Hi guys...started stripping body parts off my coupe and when I went to pull the side aprons above the running boards off, I found that they are tack welded to the frame. Is this the norm?...seems strage to me, but this is my first model A so I'm in uncharted territory. I'm eventually pulling the body off as I'm doing some frame and suspension work thats posted in other threads here...but was wondering when I get into reassembly if this is how to attach those aprons.....thanks for any imput you guys have...
Thats what I thought...now its gonna be a fight just to remove them..the gas tank hangs under the body so I ruse to grind anything without draining and removing the tank, which is a whole new story as it sits below the seat, which needs to be lowered!one thing after another with this car!
Man, did you open a can of worms! At least you're taking it on. Many others would have given up by now and listed it on CL. Keep going and get her back on the road.
someone been in there before, Ive seen the runnin board brackets welded up, usually because they broke back in the day
Yea...guess I'm crazy..but I'm gonna make it mine!....my intials are MJ...thats the first to letters on the vin #..MJ
I feel your pain, brother. Correcting the previous owner(s)' building fubabs on my 32 is very time consuming and frustrating. But stick with it, soon it will be right and done for good.
Saw that Saturday when you posted these pics. Your running board brackets are welded because they probably had to cut the mounting tabs off to fit them up without the wood mounting between the frame and body. Could have taken a section out of them but nope. And I'll also bet that your Mustang 2 protruded because of the missing wood also. Does that make sense? The body is quite a bit lower on the frame without that wood or something to take the space. I'm a ways down this same path your starting down. It's in the thread in my signature. This is exactly what it's like. You know that feeling you get when the traffic light is past yellow and sorta orange and you know you should stop but you can't and blow the red light anyway. Yep same thing, except that feeling passes really quick, this won't.
Guess I'm pretty ignerent when it comes to these cars..never knew there was wood between the frame and body?
The front body mount sits directly ontop of the apron and frame. There is at least three sets of wood blocks that set up in the subrails at other locations. The running board brackets were originally riveted to the frame. I can post some coupe subrail pictures this coming weekend.
I hope you don't find more of a mess when you pull the body off. unfortunately I bet you will. Good thing there are grinders and welders. Was this car channeled at one time? Looks like it looking at the firewall where it meets the frame. How are the subrails?
Lots of crude work, always harder to fix somebody else's mistakes than to make your own mistakes. Always been leery about buying a car someone else did for that reason, start to fix one thing and end up with a complete rebuild. Good luck, hope you don't find too many more problems.
yea I expect to find alot of craziness when I pull the body,,,but we will fix whatever is necessary......I dont know any history on the car at all, I just know it will be much better when we are done...I have to cut out the roof filler..its too flat!..ruins the look of the top
Yea..I'll never learn my lesson...thanks for the support,,,I'm actually excited about rebuilding this thing...finished the frame boxing tonite..will start assembly on the suspension this week!..cant wait to get it back on its wheels again
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