Projects My 1929 Ford Model A Closed Cab Pickup Project

I've spent my whole life working on old junk when a decade ago, I started tinkering on my grandpas 1929 Ford Model A Tudor that sat disassembled in the corner of the shed at my grandmas house. He died when I was a kid, so I never really got a chance to turn any wrenches with him.

At the time I began investigating the old car, I was just a broke, bored, clueless dude tinkering with whatever was laying around the corners of the shop. Once I started to gain steam on that project, my uncle (the current owner) took it over and is still doing great work (although I need to get some new pictures of it).

After that, I was on the hunt for my own project.

I found it.. in a snowy barn in Illinois in February 2015.



The picture is deceiving, as most of the missing pieces were in the bed of my truck out of frame.

Some more "before" shots:









That said, it was missing the cloth top, interior, and glass. I later discovered that both the radiator and gas tank are "beyond repair." I sourced a new radiator from the FordBarn and found a gas tank local to me in Los Angeles.

Bad:



Good:



Oh yeah, did I mention that a couple months after I bought this, I moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles? Kinda puts a kink in the rebuild, but I am actually still getting some work done.

Before I moved, I tucked her away in one of our barns.



Also in this picture is my antique Jaeger cement mixer (with a Wisconsin engine).. that I got running that same day.

If the engine in the truck ever sees the light of day again, it will probably be decades from now. I have a few other engines in much better shape. I won't be using it for this truck, but I did put some ATF in the cylinders because it couldn't hurt.

.. but here's one I prepared earlier! Hardened valve seats, bored .100 over, resurfaced.



..and a resurfaced head:



Shiny new-ness installed.



New babbit main bearings were poured, a wider oil pickup installed, new timing gears, etc.

I have about 2 years of updates to get through in this thread, so instead of just dumping it all here at once, I'll leave off until next time.

 

Love it, can't wait to watch this unfold.

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Will be watching. Love the A pickups. Glad to see you are going to run the old banger. Good luck with the build.

 

Thanks! It's gonna get good.

Yep, I started working on a Tudor, but man.. I'm glad I got my own Pickup. It just looks right, plus I might actually be able to haul one or two things in the tiny bed.

...

Installing the valve-train.

Test-fiting the valves after installing camshaft, adjustable lifters, and one-piece valve guides (reamed them after install). Original guides were two-piece but I figured the one piece might live longer? On the next block, I might stick with two-piece for old skool sake.



Pardon a few bad phone pics:





Lapping the valves.



Springs/keepers/retainers installed. Almost a complete short block now.



Setting valve gap as a function of lift. Easier to do now than when it's in the truck, although I'm sure adjustments will be necessary.



More to come..

 

Good luck on your build. Over the years, I've built 10 of them.

 

Once you start building Engine's, you can't stop.... Then you think of other things to try to make it better. It is expensive, but a lot of fun.

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Nathan, have you considered installing an aluminium or bronze timing gear??