Roadster pickup from leftovers.

[deerchooper]

thats an oldsmobile

 

[nashvegas99]

beautiful don. I've seen the other site also and you are awesome. when you 2 get tired of having stuff "lying around", you call me and I'll come from Nashville and take care of every bit of that for ya.

 

[donsrods]

Sorry guys, didn't see your posts until now. Deerchooper is right, it is an Olds 455. Last Friday we took the transmission to the trans shop and had them reseal the front pump and while it was there we had them put in the TransGo shift kit I bought Dan for Christmas. When they took the old one out it already had a B&M shift kit in it and the tech said it was a pretty agressive one, but for some reason Dan felt the shifts were too soft. Maybe with the new shift kit and us going from a 2400 to 3000 stall convertor it might get more into the rpm range of the cam and feel better.

When we got back from the trans shop (they actually got it done in one day ) we prepped and painted it gold to match the engine. After drying all week we started to put some stuff back on the transmission like the Lokar dipstick, the aluminum pan, and stuff like that. Today we got things like the flexplate on the motor and got the engine and transmission mated for the first time, and actually got them both bolted back in the frame.

Tomorrow we are going to finish up all the plumbing and wire hookups and put the body back on. It has been off the car since about May so it will be great to see it as a complete car again. If all goes right we are going to try to start and break in the motor Saturday.

I forgot my camera today but will take it tomorrow and get some shots.

Don

 

[donsrods]

Today we got enough installed on the motor and trans to be able to put the body back on. I got the engine prelubed with my electric drill and got good oil to the rockers, so it is ready to fire as soon as we put a few more parts on it. Should be able to start it tommorow, we hope.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of tonights work.

Don

 

[LUCKY DEVIL 13]

Man oh man that thing is lookin KILLER!!!

 

[donsrods]

Thanks, LD.

Don

 

[deerchooper]

hey don, what color gold is that? have you found a powder coat color the same color or matching?

 

[donsrods]

It's a Dupont Fleet Color, no name that I recall, just a number that we picked out of the color book at the paint store. They had a few different golds, some were too yellowy and some were too brownish, this one was in the middle and looked to us like the early Olds engine colors. We haven't looked for any powder coating colors similar because we sprayed everything.

Don

 

[rainman]

There is a very similar spray can color sold at Oreiley's A P.
I can't remember the name brand, but seems like a good quality!
The engine in my 57 is an olds and I painted it with that!
This color does seem to have alot of metalic in it though!!
I didn't really like that but it was the best I could find in a can!!

 

[2nd gear]

Really like the looks of yer project! looks like someone has great skills!!! AND a great place to work!!!! [[dr[cl

 

[jfg455]

lookin good Don. By the way, if those are Dans left overs, Can I have your left overs?

 

[donsrods]

Thanks guys. Well, last night we got it running and this motor seems to run much better than the first one. After we broke it in a little more Dan took it for a ride and came back grinning. Then he took me for a spin and when he kicked it down it is a totally different car than it was..........it really scoots now. [cl

We just have to put some more miles on it and dial it in a little more but I think we corrected the problems we had the first time around. I'll post up a youtube when we do one.

Don

 

[4D7ford]

Just went through the whole build thread, that is one sweet RPU.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Looks awesome, perfect build.

 

[bamabm]

cool build

 

[jammersspeed]

super nice roadster pickup!!!

 

[bamabm]

Great build awesome fab work
Chadberry
(Bam Bam)

 

[zzrodder]

I hadn't checked in on the build for quite a while and was stunned to see a 'modern' Olds engine instead of that beeyooteeful ol' 394 - DOH! - then I realized it was your sons rpu.
So, any progress on yours?[P[P

 

[donsrods]

I stopped working on my rpu until we got Dan's car done, I didn't want anything to get in the way of getting his back on the road. But now that we have his running good again it was time to get back on mine.

The front suspension is pretty typical, just a 34 Ford undropped axle, a suicide spring, and split wishbones. But for the back we needed something different because I want the bed to be very short which made it necessary to come up with a suspension system that would work well but not take up much room. What we came up with is a triangulated 3 bar system with coilovers.

The one we are using came from a company called Suicide Doors and it is used on bagged s10 pickups and some prostreet cars. Essentially, it has two lower bars mounted parallel with the frame and a wishbone shaped top bar that acts as an axle locator and panhard bar all in one. Because of it's design the axle can not move from side to side. We had to shorten the bottom two bars and the wishbone because I wanted the slicks to be almost up against the body.

Tonight we wrapped up welding all the brackets on and the car is now a roller. [cl It will settle down another inch probably, but I have a lot of adjustment in the coilovers so I can set the stance wherever it looks right when the car is all together.

Here are some pictures from tonight. Now we just have to move the front radius rod mounts down a little lower for some more caster and to look better. After that we will mount the 56 Ford pickup steering box and figure out the front shock mounts. My goal is to have it done in time for the Billetproof Drags in October.

Don

 

[hotrod preacher]

[cl[cl[cl[cl


i like it
[dr