Hello, another New Guy here...

[RipVW]

Rip Van Winkle here (Really) I am currently building a 27 Ford T Coupe. I have been working this project for several years and due to illness and moving I am Finally moving forward again.

I had a large shop 1440 sq ft at my old place but decided to sell while the market was hot and that cost me a year and a half of build time. I moved from near Seattle Worshington out to the central worshington coast. I bought a house and had a new shop built 1080 sq ft. It has taken a while to get things settled and get back to the coupe but I am now trying to catch back up and get things done.

I am currently working on the firewall and front floorboards. I used to say I would have this thing done by such and such date but now I figure it will be done when it is done. I am not the fastest builder as I am doing 90% of this work from a wheelchair. I have had a life long bone disease that forces me to spend 90% of my time in a wheelchair. I can stand and make a few steps but for the most part I set. It really doesn't slow me much as when I need help I have the wife come out and help out.
 
I am looking forward to hanging out here and learning what I don't know and to see some of my friends from Hotrodders. BTW thanks for the help Mr IDJ. and hello everyone.

My coupe basic details  and what is planned for it. First off I am building this car to drive and not to park or be a trailer queen. Something this car WILL NOT BE is a Rat Rod I plan on it looking good and being safe and reliable. It may not be a show car but it will be something I built myself! It will also retain the stock dimensions ie no chop top. Some of the details listed below:

1927 Ford T Coupe
Powered by a 1969 Ford 351W with dual fours and roadster style headers. Fairly stock motor with a cam and some 1969 ported Heads.

Transmission is a Ford FMX and rear end is a 93 ford Explorer 8.8 with 3:7 gears with track lock.
Front end is a superbell 4"drop Axle with Vega cross steer.  

suspension is parallel 4 link with Panard front and rear. The chassis is a set of modified 32 Ford rails. Of course it has to have the traditional Big N Littles to roll on. Still much to be done but I am making slow and steady progress.

I was going to add A couple of shots of the car with the body strapped down when I moved it from my storage to my new shop here on the coast. Unfortunately I discovered I need to have some posts posted before I can link pictures. So pictures are TBD. I am looking forward to meeting more friends here.

[enjenjo]

So you know IDJ huh? well welcome anyway. we are always looking for new blood, but at 66 you are not that new You should fit in well with the rest of us. The picture thing is because of Spam, we had to do that to keep it out.

[RipVW]

So you know IDJ huh? well welcome anyway. we are always looking for new blood, but at 66 you are not that new You should fit in well with the rest of us. The picture thing is because of Spam, we had to do that to keep it out.

Yeah, I know IDJ even though he may be a couple a degrees off plumb! I just do a lean when we communicate! That way my lean offsets his bubble problem. Ha Ha.. Just kidding IDJ. Looking forward to a nice change of scenery and I see a couple of other members from my past haunts and I feel at home.

[jaybee]

Nice to meet you, Rip!

[chimp koose]

Welcome ! I am doing a 26 T coupe with the same goals in mind . I want to drive it regularly when done . I am nearing the 9 year mark for the build with no finish date in mind except that I would like it finished by the time I retire . I like the stock roof line and my car is going to retain all fenders hood etc. Big n littles for sure ! I have gone with sbc/T350/ 8" as that s what was laying around when I started building . My second choice would have been small block ford /4spd , I even had a 351W laying around at the time . I have 4 bar front and rear on coilovers w/4" drop axle and a fabricated unisteer sourced from a manual ford focus rack. I am using Econoline spindles w disc in front. Progress this year has been minimal . I have owned this one for 18 years but didnt start on it until I sold my 49 anglia .

[RipVW]

Well I am going to have to look into this photo attachment stuff as things didn't work as they should. I may have used too large a photo or something as I saw a good post in preview then when I selected submit nothing happened. So back to the drawing board to test my theory some more.. Photos are TBD when I figure this out.  

[RipVW]

Welcome ! I am doing a 26 T coupe with the same goals in mind . I want to drive it regularly when done . I am nearing the 9 year mark for the build with no finish date in mind except that I would like it finished by the time I retire . I like the stock roof line and my car is going to retain all fenders hood etc. Big n littles for sure ! I have gone with sbc/T350/ 8" as that s what was laying around when I started building . My second choice would have been small block ford /4spd , I even had a 351W laying around at the time . I have 4 bar front and rear on coilovers w/4" drop axle and a fabricated unisteer sourced from a manual ford focus rack. I am using Econoline spindles w disc in front. Progress this year has been minimal . I have owned this one for 18 years but didnt start on it until I sold my 49 anglia .

It sounds like we are travelling a similar path.  The differences between 26 and 27 are not many. Mine has NO wood at all in the body including the trim around the back window. Everything else I think is the same.  Mine is setting on a couple of 32 boxed rails which is giving me a few fits but I am about to fix that. The 32 frame Im have has the front rails going upward about 3/4 of an inch from about the reveal on the frame forward. That makes the front of the body about 3/4 to high and not setting flat on the frame rails. I am shaving the tops of the rail there 3/4 of an inch in fact that is what I was doing today is laying out the trim lines. Tomorrow I will start out pulling the engine out of the chassis again so I can get to the inside of the rails and execute the trimming process.

I decided on the All ford theme just because you don't see many done that way. Usually all Chevy and I like to be different. Besides I got a smoking deal on the car the engine came out of which was a wrecked 1 owner 70 Ford Galaxy 1 owner with only 70K on the clock. I picked up a set of heads from my brothers 69 reno before he passed and I have a Edelbrock 7585 or 7595 or something like that. It is a airgap dual four manifold and I am setting a pair of 500CFM Edelbrock carbs.

I have an old MII manual rack I may convert to use a a unisteer but in the meantime I have an OEM Vega box with low miles I will set it up with.    

[RipVW]

Ok I am making a quick post with a couple a pictures. I am still working out the bugs concerning image size and dimensions. These photos are just reduced below the 150K cutoff. Anyway Introducing Rip Van Winkles Sleepy T Project!







These were taken Last June when the T was finally brought home to the new shop. It's a little farther apart right now but I am going to look around and find a few Build Pictures So Enjoy!!!!

[416Ford]

Welcome to group RipVW. I am one of the youngsters here that post once in awhile.
I like the original body. I am all for chopping a car to get the right proportions but those cars don't have any room in them so I think the tall roof gives them a great look and some needed elbow room.

[chimp koose]

Jeez Rip ! Mine is sitting on wire wheels too! My car is for sure a 26 as I traced the CDN manufacture serial # to may of 26. Mine has no body wood either , metal around the windows. I am glad as it seems a better idea. Did you get a rad shell with yours ? That is a tough part to find as there is no metal repop for quite some time now. I moved my firewall back about 7". Also the upper door hinges are not reproduced so do not loose yours . I machined a pair for my car from a solid bar , then a buddy found some for me . They are different from 26 to 27 . The 26 has a piano hinge style only made for that year.Also 26 was the only year I know of where you could get a car without a headlight bar , the headlight stands/buckets are different . MTFCA is a good source for info , I have not joined as most frown on hot rods but it is a great source for info.

[RipVW]

Jeez Rip ! Mine is sitting on wire wheels too! My car is for sure a 26 as I traced the CDN manufacture serial # to may of 26. Mine has no body wood either , metal around the windows. I am glad as it seems a better idea. Did you get a rad shell with yours ? That is a tough part to find as there is no metal repop for quite some time now. I moved my firewall back about 7". Also the upper door hinges are not reproduced so do not loose yours . I machined a pair for my car from a solid bar , then a buddy found some for me . They are different from 26 to 27 . The 26 has a piano hinge style only made for that year. Also 26 was the only year I know of where you could get a car without a headlight bar , the headlight stands/buckets are different . MTFCA is a good source for info , I have not joined as most frown on hot rods but it is a great source for info.

Wow Man you must be my long lost twin Brother. I bet your short with a beard and Mustache If so that is scary!!  

About the body year I was unable to find any numbers on mine. I checked the Right and Left risers, Both sub rails right and left and any possible place as outlined by MTFC and found Zip Zero Nada. The body has all the little 27 details and NO wood. The car is titled as a 27 even though the serial number points to 1926.

The original frame is long gone so no number on the frame. Motor is gone also.  My frame was custom built by myself and some 25 Cent manufacture on the east coast.  They manufactured the left and right rails.  Speedway made the front and Trans crossmembers and I built the rest and put it together.  The rails were supposed to be a copy of 32 rails, Fully boxed and then "Adjusted in shape to fit the rounded T body and then pinched down a total of 4 inches closer together in the front than a stock 32. It's narrow.

The real nightmare in these rails is that they are not a identical  copy of each side but there are differences between the right and the left rail. That made for fun building them having to think in 2 places instead of mirror in order to get the important measurements right and now in setting the body down and square the frame differences drive me nuts. Example right rail at station 40 is the correct width outside but the right rail is thinner there like by an 1/8 of an inch and maybe at say station 45 it is the opposite. It's insane..

Do you have a good decklid? I had a inner shell liberally coated with rust flakes.  I tried to fix it but it just vaporized when attempting to weld it. I built my own deck lid. I bot a outer skin from the crook Howls sheet metal. I then took a big sheet of 18 and started bending and shaping it to match the outer skin. It was a real stretch of my abilities but with the help of IDJ and a couple of guys on another site I got er done. I even rolled a couple a beads on the inside to help stabilize it. I like how it turned out.

I have also done both of my doors with new bottoms and a outer skin. Oh well 1 door is skinned but door 2 just needs the skin welded and it will be done too. I know what you mean about hinges. I had all 6 and they were actually in good shape after a teardown and bead blasting. Oh and I had to straighten almost all the hinges and when bolted up they match center all the way down. I then coated them in some SPI Epoxy primer and wired the whole bundle together for storage.

So much still left to do. the body fitting is center stage right now. I have to trim the top frame rails left and right about 9 inches long by 3/4 inches deep so the front of the body sets down flat. I have it marked and ready to trim but I am going to remove the motor/trans to get to the inside of the frame. Good thing there are only 6 bolts to pull to remove the engine right now. Before I do that, I need to pick up a new burner for my propane heater that keeps me from freezing in the shop.  I have to drive about 60 miles round trip to go get what I need. That is 1 downside to living on the beach.. I will make that trip tomorrow and get on the project by Wednesday or Thursday..

So where are you in the construction process? I hope you are moving along at breakneck speed like all of us, Why TV shows all these cars being built in an hour show so I am sure to be done by the next episode......... I am going to have about a million hours labor not to mention about 6 million dollars invested in mine so it should be ready for the car show circuit by spring right???

Well anyway let me know where you are and what is you current part of the car your project.

[chimp koose]

When I started the build I told my buddies I would be finished in 4 years , they laughed . Then I told them I was just going to buy as many parts as were available and mostly just assemble this car , they laughed more . I am a machinist by trade and I have a compulsion to always modify things or look at something and figure out how to make it a little better. I looked up available rolling chassis for the coupe and was not overly impressed with what was available . Rather than buy one and then modify it I built my own . I copied the original model T frame dimensions (mistake , should have gone wider) and rather than buy a 4 bar kit for each end I made my own with longer bars (32" vs 21") and mounts in double sheer. Coilovers at each corner and Econoline spindles that required a spindle modification to fit over the axle, and reducers machined to fit a smaller dia kingpin (which I also made). I saw a disc brake kit but found the recipe and made my own with some tweaks to improve fastening to spindle. I wanted unisteer but did not like the bellows or how short the body of the rack was so went out and made my own(mine has 5/8dia input as the uni is 9/16) also have a closed end cyl that the dead side of rack goes into instead of a bellows . The unisteer is made for a model A and would have been cut up to fit my car anyways. I have a 90 degree master under dash but again the kits were something I thought could improve so I made my own . The M/C fill caps are accessed under the cowl opening . All steel bead rolled floors /firewall. Made a metal trunk lid then found an original so no need to make an inner structure.All rust is fixed except for door bottom of driver side(have outerpatch panels) . I have all panels in steel ,bondo ready except for a hood . I want 3 pc hood and am part way there. I saw fuel tanks but wanted different so am finishing them soon as saddle tanks (15 gal combined).I need to measure pushrods and get them , rebuild a q jet and am mostly ready to break in motor. SBC/T350?8" I have a maverick diff with new Detroit locker 3.89 . Nothing on this car has actually been a kit or bolt on from a box. I sometimes wish that life would stop getting in the way of me finishing this car but it is probably some of my own fault . Since I started this car I have nearly finished 2 choppers (starting another one for my son in a month)one truck65 merc and front halfed a drag wreck roadster tube chassis as well as keeping my fleet (newest is 06 rest is last century) on the road.And no I am 6'1" and yes I have a handlebar 'stache. Tell me ....you are not painting your car blue are you?

[RipVW]

When I started the build I told my buddies I would be finished in 4 years , they laughed . Then I told them I was just going to buy as many parts as were available and mostly just assemble this car , they laughed more . I am a machinist by trade and I have a compulsion to always modify things or look at something and figure out how to make it a little better. I looked up available rolling chassis for the coupe and was not overly impressed with what was available . Rather than buy one and then modify it I built my own . I copied the original model T frame dimensions (mistake , should have gone wider) and rather than buy a 4 bar kit for each end I made my own with longer bars (32" vs 21") and mounts in double sheer. Coilovers at each corner and Econoline spindles that required a spindle modification to fit over the axle, and reducers machined to fit a smaller dia kingpin (which I also made). I saw a disc brake kit but found the recipe and made my own with some tweaks to improve fastening to spindle. I wanted unisteer but did not like the bellows or how short the body of the rack was so went out and made my own(mine has 5/8dia input as the uni is 9/16) also have a closed end cyl that the dead side of rack goes into instead of a bellows . The unisteer is made for a model A and would have been cut up to fit my car anyways. I have a 90 degree master under dash but again the kits were something I thought could improve so I made my own . The M/C fill caps are accessed under the cowl opening . All steel bead rolled floors /firewall. Made a metal trunk lid then found an original so no need to make an inner structure.All rust is fixed except for door bottom of driver side(have outerpatch panels) . I have all panels in steel ,bondo ready except for a hood . I want 3 pc hood and am part way there. I saw fuel tanks but wanted different so am finishing them soon as saddle tanks (15 gal combined).I need to measure pushrods and get them , rebuild a q jet and am mostly ready to break in motor. SBC/T350?8" I have a maverick diff with new Detroit locker 3.89 . Nothing on this car has actually been a kit or bolt on from a box. I sometimes wish that life would stop getting in the way of me finishing this car but it is probably some of my own fault . Since I started this car I have nearly finished 2 choppers (starting another one for my son in a month)one truck65 merc and front halfed a drag wreck roadster tube chassis as well as keeping my fleet (newest is 06 rest is last century) on the road.And no I am 6'1" and yes I have a handlebar 'stache. Tell me ....you are not painting your car blue are you?

Ahhh Colors... Well once upon a time I was going to try for Black but that color is soo telling of any imperfections as Is any dark color. Blue still a dark color but was considered however now I am leaning toward Red It is still considered a darker color, But I have seen some rough looking Red paint jobs and even though they are rough they still look good. My 23 T Coupe was a nice retail Red and it was maybe 30+ years old but still cleaned up to look good.  BTW My Red 23 was the inspiration for this build so I have a weighted decision. I looked into Gray or silver but gray is boring silver must have metal flake and to get flake consistency.  I am not that good of painter. I can do solid colors but I have never done candies or silver metal flake or anything fancy. So I may just stick with single color and Red seems to be in the front of the pack. Oh there is a combination of Black and silver but I ain't sure I could get the body that straight. I think each T body ever built was subjected to all kinds of twists, pulls, compressed and generally screwed up. and then we get them and try to fix the built in abuse..

Today I made a trip to pick up a few things and an small 15000 BTU personal radiant heater that hooks to the top of my 5 gallon Propane tank. I have a 75,000 BTU torpedo heater I have been trying to use in the shop to be able to work when it is cold. It works great for heating a fairly large area but is guzzles propane like a drunkin Sailor.  This personal heater is more of a 1 on 1 sort of heater. I don't need a lot of heat but when my hands get cold they don't want to move so I hoping the portable tank with heater attached will still put out a sufficient amount of heat and it is more portable than the torpedo is. It has a cord and a hose connected so ya gotta deal with both then when set up you melt everything around a 15 to 20 foot radius.  The smaller radiant heater should be easy to move around the area and not melt everything. So tomorrow will be test day!

You mentioned Firewall being set back. Well there ya go thinking like me again. I just finished phase 1 of my 4 inch recessed firewall on my T this is the second attempt but I am pleased with how it is going so far. I will dig up a photo or two. I basically took a 72 inch long by 5 inch wide piece of 18 ga and then bent a 1 inch flange in it. I then took my shrinker and formed the panel to the same shape and size opening of the cowl (Old oem firewall gone). now I have this cowling looking piece that slides right in where the original firewall connected sort of like a sleeve and the inside L shaped portion is where I will cut a piece of 16 ga flat and attach it as the firewall.









So that is where I am on the firewall I need to get the body bolted down and secure so I can measure for a bellhousing bump and I gotta notch the frame to fit the body to figure out how much room I have to work with. I am using a flat floor design as it gains me a little tiny bit of space. I am also going to try and utilize a 32 floor mounted pedal assembly but the jury hasn't been handed the case yet.

I also heard you mention Bikes as in 2 wheeled motorized ie Scooters. I am an old biker from when I was a young man at 10 till tomorrow. Everything from Airel Square 4 to Harley Davidson including many many in-between. I built a multitude of 2 wheelers and a couple a trikes. I love Motorcycles but My bone disease has devastated my major joints and it just beats me to death to try and ride anymore but I would never turn down even a short putt!

Time to wrap up the evening.  Laters........................Rip VW

[chimp koose]

I am helping a friend with his chopper project , it is at my shop for all the fabricating . It started as a bare frame , looks like a hardtail with shocks under the frame. I have modified a WILD looking springer onto it . 110 inch rev tech engine that looks like a pan head but isnt (makes 100 hp)6speed . Lots of small fab to get it together ,it is a slow build like anything I do . If we didnt have covid , it would be on the road already . Also started a mini chopper years ago with my students that would have been finished save for covid as well . That one is briggs powered with hard tail frame and a crazy smooth springer on it . Kick start ,open primary belt drive  to a jack shaft. 8.5 wide rear tire and front rim/tire from a honda express. All rubber is DOT . Everything on this one is shop built including throttle and hand controls ,frame , and the brushed stainless tube springer front. Back fender is part of a model T fender and gas tank is a 34ford and 38olds headlight buckets sectioned together and channeled over the backbone. All hidden fasteners on the mini chopper except on the engine. I do not ride , I just like bikes. I will be starting aKawasaki gs1000 chopper build for my son in a few months . Already have the rims , tires and girder front end for it. Oh you mentioned METALFLAKE , that is a weakness of mine . The mini chopper will be painted with the biggest flake I can find! I get your hesitation to paint metallic , I will be staying with single stage non metallic on my coupe ( thinking of Navajo blue , an Indian M/C colour from the 20's) My wire wheels will be Tacoma cream. I love T coupes and have wanted one since before I could drive.This is the last car on my bucket list .

[RipVW]

Well today started out on a good note. The rain and wind storm last night was over this morning and all that is left is the clearing of the mess from roads and trees and lowering of all the flood waters. It was quite a storm and I slept through most of it.  

So out bright and early (about 12:00 Noon) and out to the shop I go. I am ready to put this new heater to the test and get something done on the T.  So I go out and unpack the heater and quickly get it set up on a nearly empty propane tank. I had read the manual (Really) and opened the supply valve set the heat control on hi, pressed the red button and brought the flame close to the grill. (This one is manual light with no Piezo. In order to light the grill and hold the stupid red button on you got to get fairly close to the heater. Well I figured the propane would just light and burn then after the 30 second point release the red button.  Well When I touched the flame there was a big whoosh and I promptly lost all the hair in my right nostril while simultaneously erasing my entire right eyebrow and part of my eyelash. Needless to say it lit and I held on to the little red button till it stayed lit. If I still had hair I would have lost a bunch of that too.  Well the heater quickly came up to speed and I was impressed with the huge amount of heat the little bugger produced. I was setting 4 feet in front of it and got overheated rather quickly. I warmed a bit then set the heater about 4 feet from where I was working and reveled in the heat. Much better than the torpedo heater and it was overcooking anything. I ran the heater for 2 1/2 hours at full tilt and when I shut it off it showed no signs of quitting anytime soon! That was on an otherwise empty propane tank. I figure many many hours of heat from a full tank.  So far this heater is a winner with the exception of removing some hair from me I like it. I can get it close so I get nice and toasty yet the heat is confined to a cone you can point at yourself and get warm.   The heater I bought was at Ace Hardware and was called: Dyna-Glo 15000 BTU/hr. 705 sq. ft. Radiant Liquid Propane Tank Top Heater. I found a new garage buddy that will keep me warm and not drink all my propane at once... Winner winner.

Ok progress on the T consisted of pulling the engine and trans out of the frame again so I can do the chassis mods to accommodate the T body to the chassis. That went flawlessly and I then started to prep the rail for the trim. I got it laid out and marked. I prepped my tools for the cuts and staged everything where I need to do this little slice and dice. I stopped there for the day as that was a good 2 1/2 hour session including the heater test. Tomorrow I will start trimming and cutting and see what kind of mess I can make..

Along the motorcycle front I have built many different bikes both street and dirt. My last serious dirt bike build was a motocross motorcycle for a bike shop I was working at.  The shop had a 16 year old kid that would race motocross in the 400CC up class. The bike was a IIRC 1970 Maico Square barrel 400. It was trick with ported top end and lightened crank. That bike would Haul A??. and the Kid as we called him was fearless. He raced 2 seasons with us and when finishing the second year he announced he was going to join the army. He went in got his basic out of the way and then was shipped to Germany to be crew chief on helicopters. He was there for almost a year when they went to test a helicopter after repairs and it fell out of the sky killing him and all aboard. It was a shocker....

Along that time I rode a English bike called a Royal Enfield. It was a fun but finicky bike. I restored and rode an old Ariel Square four.  In the few years later I built a trump 650 chopped 6" over glide front end. I built a radical BSA 650 with a wild 14 over girder front end on a hardtail frame. There were several 750 4 cylinder Hondas ranging from slightly modified to the all out rigid framed customs. I have owned several Harleys and the last Motorcycle I owned I bought new in 1986. It was a 1986 Harley  Davidson Softail Custom. (FXSTC)  I rode that bike over 75000 almost trouble free miles. I made several round trips from Worshington State to Sturgis SD for the Rally, A cruise from Vancouver Canada to San Diego California and just about every western state. In 2003 I had a major medical setback and found trying to ride was just too painful so I finally sold the Softail in I think 2005. I actually traded it for a cherry rebuilt 1923 Ford T Coupe stocker.  There were many other bikes but too numerous to list.



To throw in a few cars during those years and I was flush in the transpo dept.  My first Hotrod I ever built was in 1972. It was a 1952 Chevy 2 door I put a 1967 Camaro 350 Eng. and 4 speed and rear end in that had been tricked and "Improved" all over with forged internals a Isky cam and 202 heads, and fender exit tuned headers It was one fast car.  

So just a little trip down memory lane and the car I liked best out of all I built was a 1967 Chevy II Nova. It had a radical 350 with slant plug heads 202's I believe 11.5 to 1 pistons a Isky Z60 solid cam and a 3310 holly. I ran a (wait for it) Saginaw 4 sp with a 12 bolt rear with 456 gears. It would literally snap your neck back when you put your foot in it.  It was for a while " the badest Car in Renton Washington Loop. Look up Renton Washington Loop sometime in Google I think they still mention "Cruising the Loop tradition in that town from back in the 50's.  

Ok so I ramble at times just give me a nudge if I drift to far out there. I feel more comfortable here than that other place so I tend to go off on a ramble mixed with current and past history..      

A couple of Shots that hooked me on Model T coupes. This is my 23/24 T Coupe. I sold it to start my 27 T Project. This car was titled as a 1923 but it was actually a 1924 Body.  Enjoy..