Projects Traditional '29 Model A Coupe Build up

Hello everybody,

for over 10 years I had the dream of building a traditional hot rod. It had to be a 28/29 Model A Coupe and last year the dream finally came true. I found an affordable coupe in good condition here in germany and after some good information and helping tipps of Baumi (also here in the hamb) i bought it. It was still stock with only the fenders and aprons off. Papers say it came to germany in 2012. So I asked the guy who sold it (80 km south of berlin) where he got it from and he said it's from Wolnzach (50 km north of munich) and was owned by a doctor who never drove it. Funny thing is, that's a 15 minutes drive of my hometown/village so i kinda brought it back to it's first arrival here.

I first thought about a flatty V8, chopped roof and so on but after thinking of it a while I ended at not chopping it 'cause the condition was too good. And threw away the idea of the V8 to build a hopped up 4 banger.

The plan was to get it on the street legal, lowered with no fenders over the winter 2014/15, drive it over the summer 2015 with the original banger and hop up a Model B banger this years winter. Worked out pretty good and I hope it'll have licence plates in some weeks.

There are still some little things that maybe not all traditional like the new alternator, but I wanna change those over the time. Forgive me if it's not all perfectly period correct. It's my first hot rod build up and I'm still in the learning process but learning new things everyday and it's a whole lotta fun to build this thing up. Can't wait to have it on the street.

So here are some pics over the last year of what I did to it.

That's how it looked like, when I got it last june. Looks like it had a restauration in the states already. The paintjob is good and I think there are a lot of NOS parts in it, as far as I can tell.



The first test drive. The steering was pretty bad, so that was the first thing to fix. Nothing was broken and it only needed some adjusting.


And here the guy who sold it on the left and me the happy new owner on the right.


Pics of the work I've done on the car will follow.

Cheers
Lukas

 

Appears to be in great shape. Dig the color, too. Congrats!

 

Thanks! Yes in really good shape. Some little things to do but the last resto was done really good.

 

All right, so I brought that baby home and started to fix some stuff like the speedo, electrical stuff like lights, adjusted the steering box an put flashers with a hazard on it, 'cause we need it here in germay to get it street legal. Also took the interior trim out to check everything for rust and fortunately there's almost nothing of the bad brown powder. Sprayed the whole car with lanolin which stopps the little rust that is there and treated the more rusted parts with phosphor so stopp it.

One of the first things to do was to put my rat fink shift knob on it. Bought it like 7 years ago, to have the first part of my future hot rod and to get the drive to get one. So finally the fink has it's place.


Had "some" greasy lanolin dust in the car, garage, my nose hair and all over me.

Fixed the windowlifters so the go up and down smooth again.

Started with the cables for the flashers.

And sure had good bavarian beer from time to time to celebrate what i achieved and teach the car some bavarian culture.

 

First thought that flashers on the B post (you call it like that) will be enough, but after installing them i recognized, that they are not really seen from behind the car. I don't really like them at the time, so I think will get rid of them again.




After that i got rid of the metal plate in the floor board, 'cause I think a little flap of wood would look better. So i cut it and trimmed it looking old with oil, and flames. Also trimmed hinge and the lock by burnishing it in oil.




In the meantime I wanted to drive to a meeting 160 km away. The first 80 km went good, but the the steering got shimmy and I stopped, just to realize, the the passenger side front wheel bearing got to hot an ripped off the spindle... nothing happend to me or the car so it turned out good. And now I know, always check the greasing of an old car when you buy it and before a long ride.
So I got me a new spindle and put it on.

 

After the shock of the ripped off spindle fist had a beer in the rumble seat with a buddy to calm down a little bit.

Next thing was to look for 16" wire wheels and after some weeks found 4 in the states on ebay. When they arrived i found out, that they were powder coated an were far away from running straigt. But they are the adjustable ones with 52 spokes so i got it away to get all the powder off and adjusted them myself. Brought them away to a guy that works on old Jaguars and he said, thats nearly perfect what I've done there. The repros he get's for Jaguars are far away from beeing balanced that good. Also got the tires - 6" front and 7" rear bias ply firestones.


And I found a Model B 4 Banger in good condition in northern germany by accident. This one will be the engine for the hop up, that I wanna do this winter to get some more power for the next season.

 

Because of the flashers on the side aren't enough I started to put little ones on the frame horns and in the rear let the brakes be the flashers. So i ordered new cloth wrapped cabels to do some electrical work on the car and changed old cables in that occasion.




After that I tried to find a stance for the car and ordered all the stuff I needed. The 4" dropped axle for the front and a 8 leaf Model T spring for the rear, 'cause i didn't want to do a kick up on the frame.

Here the original stance and the one I'am trying to reach.


Pulled the front axle out an replaced it with the new one. Also made me some "safety tools" by myself to get the rear spring out and because all of the improvisation I survived getting the spring out without getting hurt. Pretty scary, but it worked.


And with the new axle I learned... someone who sais "it's no problem and a plug and play" never did it himself. But with some work on the axle, kingpins and lock bolts for the king pins everything fits together.

And to get the new look tried the new wires on for the first time.


I pulled her ass up to get the rear spring out.

And this is the safety tool to release the tension.

 

After that I did the hood. I pulled out the side panels and made me some leather straps to tighten the upper part of the hood to the frame.




I want to keep the mechanical brakes and after i had the axle installed again, I realized that the connection to the brakes, that bolts to the original perches is now almost 4 inches higher. Sounds logical, but I didn't think about it. So the next thing to do was to make some extensions for the perches to bolt the connection on again. Fist thought of making the driver side curved and the passenger side straight, but it just looks better if both are curved. Was a lot of swaing and filing but after some hours i got it.


Checked if it fits

Welded it a little with my own bad skills in welding

And filed another bar to strengthen it for the pull of the mechanical brake

Then I gave them to a friend of mine who welded everything together.




Painted them in black and installed them on the axle. And... everything fits and the brakes are doing their job again. So thumbs up for keeping the mechanical brakes.

 

After the brakes were working again I put in the Model T spring in the rear. I put in a 8 leaf (1919-1925) spring from Snyders in it. Replaced the 1st leaf with the original Model A leaf to use it as a spacer in the crossmember, 'cause the spring is more narrow than the A and put shims on the shackles to make it fit nice. Also pulled the 3rd leaf out.

Unfotunately I didn't measure the difference in the rear how low i got it with the T spring but I like the stance it got with it. You can see it on the pictures. I put another on with the original stance to see the difference.

That's how far I got till now. The 16" wires will be painted now, so the tires can get on. It'll get just a little more rake then. About 0.4 inch down in the front and about 0.4 up in the rear. So it's just a small change, but I'm really exited how it will look like. Hope the wheels can get on in one or two weeks.

 

Ok. That's it for now. Next thing is to get it street legal and to find some shocks for the rear. I have some lever shocks from a 39 chevy 1/2 ton truck (delco lovejoy) but need to figure out, how the fit in the front. And still looking for rear levershocks. And like I said I want to hop up the 4 banger in the winter, so I need to get some parts for it now. Maybe I'll bother you with some questions about the banger hop up then.

I like how the car turned out now and I'm curious for your opinions and suggestions on the car.

I'll keep you posted with news on my progress.

 

Very cool!

 

I dig it. Pretty much what I'm doing with mine.

 

I'd say keep at her and have some fun. I spent some time in germany many years a go and yes the beer is damned good. Roger

 

Pretty cool coupe.. Nice improvements too...

 

Great Coupe- love where you are going with it- I lives in Augsburg 1969 to 1971- traveled quite a bit then and loved the Alps anytime of the year-

 

That is a very cool coupe. What are your plans for the hopped up banger, any ideas yet??

Looking forward to seeing this on 16s.

 

Thanks for the compliments. Don't really know about the banger yet. Want to go about 80/90 horsepower to get a nice reliable cruising car. What speed can I reach with it? Would be good reach 75 to 80 mph to pass the semis at good speed on the autobahn.

Still have to get into the hop up topic a bit more. Thought about a Winfield head, one 97 stromberg, lightened flywheel and a Winfield grind cam. Maybe do relief cuts for the valves and adjustable valves. Would that be a good setup to go?

 

Great car, excellent project. And I'm glad to see you're staying "hydrated" during the process!! Everyone pushes the B motors for a "hot" set-up, but I have a friend who builds engines, and he says the "A" banger with a "B" crank is the way to go (" A" block is a heavier casting, so you can bore it more and put in bigger valves without hitting the water jackets). That stuff costs big money if it has to go to a machine shop , but you can get a lot more out of the little banger (almost the same as a low hp stock V-8). Your car is beautiful- love the color. Have fun with it.

 

To get to highway speed, you may want to look at changing your rear end ratio. The A flywheel weighs about 65lbs, so a lightened one will be beneficial with HP upgrades.

 

Looking good! I like the way it's going. I did something very similar for the front brake actuators on mine. Great color.

 

I don't know if you would be interested, but search out Volvo Amazon transmission on here.

 

Is the Amazon tranny working on the banger? Sounds interesting.

 

There is three threads on here about Amazon gearbox behind bangers.

On is called: one for the hills.
I don't remember the other thread tittles, but they are on here.
Some of them refers too them as Volvo 122 or M40. But true the search function they are available.

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/volvo-m40-transmission-conversion-in-model-a.951708/

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/model-a-with-m40-gearbox.565950/

www.jalopyjournalhttp://www.jalopyj...cheap-and-easy-4-speed-to-flathead-v8.452937/

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/time-to-build-a-new-car-for-the-hills.737344/

Bitte Nach studiren, fillen gute informationen.

 

The Volvo may indeed be a better way to go for you, particularly with your location.

 

Yes, exactly what I was thinking!!

 

Great looking coupe!

 

That is COOL. I dig it with the Model A wheels even. I would have no problem driving that around town as is for a while.

 

Cool! Thanks. That sounds pretty interesting. And Volvo shouldn't be hard to find here. I'll check that out.

"Bitte Nach studiren, fillen gute informationen" Awesome!!!

 

Damn nice build going on Bud. You sure scored a winner off the bat, thats for sure.

Dan