Hi, after selling my A Tudor a couple of years ago, I've saved up some cash and bought up a few bits to start building my roadster. Early days yet and still a lot to do, the rear quarters need a lot of work, the cowl section is pretty good. Plans are to build A style chassis from RHS steel, with a late 50 s style to the overall finished product. Here's a couple of pics of what I have to work with. Also have some 46 Ford drum brakes and axle to use up front, and have a selection of early Ford 16" solid wheels to choose from, to which I'll fit some nice crossply tyres. Well that's the plan anyway...
Well I finally got a bit of time to spend in the garage. After assessing the pile of parts I got, and throwing ideas around in my head, I noticed the rear quarters (Internet purchase) are from different years. Arrgh! Ones a 29 and the others a 30. I wondered if I could do some metalwork and make them match. Anyway, while I mull that one over, I tacked together one sort of good panel out of two not so good panels. It's a start. Any ideas on how I should tackle the mismatched panels?
Another problem - besides being from different years, the rear quarter panels you have are also Coupe panels, not Roadster.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. I use the term "roadster" loosely. That's probably the least of my worries. . All part of the fun when building a car from bits. Reminds me of a certain Johnny Cash song.
Thanks, that's what I was thinking I might have to do. Good ones don't come up for sale very often down here, maybe I'll get lucky!
Just bite the bullet, and spend some deniros and get Brookville ones. Seriously. The back of my roadster is all Brookville along with the subrails. Best decision i ever made.
I'll probably use the ones I have for mocking everything up and save for some brookville ones. Looks like the "budget" just got blown
I had the same start as you man, a model a frame and a cowl and doors. I looked into buying and shipping original quarters over here but when i got lucky and flipped a car i all of a sudden had the cash to splurge on the Brookville stuff. It made life so easy. I wouldn't even bother with those quarters man.. hang em up on the wall and start with something good to begin with. Edit: I should note, i know they are repairable and if you can find another original then yeah go for it! But if it was me i'd just use some nice fresh Brookvilles with a set of subrails and go from there. I think if you were in the US it'd be a different story but with the cost of importation, exchange rate ect why pay top dollar for something that's probably rusted when you can do the same with mint Brookville ones? Just a tip also, if you do go with Brookville make sure you measure them front to back. I found my '28 ones were about 8mm longer from one to the other.. so i kept the door gap at 550mm both sides initially and then pushed the short one back about 4mm to even it up. The overlap of the doors covers it anyway. In saying that, the originals could be the same since as far as i'm aware they are copied straight off the originals.
Cheers for that Nick. Some Brookville ones would definitely be the go, will use the ones I have to mock up dimensions for now. Much as I love NZ, it F##kin sucks living at the bottom of the world sometimes, we just get boned on freight for everything!
if they were both '30 quarters, would you use them? I'd say if you've got the skills to fix the damage and make them work as roadster quarters, making them match year-to-year shouldn't be that much harder, it's a tough job either way. I know you guys have it a lot harder finding this stuff over there, but you've got some original Ford pieces there, may as well try to use them. If they don't turn out, you can always buy the replacements.
If they were both 30s I would definitely try and use them. My sheet metal skills are "developing" and Henry steel is nice to work with.
View attachment 3043377 Here's some inspiration- drivers door made out of a passenger door using floor sweepings and leftovers. Whole car built with 2 truckloads of "leftovers" and stuff headed for the scrap yard!!
There is quite a difference between roadster and all other quarter panels. Roadster doors are about 4 inches shorter than coupe doors, 6 inches shorter than sedan doors. Why am I talking about the doors? Cause the quarter panels are longer on roadsters- they make up the difference of the doors. Check the length of yours from door edge to wheelwell WAY shorter than roadster ones. I learned the hard way-good luck
It's been a while since I've done any work on the A, last year had been a pretty rough year emotionally for me after my mother passed away, and found my motivation for car building took a back seat. However, I find building is quite therapeutic, and lately have done a wee bit on the car. I made up a new rear subfloor, and hung a quarter panel to see how it all looks. Still a long way to go, but I think things are heading in the right direction, I'll try and keep posting more pics as I go.
Thanks for the encouraging words. I know it won't be a totally correct model A when its done, but that's not the point of it. Looks like you've done a lot of work to the car in the pic. Is it a Hudson? Excuse my ignorance.
Jimb121, Yes sir, It is a 51 Hudson Hornet. I get a lot of inspiration to continue my project from the H.A.M.B., and projects just like yours. Thanks for posting your build, and good luck with you project.
Looking good- how are you making out chasing down parts?? I know it's a long way to ship stuff from the U.S.!!This was about 3 years worth of buying/ selling/ swapping. It all started when I found the rear quarters at a swap for $500.- the chase was on.
I think what you've got there will work out well, even with those quarters. Will take a bit of work but you've got some original steel there and I think it's well worth the effort doing it the way you are.
Nice build. $500 for the quarters? That's a good score. Missed out getting a rh quarter panel off Trade Me. ( NZ version of eBay). it was pretty beat up, but might have been useful. I trawl the net and swap meets as much as I can. Model a panels are like gold here in NZ . I've never been one to do things the easy way...