Hot Rods Tall guys and Model A roadsters!

The reason why I’m asking is because I have a ‘29 body and a pretty beat 32 frame! I’m 6’4” and I like some leg room mainly I don’t want my knees in the steering wheel.
I’ve thought of an idea of adding 4 “ to the doors and moving the rear section back, or adding the inches to the rear section to move the belt line back.
Subtle inch increases here or there.
The question is have is I’m sure this has been done. before to make a roadster more comfortable for a Neanderthal such as myself!
Plus I need room for the Yeti and my coffee cups.
Any ideas? Any pictures? Any interesting concepts!
Here’s the engine that is planned!

I came back to hang out for a bit and be a decent person and plus I have a bunch of history I’d like to share
Lulz
germ

 

LOL get a rumble seat and sit back there.

OK being an ass aside. If you add inches behind the door you have to alter the quarter windows. May end up goofy. Dad used two cowls and stretched the cowl a couple of inches for a guy when I was a kid. You really could not tell unless it was parked next to one with a stock cowl.

A trick that @metalshapes did and one that was a popular 60s trick was to use duece frame rails and make a unibody out of it. Then the floor was added to the bottom of the frame rails. His A bone was a roomy SOB. Maybe if you search him you can find a build.

Another trick is to move the chassis to the outside of the body (like a unibody) and add foot wells. I have done that with an A coupe that I built for a giant. Worked like a champ.

Hope something here works for ya.

Nice to see ya by the way.

Benno

 

I’m 6’5” and have been stuck inside a few early A’s. The flat back pickups are the worst, and coupes/sedans better. Getting inside the car is one challenge, finding a place to put your size 15 shoes while driving is another, and getting out of the car after a long drive is no easy task either.

The early car cockpits are smaller and have shorter doors. If you’re gonna stretch the car, start with the doors to make getting in and out easier. Don’t chop it! And consider sliding the body back and cut in a foot box to move the pedals forward

 

It is considered to be a '90s street rodder thing but I am a big fan of suicide doors. On an A sized car suicidung the doors makes all the difference in the world for getting in and out.

You open that bad boy aim your ass at the seat and then swing your legs in. I am not a big man as men go but the older I get the more I like easy in and out.

 

Yes I'm also 6'2" with a 32 frame, open car under construction.
We dropped the floor 6" to the bottom of the frame rails like metalshapes did. We built the trans tunnel (to accomodate a T5) and floors and welded it all in.
Exhaust is ovalized nascar style stuff that runs up tight to the floor and cannot be seen in side profile and the mufflers are under the trunk floor.
Rear brake line is a braided ss -3 line through the left frame rail, fuel lines are -6 ss braided through the right frame rail.
That's a 2" x 6" rectangular tube across behind the seats area with a Chris Alston Chassis Works driveshaft hoop.

You gain a TON of leg room and can lower the seats to below where a normal floor is (top of the frame) and sit lower in the car, and no one will be able to tell it's a dropped floor car when you drive by. Imagine sitting in a conventional Model A and having your heels sitting on a floor that 6 inches lower, your knees no longer foul the steering wheel and you can run a proper 16" wheel.
Admittedly one problem you may have with this is that the footwells are narrower and three pedals and steering column is a tight fit, but hey, you can't have everything LOL. See pics of Metalshapes three pedal car here:
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...f-metalshapes-uni-body-roadster.314324/page-2
There are a couple threads with pics of his car.

 

Lose the angled toe board. You gain several inches that way. Good to see you here Jack.

 

Lengthening anything four inches will be a drastic change and ruin the proportions we all have come put appreciate.If you did the changes in one inch increments they won't show to most folks. Lengthen the doors an inch. If you shorten the front end of the quarters then you won't make the body look odd. Move the back of the cockpit back two inches above the main belt line, shortening the tulip panel. It will only look like one inch because the back edge of the door is already one inch closer. And all this without changing the whole length of the body.

Your could probably sneak another inch into the cowl and most wouldn't notice there either. A Deuce frame would still have plenty of length to hide this mod.

 

Hey mgermca did you use thicker wall steel to build the tunnel, making up strength that would normally be in the X member?

I think an angled toe board is a requirement for comfortable driving.

 

The floor and tunnel are 16 Ga and I would venture that the formed and continuously welded floor and tunnel is stiffer than the x member. Also note the 2" x 2" x .120" tube that traverses the floor at the trans support section.

Another example of a dropped floor 32 chassis car is Posies 'Driven Dirty' green 32 coupe but all mention of it has disappeared from the Posies website. There used to be a ton a pics of it under construction there that were really helpful.

 

Hey, Germ.
Often thought that maybe a '33/'34 or similar style lower firewall section would work. But then front frame rails would need to be lengthened and the engine and everything in front of the firewall would have to move forward. Or the body moved rearward.

 

D&D speed in NH, had a '31 roadster.
A clean build, he swapped doors, hid hinges at rear, then lengthened the doors 2in. Worked out slick!
https://www.bing.com/images/search?...09BFE6EDCFD1A189941C04AC3B190&selectedIndex=8

 

I definitely feel like a gorilla in a teacup in my '26 T, but one thing that helped was making an angled seat bottom that sits basically on the floor, with the back rest upholstery attached directly to the rear panel to get maximum length. My firewall is pushed out a bit at the bottom but that's easier to do on a T. I've heard of people making a dropped floorpan that drops down into the framerails a bit and I might try to make one to gain a bit of foot room, I'm awfully folded up in there now. The driver's door on my roadster is just for show, I have to get in on the passenger side, but that doesn't bother me much. A long/tall steering column may look a bit awkward but it's the only way my knees don't hit the steering wheel when operating the pedals.

 

Yup, @metalshapes car is the one to copy. I am doing the same on mine and flattening the toe boards as well

 

All time you use for mock ups*****<manytimes/repettedly pays off in comfort.*****
#1;Start out with were your pedals are to be{as far forward as pos. and make the pedal pad at the right spot on your shoe*!!
#2 Is seat as low as you can,with a good feel of angles/both bottom an back,plus make sure your looking through the windsheild,not over it !!!!!!= If your too high ( I think,looking over a windshield looks like poor planning.)
# 3 play with steering wheel angle an hight. Never us smaller then 14in.; { not ment as insult,just ways of fitting>There are tilt colunms or flip steering wheel hubs for fat beer bellys that can help fit for those that must have more room.
I'm 6ft 200lb.,was 165lb. in high school,6ft then too.
My 28A roadster is canneled down over frame 6in. front an 4in. just forward of rear wheelwell,<were bobtailt starts. Floor/rug is top of frame=Seat top of foam is only 6in. above floor{ I'd say drop that to 4 or 5in. but keep enought foam under your butt< How stiff a foam,depens on how much you are in lb.s< rear an bottom of my bench seat angle.= needed lots of mock up in combo with steering wheel pacement and angle{plus size of wheel,never go under 14in.*},and pedals.
PS; when making seats,foam can be had in numbers,soft too hard.
A28/29 roadster doors are short { I use stock doors},so if anything must be added too,I'd do it too doors an then move rear back by that much. One trick that can be done for foot room is, bubble out the firewall a little for extra pedal space<that dose not show as much as longer then stock body
.

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-unibody-roadster-dissected.331971/

These are from @metalshapes Build Thread at the link above. Moving the rear section back a couple inches might be your savior coupled with the lower seat...Lots of work but it wouldn't rob the ride of its lines to much in my opinion...if the depth for fit is achieved would the doors have to be lengthened...There is no question every inch added even to the doors would assist entry to anyone climbing in...and Beano's right ass in 1st or be prepared for issues...

Note Metalshapes Hotrod was a melding of Sport Coupe, Roadster and more see quoted text below...
​

"I found a bit more space by using Sportscoupe Quarter Panels ( that gave about 7 or 8" more interior space because the cockpit goes back farther than a Roadster does )

That meant I had to section them a bit to make them line up with the Roadster Cowl, and I had to make my own doors out of 2Dr Sedan skins & Roadster insides ( lengthened )"

Credit to Photographer, Owner


​

 

This is something @sloppy jalopies has a great handle on too as he is always mixing things up to gain an inch or two in the interior space department...

Loosing a bit of trunk space is well worth a more comfortable fit...

 

Also 6'5" I used a second row minivan seat, made short brackets to mount it low and back under tulip panel.

 

Just like wheeldog57 I did the minivan seat mounted on custom brackets and tucked it under the panel as war back as I could go. I’m 6’2 and have room to just stretch out my legs

 

Great tech Hambers...thats using the real estate for all its worth... I have a gas tank bracing and possibly seat width in my way...These are things that you encounter when it wasn't your build...

 

When I built mine I fitted the seat and steering column first. Then I figured out from there where to mount the gas tank and make it alll fit together

 

Wheeldog's red roadster is a Cam Snapper, out of Newburyport!
Saw it on the rear lid.

 

Have you seen Eli's roadster? The old Buddy Hinman roadster?That has some interesting mods.Model A rails ,but some crazy drop

 

go man go !
i shortened my sportie qtrs, but the pix may help you visualize extending yours...
search 1930 sportster, shortened quarters ... page 4 and up...

 

I should have dropped my steering column down a bit more because the wheel is up close to the windshield. On the other hand, the little extra knee room is needed for my long assed legs. This car was not "engineered" for long rides.

 

Thanks for all the nice words about my car, guys.

I still own it and enjoy it, but it no longer has the supercharged engine.

It now has a SBC with a simple 4BBL, so I could make a full hood for it with staggered rows of louvers.

 

If I was a tall man building a roadster I would run buckets and cut them back into the tulip panel and style them like a Corvette. That won't work on a coupe, but @wheeldog57 is on the right track here.

 

Lots of good ideas here. I'm soaking it all in.

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-unibody-roadster-dissected.331971/

Germ, ^^^Use this thread for a reference. Metalshapes roadster has ALOT of room in it and pretty sure he's a tall fella'.......from what I recall from the HAMB Drags back in the day.

Chris

 

Thank you Sodbuster.

I'm 6'2", the car is 48" to the top of the hardtop, ground clearance is 6" ( except the grilleshell, it hangs down lower because I didnt want to cut it )

 

It it camera angle, or is your steering wheel canted toward the driver's side? If intentional, what was the purpose?