Thursday, November 7, 2019

A Final U-Turn

We sold the Hot Rod. How did that happen?


As we were installing the accelerator pedal, we had to temporarily place the divers seat into the cabin, we have a lot of headroom so we had a 2 inch standoff from the floor to raise the seat. This would allow some space for heat reduction - something we are concerned about since you sit right over the mufflers. While the seats were in both of us looked at how cramped the cabin really is. We came to the quick realization that both myself and my brother are too big to fit in once the doors, hardtop, and center console are installed. We also had to roll out of the car onto our hands and knees when we sat in the seat, and would always have to do that. We figured that this would limit our driving time to about once around the parking lot once we completed the build.

At breakfast we started to note how much more money we would have to commit just to get that first and most likely only drive. The accounting went like this
Wheels - $400-$1000 each for what we were thinking
Tires - $300-$400 each
Finish body work - $3000
Paint - $8000

Conservative total $13,000
Most likely total $17,000

So would we want to add $15,000 and then sell it for market price of $30,000 to $40,000 or cut our loses and just try to see if we can sell it in it's current unfinished state.

It would also probably require another 200 hours of work by us, and the headache of getting the vehicle titled and licensed to drive.

Our immediate conclusion - try to sell it

After posting on Craig's list we were able to sell to a builder with two sons who will help out on the build, a perfect situation as the hot rod will continue to help inspire the next generation of car geeks.

A few photo's of the hot rod on Larry's fancy shipping container trailer with the rolling chassis and a enclosed trailer where the body and boxes of remaining parts made the journey to Wisconsin, it's next home.








Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Restarting Build After a Few Years Delay

I have decided to spend at least one day a week working on the hot rod after not putting any time into it over the last few years. It seemed that one project or another always being higher priority, the hot rod sat collecting dust at Larry's shop. After a spirited discussion at a friends father memorial service with another builder, and a long discussion with my brother the passion to complete is returning.

Today I was able to fabricate an accelerator mount that positions the accelerator pedal at the same height and an acceptable distance away for the brake pedal and the transmission tunnel. I made the mount so that it can be adjusted after driving the car once the seat is installed and the interior is in.

Here are some pictures of the mount and pedal