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I have been able to get a couple of short stints out in the shop since my last post. I am still focused on the cowl restoration. I have much more to do on the frame that holds the doors and the dashboard.


m.youtube.com/watch?v=yVUZh6W8Wik

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I've just been able to get an hour here and there to work on the cowl. I've made good progress on the frame. I bought a new (not rusted away) dash on EBay. The dash has been fitted to the frame. I discovered that the doors were for a closed car. As you can see in the vid I'm starting to get the left door attached to the cowl frame.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=5WmFhkcSE-I

The cowl is from a closed car as well. An open car (roadster) cowl would wrap around at the corners to meet the door.

Here's another update on the cowl restoration:

youtu.be/Opl7C5_5_K4

Making progress bottom right patch panel almost done and bottom left patch panel made and ready to welding in.

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Here's how the cowl wraps around to the doors on a roadster/boattail. Also, the cowl on a boattail is 6 inches longer than that of a regular roadster.

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West, thank you for the cowl pics... I'm now scratching my head and can't wait to get back to my shop for laying out a new plan for the cowl edge and the door construction. I do like how the "shiny" (stainless steel) strip trims the edge of the dash and flows across the top of the doors. This answers another question I have had.

Your car is beautiful!!!

I wonder if I could be really forward and ask if my wife and I could get a look at it in person? Not only will it help guide my work in the right direction... but most of all it may help my wife visualize the outcome and justify all of the hours I spend in my shop.

Finally finished the rust repair to the cowl this weekend. Started to remove the sheet metal covering the back half of the frame and the rear fenders. Now I have to design the body frame that will replace the rotten wood. This will allow me to test fit the cowl to the body.

I am also looking at how to build the doors, the back of the passenger area and the floor. After studying the pics above and others I'm definitely going to incorporate some of the design cues of the original speedster. I will not be able to closely copy it because of what I have to start with.

I have set a goal for this project... I want my wife and I to drive her at Cruising The Coast in Mississippi in October of 2018. That leaves me 22 months to build a car from a rough start.

@West
Did all the roadsters up to 1936 have the cowl wrap around like that?

There weren't any roadsters after 1931, but the V-windshield "coupe-roadsters" of 1932-34 utilized the wrap around cowl. Also, phaetons through 1936 used the wraparound cowl.

This caught my eye on the PAC Facebook page,
facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=102098767280 ... pcb.1197187410347453&type=3&theater