Farming Out the Work

Somewhere along the line, I realized there are many, many tasks involved in building a hot rod (duh). And, frankly, many of those many tasks are ones in which I'm not heavily invested. That is, if time were no object, and I could fuss and finagle to my heart's content, I would have no problem doing everything on this car (except perhaps painting it (nicely)). However, I want to get this car on the road. It's nearly a year over my original timeline, and frankly, my hot rod-building self-confidence is not dented by farming out some of the tasks on this car that don't spark me, don't necessarily require my creative touch, or are just plain tasks. Therefore, I've begun handing off work to my friend who assembled Twice Lucky's body.

Once I started listing things he could work on, I could feel a sense of relief knowing that he can be working on these concurrently with my work, such that upon his completion, I would have parts that are "ready to use" when I got to the time I'd need them. And, the initially short list has continued to grow as I consider the upcoming stages of the build. This is really a mutually beneficial deal, as my friend can use the work and I get thoughtfully finished parts from someone who's likely done it before. Plus, he's really fast.

Here's a look at what he completed in the first round:

He reproduced one of the clamps for a set of rear upper shock mounts I have that clamp over the Model A rear crossmember (he made the one on the right in my hand). He also cut off the Model A spring mounts from the axle tubes I got recently and ground them to fit on my '39 or '40 rear end. These will be bolt-on spring mounts for my Model T spring, as previously described to me by my friend, and confirmed by an old-timer who said, yes, that's what we used to do. The second picture shows one (admittedly somewhat poorly) how they'll mount.



He prepped my Arrow headlights for assembly and installation. They just needed a little fitment and hardware. Now they're ready to take a new set of 7" sealed beams and get wired up. He robbed parts from a set he had, fabricated the little spring clips for one, and added the carriage bolts. The second picture shows them on my Model A headlight bar, which I'm going to cut and weld to stand up from the frame rails.



As soon as he completes the next round, I'll post some pics. He's currently working on a secret project adapting a vintage 6 volt finned coil, sloshing my '25 Model T gas tank, and doing some secret header work for me.

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