Projects Model A Truck, Banger and a T5 "Build Thread"

Several months ago, I was looking for an original Model A chassis to use as a mock-up for my T5 adapters. I wanted a nice, clean, original frame preferably with a running engine. Through the classifieds here on the HAMB, I found a friend from college that I haven't talked to over 10 years. It just so happened he had what I needed and I in turn had some parts he needed. So a deal was struck and a very nice running chassis showed up at my door.



Since this chassis was so nice and the engine ran so well, I began to think that I should not only use it for my adapters, but that I should actually build a shop truck out of it. After cruising the classified some more followed be a short trip to PA, I had the beginnings of a '30-'31 truck.




It doesn't look like much, but at least it's a start.

 

Off course, I had to mock everything up...


I already make the adapters for a T5 behind a banger, but I wanted to expand on making a torque tube adapter as well. For this, I am using the 4x4 S-10 T5 transmission that others on here have successfully made work. I wanted to use an original Ford u-joint since everything needs to be relatively small to fit under the pivot ball. So my approach is to machine a new yoke that fits the S-10 output splines and accepted the '32-'48 ford u-joint.

Since I am fortunate to have access to a really nice 3D printer at my day job, the adapter in the picture is actually made out of ABS plastic.

Don't worry, for those who are interested, I'll get into the details of the design later.



Once I had the trans bolted to the motor, I stood back and noticed that the transmission really hung down since it was so long compared to the original. If I was planning on running fenders and running boards, this wouldn't be an issue, but since I want a fenderless hotrod, I couldn't live with this. Also, since I am planning to lower the rear at least 5", raising the back of the engine will help maintain the proper alignment with the torque tube.

After doing so math, I decided to raise the back of the engine up an 1" and the front up a 1/2". For the rear mounts, I cut them apart and welded a 1" wide piece back in. For the front, I welded a 1/2" long piece to the top on each side and redrilled the holes.

 

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With the engine in place, I needed to shorten the driveshaft and torque tube. What's nice about the model A rear end is that the drive shaft and pinion are held together by a tapered fit, keyway and nut. So, this means that you do not have to re-cut the splined part.

I realize that the picture is terrible, but you can kinda see the nut on the back side of the pinon.



The T5 with an AA bell housing is 11-3/4" longer that the stock A transmission and A bell housing. For the drive shaft, I cut it in a bandsaw and replicated the tapper and threads on my lathe. I then cut the keyway on the mill. The angle was just over 3 degrees and it took a couple of tweaks to get it dialed in.




As for the torque tube, I set it up in my lathe and parted the rear flange right at the weld. I then moved the desired distance and parted that section off. The tube is fairly straight near the rearend and was quite easy to line up to weld.

 

Hopefully that fixed the pics....

 

Definitely watching this! Keep 'em coming.

 

Since I am hung up machining the adapter parts, I decide to move onto rust repair. I figured that I would start at the firewall and work my way back.

The firewall was in fairly decent shape. There was a hole for a heater and a small crack near the passenger side foot. It's nice that someone drilled all of the spot welds out and removed it from the cowl. Definitely makes it easier...







The cowl sections were fairly typical for being in this climate. I was originally going to try and patch them still on the cowl frame but it would have been really difficult to get in behind to hammer the weld. So, after about 30 spot welds, here it lays...


After sandblasting, I decided to just make my own patch panels. I never was really impressed with the available panels plus I wanted to use material that was close to the original thickness.



I didn't take any pics of it fully welded up, but it is important to take your time. I Tig weld everything and only weld about an inch at a time. Even still, the panel warps. With a little hammer and dolly work, it's actually fairly easy to straighten it all back out.



I have a bunch more pics coming...hang with me...

 

I made the patch panels on my pullmax using some standard joggle dies. However, this gave the body line too flat of a profile to match the original. To solved this, I lightly formed the body line over a piece of bar stock clamped into the vise.



Just like the other side, I took my time cutting and fitting.







The panel looks slightly bowed in the above picture....which it is. I had a hard time with the spot welds. When it's clamps to the A-pillar though, it fits nicely.

 

I lucked out and found pretty decent set of doors. The driver's side needs a small crack repaired at the bottom and that's it. The passenger's side though, is a different story.

Someone along the way started to install a patch panel. The panel was workable, but they used a coupe door panel and not a sedan/truck door panel. The sedan/truck doors are 1-3/4" longer than the coupes. Also, the part that had me concerned was that it appeared to have been hit with a shot gun several times. This really stretched out the skin material...



So, I figured that it would be easier to just cut it all off and start fresh. I started by bending flanges on 3 sides of the replacement piece long enough that they would eventually be folded and crimped back over the door frame. Then, it was run through the Pullmax to make the body line and hammered over the bar stock clamped in the vise. To get the curve, I first used my el-cheapo shrinker on the flanges. It's one of the first ones that Eastwood started offering and at this point, it's just plain worn out. I have to say its probably was one of my best investments though since it seems that I am using the thing all the time.

With shrinking the flanges, I was just looking to get perimeter of the panel to fit the door frame. To get the crown, I turned to the english wheel.

My wheel is actually homebuilt from someone's else's stalled project and the wheels do not line up very well. I have to go very lightly and slowly or I get lines from the edge of the wheels. I really just need to break down and build another one...but that's for another time.



After what seemed like an eternity of wheeling, the panel fit fairly well and it was time to install it. I originally though that cutting close to the body line was going to make thing easier but it turned out to be some what of a pain. I wish I would have cut about 3/4" below the body line. Welding was fine but when I went to hammer the weld back out, I kept hitting the body line and the dolly wouldn't lay correctly. The panel warped and pulled in a good bit, so I had to really hammer it back out. All in all, it wasn't too bad...I still have a little work left on it.





Next comes the gas tank...

 

Nice work. Keep posting, and sell me your Pullmax.....

 

...cool project, nice work.

 

Nice work.

 

Thanks, but there is no way I can get rid of the Pullmax. That thing was worth every penny I spent on it...

 

The gas tank was actually fairly bad on the bottom side. It looked like there had been some water sitting in the for some time. In all actuality, this would have been a great candidate to cut the bottom out of. But since I had it, I figure that it was worth fixing...

The first step was to drill the spot welds out for the wire way.





I thought about fixing each rust spot with small patches but it made more sense to just go ahead and cut it all out. I am glad I did because the baffles were all rusted as well. I actually made the patch before I cut anything so that once I had it somewhat fitting, I could scribe around the perimeter. Then I simply cut to the line to get a nice fitting patch.



Since the baffles were pretty well rotted away, I made some new ones. Using some scrap pieces of 3/4" popular, I cut two pieces out to the desired shape and sandwiched material in between. Then, I hammered the edges down to form the lip.





There were a total of four baffles that needed replaced. There were spot welded together and then installed.


I slowly worked my way around the patch panel, final fitting it as I went. Eventually, I got it all welded up and began grinding.

 

I've been working on the machining the torque tube adapter lately and have made some progress. So far, I have done everything on my manual machines. Eventually, I'll start doing them on my CNC since they take quite a while to make. The adapter consists of three main components: the yoke, the adapter plate and the bearing. Also, there are a couple of snap rings that hold everything in place. I am using a sealed double roller angular contact bearing to support the yoke and tailshaft. What's nice about using this style of bearing is that there are no worries about having to properly load or lubricate them. As I said earlier, the yoke is designed to accept the stock '32-'48 Ford u-joint.





The only process that I had to send out was cutting the splines. Good old GM somewhat has a bastard spline that took some digging through old spline standards to find. Luckily, the shop that I deal with is pretty good.



Basically, what's left to do is machine the face of the adapter plate. I have been pretty backed on the CNC mill and haven't had the time to make the fixtures.



Here's what it's suppose to look like...

 

A t5 is the one thing I wish I had done to my truck. But I didn't want to pull the cab off the frame.

 

Because I raised the engine an 1" in the rear and a 1/2" in the front, the original cross member wasn't going to work. I could have cut and hacked it back together, but there really wouldn't be much left. About my only option was to make a new one. I always liked the look of an F1 cross member, so that is where I started.



Once I had it cut out, I cut a 2" wide piece for the top and a 1" wide piece from the bottom. I wanted not only to add sufficient strength but also make it look like it could have been stamped from the factory back in the day.



Like the original, the top of the cross member is flush with the top of the frame. I know no one will every see this detail, but I know it's there. It took very little to do and makes it look so much better.



I plan on grinding the welds down so it looks like it is one piece. I welded both sides so that there was plenty of material to grind.



It's moved back a couple inches from the original but should be sufficient. I also plan on running some pieces angled forward like a '32 k-member to add further stiffness. Plus, that will give me a place to mount my master cylinder.




To think, all of this wouldn't have been necessary if I just planned on running fenders and could have hidden the T5 hanging down....

 

Looking good, thanks for the pictures

 

Are you planning on running a mount for the T-5 ?

 

I actual have been debating this for quite a while and have convinced myself that I should build a mount. That is partially the reason that I designed the cross member the way I did. Would it work without one, certainly in the right situation and I know of guys running a T5 without one. However, it still concerns me not having the rear supported.

The reason that I want to have the rear of the trans supported is because the original length torque tube is going to place less stress on the rear of the trans that a shorter one. Torque = Force x Distance. So for a constant torque, if your reaction distance (i.e. torque tube) decreases, the force has to go up. And by "Torque", I am not necessarily talking about engine torque but a torque placed on the rear end that is reacted through the rear of the transmission. For example, imagine hitting a pot hole with one rear wheel while cruising down the interstate. That is going to try and twist the rearend about the spring mount and the only thing that can counteract that is the torque tube and transmission connection.

Also, the plan is to move the spring behind the axle so that I can get the truck to sit at the proper ride height. Doing this with a torque tube rear end essentially tries to lift the rear of the transmission when the car is just sitting there. I imagine this might have played into Ford changing to rear transmission mounts as the springs moved behind the axle.

 

So, progress on the truck has somewhat stalled due to installing some floors in my father's '36 3 window. This thing has been in my shop for way too long but it's almost done.




However, I have found sometime to continue working on finishing the T5 to torque tube adapter...







I still have to tap the holes but then I will be able to finally bolt in the rearend.

 

Are you making these adapters to sell?

Sent from my SM-G900T using H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Shoot me a PM or give me a call. I really don't want this thread to turn into a classified add.

To answer your question though, if there is enough interest, sure I will sell them. However, I am not quite ready to start producing them. To really make these affordable, I am going to have to work on reducing my machining time. As of now, there is a tremendous amount of material that has to be removed on each of the components. On the adapter plate, I am looking into doing a casting instead of machining from solid. As for the yoke, there is really no good way around machining from solid so, I am trying to find a decent CNC lathe to add to the shop.

To add to that, I started on a kit for the Jeep T5. At least around me, they seem to be a little easier to find.

 

I did finally get the rearend bolted to the transmission. I still have to lower the rear which is going fix the angle of the torque tube but at least it all went together smoothly.



Once this '36 is out of the shop, I will be able to make some headway on the body an actually make it look like something...

 

I finally have my shop back and began working on the truck again so I have a little update.



In order to get the cowl properly mounted, I needed to repair the front mounts. These mounts are important in getting the A pillar in the correct orientation and ultimately getting the rear of the doors to line up with the belt line. This body has been apart for quite sometime and I think that the sub rails have been tweaked a bit so it's going to take some shimming to get everything to line up properly.

To be honest, I have no idea what this area is suppose to look so I had to improvise. I assume that at one time there was a mount that was either removed or was broken off? The pictures show the bottom of the firewall with the cab lying on what will eventually be it's back.




With the mounts all welded up and ground down, I still have to drill the holes.

 

Good work.

 

So with the front mounts repaired and the cowl bolted down on the chassis, it was time to start assembling the rest of the cab. Initially, I focused on trying to get the doors to shut against the sub rails properly. The passenger side basically fell into place and lined up really well. The driver's side however, was a mess. After an hour or two of shimming, tweaking and such, I realized that the lower hinge was bent, allowing the rear of the door to sag. Also, the hinge attachment point on the door was cracked, allowing it to sag further. With some heat, a little persuasion and a weld here and there, it wasn't lining up too badly.

The rear of the cab was an ebay find that happened to be fairly local. It certainly isn't in the best of shape, but at least it's workable.

Since the cowl and subrails were originally a tudor sedan, they needed to be trimmed.




I know it's not exactly as Henry did it from the factory, but it's going to work and most people probably won't even notice.

I had some concerns on how the rear of the cab was going to fit. It look as if it's been apart for a while and was a little tweaked. There is some rust on the lower B pillar but it's actually not as bad as it looks in the picture. Regardless, it will get repaired.



Amazingly enough, everything lined up really well. Once the wood is in and it gets chopped, I'll fine tune the shims to get it right on, but for now, it's close enough to move forward.

 

The top wood kit finally showed up and needless to say, I was pretty excited to start installing it. I debated whether or not I should make my own wood kit but ultimately decided to just spend the money and buy one. And since the truck started out as all parts, I didn't really have any patterns to go off of anyways.

Well, once I started to try and assemble the kit, my excitement quickly turned to frustration. Every single piece of wood needed to be altered in one way or another.

The pieces above the doors didn't even come close to fitting into their respective brackets. All of the reliefs and cutouts were either too shallow or not cut back far enough.


The tenon was at least a 1/16th" too thick to fit into the header...


The header isn't even close to fitting the shape of the visor....and it just went on an on....

What really upset me was the reproduction corner brackets. My 3 year old daughter could have done a better job. How could you sell something this far off?


Those holes are suppose to be lined up...and on top of it, they are not even symmetrical from side to side...



After several hours of fitting, cutting and sanding, here is the almost finished product.



I do have to say that I am very surprised on how stiff this made the cab.

 

Good work! Your pictures and descriptions are great.

-Chris