Projects 1928 Model A Tudor

OK, so this is attempt #2 at this thread. I tried it on my phone through the App and almost had it done and it crashed, needles to say I was upset and gave up the other night.

Anyway here goes, this is, my All original 1928 Ford Model A two door Sedan. My father purchased this car along with another running 1937 Fordor, about 20 years ago. He got the 37 running and this one as well, sent the 37 into storage and forgot about it, this car he brought to our family farm and parked it. As a youngster 10-12 I learned to drive in this car, cruising this car all over the farm and surrounding county roads. I parked it in the storage building next to another 28 AR Coupe and there it sat until the next time I got to my Grandparents to cruise her again. Then in 2009 My grandfather passed away and my grandmother went into the nursing home, so the car sat until late 2011 when I tried to get her out and play with her again, but alas a dead battery and a robbed condenser ( I stole it for my 28 1 Ton) that I forgot about prevented the outing.

It sat in the same spot until this past Summer, when I aired up the 2 flat tires on it and pulled it out of the building and into my Morton Building, where I threw a battery and a condenser into it and got her fired up again. Purrs like a kitten, ok maybe a Tom cat. But none the less it starts and runs. I have been milling around in my head of what to do with this thing, dad wants me to start over with a Brookville frame and put an LS1/ 4L60E combo into it, since he regrets selling his 29 RPU that we couldn't get the LS to fit properly back in early 2003. But I want a more "Traditional" hotrod, at least for the most part. I have since bought the family farm listed earlier 2 years ago and as family deals go what ever was in the buildings is now mine so the car and all the other junk laying around here is now mine. I was moving some stuff around my Pole building a bout a Month ago and found 6 1935 Ford Wire wheels in amazing shape, I was so happy I actually almost bought a powder coated set a week earlier for $450.00. I then got a set of Coker WWW 7.5X16 Radials from a fellow Hamber and a set of 4.5X16 www for the front and got them mounted up for the car.

She will be getting the new shoes put on Tomorrow after my buddy gets done mounting up the front tires, he does motorcycle stuff and I didn't want to screw up the fresh powdercoating mounting those little guys up.

So the the plans are as follows:

Frame:
Stock frame with a super X cross member and Boxing plates. I will have her powder coated once it is all said and done. Doing 40 Brakes and a 40 rear end with open drive conversion. Hope I can get Power brakes to work, but if not no biggie, and maybe going to try a power a vega box.

Body:
The body on this car is in excellent shape, my original thoughts were to toss the fenders and go that route, but they are in too good of shape not to use, so I will be blasting the body down removing the top and replacing with a new wood kit and painting her with Hot Rod Flatz Oxide Red, and Black running boards. I am going to do a removable soft top, somehow haven't decided how exactly I'm going to do this yet but ill figure it out.

Power plant:
Here is where it will be getting a little nontraditional, I tune LS based engines every day as part of our performance engine business so I plan to take a hopefully Late 52-53 Flathead and integrate the LS based EFI system on the engine. This will also help decide my trans type, because if I get a later engine I will be running a 4L60E transmission fully computer controlled.

If I cannot get my hands on a later Flathead it will be a T5 Transmission.

We are Master WD with Isky, and Edelbrock so either way she is getting a Isky 3/4 race cam, I asked Richard Iskendarian if he would grind me up a flathead cam with the LS1 firing order, but he said no go so Ill have to modify the harness a bit. And Edelbrock Heads, and 4 bbl intake which will be crucial to my build as I need that intake to run 90 degree intake elbow to un my throttle body.

I hope to get here all up and running by next years Back to the Fifties to display in our booth and have a salable Flathead/ LS EFI system ready to go.

So here are the first pics of the car pulled from one shed and into another, hope to have more tomorrow with the new shoes on and all cleaned up. I am going to drive the banger setup around until the show flies. then that will be getting yanked out and probably end up overseas in someone else's A, we rebuild them and ship them worldwide with insert bearings and all the other goodies in them.

 

Looks like a great start..


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That's a damn nice car to start with. So glad to hear you will be keeping the fenders.

 

Wow.....looks like the proverbial wall flower....has full intentions to boogie. Glad to know she has waited for you. Very cool !

 

My buddy got the front tires mounted up last night. They look great.

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I got her pushed on the trailer and brought from my house to our shop. Plan on giving her a good pressure washer washing. Under side plast. Then going to get the wheels mounted on her and get it running tonight.

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Having nice and solid sheet metal is a huge benefit when building these old cars we all enjoy. I like your plans to run the original fenders too. Keep us posted!

 

Like Dean,I am a fan of fenders also,,keep the photos coming. HRP

 

I wonder why I think this will be good? ha ha

 

Well, plans didn't work out as well as I thought today. A Sunday afternoon nap sunk up on me. But I did manage to snap a few pics of the other ride we just finished last night.

It started as a 1950 fleetline all stock but the driveline was swapped out, with a 327/350 combo and s10 rearend.

We yanked the 350, and installed a freshly built 700R4
Sent the uprights off to Buffalo ent. They have been dropped 2.25" got 3" drop springs
3" drop blocks in the rear.

Installed power disc brakes and power steering rack and tilt column.

It's a blast to drive, we just have to install the new carpet and she will be ready to sell.

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Or the app socks and I can't download pics I'll attach them tonight.

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There got it to work.

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Well I did manage to get the car set on the hoist, and gave her a much needed bath. Just gotta hose her down once more tomorrow.

Then i just have to get her up and running, and throw the new shoes on her to take her on the first drive in 8 years.

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Got the final wash done, then let her dry off and bolted the wheel ssd on. I will say they look great.

I then grabbed an 8 volt battery off the shelf, threw her in. Glass beaded the distributor parts, got her sparking good. But the fuel tank was the usual nasty, do I gave it a good acid bath, tried to get a fire lit, but no dice. Going to swap the carbs with a rebuilt one I have on the shelf in the morning, if I get it up and running I should be able to take it around 5 own tomorrow.

Then the bumpers are getting tore off and I'm going to move into suspension. It needs to come down by bout 4" front and rear yet to look right.

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I agree they look great...... what brand/size front tires are those? they look like what I'm thinking about running.....

 

Lol, you may laugh but they are actually MT90X16 motorcycle tires.

They are old 60's design Harley replica tires. They have a higher load rating than the Coker's of the same size by 200 lbs. The tread is a car design tread.

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no laughing here, I've been considering myself.....this helped me decide, I just ordered a pair,
thanks for sharing your build picture...........

 

They are Shakio brand $80.00 each. Half price of Coker's

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Well got ambitious today. Pulled the carb apart and glass beaded the whole thing, made a new gasket and got her put back together. Got it to fire, but still kept losing spark. So I pulled or rather pryed it out, glass beaded it all put in a new wire. Got it fired and running, for about 5 mins then lost spark again. Sure enough the new 6v coil was not too friendly with the 8v battery so I threw a 12v in and she purrs like a kitten.

Got the clutch freed up and took her for a cruise, man I just went back 15 years, to driving this thing around the farm. I even took her for a few laps around our 1/10th mile high banked go kart track, I felt like an old dirt track racer. So all in all a successful day. Parked her in another bay in the shop behind my dad's 30 coupe until I get a few other projects done. And while I get some money saved up to build her right.

I will say the ugly calf shit green paint is really starting to grow on me. I may keep the color. Any way here are some pics with the center caps on the wheels.

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Here are the pics

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rubber on the fronts dont look too bad. got me thinking about motorcycle rubber now...

 

Can I reply with app?

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Had to see if the damn App was going to work or not today.

So an update we have a 1928 AR Coupe at our farm that is not assembled so I am going to use the frame from it, and basically build that while I drive my Tudor. Then I can just swap frames when I'm ready.

Then the 28 Coupe body and frame will be for sale.

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Alright Finally got to my computer to post since the App seems to never allow me to post.

I got the car all cleaned inside and out, I drove it until the snow started flying, got her looking pretty good as it sits.

Now for the Frame work to begin, I have been at a loss on what exactly to do on the frame. I was going to just modify the stock frame with Super X member and boxing plates, but by the time I do that I will be at the price of just building a boxed frame or just ordering one already done. So I am going to leave the stock frame alone with the Model A engine and trans, and just drive the car while I work on the new frame.

For a time I was going to use the frame from our 1928 AR Coupe, but I have pretty much made up my mind on the aftermarket boxed frame. Now that I have decided to go with an aftermarket frame, I will be going with one setup with Coil Over rear xmember and auto trans. I have also made up my mind that I will be going with either a 700R4 or 4L60E depending on weather or not I get my LS efi setup to work or not. so I will be setting the trans xmember up for that. Then I will get the entire rolling chassis setup and do the body swap. I have also been up in the air as to weather or not I am going to paint her up or just sand and clear it, really starting to dig the green. Only thing holding me back on this decision is the green is not the original color, and is painted over the factory Blue. I may just sand on it a bit and see how it looks.

Anyway, the real major task I have ahead of me is getting a Flathead engine preferably a 49-53. But at this point any flathead will due. My father in law has a running 52 engine, but he is going to "use it" on a junk 52 4 door he has that is not worth its weight in steel. he also has a running engine in his 52, and both are just sitting not being used. so if anyone has an unstuck flathead let me know.

Here are a few pics of the car outside last weekend. I have decided I am probably going to run either no hood or just the top and no sides.

 

What about the AR front fenders?

 

The whole AR Coupe will be for sale. Has a rebuilt banger engine. Pretty much everything is there.

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You guys are not far from me at all. I am over by Gotha. I would love to roll lover and check out the coupe some time.

Tim

 

If the coupe ends up parted out, put me down for the front fenders.

 

Alright Been a bit since my last update.

Haven't done anything with the car, as I have been on the hunt for parts. I have had good luck, I got a setup for 46 Ford Brakes and some Round Back spindles. Now I just need someone to make cheap Drop Axles or donate one to me. That is all I got on done on the car other some last minute driving before the snow fell.

Now on the the exciting part, I finally after 2 years talked my Father In Law into letting me buy his spare 53 239 Flatty. It was pulled from a running and driving car that the guy was going to swap a SBF into. Long story Short I have been collecting parts I got the engine for trade on work for his 52 4 door some time in the distant future so Free is a good price for me. I pulled the engine apart today, she looks to have been into in the last 12 years and is .040 over on the bore and the crank is .030 under on the rods haven't measured the mains yet. But this is an non issue since ill be getting a different crank anyway, more on that in a bit. I sent the Cam off to Isky, called Richard Iskendarian last night and he can grind the 3/4 race grind onto the stock cam and save me over half on the cam. and I am getting a set of adjustable lifters for a deal because we are getting 2 setups, also workign on a 35 for a customer. So basically all I have to do is wait until after the First of the year to get the set of heads form a fellow Hamber and then assemble the engine and get to working on the EFI setup on her.

So on the new crank, I was also able to get my hands on a complete 1950 Merc 255 engine for $100.00 because he lost the main caps, but no matter I just want the crank, and ill be building a 272 Stroker for my A, I am hoping once i get the EFI working and tuned up I can get this bad boy up over 250HP. We will see I will be going straight on the dyno once it is together and then I can develop the tune. I am an engine guy so this is the most exciting part of the build to me. So until I have more updates here are a few pre tear down engine pics.

 

I need some help on front and rear suspension, I have some nice 37 split bones I know I want to use but that is about it I want to bring the front down about 5-6". And the rear needs to be open drive and come down bout 4-5" and help is appreciated.

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