1927 Essex (T)RUSTY Project

[Grum]

I’ll start off with a bit about me. I am 23 years old, work in retail and live on a farm near Saskatoon with my dad. You’ll notice He will be doing a lot of the important (it could kill you if it goes bad) welding as I am just learning how to weld and don’t really like arc (Though I am enjoying mig).

The car is a 1927 Essex. I found it on Kijiji for $2100 on June 1st, 2014. Honestly at the time I wasn’t looking for a new project at the time but my dad and brother convinced me that I couldn’t let it go. The next day we borrowed a trailer and went and got it.

The bad: seized engine, no roof, no floor, no interior, no brakes, no glass (actually one window was included)

The good: mostly complete, rare dodge brothers grill shell, general lee wheels, extra parts included, solid frame, great look (one pair of doors had been taken out of the body making it a two door), channeled, perfect patina including 3 bullet holes

The build: I would like to say this is my first build so bear with me. This is a rat rod project and as such the goal of this car right now is to get it on the highway before august, 8 2014. After that I will be improving it to a point where I can show it off and be proud. I have a lot of good ideas where I want to take this project and I hope it all comes together.

 

[bullet]

First time I looked, your photo links were broken.
So like a good Samaritan, I fixed what I thought was broken.
When I got that done and submitted my post, poof, your links were visible on your post ... good figure.
Must have been a momentary gliche.

Anyway welcome,
good project, a bit different, but I like different.

 

[30sx]

1930 sx

welcome to the site the pic is of my 1930 essex, built it years ago, started as a 4dr. interesting to see where you go with this one.

 

[Grum]

Must have been a momentary gliche.

Actually I was editing the links turned out I had linked the site not the pics

welcome to the site the pic is of my 1930 essex, built it years ago, started as a 4dr. interesting to see where you go with this one.

I already caught a glimpse of your Essex on here when I was waiting to be approved it looks great! love the old panel wagons.

 

[ptpdub]

COOL! Watching this thread.

 

[John in Oz]

Some of those cut down sedans can look really neat, check around I am sure you will find some other photos to get some ideas off of, what a great starting project for you, please do keep us posted, but mate at least do the car some credit when you build the thing and don't just leave the body as a rust piece, paint it one colour, flat black or any colour but the guys that leave them all rusty looking thinking that is how it was done years ago are wrong they were always painted and there is nothing wrong with an on going project as you mention here.

Good for you I say and go for it.

 

[bullet]

Have you given any thought to moving the body forward alittle and adding a Turtle Deck or PU box, just curious.
Here's a '27 Essex Coupe.

Here's a couple cut down sedans

 

[JONROD]

Welcome to the forum! It's great to see another young member, especially one working on an Essex! I look forward to seeing this one unfold.

 

[Grum]

It came with a ford straight 6 that was seized so it had to come out. One of the problems I faced was that even with the straight 6 in it there was still an extra foot and a half of engine room. I briefly looked on Kijiji (remember deadline) for a straight eight or longer engine that I could use to fill the gap. Not finding one I resorted to what I had laying around. I needed something running as there is no time for a rebuild. My old S10 that I bought for a project (1940 international) a couple years ago for a whopping $150 . All it had needed was a new battery and we drove it home. The heart of it was a 2.8l v6 5 speed manual that had been re-geared really high by the person I bought from. Though this isn't the motor that will be it's permanent heart it will be the one that gets it on the road. This still left the issue of the gap so we had to cut the frame down. Eventually I am going to grab up a sbc to put in it and as such I measured one that we had out back before cutting 11 inches out. perfect as this measurement will look good with the v6 as well as fit the sbc while also getting rid of the filler on the running boards.

this is my gap issue about a foot here...

...and half a foot here

engine is out

frame is chopped

 

[Grum]

Have you given any thought to moving the body forward a little and adding a Turtle Deck or PU box, just curious.

Honestly no. And in retrospect it might have been a good idea as right now I will have a tiny little drive shaft. We have done quite a bit on the build and I am trying to get this more or less caught up without writing a book with no feed back.

Welcome to the forum! It's great to see another young member, especially one working on an Essex! I look forward to seeing this one unfold.

I'm watching your build closely and it's looking great so far makes me want to build a frame

...at least do the car some credit when you build the thing and don't just leave the body as a rust piece, paint it one colour, flat black or any colour but the guys that leave them all rusty looking thinking that is how it was done years ago are wrong they were always painted

I love the patina look there are some great cars out there sporting rust proudly. The patina that came on this is so perfect that I would hate to touch it. That doesn't mean everything should be all rust all the time I love a good paint job. But I believe that everything has there place in the rodding community even rust

 

[Grum]

Still collecting parts for other builds my wallet hates me for it but I had to have this bumber for my 1959 apache
So we got the frame cut down and lined up using angle iron (would have used square tubing but the previous owner had added a piece of angle along the inside before boxing the frame). Welded it back together by first welding it together then fish plate over the weld. Pulled the motor out of the s10, washed it up a bit and scavenged some mounts from a 70's Chevy 1500 out back because the ones in the s10 would require more disassembly to access. After trying to utilize the full bracket we realized we were fighting against ourselves to make it work when it would be much simpler to make our own brackets. we used the leftovers from the fish plates to fab them. The last picture shows the inner plate we added for some extra strength it runs in the center of the bracket with the mount bolts accessible from their respective sides.

 

[hemiEssex]

My 28 Essex Coupe

This is Betty my mopar powered 28 coupe

 

[Grum]

Sorry for the lack of posts I've been busy the last while trying to get some stuff figured on the build. But I have the break booster mounted and now I am working on my pedal assembly. I'm making my own cause the ones we had on the hill wouldn't work. Figured out a good trick for making some pedals and arcing them properly. I'll take some pictures tomorrow showing what I did.
Went to Super Run on Saturday made some nice scores also saw Bash through a fence showing off his Willys coupe. Sounded really nice! this being my first Super Run and swap meet attendance I think I did fairly well. bought some mirrors and taillights from socal since it's my last chance this year, but my big scores came from the swap. I got an old 20's brass carb that we're gonna mod and put under my dad's 28 Chevy hood. same guy sold me an tiny brass oil reservoir and a beautiful brass greaser. I got the carb at $35 and the other two for $25. I don't have a use for the oil res as of yet but I do have a great plan for the greaser.

 

[Fopar]

This is Betty my mopar powered 28 coupe

Verrrrry nice!!!