27 T build

I was working on my tube frame build couple of months back & out of the blue, I heard myself say, "this isn't the car I want to be building." 

Kinda took me by surprise.  So I went grabbed a cold one & sat down to think.

Turns out I was right.  

Tube frame is on the wall & the kz 650 is under a cover, under a shelf at the back of the shop.

I've built a bunch of cars in my 73 yrs, starting at age 14 with a 52 Chev bought with hay haulin money.

But I've never had a roadster.  That & the tube frame is not a street car.

So, here I am with the beginnings of a 27 foadster.

Quick mockup of the current pile of accumulated parts & components.

Engine is 355 in., in need of freshening up. Originally from jegs.  Have 40 ft of 2 X 4, 3/16 wall.

Cut a couple of crossmembers.  The one in back is not in final location. Front one will be mitred for clean look.

Ill be watching! 27 track t is on my short list. 

Looking forward to following along.

I’m looking forward to watching this build as well!

Cozy lil place.

Thinking about setting it on coilovers vs buggy spring.

As I don't have facility or budget to provide a steel build table, I'm devoted to doing it WELL on jack stands. That adds some challenges to the job. I'm having some difficulty holding the side rails perfectly vertical as im clamping the front crossmember for tack welding...a simple effective fixture of some type. Time for a cold one while I set down & think. 

The solution to the problem was to cut another crossmember, paying extra attention to squareness of the ends. Fitted between the side rails and captured in place with a tight pipe clamp, everything is in good alignment & securely held in place while I finish with the fit of the mitred ends.

Drop axle! Suicide front end! Hnnnngh!

Yep, the classic setup for T roadsters.

Everything is well squared with enough good, deep, hot tacks to hold the frame firmly in place.

I'm looking at proportions & visual balance now as I move towards construction of motor mounts.

Designing a forward visual "rake," if you will from that top of the cowl down to top of grill shell.

Don't have body yet but have good dimensions for the body. Thus I can do a pretty fair layout for placement of the engine.

I like the slightly stretched out look of the axle in front of the grill shell, but don't overdo it, ya know?

Get it down between the rails, bearing in mind that the cowl is 22 1/2 " at the front. 

Want to set the motor high enough...want it to visually fill up the engine bay, but just see the arc of the cowl top across the back of the rocker boxes on the motor.

Going to incorporate a crossmember at this point, keep from bulging the side rails when I start jumpinon this thing.

It's TG weekend & I don't have any plans other than this thing.

Been getting kinda cool, winter's on the way.  Good weather for doing gritty Fab work.

Don't have radiator with elect fan yet & haven't built out the front of the engine...ya see some builds where motor is way too Far back & then some are so crowded together against the radiator that you can't do much work there without some removal of adjacent parts.

It's all about visual balance & perspective... Thu look!

So I've been thinking about how to get the motor mounted in frame but still be able to shift it slightly one way or the other, later after there are more parts in place.

Think I got it all figured out...we'll see. Got 5 days off & nothing to do but build on this thing.

Cheers best to all!

sounds like you're going to make the most of the time. Looking forward to seeing it come together

Parts. Back at it! 

That's my guard dog Lou hanging with me.

As mentioned previously, I want the engine in the frame securely but still want to be able to move it front or back for final position.

To accomplish this, I'm going to build the crossmember and motor mountpads off of the two pieces that are setting on the rails. They are the same 3/16" material as the frame & will hold the motor weight well, getting the crane and engine stand out of the way of the build process. Then when all positioning is finalized, I just weld them to the frame.

Been doing some reading on scrub line as well as a couple of informative threads over on the H A M B forum on practical clearances between road & oil pans, etc. 

Drew up several diagrams, doing the math, using different diameter tires...anything I could think of that would affect height of the car. Just don't want to wipe out the bottom of my motor.

Did some measuring & Drew up a template for the crossmember. Fits nice. Now all I've got to is fit the steel to the template & tack it up...should sllip right into place on the frame.

Height I've got the engine at now is going to be good, I think. Measurements show that with carb & air filter should fit well to the 22 1/2" height of the cowl with minimal oil pan depth below the frame rails.

Just laid a piece of steel on the template & marked my cut lines right off the drawing.

For you guys who, like me, can't afford a steel table, I've found a piece of counter top works good as a flat, straight surface for fitting work like this.

Piece of angle laid across the joins between pieces make sure both surfaces are even to each other. I'm going to tack them to the work piece, Try to keep things in place during the weld up.

Got it all tacked and hung in the frame.  Need to raise the motor just a bit, so I'm fabbing platforms to accomplish that.

One down, one to go.

Got the boxes roughed in & tacked to the crossmember. Fits pretty good. Engine height is good.

Still need to trim out the ends of the lower piece,

Need a transmission now, looking for a Muncie but haven't found one for sale yet.

In reply to Ognib :

Looking good.  Will you use through bolt in the mounts or are you planning to use captive nuts in those box sections?

Thanks Indy.

Plan to weld the outside piece to the box & separate two with the large horizontal bolt for engine removal.