Projects '29 Model A Roadster - First Hot Rod

Thanks for the advice, the engine has been stashed away for that reason. Thankfully the car came with a photo copy of the original title as well so getting it titled was an easy process. I have some future plans for the frame and the model b once I decide on how to address the front crossmember.

 

Haha. Congrats on getting your car on the road. That is a major hurdle. Glad you said as the car's owner. I didn't want to kill your vibe, but get finding a '28/'29 rad and grille shell on your short list.

 

Very cool story and car! I love the simplicity of the early cars and how simple changes made to them totally improve the look. Enjoy!

 

You run at the air strip is similar to an experience of mine. I drove my (mostly stock, with very tired motor) ‘48 Willys Jeep to a big car show and a couple had a mobile chassis dyno. It was only $80 so I decided “why not?”. End result 30hp at rear wheels! I was actually quite pleased because the motor is only rated 60hp at the crank with no accessories installed (like a water pump for example, who needs that?) and as I said, motor was very tired (it’s now been replaced). The only car with less than me was a Model T LoL. One thing I learned from it is that peak hp came well below redline. I have since learned that that is typical with the Willys Flat 4 so when I drag race it I will have to change my shift points (I’m kidding about the drag racing).

 

Very Kool car , build and story . Thank You for sharing

 

Thank you, it feels like a huge hurdle when you're in the middle of it but is equally rewarding. A 28/29 radiator is absolutely still on my priority list. Locally 30/31's in good shape are unfortunately much more plentiful.

Thank you, I totally agree with you on the simplicity. One small thing almost completely changes the car.

I absolutely love hearing about experiences like that for the exact reason you said, why not? You absolutely have my fan support to go drag race your Willys. That sounds like it would be a blast.

Thank you for the kind words, I'm just trying to do cool stuff like everyone else on here.

 

I'm certain everybody has thrashed on a car to meet a deadline. In order to overcome some obstacles, deviation from the original plan tends to happen. That was exactly the case here. The weather was looking great for an upcoming weekend and everybody's cars "seemed" to be up and running. We decided to go cruise around backroads in eastern Arkansas and get some lunch at Kamp Karefree on Horseshoe Lake. With 1 week to go until cruise day, this is what transpired.

I found out that 17' bias ply tubes and tires aren't as plentiful as 16' tires. The whitewalls on the steel wheels earlier in this thread became the donor for a new pair of 16' wire wheels. They received a quick rattle can job in order to pretend they were as nice as the powder coated ones (they have since been powder coated to match). Oh, I also whipped up a center mounted tail light/license plate bracket late at night and completely forgot to get any pictures. I'm not happy with how I did it so I'll get some pictures when I correct it.



The next morning, I noticed that the radiator looked to be leaking. I pulled the shell and took it for a short drive to get gas. The old thing certainly verified it for me, the radiator was leaking out of the core. I decided to get it home and go over my options. This wasn't something I wanted to make a rushed decision on. While I have since come up with a solution, any and all suggestions are certainly welcome.



Instead of trying to band-aid the radiator and push it, I opted to take the passenger seat in my friends '30 coupe. The weather was great, there was nobody else in sight, and we got to eat lunch on the side of a lake. Even with a broken car, you can still have a great weekend.

 

I started looking at the driver door this evening because I noticed there was more play in it that before. It would close and latch, but would have room to move in and out. The latch inside the door had some play and moved around. One screw was missing and I found that this was stripped out and cracked.

Does anybody know if these inserts are available anywhere or what they are actually called? I tried searching all over and I may be looking for the wrong thing if someone reproduces them. Am I also trying too hard and would it be easier to just drill and tap it for a bigger counter sunk screw? I'll address the crack the same time that I do this.

 

They are D nuts and you set them with a rivet gun, most model a suppliers have them. https://modelastore.com/rivits-and-d-nuts
or you could use a heli coil, weld shut then drill and tap or Rivet nut inserts https://clarkstool.com/products/marson-mar-39315-ribbed-rivet-nut-kit

 

cool thread... I don't know hold old you are,.. but I get kinda warm and fuzzy when I read and look at these threads where younger generations are dragging and bringing this love forward...reading where they are demanding the I want it to look like it was done inthe fifty's or even earlier ...

so questions on the build... you bought the car, conclusion is it's a 29 with now titled to your name...couple yrs later you bought a 30/31 frame??? correct??? you ran that chassis at the drags???
and that chassis had the taller rad...? through my 70 plus yrs, I have never measured the 29 hood vs the 30... but always thought the 30 was longer....so is your plan to run the 30 bigger radiator , and do you have plans to lower the car even more??? and will you be going back to the 29 grille and RAD>???

anyway... nice job!!

 

Huge thank you for sharing this, I'll get a couple ordered and take that route.

Thank you! I'm 26 and this has by far been the most fun I have ever had with a car. I think the 40's and 50's era cars are the coolest because they just seem so raw and authentic. Half of the fun to me is trying to emulate that the best that I can.

You are correct. The previous owner told me everything was from a '31 so I only have his word. The engine number checked out that it's a '31 and the radiator matched measurements I found for 30/31. I couldn't verify the year on the frame so I can't confirm any length difference. It all measured the same compared to my original so I used it.
I'm going to get a shorter radiator at some point but I'm still working on how I want to do that. I would like to reuse my '29 grille but I'm still playing with other ideas. It might get lower in the future too but no current plans at the moment.

 

While I'm putting a plan together to tackle the driver door latch area, I jumped at an opportunity to score some parts.

I was able to get a mostly complete but disassembled Mercury flathead and transmission. The story I was told is that the car was parked in the late 50's and then the engine was pulled out in the 80's. He disassembled it, boxed it up and never touched it again. I couldn't find any cracks but I'll clean it up and really go through it.



What I now plan to to top this mercury off with is this McCulloch blower I picked up this week. Has anyone ever seen one of these before? It is about the size of a 4-71 but I can't find anything on the internet about this. It wouldn't be the first time I've tried searching for the wrong thing but I'm open to any input.

 

Brief sidebar because I have to brag for my friend. The weather was too nice for us not to get out and have fun this weekend. He rebuilt his '30 coupe over the past year and he finally got to put some miles on it. I thought this was a neat shot since his car was originally assembled at the plant that used to be just a few miles south of the Hernando de Soto bridge right here in Memphis.



Since we tooled around the city most of the weekend, no work was done on the roadster. Addressing the door is scheduled for tonight so updates to come later this week. In the meantime, I'm picking this story back up to when I found a radiator for my car.

 

Back in August, a friend of mine had a damaged reproduction '32 grill shell that he was letting go for dirt cheap. I also stumbled across a new 30/31 radiator for just as cheap. It wasn't ideal but I decided to get them. I would rather drive my car with too tall of a radiator for now and try to hide it with the '32 shell, than to wait for a good 28/29 radiator. A driving car is just worth so much more to me than waiting on perfection.



After I got them on, we decided to drop by a Cars and Coffee that coming weekend. It was at the Edge museum here in Memphis, less than 100 yards from Sun Studio. It's a great automotive museum that I highly recommend to anybody coming through Memphis. On the way there that morning, I met my friend Mike at his shop and he jumped in the passenger seat with me. We found some more friends of ours at C&C and we all had a blast. The car did great cruising around Memphis streets.







To wrap it up, I went to an estate sale not long after and spotted this rear end laying on the ground out back. I offered $100 for and they actually took it! I know it's a Columbia from a Lincoln because of the hypoid center section, but the backing plates and adjustable shocks lead me to believe it is from a '39/'40 based on what I can gather online. If anybody knows more or can point me to some reputable resources, I'm all ears. My intention is to rebuild it and use it in my roadster just to be different.

 

Blasting around in a Jalopy you brought to life is what it's all about... more power to ya, Bro!

 

Score on the 2 speed rear! Way to go

 

Thanks for sharing the great pictures! The Columbia axle will be very nice but be sure to learn about internal reinforcements, etc.

 

Awesome roadster you've got there. Keep at it and have fun!

 

You absolutely nailed it, I've been missing out all this time.

Thank you! I'm eager to dig in and learn about it.

Note taken, I've been searching through here and other parts of the internet to learn what I can before I start digging into it. Thank you for the heads up.

Thank you! I can promise you there will be no shortage of fun.

 

In September of last year, I made a trip down to Georgia to visit a friend of mine outside of Atlanta. After this trip, nobody can tell me that roadster is not synonymous with fun. We cruised down some back roads and through an old town square on our way to the Savoy museum.







The car ran flawlessly and I couldn't be happier with it mechanically. A wood kit is en route and metal work is to follow ASAP.

It was a treat to also see the Dart that Herb McCandless used to race on display. It was painted by Memphis native Eddie Wilbanks and is a true Memphis car through and through as I believe it also came from Chuck Hutton's dealership.



The cherry on top was getting to visit with @3dnsouth to see his '32 roadster. If it wasn't evident already, I'm a sucker for anything with Memphis history and his roadster is IT. Between his father racing it at Lakeland Dragstip and the previous owner Marshall Robilio racing it at the Dyersburg Air Base in Halls, TN, it's as cool as cool can be and he's doing a fantastic job of representing it. He has a couple awesome threads on it that are well worth checking out.



The car is a class winner at the 1955 Drag Safari that came through Memphis. They held this race at Halls as well.



He even still has an old sign that the Memphis Rodders painted up for their races and later used for sport betting while hanging out.



This trip cemented into my brain that it seems hard to have a bad day in a hot rod.

 

Let’s see, first old car hot rod, now a truck load of rusty old ford parts ayou were probably still smiling whe you got home. Yeah your hooked.

 

Hooked for sure and bad. I wouldn't have it any other way though.

 

After the Georgia trip, I finally installed some front shocks. In order to make it work right, I had to clock the shock upwards and make a bracket for it to bolt to. It's a bit crude but it works well. The shackle that looks horribly abused will be addressed too.





My friend with the '30 coupe got a new power hammer that same weekend and wanted to test it out. He whipped up this shifter cover for my car just for fun. It's not anything fancy but I think it's really neat.





The highlight of that weekend though was finding some old telegrams up in a barn at an auction. They were going to throw the book out and I'm glad I was able to snag it up. It was full of telegrams and letters to Reg Beezley, along with a load of photos from the early to late 50's. Below is a one from Bill Williams and Marshall Robilio (prior owner of the '32 roadster previously mentioned in this thread), Ray Godman, the owner of the Tennessee Bo-Weevil, and a thank you letter from the Memphis Rodders.







Being able to save this from the trash still makes me smile today typing this up.

 

What a cool hotrod!

 

There is loads of awesome in this thread!

 

I like your project.

I am having to do a similar shock rotation on my current build, but found with these shorty shock links, I was able to keep both bolt holes in the frame. Just a thought.

 

Wildman's! that's my hometown of Kennesaw, GA

 

Thank you! I really like how you have that set up, I'll have to find me some shorty links as well.

Hey, small world! Kennesaw is where my friend lives as well, I really enjoyed that area. We went to their big Caffeine and Octane show that Sunday and it was a cool event. It was kinda fun being a bit out of place with all the newer cars there. I ended up parking next to a guy with a really well preserved Model T and I hate I didn't take more pictures.

 

I realized after I never shared pictures of the headlight process. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of us making the headlight bar. Mt friend and I cut up a '30-'31 headlight bar and mounted it to some existing holes on the frame. He is a bit of a headlight hoarder so we tried out a few different ones to see what looks best.







Ultimately, the Guide's were the lights that stuck.

When October rolled around, my dad and I took a trip down to the coast of Mississippi for Cruisin' the Coast. He took his '50 GMC and we had a great time as usual. The coast provided plenty of opportunities for pictures but these were my favorite.





The roadster was a suitable plate for dinner as well.

 

You drove your Roadster from Memphis TN to Kennesaw GA? Wow, I get stressed just thinking about driving mine to a cruise-in 5 miles from my house.