Projects Jay's Hot Rod: AV8 Pickup Build Thread

Oh my!! So cool! I'm jealous!

 

Speaking of jealousy...Now all I need is a McCulloch supercharger and I'd be all set.

 

I'd say "wanna trade?" But we would be in the same boat. Dang! Stalemate! Hahaha

 

Sweet ignition! Keep at it!

 

Wow, That is sure a neat part to be able to hang on the mill in your truck.

Hope that illness leaves you alone so you can be building your hot rod.

Dave

 

I've been playing around with my grille height. Most info I've found says when you've got a '30-31 Model A body on a '32 frame w/ Model A crossmember that the grille needs to be cut down 2" to make it look right. Well, first I tried 2" and it looked way out of proportion...kinda reminded me of the too-short-grille on the Graffiti coupe. After playing with it for hours and standing back and looking at it about 100 times I ended up lowering it about 1".

When you look at it in profile it looks about right....





....but when you look at it at other angles looks like it might still be too high..



Whatcha think?..need more?

 

Perfection!

 

I'd go another 1/2-3/4" down. Make a paper/tape FULL hood to eyeball it before you make the final call though.
Lookin' GREAT!

 

Did not see the first mock up with 2 inches, but now, one more inch lower looks like it would be better from the 3/4 low profile view.

 

If that tape is parallel to the top of the bed line, you've got it. And it
looks pretty close to me. Nice build........

 

I agree with the "full hood" approach. If you have a hood top, put that on and then look at it. If you don't have a hood top, make a paper/tape hood as mentioned above. That will get it dialed in and help you to not stress about it all the time.

Basically, you are wanting to find where the normal bead on the side of the hood top comes into contact with the grill shell and the cowl. You could also mark those spots and then run a piece of tape there also and stand back and look at it.

I actually raised my 32 shell on my coupe with Model A frame because with the hood top on, the bead suddenly started running down hill after the cowl. You didn't see it as well when we were just trying to fit the shell.

 

I've got a couple model A hoods. I'll dig one out tonight and see how it looks.

My grille definitely sets higher than yours in relation to the cowl. I was looking at a straight line down the length of the entire body like the red lines in the pic below. Looks like I may need to take the taper of the hood into account...which would probably mean I need to lower the grille another 3/4" or so.

 

Man.. Does that side shot look good!

 

An inexpensive laser level is a very useful tool for doing mockups like this. Shoot a horizontal line, jack the front of the truck up to get the bed top parallel with the laser line, then see if the tape from shell to cowl is parallel also. You could use something stiffer than tape, that would allow you to hold a rule against the underside of the straightedge and read the laser line on the rule.

 

Interesting watching you dial in the details. Without that attention now you might end up with something you aren't happy with later on and believe me it's no fun tearing apart a finished project to redo some detail you missed along the way. I'll keep watching this one it's going to be worth the time your spending.

Frank

 

Fretting over the details is what it take to make a great hot rod. It definetly looks like you are on track.

 

Cool pickup! Dig the frame!

 

I struggled with the grill height on my AV8. What the guys were finally able to bang into my thick skull was that the bodyline / belt line of the hood has to be straight or parallel to the body, but the top of the hood has to taper down in relation.
I ended up using a radiator that was 1 1/2" shorter than a stock '32 and I'm happy with the result.
It's very hard to visualize with out a mock up hood.

 

Pic related to above post...

 

Thanks for all the comments guys. I appreciate every one of them.

Tonight I got the grille height issue figured out. I took some advice and dug a beat up Model A hood out of the barn. It was too short to fit correctly but it was just what I needed to visualize what needed to be done to the grille.

If you ignore the crappy fit of the bent up hood and just look at the body line, it is obviously going uphill. I've got a white string just under the bead. At the front of the hood the offset is exactly 1". I had already dropped it 1"...so I guess all those threads I read that said the radiator should be 2" shorter than stock were right after all.




At that point I decided to cut another 1" out of my mockup radiator and off the sides of my grille. Here it is all back together...with the body line is now straight as a string.




I think what screwed me up originally was that I could not mock up the grille with the 2" drop accurately without cutting the grille sides down. So I had the grille stuck on the radiator with the bottom angled forward up against the crossmember at a weird angle. It looked a lot different that way.

Anyway..how that I've got the cab, bed, and grille all figured out and in place I promise to lighten up on all the profile pics of this thing.

 

Yeah! You don't need to be rubbing that in all of our faces.

It seriously looks great. That's a nifty idea using string to determine the body line. Sometimes it's the most simple things that you struggle with.. I would have never thought a string would be the answer to this dilemma.

 

Thanks guys..fretting over details is what I do best. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a perfectionist to a fault. It'll take me a little longer to get it done but I think it will be better for it when it's finished.

Thanks! Yep, Bob Bleed did a great job putting the frame together.

Yes, that's exactly what I was missing..keeping the body lines straight AND the taper of the hood. I love the hood on your roadster. I was going to go hoodless..but this little exercise has me thinking about hoods.

Ha! Thanks Matt. Schools about over,right? I hope to see some serious updates on that coupster real soon...

 

Yup! 12-ish days left until graduation but I got so much schoolwork done that I have breathing room before then..

Which means I've been working on the A some. As a matter of fact, there's even a semi-serious update I just posted tonight.


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Been playing with headlight location. Thinking this height is just about right. Gotta get my headlight bar built next.


My headlights are Arrow 775H with optional marker light. I've only seen one other set with these cool marker lights. There doesn't seem to be much info out there on them. I do know that 775H lights (without the marker lights) were used on the Graffiti coupe (big whoop) but that's about it. Anybody else using these or have any more info on them?

 

Grill looks good! Glad you got it squared away!

 

Thanks Elrod. As soon as I saw that pic you posted of your hood a light bulb went off in my head. Thanks for the moment of enlightenment.

 

Very nice project.

 

Got the headlight bar done today. Feet/legs are from a '28-29 bar. Center bar and cups are '30-31. Turned out pretty good I think.

 

Looks great! I like 'em low too!

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Everything looks killer. Subscribed to this one!