Projects I bought the worst hot rod project in the country. Model A ’28 homemade Coupe

Thanks! Good to see you are still here.

 

Took the hotrod out again to turn it around (small garage problem). Not much to report. The rear sits still way too low, I might need to replace the original rear crossmember with a straight beam. Or maybe the rear spring is tired, I don’t know. Should be raised at least 5 inches or so. Other than that the major lines seem to be OK and I can continue with the passenger side.

 

Sculptor at work.

Looks GREAT.

 

Tonight I decided to do what needed to be done. I cut my rear crossmember off and replaced it with a straight bar to raise the rear. It made the trick. I will add 1-2 leafs and we will see if that’s enough.

 

I love to see a really rough car get saved, and this is one of the roughest I've seen. It's coming along great, I'll be following the rest of the way. Well done.

 

Grinding rust off is dirty job. But it is also rewarding to see all that thick and loose rust to disappear. And it is also frustrating to find out that you have pinholes in f***ng middle of the door and quarter panel. No turning back.

 

Keep at it! As others have mentioned saving something this rough is great and well done on solving the rear end issue!

 

That cowl spot is going to need a section cut out and welded in for sure. But the quarter isn't horrifyingly bad, you might get away with holding a block of brass behind those holes and welding them closed from the front. I've had to do that a few times. If the metal around the holes isn't thin or covered in deep pits, I see no reason not to just weld the holes closed.

 

Yes, good hints. Thank you. I have heard that brass thing before, I should try it.

It is unreal, but these B-posts are going to Sweden to a fellow Hamber who contacted me and asked if I still have them. I’m giving them for free, I almost threw them away already. He is not using them but taking the shape. Glad to help!

 

The fact that those specific door posts could help fix not just one but two cars is pretty surprising. Nice that you can help the guy out with that.

 

I had a short break. I’ve been reading the HAMB, especially old survivors and old east coast style hotrods threads. Cool stuff.

Found another inner fender, it is an original Coupe part. The other one is old repro. You can see the difference. No matter, they need to be cut anyways.

Finally finished the rear window corner, it has been in my mind for a while. Also cut off my mistakes from the passenger side and started to rebuild the rear corner. This time I’m quite happy with the progress so far. After finishing the skeleton it will have new steel hammered and welded in place, likewise the other side. Good progress.

 

Saturday night fever!!

 

I just noticed the rear buggy spring with the GM style upper and lower trailing arms...I have never seen that set-up before...
Thanks for showing on it on here.
MikeC

 

Thanks Mike. Good eye! I built the same solution in my first hotrod and it has been on the road successfully. Of course coil overs would work as well. Here in Finland we need to use fourlinks to get a modern V8 accepted in a Model A so that’s one way to do it. And I like how the upper and lower arms flow with a Z’ed frame.

 

Great vision

 

Haha! My project is in the Primer Magazine garage scene stories! Project continues with the right rear corner.

 

Magazine coverage! That's pretty cool. Corners are shaping up.

 

Very Kool magazine coverage. Keep on building. You are a inspiration

 

Thank you guys! Good progress, good progress.

 

Sh*t, sh*t. I have made a major mistake. I finalized the passenger’s side rear corner. It looked all right at first but then I realized that something was wrong. It took me lot of time and measuring and finally I figured what’s wrong. You can see it from the pictures. I need to cut off the corner and add 1/2 inch in lenght. Damn.
Well, of course I’m happy to notice that now and not later. But still.
It has been extremely difficult to make them symmetrical, and now I see one reason.

 

This thing is so cool!
I love these threads where a guy wants a car so bad, he can not obtain it any other way....
So he goes to the shop and freaking builds it!!

 

Dang, so easy to do, hopefully not too much work to fix it!

 

I’m back on track! It was painful to cut but now it’s OK and I can move on.

 

Wait! Are you working out of a rental storage garage? For the guys lurking on the HAMB with no facilities to work in, check this guy out. He lives in Finland with really cold temps 5-6 months a year, can only afford a roached out sedan body and a teeny compressor and look at what he's done!!! He's MADE this body change from a sedan to a coupe and it's looking like it's gonna be something great. My hat's off to you Attitudor ....you da man!

 

I will never complain about rust again. You are doing great work, this thing look awesome!

 

Haha! Thank you guys! Today we had a swap meet. Not much prewar parts which I was looking for, but got me some old chrome and a super cool vintage land speed racer toy from Antiques shop.

I still have a chance to buy all those doors. Wish somebody could identify them for me. Or at least tell if those grey ones could be from Model A Briggs body. The Roadster/Touring doors are pretty cool with side curtain holes and top post holes in them. I’m struggling with the decision. I don’t really need them and they are not that cheap. But again, they are getting very rare at our heights.

 

After seeing what you done so far...
A little welding and I think you could just make a car out of those old doors.

 

Haha! That’s actually what I was thinking! I know one cowl which is available and and…

After sleeping one night I decided to make a homerun with these Briggs-body Model A doors. I made some horsetrade to get the price right. So here they are!

 

Thank you. But to be honest, you are cutting corners here a bit. Yes, my garage is small but it’s not a rental storage. I own it and that’s pretty typical garage here. Enough space to build a Model A. My other car is in another garage (rental). And I guess I ”could afford” a bigger compressor and a ”real” Coupe. But currently I think this is pretty damn cool to do it how I do it. For me it’s not really the money, I could buy a Brookville Roadster or what so ever. For me, it’s more about old school hotrodding.

Maybe my next project might be to build a car around those cool old doors which I just found. Not because I couldn’t afford something better but because that would also be pretty darn cool, wouldn’t it? In my books, that’s real hotrodding.

 

Good progress today. I think I can say I now have a Coupe.