MSRA Award Banquet

Saturday was the big award banquet held in St Paul at the river center. Over 700 people attended. It was a good evening. As most of you know, two of our deuces were nominated, that right there was an awesome feat. We did not win the car of the year award with either car........but the 3 window was presented an AWESOME award!! The Twin Cities Roadsters club pick one car each year that they like, has to be driven, to be presented with the "Silver Hacksaw Award" you know, then cut off the top to make it a roadster like theirs. The roadster club is limited to just 25 members, a very elite club to be in. To have our car picked by them for their award is better, in my opinion, than winning the car of the year award.I don't mean to down play the car of the year award, but to have a group of real hot rod roadster drivers choose our car is just unreal. The award is a hand made engraved saw mounted on a wooden stand...very cool.
When a car is nominated for the MSRA car/custom of the year, it is presented with a very nice engraved brass and wood plaque with a image of your car on it and an outstanding full color matted ready to be framed picture of the car. The two new ones will hang right behind each car in the new Deuce Garage. They will look real nice there. During the ceremony each nominated car was on the big screen....neat.
It was a very fun evening, saw many friends, good food, good times.

New Deuce in the garage

Well, I did it again, I found a deuce I could not live with out. It is a B400, convertible sedan, only 926 were made, mine is number 524. They are so rare and hard to find I had to buy it, there might not another chance to get one. I have always said I would like a B400 and a phaeton in my garage. The phaeton can wait.

The body is in very good shape, it does need some small patches in the cowl and rear quarters, and a rear floor. It is sitting on a real deuce frame that has been modified like the Rolling Bones do. It was done by the same guy that did Kieth's coupe. It is set up with Schroder cowl steering that was once owned by Parnelli Jones, that's kind of cool.It came with a junk flathead that was used as a mock up. I am going to use the modified flattie out of the lakester. It already has a 5 speed tranny and a Halibrand quick change rear. There are 40 Ford brakes on all four corners. The grille shell has been chrome plated many years ago, I'm going to use it too. I would never plate one, but its done now and I think will be cool to use.

My plans are to paint it a semigloss very dark blue, a tan convertible top, highboy style, no fenders, steelies with bis ply tires, a very bare interior, rubber mats, no carpet, using aircraft seats with buffalo leather cushions and well as the back seat. It will be a rough and ready hot rod. No radio, no heater, no AC.

The plans call for a completion date of April 2013. That gives me two winters to get it done, should be a lot of fun.

My friend Dave from Des Moines drove to New Jersey with me to pick it up. The day we loaded it into the trailer, Dave had to wear his "you gotta driv'em" shirt. His humor is a warped as mine, that's why we are good friends. It was a good trip but a long one,

Clock for the RPU horn button

Two other deuces have clocks in the horn button of the steering wheel. It is very handy to just glance down and check the time. I have wanted to put one in the RPU since day one. The problem is to find a clock. The Harley shop carries them for $50 or so. I will not pay that. I have looked for one like the blue roadster has but could not find one. Finally one night I was searching on Ebay and found a little pewter dog with a little clock in his belly......and it was only $10 plus a couple dollars shipping...bingo. That's my price range. I bought it, drilled a hole in the horn button, a little dab of clear RTV on the back side and it is all done.

29 A gets new threads!

The little 29 A pickup had a "well worn" interior. The back of the seat was a Mexican blanket, the cushion was black oil cloth vinyl that was crisp and starting to split at the seams. The wind lacing was worn and kind of shredded.I decided it was time to spruce it up.
I painted the garnish moldings green rattle can, also the top part of the dash. I made some ABS plastic panels that go below the map pockets on the B pillar, and made a speaker cover from the ABS and painted them green too. I had already added a AM/FM 8 track radio below the seat......yes, a 8 track. I bought a couple of Waylon and Willie 8 tracks from the swap meet for a dollar. Now I have cool tunes.
It had real nice green carpet on the floor, kick panels and door panels that Dan had put in. I thought a nice green pleated seat would look good. I tore the seat apart, the springs were really bad shape. I decided to make a new base of 3/4 inch plywood and have Al use webbing and new foam for the cushion. The back was already good foam. Al sewed up a beautiful pleated cover for the back and the cushion, looks and sits nice!
To finish it all off I added a flying eyeball third brake light and put a sending unit in the gas tank so now I have a working gas gauge! No more need to have a note with the mileage at last fill on the dash.

A little work on the "Deuce Delivery"

The seat handles on the delivery have always been broken, I tried to glue them a couple of times and did not work.
This idea came up back when the interior was done. I finally decided to do it. I also replaced the passenger side door glass that had been cracked for a couple of years and had the chip in the windshield repaired, looks all better now.
You can see the broken handle. I made a new one from some tubing,, one end flattened and drilled to bolt onto the seat adjuster. I finally decided to paint them brown, I thought of chrome, nickel plate, powder coated black or silver.....it all seemed to stick out too much. Brown rattle can worked well! To fill the end of the tubing, I used a railroad date nail that had been chromed, a "32" of course. It fit perfectly in the tubing.I attached the handle with two little stainless button head bolts. I think they look good..much better than the broken plastic ones!
I had the front tires rebalanced and reset the toe, now the annoying little vibration that would occur at 50 to 55 mph is gone.
I wired the fog/driving lights up, (they were just decoration before)so now I can see at night better, cleaned it all up, touched up some paint underneath, cleaned the interior, re glued some carpet pieces..I think its all ready for the summer trip

My new "Deuce Garage"

I needed more garage space, I was out of room. All last winter I used the empty house garage across the street to store four of my cars. I have had 13 cars crammed into my house garage. It is very hard to keep nicely finished cars in the work shop when I am grinding, sanding and painting there. The decision was made....build a new garage to park the finished cars in. This garage will house just 32's. The other rides will stay in the house garage.
I got the variance and the permits to build a 46x60, 2x6 stick built, cedar sided garage to match my house and shop building. There is a 12 ft wide door in the north wall, small windows up high on the ten foot high side walls. The light can shine in but you cannot see in. I don't need snoopy eyes looking in the windows.
There is floor heat and brick red epoxy floor coating. It is all drywalled, textured and painted two tone grey with a "Ford" blue stripe separating the colors. It is lit by old school house lights down the middle and two rows of aluminum dome lights from Ikea on each side. At the top of the long walls are two rows of blue neon tube lights and a large 48 inch diameter red neon "Open Tonight" sign. On the south wall under a red and white stripe canopy is a half of a deuce chassis, powder coated red, complete with the front and rear axle cut in half, a vega box, chrome brake pedal, chrome 4 bar and a 3/8" glass counter top. Rope lights under the canopy and two red bar stools finish it off. There are two high top bar tables and bar stools in the middle.
There are lighted show cases with die cast deuces and deuce pictures and posters on the walls. I added a glass top desk, dvd player and tv, security camera/tv, micro wave, coffee pot and fridge full of beer and water. This should be a cool place to hang out this winter between shop projects.

A little work on the #42 Deuce

With no big projects on the plan for this year, I thought I would do all of the little lists that I have for each car. The first one up is the 42 car. I call it that because at one time I had two black hi boy deuce sedans. The first sedan I had painted on the door a big 42, that was to mean "four deuces", I had my son design a lady luck gal with 4 deuces to put on the front quarter. Anyway, the list for this car.
1. weld in new patch on passenger side rear quarter.(its all painted and looks good now)
2.straighten the exhaust pipes to be even and straight.
3.replace the ugly yellow plug wires, (see the before and after pics)
4. move the hoodlum plaque from the chain to the right taillight
5.clear coat the original 32 rear license plate
6.clean the interior
7. clean the engine
8. clean the tires and use rubber dressing on them
9. add a hand pressure pump to the eelco tank. (I bought a pump in 2007 at a swap meet in Colorado, finally got it mounted.)
The list is completed, not very big I know but sure helps the look of the car, now just drive it a few more times before it gets too cold and snowy.