Here is the last update for anyone that missed it: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=337313 Today I took the bare frame, and made it a complete roller. I put the rear end back together with the brakes off my coupe, and tossed the entire orriginal front end from my coupe up front. The brakes worked well when I had em on my coupe, so a little adjusting and it should be set! I aso dumped the old engine/trans from my coupe in it. I put a T spring in the rear, and a reverse eyed front spring with a couple leafs removed, so it should be about a 2-3" drop all around. So here it is, complete roller, just needs a couple little things and should be a running/driving frame in no time! For those who want to know, no I will not be cleaning or painting anything on this. I do want this car nice, but I am litteraly throwing this thing together as a "beater" until I have more time to do it up nice. I am scrounging around my garage to build this car, all I orriginally started with was a bare body and frame, so watch it emmerge into something...even if it is a greasy/dirty ball of shit STAY TUNED!!!! T spring
The first big aesthetic upgrade for any model A is a set of V8 wires like you have on the front. I could use a job myself...
Lookin good Chris. I dig beaters and in a word, this one spells F U N!!! Once you're on the road, slap the first guy that calls it a Rat Rod!
Thanks everyone! I am not building this car this way to be lazy or cheap, I just honestly thought I could throw the car together with very little money and have a fun car that I can drive the piss out of and not really worry about it. Like I said, in a couple years when the 33 is done this car will get stripped down and done up right. Instead of just letting the body sit, why not have a running/driving/functional car? This is not a rat rod by any means, it is just a stock model A lowered a little with no fenders I had 2 hours into diggin the frame out, 2 hours into stripping the frame, worked on the rear end for a couple hours, and then yesterday worked on putting it together for about 3-4 hours. The bpdy needs a little work before it goes on, but I figure a good 25-30 hours and she'll be ready for the most part. I also think I'll have about 6,000.00 total into it by the time it is done. This includes new tires from Coker, and 4,500.00 of that was the body
I can't find those two, I may have given them to my brother I gotta fix a couple cracked body mount holes before the body slips on.
Chris, You are my HERO!, can I have some of your drive and determination! I really like the idea of what your doing to the ''A'', why not use it rather let it sit and rot somemore.You're lucky to have amassed such a great collection of early Ford parts, I like the fact that you are thinking at least two projects ahead, that to me shows VISION. Great work as always, I'll watch the progress with great interest. Nick.
Welp, my weekend is over but I squeezed some more time in on the roadster today. I found my missing brakes rods so I installed them and got the brakes working, also installed the steering colum/wheel. I pulled the body down to look and see what it will need before ploping it down, and decided to take the passanger side quarter pannel off. It is rusty all along the bottom, and all the braces broke, resulting in some cracks that need repaired. I was not going to worry about it right now, but I figured it may get worse driving it around, so I took it off to make it easier to fix. Man, theres not a whole lot to these bodys!
Damn your moving right along if you need any help give me a call I will be right up there and maybe we can speed this up as if you are not, going fast enough as it is good work.
Thats not necissarily a 2 man job they're pretty light if you use your head as to how to do it I put mine on and off and in and out of the truck myself pretty often Not that it isnt nice to have a hand.... but dont let it hold you up ain't no chicken coupe!
Yeah, I've already planned out how I can do it myself...even with the steering column in place...but if I have help available I may as well use it, right I think I'm going to fix the cracked subframe holes and then mate the body and frame on, I think I can get the quarter pannel on once the bodys in place.
The one i just did, I bolted the subframe down and then put the quarters onto it You've already got all the rivet holes and everything so it shouldn't be a problem whats yoru plan for fixing the parts without affecting the patina?
Oh, I'm not too worried about that either. The quarter will probably be put into primer I suppose. I don't want it to look like something it's not. I have some other things to fix...all of them I can do with the body mounted so I figured I would fix them as I drive it, so the car will probably start getting primer spots soon anyways. Then maybe, just maybe, when I'm ready to do the car "right", the body work will be done for the most part! The body itself is super nice, strait and solid with the exception of that quarter. If only those braces hadn't of failed....
Don't worry, more progress is coming...I just dumped the quarter pannel off at the blaster's. I really didn't want to blast it, but I am having a guy help me stich it together and he insisted on having it bare and clean. More to come...
Chris, I don't think anybody worries about YOU making progress, I reckon your middle name is PROGRESS! Nick.
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