Making Radius Arm & Hairpin Frame Brackets

Completed hairpin frame brackets, with tapered holes.

Written as a companion to my earlier post Home-Made Hairpins.



I spent part of Presidents Day completing brackets needed to attach the front hairpins & rear end radius arms to the Model A frame.

Earlier, I flame cut 3" wide strips of 3/8" 1/4" thick steel plate to use as the base to which tapered-hole bungs will be welded.
A lot of hot rodders would stop there, drill holes, and bolt this mount straight down, off the side of the frame.  I'm going for a more finished look, so I'll take it a few steps further.

Keep the mallet close.

...flame has no shadow.

Next, I heated and bent the plate 90°.  Evenly heating a band to a dull red (front & back) just above the vise, made hammering the steel over easy as cake.  I used a Harris #2 Rosebud tip.  From lighting the torch to the completed bend took about one-minute.  Then let the steel air cool off the vise.







After marking the piece, I used my cutting torch this time, to cut off the excess.  Then using the bench grinder to clean it up a bit.  Next I cut & shaped a hole to fit the tapered-hole Speedway 'shock mount'.








Hot rodding books from the 50's told readers to cut off tapered tie-rod eyes from steering arms found on car spindles.  This could still be done today from just about any junk car or truck.  But at $2.99 each from Speedway Motors, it's much cleaner & easier.









After fitting the mount into the bracket (making sure I have the correct side of the mount facing out), and chamfering the hole as a valley for the weld, I set the welder on high.  A nice MIG weld bead, front and back, completes the joining of two pieces.

I took an architectural class in high school.

Some final machine sanding, and the brackets actually look a little too good for a 1950's track car.

(A sketch with measurements is useful when making multiples of something.)

The next thing I have to do is fit the rear radius arms with threaded tube & tie-rod ends.  Then tack these brackets to the underside of the frame rails, after I've 'measured twice'.

Parts Listed, I'm Back In Business

In an effort to make some cash and clear some space at home, I've started to list parts on ebay again. I'm hoping to make selling vintage auto parts a habit once again.  Although it takes a lot of effort, the rewards can outweigh the work involved.

And so you don't think this is an entirely blatant attempt at getting more bids --I'm giving you, my loyal readers, a special discount.

If you win an item, I will subtract the price of shipping (up to $10 off) from the final value (but only antique car and speed parts at sell for over $10).  Just send me an email through ebay stating that you read The Hot Rod Disorder, and I will revise your invoice crediting you the price of the shipping.  So I guess it can pay to read my written rambling.

Check out my auctions here:  LAHotRod

These are a few items that ended February 22, 2011:

All my items start at 99¢, even the intakes.  And I normally never have a reserve.  I like the action!

Here is 1950's 4x2 intake from Edelbrock.  It was to used on the 27 Track T, but now I have a Weiand 4x2 to match the cylinder heads.  This is a nice one!

Final Sale Price: (A somewhat low) $332

Here is an intake from the Bill Bair collection.  A very early BURNS intake for Ford Model A/B 4-cylinder engines.  Designed for use with a Stromberg or Holley, to replace the factory updraft carb.  Pretty rare, and old.

Final Sale Price: $170.50 (a fair price)

Salvaged from an impossibly poor GUIDE 682-C headlight, these were the only solid parts left.  They are perfect if you are missing a something.

Final Sale Price: $29.50 (another fair price)

And something I bought at the last LA Roadster Show swap as an impulse buy.  A very cool set of Ford script chopped out of a late 1930's commercial truck.  Beautiful natural patina.

I hate to give them up because they are really cool.  Ford used incredibly heavy steel for tailgates back then, easily more the 3 mm thick!

Final Sale Price: $202.50 (much, much better!)

There was a fierce bidding war in the last minutes. This makes up for the low intake sell price.

Selling on ebay use to be a regular thing for me.  Then things changed at work, and listing parts wasn't as convenient as in the past.  I was really good at it too (I'm bragging again).  So here's to new starts!

Post-Show: What I've Learned

Now that the GNRS is over, I've had a few days to digest what went on, what went wrong, and what I can do differently in the future.

I don't see entering a car in a major car show as personal entertainment, it's far from it.  Apart from being a lot of work, I also risked damaging the car due to Sunday's rain and transporting it back & forth.  In addition to the loss of sleep and the stress, I used two days of vacation from work & spent hundreds for dollars out of pocket.

Unfortunately for me, my black roadster, the car that represents me was relegated to a dark area of the hall, up against the wall.  It was packed in tightly between a green jalopy and a row of tables.  In retrospect, I should have spoken up and asked to be placed among the rows of other cars.  But by the time I realized it was in the worst spot in the place, it was too late, the place was full.

Entering this show is really more for networking, or promoting one's car or building talents, or other reasons I don't know --rather then for fun.  So in many respects, this enterprise in self-promotion was a bust, a failure, a total wash.  So, I'll have to chalk this one up to experience once again.

I came to the show because I wanted people to see the car that they may have only seen on the internet. I wanted to talk to them about it.  And show off all the cool things it has, that no other roadster does.
Perhaps the general public would take photos and publish them on online forums, I hoped... or maybe have one picture in car magazine's show coverage.  The magazine coverage is a wait & see.  But I have a feeling I won't be seeing any pictures of the car.

Ryan from the Jalopy Journal, who happens to be quite fond of my car, was my only saving grace.  He picked Daytons as one of ten HAMB cars to compete for the Jalopy Journal: Best Roadster trophy.  Not surprisingly, the car that won was in contention for the AMBR award, and is the sweetheart of the HAMB membership. Daytons came in next to last --I'm not disappointed at all by that. Just happy to be nominated.

I did talk to one person momentarily about the car... but that's it.  I also spoke to Dave Valles and family on Sunday.  He's the fellow whom I bought the car from in October 2009.  It was nice to show Dave the car now that it was fixed and complete once again.  But he's known the car almost all his life.  So I really never connected with anyone new about the car.

Perhaps I should have spent more time beside the car rather then strolling.  Unfortunately again, it was parked near the stage where bands were playing at volume levels so high it pained me and many others to stay in the room.

I'm not sure why the car was put where it was, I'd like to think the organizer was well intentioned.  But in the future (I'll still go back), I'll push for where I want to be first, and not compromise.

For the average spectator, if you can afford the entry & parking, it's a fabulous show.  For the participant, it's a major pain in the ass!

2011 GNRS, Sunday

The rain paused long enough to snap a photo of this coupe parked soaking wet.

It rained.

I survived.

Car survived... again. 

--thank you hot rod gods.

And here is the 2011 America's Most Beautiful Roadster, a 1934 Ford built by Squeeg's Kustoms:

2011 AMBR Winner, by Squeeg's Kustoms, Daryl Wolfswinkel owner

AMBR Trophy

2011 GNRS, Saturday

Mickey Thompson Indy car from inside the NHRA Museum at Pomona

I slept in this morning because there was no need to rush over, I'd already seen all the cars over the last two days.  But I didn't want to miss the HAMB Meet & Greet at noon, among other events.
So I left at 11 o'clock. Little did I know that just the line to park was 30 minutes! Needless to say, I got there a few minutes late.  And I still never met Ryan, the organizer of the HAMB, to shake his hand.

Soon after, my friends Ed, Ed, Tim, & Tim showed up and we proceeded to walk the halls in an effort entertain ourselves further despite the throngs of spectators, it was still fun.  This was actually their second day, I got them in on Thursday.  So they had already seen most of it.

At 2 pm, we were at the Pinstriping Auction to support Tim and to see what he'd donated to be auctioned to help fund Progeria Syndrome research. All I did was clap.

At 3 pm, there was the Then & Now, Customs builders get together.  This is where history's greatest living customizers all came together for a mass greeting a signature session.  A can't miss event! Unfortunately the crowd was so thick I couldn't get near it.

Then at 4 pm, the NHRA museum hosted the Low-Flyers car club panel discussion with Alex Xydias, Phil Remington, Stuart Hilborn, Dick "Magoo" Megugorac, and others.  This time Ed & I had seats.
They all talked about what they built and raced in the very earliest days of hot rodding and lakes racing.  Stu Hilborn may have had some the most interesting stories. He spoke at length about his lakester with the first fuel-injection unit.  The amount of times Stu evaded fatal racing accidents were incredible!  From flipping his car on the lake bed over & over and living through it. To inhaling toxic fumes as a result of an engine fire.  And to narrowly avoiding driving his racer into a 10' ditch, that would have killed him for sure!

This was a real treat for me.  I got to hear about what those early racing pioneers had to do just to gain a few seconds at the track before there was any race car parts available to them.  It makes me feel like what I'm doing the backyard with hand tools, was what they might have done 60 years ago as well.

From left --Dick Magoo, Bob Wenz, Jim Miller Jr, Xydias, Remington, & Hilborn

The infamous Miss Linda Vaughn came in at the end to wish Phil Remington a happy 90 birthday, which was today.

Any time spent inside the NHRA museum is very rewarding.  So many of the best racing cars are here.  They tell a story if you simply study them  with your eyes, each car frozen in time.

Here is the the newly restored "BEAST" early land speed racer.

Also parts, memorabilia, artifacts, & complete engines are all on display

6 pm; The award ceremony at for participants of the Suede Palace getting under way.  There is Daytons boxed in to the right.

Following the awards was the Trophy Girl Contest.  Each of the 10 beauties was introduced and asked an appropriate question like, "What is your favorite tattoo".
Each lady an example of the "loose city woman mom warned you about", as seen on illustrated movie posters from the 50's.

GNRS Suede Palace Trophy Girl Contest

And the winner is... the brunette on the right.  Winners were determined by the amount of applause one received from the crowd.  Making all other judging criteria null.  Apparently she brought all her co-workers to cheer her on.  Although, I must admit she was quite good looking, and knew how to work the crowd.