April 22

With a friends help, I tore the rear apart. It was just what Lance, the previous owner told me......will need to be rebuilt. The ring gear had a lot of wear on the teeth. It looked like brown mud on the inside of the Halibrand section. The next step will be get it all cleaned up and rebuilt.I will order a new ring gear and pinon from Speedway on Monday. Then reassemble it, paint the bells, backing plates and hubs. I will also take 5 leaves out of the rear spring to give it a little better ride.
I did reprime and sand the frame. I still hope to get it painted in the next few days. I needed to do a little project at our daughters on Friday and will finish that project on Monday. That was much more important than building a hotrod.

Not much progress

Well thought I had better post something....Al and now Gary are giving me a bad time about being too silent.
Not much progress.....I had a terrible cold, in bed for a couple of days and then just no energy. Went to the shop and looked at the car and thought about it.......LOL.
I did get the "boat rudder" cut off of the trans and the bell housing transferred from the old trans to the new. (see pics).
I sanded and puttyed the frame, I think one more coat of K38 primer, block it again and then its ready for paint. During all my "think time: sitting there, I decided the dark blue paint I bought was too dark, it is almost black. So yesterday it was back to the paint store, I picked a nice dark blue, much like the old Ford color of Washington blue, had flattener added, I think I got it now. Any one want a quart of super dark blue cheap ?? LOL
Last weekend it was of to the GSTA rod show in St Paul. They invited my Victoria to be in the Deuce showcase. It was a non comp deal but still had to be cleaned. I had it pretty well cleaned before Friday morning drive there, but then it rained on the way. Big thanks to Terry Nystrom for the help cleaning her up, has not been that clean for a long time. I am not a cleaner I am a driver! Driving home Sunday evening was fun, hard rain, a little hail, wind, tornado watches, some lighting, all kinds of fun. I did make it home fine, a little wet (all old cars leak somewhere) this one its the cowl vent, so my right foot was rather wet, no big deal.
The show was tons of fun, lots of visiting with old friends, met some new friends too, I really enjoy the GSTA show.
Thats all for now, I really hope to have the frame painted this week, will show some pictures of that by the weekend...wish me luck.

April update

Its been a month since I updated the progress. I am watching Jessie James new show "Outlaw Garage" while I write this. They are building a complete deuce roadster in 30 days.....makes me feel pretty slow!!
I have completely disassembled the chassis, pulled the engine and trans, removed the front suspension and the rear end. I have sandblasted the frame inside and out. Blasted the front suspension, painted and reassembled it. The side frame rails still need some more body work to get all of the pits filled. The fire wall has been blasted, some holes welded, ground and sanded and primed twice....almost ready for its new cream white paint.
I got the 5 speed back from JMJ with a complete rebuild, new forks, a couple new gears, all new bearings and seals. It should be good to go now. Tomorrow I plan to cut off the "boat rudder" that sticks down on the bottom of the case. It looks bad and is a real good place to hit your head on when the deuce is on the lift....don't ask me how I know that.
When it was so rainy outside I could not sandblast, I moved inside and powder coated a bunch of little parts. Brake and clutch pedal, slave cylinder bracket, steering brackets, hood brackets and a bunch of other little things. I keep the oven hot for a couple of days.
I have the dark blue paint for the frame here, as soon as I can finish the body work on the frame I will paint it, probably early next week. I plan on the rear to be painted about then too, it will be black like the front suspension. As soon as the frame is painted then I can reassemble all of the chassis...frnot, rear, brake lines, engine/trans, all of that should go rether fast.
The gas tank has been resealed and the radiator modified to fit the bottom water outlets, I am glad those are done.

Progress on the B400

Well the fuel line and the brake lines are all plumbed. The E brake cables and brackets are done. The paint is almost all stripped. I blasted the door edges, hood louvers, hinges, dash,all garnish moldings and cowl vent the last couple of days. If it is not raining in the morning, I will push the body on the dolly outside and blast the door jambs and around the window moldings. If it is raining, I will pull the engine the trans and drive shaft and get ready to blast the frame.
I got the exhaust installed Thursday at West End Welding in Mound. Clark Babler did a great job again. We used Porters of course. It looks real good, all tucked up and around the cross members.
Some of the Saturday breakfast guys came by and helped lift the body of of the chassis. Thanks guys !
The 5 speed is at the local trans shop getting the worn and messed up parts replaced. Its due back real soon. Should be back just in time to put it back into the painted chassis. I hope to have chassis all back together painted and detailed by the end of May. I leave the 30th for the "Topless Tour 2012" and won't be back for any length of time until the first of August.

Pictures to go with post

B400 update

I guess its time to update the B400 progress. The deadline to finish this project is April 2013....a year from now. Even with a year away completion date, I try to get something done every day on it.
I had Dennis Wothe at Quality Creations in Park Rapids replace the floor, channel the gas tank over the rear cross member, cowl and rear quarter patches. He is a wizard with metal!
I have since mocked up seat placement, seat belt attachments, made a rear seat and fitted that, installed the E brake handle, ran the cables. The brakes have had new cylinders installed, the lines are all here, just waiting to be installed.
I removed the junk block and pulled the good flattie out of the laketer. I had Lumpy help me get it installed in the B400...thanks again Lump!
The last few days was to sand blast the top irons, refinish the wood and paint the newly cleaned irons. I blasted a couple of garnish moldings too. Ran out of sand, so had to switch to another task.
The new task was to strip the paint, it actually came off easier than I expected. Tomorrow the plan is to strip the doors, then the body is totally stripped except for the door jambs and the window openings. Those will be blasted.
This mornng I picked up 6 more bags of sand. So the next dry day I can blast some more.
I made a new rear spreader bar, had it bent to match the rear curve of the body. The tail light mounts are done, the headlight bar is done, they set real low, looks cool.
I hope to have the exhaust installed the first week of March. I will have to watch the weather report, I don't want to trailer it to the cities in the snow or rain.

As soon as the exhaust is on, I can pull the body off, set it on the dolly, and go to work on the chassis. There are brake lines and fuel line to run. Then dissasemble it and blast and powder coat the frame. I plan to have the chassis done before I leave in late May for the roadster trip.
I'll post more soon.

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.