Projects ReBuild Of my 1928 Model A Tudor.

NOTE: Updates start at Post 214, 10/14/2020

Morning all,
Two winters ago I decided to go through my old hot rod and rebuild it, with some changes and upgrades to make the car more road friendly and a better driver.

We had been slowly extending the range of our trips and after some trips to Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode island and Massachusetts I have been happy with the flathead and the rest of the car but felt it could use more.

Over the years of being on the HAMB and following and reading I knew what I wanted to change and improve on. I'm no body guy, and not some master fabricator that makes a rocket from the kids wagon and old lawn mower left behind the garage but I can work through most everything. So, lets enjoy the last of the old build and on to a new version of my Tudor.

Cliff Ramsdell

A canvas top, good for keeping the sun out.




Not so good for keeping out the rain, umbrella optional.

 

Love the pics Cliff.keep them coming.

 

I stripped the body off and stashed it behind the garage for the winter. Not a lot of room inside for storage and work. My wife like the comforts of inside parking in the winter months, no problem.

I had bought a 276" flathead and '39 transmission from a HAMB member so I sold off the stock flathead motor less the intake, pulleys and pumps, headers and such, things to make the new motor complete. Sold the 36-38 transmission too, won't need it either.

The frame came to me as a rollerish setup, spring in front with a dropped 42-28 axle, rear spring and flattened cross member. This setup served me well for almost 10k miles but sometimes at highway speeds and bridge joints it would dance around pretty well.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Great to see the Grand kid in the car keep it coming.

 

That was James (age 6 at the time) and I getting the Christmas tree a few years ago, surprised my wife and she loved it.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

The Frame was the first thing to get sorted out. We cut the back cross member out and I had picked up a really nice replacement Model A one along with a brand new reverse eye spring and shock setup, it was a swap meet score I needed.

I made a wooden buck to make sure each side was the same and it was cut for the left and right side to get the rails kicked in some. By assembling the rear end assembly and bolting the cross member on I was able to mock up the F1 cross member and transmission to get the location correct. The tubing was a piece of 2" square, .187" wall, just about the same thickness as the stock Model A frame.

We squared things up and tacked it all together and moved it to my buddys body shop frame machine to hold it square and weld it up. Back here I added shock mounts, motor mounts and the such.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Finish welded and painted with a nice, quality rattle can of Black Krylon Appliance epoxy. I have used this stuff for wheels, frame and other parts needing a tough coating of paint. It holds up very well and the only down side is it only available in Gloss Black or Gloss White.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Front and rear axles and suspension.
The rear setup is a '42 to '48 rear axle, shorted torque tube and radius rods from the first build, they worked, why mess with them. I did a gear swap from the 3.78's to a set of 3.54's Rear spring is a reverse eye model A spring. I mounted it spring behind because it would allow me more drop in the rear of the car which is why the cross member is mounted under the frame rails.

Front axle is a 4" dropped Chassis Engineering Model A axle and the wishbone is a '42 to '48 with the spring hangers cut off. It required and slight pinch because of the spacing on the perch pins. We heated it pulled each side in some. I hind site I wish I swapped to a wider yoke like a '28 to '34 because it's really close to the 2 piece bell housing but it has not hit yet. I added shock mounts to the bottom of the wishbone. I have seen people talking about how the bolt on ones don't work well so I used a pair of universal shock mounts, cut the stud off and welded to the wishbone. A little clean up to slide over the axle, perfect fit.

Front brakes are F1 including the spindles and the rears are '40 to '46. New cylinders, shoes and drums on the first build so good to get there.

On a side note when getting things setup the caster was right at 6.44 degrees, perfect.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Steering is F1 also. Had a nice box that we pulled apart and made my own flanges for. 1/2" welded to the box and 3/8" on the outside of the frame, like a sandwich. This gave me some room from the first build and allowed me to straighten out the steering.

Cross member is also an F1 with the pedal setup, It allowed me to have a nice mount for the wishbone and you couldn't have planned the layout better. I welded in a spare cap to the top. This cross member was the same one used in the 1st build so it was already narrowed for the Model A frame.

This gets me to a rolling chassis.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Last one for today, Rolling chassis is complete. I very liberal use of more Krylon Appliance Epoxy and everything is ready to go together.

Bolted up and on stands it's ready to receive the rebuilt 276" Flathead and Rebuilt transmission.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Cool looking before but wow going to be sweet this time. Like what you are doing

 

Awesome work Cliff. Man you have been busy. The guy that bought my frame is doing a 30 2 door. Getting close to mounting the body on his.
Good work.


jim

 

With the rolling chassis done its time for the motor and transmission. I picked up a motor for a fellow HAMB member, @smooth50 (https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/59ab-flathead-bored-and-stroked.989029/) and it was everything he said it was. It came with a 40 truck transmission in the deal and a bunch of loose parts, great guy, thanks Tristen.

Disassemble 100% and went through cleaning everything up and had the machine shop give the bare block the look over and run a hone through the bores and a round in the rotor wash machine, good to go.

Back together and added the parts I kept from my old motor along with a pair of stock 59AB heads.

Transmission was the truck case with mint set of gears I had been saving. Now its all together and into the car it goes. Everything is all bolted in and I'll add stuff so I can start the motor and break it in, next time.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Nice work, it’s looking great so far.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Cliff, thank you for taking the time to document all the fine work you have done on your sedan. I enjoyed the pictures and the story. Hope to see your car in person some day.

 

Great story so far, thanks for sharing.

 

Will be great to see it back on the road.
I like your trans rebuild support.

 

Jim,
It’s just a 3/4” floor flange and a 3” close nipple. I just screw it to the bench top when I need it. It’s easier than chasing the transmission around the bench.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Where is western mass are you?

Cliff Ramsdell

 

I'm in Northfield, right on the Connecticut river.

 

Oh yeah, the last mass exit off I91 north.

We should get together with the other New England guys sometime.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

I have a short 2x4 bolted to the bottom 2 bolt holes in the trans . like yours better.

 

This is looking awesome. Great job! Looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

Had to have the trans support. Now to drill the holes.

Thanks,

jim

 

I want to say thanks to all you guy, Blues4U, Jim (48 ford nut) Triumph 1, hfh, Bugguts and packrat for the support. The HAMB is great and its nice to get feedback for your project.

Now, onto the body work. Like I said, I'm no body guy so i'll call my body work skills 5' work, looks good from 5' away but up close you can pick out the flaws. I wanted a color to make the car more finished. I had some spots that needed to be fixed, repaired that were fixed by others and a chopped top.

The top chop was a maybe/maybe not thing because you always 2nd guess your own skills (except Flop) and sometimes you think its better to not try then have it cut off and then your like, oh crap. I took another approach and decided that if I chooched it up too bad I would have a nice Tudor Roadster, maybe the grand kids would like that better.

So, here we go. Passenger side door was first. It had rot at the bottom and instead of buying patch panels I made my own stuff. Got a HF sheet metal brake to go with the 4x8 sheet of 16 gauge sheet metal. An inside patch, some bending and welding, hammer dolly work and BAM, fixed door, right?

Cliff Ramsdell

 

WRONG.....The Model A door has a compound bend to it, across the door front front to back and then from top to bottom. Rookie mistake, in a hurry, didn't pay attention, i'm an idiot, you pick.

Hate the door, cut it off and start again.

Cliff Ramsdell
I bent the ends again like last time but then I cut some reliefs in there so it could be "rolled" in both directions.

I'm 90% sure this is NOT how to use the acetylene tank from the torch set but, it worked mint getting both bends so nicely.


This time I used just the magnet to hold the metal at the seam, worked 100% better and the panel laid there perfectly. OK, happy with this panel. Weld and finish hammer and onto more body work.

 

Wow Cliff ,you're up there with the greats. Looks good.

 

I'm pretty sure the car was a hot rod in a prior life even though it came on a stock chassis. The firewall was all bashed in and holes patched. I replaced it with a nice stock one I picked up and then filled in all the unneeded holes and such. It was ok before, not ok now.


Cliff Ramsdell
The rear wheel wells needed to be cleaned up too. I'm not running fenders and don't need all the holes and assorted items related to them. Figured that 16 ga was good for more than the door.



When I cut out the left side "patch" I found the original sheet metal under it, um, ok.



Template, couple panels, some welding, good to go.

I was going to need a notch to clear the axle. The body was just an 1 1/2" away with nobody in the car so it's better to do this now and be done with it. I didn't want to take chances and most agree that 3" is a good number.

I cut it out, slit it and dollied it around. Since I had to cut the brace for the rear window track I made a pair of new ones and welded them in.


There was a space between the body and the bracket I made so a pair of small filler pieces were welded in to bridge the gap.

Well, us old guys usually have old guy knees which means that working like this is really not much fun, even with the nice, cushy knee pads. Plus its a tight space in there with the body up on saw horses.

 

OK, last one tonight. The stock 28/29 Tudor has a visor and this weird "eyebrow" above it, see the 1st pic. Its a logistical nightmare when I did the car the first time and now it's getting a 3" chop so what ever I could do to move the visor up is great.

The 30/31 Mounts higher and has a cleaner look, I'll get one of those. What, $150.00 or so ?!?$%! Ok, Plan B, I didn't know what plan B was at the time but we'll just throw some stuff at the wall and see what sticks, kinda like making spaghetti.

So, the end result was to cut the two "ears" off the stock visor and just move it up like 2 " or so and attach it to the top of the header, clean and smooth, yep, I like this look.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

I don't know anything about that, I'm just a guy. I have some tools and I can used most of them. Mechanic, you bet. Body Guy, oh hell no.

Thanks and enjoy. How you making out? I'll head over there now.

Cliff Ramsdell