ebay and decided he didn't need two sedans, so he cut up the Fordor and made it into a roadster pick up.

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

He did a lot of fab work and got the cab looking pretty good.

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

And he finally had it to the point where it just needed paint and some other minor work.

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

But one day I saw him sitting in a chair looking at his car and when I asked him what he was thinking, he said "I'm going to make some changes in my rod." When I asked him what kind of changes, he said "the kind that will keep me from having it ready for Daytona in November !

" He told me he was going to keep the cab, engine, tranny, front brakes and basically scrap everything else, including the bed and louvered tonneau cover.

His Brother and I thought he was nuts as the car was almost done, but he just found some stuff he didn't like about it, so he got out the sawsall and cut it up. His Brother Don and I made out pretty good, as we got a lot of his cast offs, including the bed that I am now going to use on my '39 Dodge.

So the UPS trucks started showing up with lots of SoCal stuff and a new model A bed from Brookville Roadsters, and he and I started building the new frame for it. He decided to scrap the airbags and go with a traditional cross spring front end and a set of Posies quarter eliptic springs on the back. He had AutoWeld in Pa bend up a back half setup like used on pro street cars, and he also got a new 9 inch housing and Moser 31 spline axles from them. He is going to run a 4 bar set up on the rear and hairpins on the front.

Here is the rear setup when he got it.

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

The next thing he did was have a local metal shop bend up a set of tapered C channels that he welded to straight C channel to form the front side rails. For the past two weeks he and I have been building his new frame, and last night we wrapped it up.

He had Autoweld make the backhalf kit slightly oversized so we could slice and dice it to the shape and size we needed. We ended up sectioning it three ways and welding it back together.

Here is is being built.

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

We had to keep flipping the jig over so he could flat weld on all of the places that needed welding. This thing is really heavy!!

We couldn't have done it without our gantry crane.

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

Finally at about 4 am this morning we got it off the jig for the final time.

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

And even though we were beat after a 15 hour day, we had to put the body and bed back on to get the effect.

So now that I have seen it done this way I have to admit it looks a lot better. He still has some frame work to be done like boxing it and adding all of the rear suspension and tube crossmembers, but for the most part it is ready to become a roller.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to show the entire process from sedan to RPU.

Don

cycledog · Dec 31, 2007

And here I thought you were going to tell us Lucky ran off

Neat story Don keep us post as things progress further.

Gastrick · Dec 31, 2007

Man that looks REALLY SWEET. I'm glad that the cat's out so we can stay up to date on the project. I see he got those new tires that we were talking about at Daytona ready to go too.

Bonehead · Dec 31, 2007

Both were cool buids, but I like stage 3 of this cat's 9 lives, the rpu has got something going for it alright.

donsrods · Dec 31, 2007

Thanks. No Lucky is still with us.

Yeah Bill, he did get new tires from Coker while he was there. He sold the wide whites he had on it to his Brother (who got a steal) and is going with blackwalls. He ordered some artilliary wheels from Rally America and they should be here this week or next.

I have to agree Bonehead, this one is going to be the best of the three versions I think.

Being the kids we are, we had to prop up some tires to get an idea of what it will look like.

Don

Mr.Gussett · Dec 31, 2007

Nice!

Looking good!
Yep ,he has an eye for the change of the better!
Keep us posted!

FlatBroke · Dec 31, 2007

WOW...

Keep us posted as it comes together further.

gassersgarage · Dec 31, 2007

You guys are awesome. Maybe you should open a rod shop.

24dodge · Dec 31, 2007

that is going to be an awesome car , great job.

rustywrench · Dec 31, 2007

oh to be young and ambitious.....and talented. way cool.

Blue · Jan 1, 2008

Wow, you've got some tallent out there for sure!
Great Job

Ok, the cat is out of the bag!!!

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