BIG 3, It's An Understatement!

Cars, Bikes, Trucks, Parts, and More all at the Big 3 swap meet! This '41 Ford was $2895.

This is one huge swap meet!  2012 was my first year going to this San Diego annual event.  Guys have always said I should go, and now honestly I am hooked.  Believe me, I'll plan on it every year from now on!

This show is really about the parts! Frontenac "Fronty" T head.

Miles and miles of sellers, in row after row arranged without any real logical pattern.  And it's true --there is no way to cover it all in one day.  For me, two days wasn't enough!  I am sure I missed some of it.  There was part of the swap beyond the car corral I never saw.  Some were saying this was the biggest year yet.

I was able to go Friday for the half day, and all day Saturday.  By the end, I was worn out!
After seeing how big this swap meet was Friday, my plan for Saturday was to go to go around to the far end and work my way back.  Well that backfired.  By the time I got to the back end, my bags were so heavy with parts, I bought a $25 wagon to save my arms.
I know, it's hypocritical after bashing wagons in an earlier blog post, call me douche-bag if you like, whatever.  I needed help!



For the last two years, 2010 & 2011, the rain had flooded the grounds to where some parts & cars were feet deep underwater.  Aah... this year it was nice and dry, cool sunny weather.  May have been the reason sellers were in abundance.




So much to see, so much to buy! Need a tractor?
There was more then just cars to look and dream about.











That stock 36 convertible didn't have a for-sale sign, but it didn't stop me from wishing I had it.









Now this car was a great deal!!  Everybody loves a 32 roadster.

Not 2012 priced.  wow.

Travis Perich's T project car on sale.  He's got some skills.  More on this T roadster, click here.










Lots of odd items to see or buy.  Need an old TV?  Look for the "house trailer".















How about a Elephant 'foot' stool?  Says it was made in the 1950s, $1100.  Tempting...







Now, I was actually considering this.  It's a 40's sprint type racing car.  Aluminum body, Model T frame, 101 Halibrand QC, and Daytons Wire Wheels.  But I have a T racer, and I used to have Daytons, so... I didn't get it.

Now to the stuff I bought!  Here is Friday's haul:

16x3.5 wide-5 wheel, some crank pulleys, SW gauges, 25¢ wrenches, NOS parts, Lucas fog lights, chrome trim rings, spring perches, and more --and all for great prices!

I bought the red shift knob I've been looking for.






Saturday was the long day, but I found so much!

Lots of seat belts, Burns intake w/81 Strombergs, tar top battery, two 16x4 wide-5s, more gauges, more spring perches, club plaques, cheap license plates, and lots of $1 parts.

My biggest swap produced the biggest bounty.  I'm loving it!

Aircraft "Bomber" Seat in a Hot Rod

The issue of seating has been a topic of a lot of thought.  I had a few ideas, but I kept coming back to my original idea --one seat, right in the middle, and vintage aircraft.

There is no way I would just screw it to a plywood floor.

Patiently waiting for the right opportunity, I was rewarded with a nice match pair for sale on ebay.  The seller was restoring a warbird, but the project fell through.  The naval airplane seats had already been were striped of the grey paint, and were looking pretty nice.

The debate continues whether bomber seats are "traditional".  The answer is: it depends.
Look at plenty of race cars, roadster-racers, track jobs, lakesters from the 40s & 50s, many had aircraft seats.  Now look at street hot rods from the same time, and you might notice none of them had war surplus seating.
So 60 years ago when weight (thus speed) was a issue, war-bird seat - YES.  Comfort and sensibility, fighter plane seat - NO.  The only airplane themed cars in 1955 were lakes only, belly-tank streamliners.


Now that I've had the seats a few months, I finally figured out how to install one... finally.

>>>By the way, two average aircraft seat don't fit into a Model T roadster.  The seats are too wide and the T too small.

OK, to the right is how the stock seat hardware looked on the back.  Aluminum & wood verticals, and aluminum brackets.  The handle on the side was for adjusting seat height.

The brackets have holes for tube to slid in them.  One idea was to use tubes again, but the size was some sort of AN sizing, 15/16" tube? It's not made!








I simply unbolted the brackets and and replaced them with 1" heavy wall square tubing.  This way I can make a seat frame custom to my needs.

My needs were; it has to sit low, it had to leaning back a bit for comfort, and it has to adjust back and forth for diffident height drivers.











The foundation's start was simple, two 1x1.5", 1/8 wall tubes across the frame.

I'll weld these right onto the frame later. And I'll make joists to the longer piece for more support.









Now that the lower base is settled, I made seat slider rails with adjustment holes 3/4" apart.  The rails are 1"square, 1/8" wall tube.

The ends of the tubes are all caped and sanded smooth for looks.

The lower base is just below the level of the interior floor so I can still put a floor panel in and hide all my nice work.







I'll skip the process and show you the results.  This is the seat farme, there is the 1" tube directly replacing the original aluminum & wood, and tube brackets.  The frame is fully welded and quite ridged.  And the seat itself is not flimsy in the least. Now lending it's own strength, it is not going move around in a hard turn.
I purposely didn't go overboard, the focus will be on the chair and not the supports.











This is the seat frame minus the seat.  The seat was it's own jig.  I tacked the parts together while on the seat and finished it off without.

Another look at the adjusting rails.

"bomber belt"

I bet you are asking, how about a seat belt?  Well I have that covered too.
This just in: actual WWII fighter plane harnesses --date coded, canvas and leather, early steel length adjusters.  Another recent ebay find.









 




Attachment couldn't have been easier.  I used 1.5" wide, 3/16"thick bar steel, welded to the lower rail. 

Aircraft seat in a hot rod complete.  Now I just need a cushion.

I Sold At The Long Beach Parts Exchange

Yes, I sold a lot of bulky things I will probably never use.  Feels good to unburden myself of some of those things.  I now have space --I can breath better.

Many thanks to all my friends that stopped by (in no particular order): Richard, Fred, Nick's Brother, Sam, Bill, Oggy, Hey --How's It Going Guy, Jim, Charlie, Sideburns, Dennis, Model A Big-Talker Guy, & East Coast Richard.

This picture was taken mid-day, so some of the parts were sold by now.

My E&J Type 20 Headlights are gone forever.  I sold those kind of cheap --a little regret there.  But that's ok, I doubt I'd ever use them, and I didn't loose any money.

Nobody bought the hoods, running boards, or 'A' bumpers though --they are pretty bulky parts.  I'll try Craigslist, I really don't want to put them away.

But all the wheel & tires gone!  Happy about that.

The best thing to happen was right at the end of the day, I found the 2.5-gallon WWII oil tank I have been looking for for two years!  "East Coast" Richard had it in his stall only 100 feet from mine all day and I didn't know it.
After I packed up at noon, I took a short stroll and there it was!!!  I left for home right after that, no need to keep walking.  I finally had the last major part for the Model T I wanted.

I found it at Long Beach: WWII oil tank, awesome hot rod material!

LA Roadster Show Booty

Hand-picked by me: SW gauges, flathead tach drive, chrome timing cover, shocks, fan, 12V early FoMoCo bulb, engine stand adptr, ect.

The swap meet is what the LA Roadster Show is to me --treasures to found and purchased!  I almost literally count the days until the next show.  I save all the money just hoping to find the parts I've been dreaming of.

2011 was a little dry.  I only found a handful of parts I needed or bargain priced items to resell on ebay.  But the fun was is in the search.

The show is also a great place to socialize with other rodders.  I chit-chatted with a dozen or so friends I saw.  And a few gave me a pat on the back congratulating on the R&C Little Pages write-up. 

As always, there were cool cars all over the fairgrounds.  And for the last few years I've only trolled the swap meet area.  This years was no exception!  Despite their change up of the layout, all eight hours were spent swap-meeting.  But I managed to find a few swell roadsters to shoot, here are my favorites:

Orosco owned & restored 'Dick Flint roadster'.

An interesting custom roadster for sale.  Lead filled seams, chopped & channeled.

So-Cal Speed Shop dirt-track '32 --a remake I believe.  Full-racing car --I couldn't help but love it!

Jimmy Shine built Model A roadster. Superior build quality with many new & original details.

Houdaille Shocks, Pretty Easy To Use

Whether they are called "fluid", "friction", "knee" or "lever-action", they are all a 'rotary shock absorbers' with fluid braking for motion resistance.  Houdaille was actually a brand name, and they supplied shocks to Ford, Plymouth, & Studebaker to name a few.   Delco made a piston version for GM, but those weren't round shaped.

Cutting-edge in it's day, rotary shocks were a fixture on millions foreign & domestic autos from the 1920s up until the late 40s.

But by 1950, less expensive & easier to produce "Aircraft Shocks"(because WWII solders saw them on planes first), known today by many as the modern tube shock, made their way into all cars produced in the USA.  But the tube shock lacked one convenience Houdaille shocks had  --adjustability.

The amount of dampening was easily adjusted by turning a little pointer with pliers.  Soft for rough roads, stiffen for city driving, and varying degrees in between.  That options was on Houdaille made shocks for Ford from the mid 30s to the end in 1948.  And that adjustability is why they were continuing to be used in racing applications through the 1950's.

Studebaker version above, Fords below

I've chosen to use rotary shocks on my T race car because if my car were to be built in 1950, those shock would have been abundant at any wrecking yard, probably for a dollar or less.

Today, they are still quite inexpensive and although not very easy to find, many good ones are out there.

I was lucky to find exactly what I needed on ebay again. Patiently waited for matching pairs of fronts and a pair of rears.  I made sure they weren't frozen solid, otherwise they could be entirely useless.




Shocks are either for the right or left side of the car, as indicated by the filler plug position.

The Studebaker used different linkage then the Fords do, with replaceable bushings top & bottom.   

Here are all the parts I needed to set up the shocks. 

The NOS 1947-49 Wohlert brand OEM links are for the Studebakers.  Dog-bone style for the Fords, this is a 4" example.  And I already had a set of original Model A shocks mounting bolts.









Putting the shocks right on the frame, like factory, wasn't working --the suspension is too low.  Ford shock links only come 3" or 4" in length, not 1".













The solution was simply move the shock up about 2" with a bracket.  Tracing the outline onto cardboard is the simplest way to make a template.

Raising the shock also cleared the brake hose on this application.








The rear shocks were a little more complicated. I had to go a little out-of-the-box for this set-up.

The reason I went with this type shock & location was partly due to the frame kick-up being so far forward of the axle, and other reasons.  But I think it will look pretty cool.  It's definitely race car builders would have done back then.

I'll use some of my scrap parts to attach the low end of the link --like this rear radius arm severed front end.










Now that I've designed the braketry, it's just a matter of transferring it onto 3/8" steel plate.  I used my trusty oxy cutting torch to make quick work of it thick plate.

That's the template for the rear shocks bracket.









(I'll skip the dirty work)

So what followed the cutting was bench grinder time to clean up the edges, also hand files were used to fine-tune them.











I'll cut these front axle shock-eye off a 1939 Ford perch-pin, I happen to have in my yard.

It will need sanding & shaping before I weld it on to my vintage spring perch (which I previously shaved).









Here is the front shock bolted onto the newly welded and primed bracket.

Looks good to me.  Similar to things I've seen on actual Sprint cars.










This 4" shock link is actually kind of too long.  Besides, it's totally shot anyway, I was only using it for set-up.

Back over to the rear again.  This is the freshly welded on bracket.













Now primed, I bolted on the shock.  Works just as planned.

Sure using tube shock might have been simpler, but the look of these rotary shocks will excite a lot of vintage car enthusiasts. Some might even think it's an actual old racer.