things are looking up, just picked up this lil sedan. super solid, banger (that turns), pretty well stock. i wanna build the hot rod my grandfather would have put together after the war. i've got plenty of parts and some friends to help. View attachment 2745048 View attachment 2745048
so the story goes: the guy i bought it from had been chasing it for years, regularly asking if the car was for sale. time went by he bought a coupe and a new house and lost touch with the owner. a chance meeting with the ol' fella at the hardware store led to, " hey I've been looking for you, i'm finally ready to sell the car". he pulled the car out of the owners barn in pieces where it had sat for the past 25 years.
yup, the running board/splash apron too. says '31 doesn't it? better change the title of this thread and the bill of sale. hahah
Your splash aprons are two piece which say 1930. The small splash apron piece is connected to the front fenders which is how they came in 1930. 30-31's all had the stainless cowl band. The shell has been replaced with a 31. You have a 1930 Tudor. Another sure way to tell is to look up under the gas tank at the firewall on the inside. If there are not small rectangle reinforcement pieces spot welded to the firewall opposite where the radiator supports attach you have a 1930. In 1931 they reinforced these areas with the rectangular pieces to keep the firewall metal from tearing. Nice car by the way!
No,the 31 Model A had one piece splash aprons,the 30 had a two piece. I believe your car is a 30 the radiator shell has been changed at some point in time. HRP
making a little progress, chasing down the chassis stuff, motor is in, should have the axle back from okie joe this week. heres a shot of the T spring with an extra leaf added for stiffness, and some MG midget rear shocks.
Ahhh !! Finally a way to tell a 1930 apart from a 1931 that isn't based on rad shells, aprons etc. always wondered how to determine a stripped down body shell - aside from a late 31 that has the gas shut off indent - Good Info, I have searched everywhere for a detail like this & all I ever found was the aprons/rad shell comparisions, this detail isn't based on bolt on parts - perfect.
I see ribs on your wide 5's, are you using the 36 only mechanical brakes up front or is that just a drum that happens to have ribs on the rear end?
36 on the rear, but not on the front 'cuz you know they don't fit anything else. model a spindles and 39 stuff up front.
Yeah, that's what I'm finding, partially; there are apparently a specific set of deep offset Lincoln backing plates that will work with the 36 wide 5's & spindles, but I haven't tracked a set down yet. I found your build thread while I was digging for more info yesterday. I just picked up a 36 front end I'd like to try and run on my build. I'm liking your build a lot. Everything looks clean and deliberate. You totally lucked out finding sheet metal that nice up here! There's a fair amount around I've found but hardly any of it is THAT nice! How are you finding the fit of the T spring into the A rear crossmember?
AHA! All the times I've seen people reference this trick I don't think I've ever seen that bit explained. Thanks!
got the body back on with help of '54caddy...and officially gave up on paint and bodywork for this year. gonna try and slam this thing together and get out there, spring has sprung.
Sounds like a good idea! Since we've been discussing 30's vs. 31's, I thought I would post this here..... Early 30's had an oval speedometer, late 30's and 31's had a round speedo.
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