Elrod Model A Coupe Thrash - Flathead V8 time

[Elrod]

I thought I would start a build thread showing the transformation of the Elrod coupe from hopped up 4 banger to flathead V8. Last year I found the part that finally made me say that this car absolutely has to have a flathead in it. I want to keep some of the aspects of the car a surprise until the end, but at the same time, I think sharing updates about the car build will help keep that fire going under me.

Oh, did I mention that I'm hoping to have this driveline swap done by the Round Up??

The end plan is a fully painted late 40s, early 50s full fendered coupe using all the era correct parts that would have gotten it's picture in the little pages.

Here is the car before we started tearing it down a couple of weeks ago. I have to say that I was a little freaked out to take apart a fully driving hotrod.

The first transformation took the car from this.......



Drove it in it's stock form for about 5 years, and then transformed to this...







First order of business... Pull the fenders!



It looks kinda cool like that!! But I like fenders, so they aren't hitting the trash pile just yet.



I got curious about the condition of the lower cowl panel work that had been done in the past because there was no bead on the car. What I found were old coffee cans screwed to the body, heads ground off, and then ledded over. That had to come out...







Picked up some rear quarter patch panels from Howells sheet metal from Texas and found that the beads were a little more shallow than the original. No problem. Not knocking Howells because the price is right on these things. Its a great starting point but just needed a little tweaking with a shot bag and hand die.







Those panels are now on hold though because when I cut out the rear quarter, I found out my rear subrails are shot. And since now the body will have to come off, another good excuse to upgrade the driveline.

[LSGUN]

Subscribed, I always loved this car.

[Elrod]

Next up, time to pull the engine. Again, I felt really crazy pulling this engine because its got less than 2000 miles on it since being rebuilt. It will be going in something else though, so not a problem.



Anderson also agreed to help out with this build, and has really been good at talking me off the ledge when I start questioning the sanity of pulling the car apart!



A while back A buddy picked up what appears to be a good running flathead out of a restored Tudor Sedan. The guy selling it had pulled the entire driveline out of his father's 40 sedan because he wanted to surprise him with a SBC swap. My buddy was mainly interested in the rear end and trans. for his 1938 RHD convertible truck from Argentina (seen in another thread) , so I picked up the engine for the coupe. It's not going to fit in there with the stock Model A crossmember and the metal lip on the back...



Dropped the engine and mockup transmission in to help us figure out where the motor mounts need to be.



Originally the plan was to build a sort of K member using the stock Model A center crossmember and arms from the X member of a 38 frame and 39 pedals, but as we looked at it more, this would require a lot of work to fit all that into a tight space.



I saw however that Chris here on the HAMB used a truck crossmember and pedals that worked out really well, so thanks to a fellow ford barner, that should be arriving next week.

[Forddraggin]

Sweet car!!!Stance is right on.
Im fixing to swap my banger motor in mine out for a 50 8BA.

[titus]

looks good.

heres a couple pics of bulls tudor i built, the f1 crossmember worked great! and what i did to the firewall, i think it would clear the stock tank.

jeff

heres the build thread, alot of pics of it starting on page 6
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...=371150&page=6

[Elrod]

Next order of business, pull the body off the frame and start stripping it down. Club night project!



Quick picture to help remember where the body blocks go.



And then to strip it the rest of the way down..



I want to run unsplit wishbones so they are going to need to be much longer than the A wishbones. Picked up a decent 32 wishbone and 33-34 stretch dropped axle from Oakie Joe, so time to blow apart the original set up.

[big creep]

man that A looks great! the other day i was with my buddy and we had a banger going 85 on the freeway!

[Elrod]

While we are waiting on the F1 crossmember to arrive, time to tackle a few other features the new version will have. You can never have too much fresh air in Texas, so cut an A tank out and welded in a 32 truck cowl vent. I'll be moving the gas tank to the trunk area.



Also, I've had a dash from a mid 30s Packard limo for a while now that I have really wanted to use in a Model A hotrod. The thing is huge, and was made with a much bigger car in mind. I really think it is pretty classy, but it's also a few inches longer than the Coupe dash and will need some modifications if it's going to go in the car.



There aren't many of these dashboards around, and if they are, they are probably still in the giant Packard in a museum somewhere. I thought about just sourcing the gauges out of it and putting them into a reproduction 32 dash, but something about that seemed boring. This is hot rodding, so that means you make it work one way or another!! Time to break out the cut off wheel!!



A little snip, fit, grind and repeat and you have a gaping hole in a new 32 dash...



Almost a nice fit. At this point I'm thinking that this might actually turn out ok.



And a mock up with the gauges before tacking it in.



At this point it was pretty late and we had to shut it down for the evening.

Next day, I get a nice surprise. Anderson had sand blasted the center and welded it in and done some finishing on it. I think it turned out really nice.



Still needs some more finishing work, but I don't think I'll have a problem staring at this going down the road.

[MikeRose]

That dash looks great! very cool.

[Hitchhiker]

1st: That dash is awesome.

2nd: its cool to see a car that I really like taken to the next level. I impatiently await your updates....

[ratty_aussie]

Liking where this is going, keep up the good work.

[Elrod]

Wow! I'm surprised this already has some responses. Thanks for the encouragement guys. I know I'll need it if I'm going to drive this thing in 7 weeks!

Hey Titus. Thanks for posting the photos. I'm hoping to not recess the firewall, but after seeing what you did, that doesn't look out of place.

On your emergency brake cable, do you think there will be a problem with the cable pulling to one side like that, or should that work out? I was contemplating using the stock Model A e-brake cross shaft and operating the cables outside the frame, but the way you did it might be an easier solution.

[Muttley]

Dash = Awesome

[El Hueso]

I am loving the dash!

[Pete]

Oh yea, me too! That dash rocks!!

[Cajun Kenny]

I'm in! Subsribed!

[Anderson]

that dash....IS....awesome.

Gotta say I'm proud Jason is finally getting this thing going again. I know he has had the flathead swap in his head for years but now has just about enough of the pieces to do it. This coupe is going from a cool hot rod to and even cooler hot rod, and I'm glad I get to be a part of it!

[ConceptVehicleDesign]

Subscribed!!!

More, please!!!

[Anderson]

I keep looking at that picture of the car going down the road on that cruise to Lake Shores at Roundup.....god damnit I miss having a hot rod.

[OoltewahSpeedShop]

Damn.... That dash is perfect. All the ideas sound great, but I bet it was hard to tear it apart. You will be glad you did in the end.