1928 Ford Unibody Roadster.

Some time later I had a garage to work in, and thats when I got to make a lot more progress.




Nice thing about a Sports Coupe rear is that the cockpit area is 8" longer, so I can recline more and sit lower in the car.

A first I was going to channel it over a Model A frame with some big Z's in it, but that took up too much interior space.

So I started over with a '32 frame, Highboy style ( meaning body sitting on top of the frame, not channeled )

Still not enough space for what I was trying to do...

I wanted the car to be less than 4' total height, with reasonable rideheight ( 6" or so ), and enough space inside for me to take it on long drives ( I'm 6'2" )

So to accomplish that, I thought it was a good idea to not put any of the usual crossmembers in ( just the fron and rear ones that the springs bolt to).

That way I could sit inbetween the frame rail and the tranny tunnel.

To put strength back in I welded the floor ( which is flush with the underside of the rails ) the tunnel, and both firewalls ( bulkheads ) together as a unibody structure.

Or Monocoque , as I knew it...

Others have named it the Unibody Roadster, but the name stuck...

I built a removable hard top for it.

Its pretty much done now.

Although I keep making small improvements.

I made this steering wheel.

At some point, I'll pull it apart for paint & upholstery ( I always planned to do that ), but that is not a priority right now...

Thanks man

I love this, it looks "fast" compared to a stock bodied A roadster hot rod. We did similar to a mates A pickup a few years ago, but as it was a GRP body I built a Westfield style cockpit frame out of 25mm box section then welded the stock front and rear sections on. Worked really well for interior room.

Thanks guys.

biturbo228 , I've been following your very cool Spitfire thread.

And when you wrote "After much stripping and painting of the body and chassis, I thought to myself 'I've added all this stiffness to the body and plan on using solid mounts to the body...why not just weld it together and make a proper monocoque?'.

Why not indeed? I don't think anyone's done that to a Spitfire before, and the only people I can find who have done it are a couple of guys on an old hot rod forum singing its praises with Model A Fords." ,
I thought it that looked familiar.

That something I've done could be useful to somebody else is awesome.

I bet it will pay off on your Spitfire like it has on my Roadster.

I've driven other Hot Rods, and Hot Rod owning friends of mine have driven my Roadster.
It doesn't drive & handle like regular Hot Rod.

There is no scuttle shake, and because the chassis/body structure is so rigid, the suspension works much better.

You can slide it in a neat 4 wheel drift, or toss it sideways for a lurid powerslide.
And even change your mind mid corner and go from one to the other, or back ( havent owned a lot of cars that can do that )

But good Koni's, carefully chosen rollcenters, and skinny bias ply tires ( early brakeaway, but very predictable in a slide ), are part of that as well...

Looks pretty hot!

I would be very tempted to leave the outside as it is. Looks very cool and purposeful, not like a show queen.