I've been collecting parts and what not. This will be my first complete project/build. Originally started with a different car but had trouble locating a few key pieces until just recently. I picked this vehicle up a few months ago with no engine or transmission. I am an addict with taking pics...I won't go too heavy here lols. I want to keep it relatively simple so mostly components will be stock aside from what I can make. I have an original motor and transmission which I still have to take pictures of. Hoping to just make a cool traditional hot rod out of this. One thing I am considering is modern breaks since many people have suggested it on here. This side isn't bad but the other side was completely fucked and they put a repo part that didn't make sense. Blasted it so I could start working on it. I thought I could repair the subrails since I want to improve my fab and welding skills so I started just that. Sorry for the shitty pic quality here. Not gonna lie to y'all I am sweatin it just a bit (maybe more than a bit) now that I have taken the car a part. Before the body was lined up on the subrails even if they were butchered. lol! Question for you pros out there, should I be welded all the pits in the metal and then grinding them down? I was being advised to use fiberglass filler but I am not sure if that is the right way to do things? That's all I accomplished for a while had to stop the project for some time but back at it now. Here's where it's at now. This is the motor I need to swap over to my frame, told it was out of a '28 Tudor. Some of you may have seen this from my other thread on how to line up the body and doors. So I thought I could line the body up like this, boy was I wrong. Naturally I was like well shit why won't it work I can do it like this, but no. I took the great advice from you hamb members and this is what happened.... Had to get a new front leaf spring as the original was cracked. Did not know that I could order reversed eyes, so I did. Hoping this will give the car a leaner stance even if it is a small drop. Thank you HAMB'rs for the advice to order the parts so I can line up the body correctly and Snyders for the parts!!! Channeling is by far beyond my skill level for this project but I am thinking I could pull a chop off. Here was a sketch I was putting together of the roof. I know that the door post (body side) would be covered by part of the cloth, so I was thinking that one section could be bound by velcro or something...when you open the door you would just peel back etc. Maybe not 100% practical but something that must be done to add the angle? Anyways not that the parts are in, it's gonna be fun to dive into this. Lining this shit up is gonna be a challenge but well worth it in the long run. Hope the amount of pics are fine for the board.. I have not decided if I am going to run with fenders or not, sort of leaning towards not but I think it might look choice with the fenders as well. We will see as this evolves.
I wouldn't weld the pitted area! Either replace it or use filler. We got a product that is lead based bondo. I use that on OT shit, because it's strong a steal and easy as bondo. You can pull it over an antenna hole in a fender. Put cardboard on the back pull it over. Wait 10min and pull cardboard. Wait 30 and DA sand both sides, good as new. The reason for doing this is you can make it look good and drive it. The you can re do it when you skills fit! Only replace the holes for now, and leave the pitting. That ain't HAMB friendly advice^^, but this is; practice on OT $hit cans, weld them up and check for straightness afterwards and learn to work the metal before you work on your A-bone. Because I you warp a panel beyond you skills, it will throw everything else off, and you would be in even bigger troubles the before. And not get to drive your hot rod. There is a reason behind old school rods was build it a couple of stages, driven in primer and homemade paint jobs. Because the always need at little something of something else. And more cash for a full paint job
And I like what I see, and will keep on checking up on you, even if you don't take my advice. Like the body style, and applaud you keep it. If you think that channeling is beyond your skills, try building a substitute subframe. If you can do that build some sides that got the shape of the body, and will drop over the frame. If you can make that happen, you are along way in the channeling process and the rest is do able.
Hardtail, Good start! At least you got most of the wood and brackets. Someone suggested to bolt the windshield/A-pillar down, hang the doors and fit the rear 1/4's to the doors, with the subrails on the frame or flat surface. Then when you finish and paint, you do it all over again! And shimming under the A and/or B pillar will help with door alignment. Seems the panels will change size when you leave them lying around.
Id suggest against the chop at this time. Square up the frame, box it first if you're planning on it, get the body squared and set on the frame with your repaired subrails. The rails may have moved around with all the welding. Start with your cowl, windshield frame, hang the doors get the rest of the body fitting, then readjust your doors and body. Get all of you body mounts repaired, checking alignment with each repair. Get the rust repair on the body mounts complete and door and panels gaps close. When you get to that point see if you want to channel or chop.
Thanks! Cool man thanks! Thanks, gonna need it! ha Cheers ! Ok sounds good, can get some fiberglass here. Not sure on the led based stuff I will have to check that out. Yeah I really love the look of the body on this car. Channeling I think I will save for the next car. Should be able to pull off a chop for sure though. Thanks man! I got a lot of the work done over the weekend which you will see. Still have to line things up and use shims but got the hinges fixed from before. Turns out the actual door was bent on the drivers side. Yeah I am not gonna do any of that work yet. Need to get everything lined up and in order before any of that customization takes place. I highly doubt that I will be channeling this car though. Chop seems more fitted at the moment. So I got a bit of work done. Hoping to get this motor working shortly... I did swap some tires around, bigger compressor tires on the rear for now and white walls on the front. Was missing a mount so I have two new ones off a spare frame. Got the wood blocks fitted. New pieces put in, still more patches and shit to be put into that general area. Had to change things up a bit. Now I set it back on the frame so I can try to attempt lining this thing up. The doors aren't too bad after fixing the bent frame and a couple hinges. Started cleaning a bit with the wire brush. There's something under there!! Here's a question for y'all. Can I remove the bottom have with the fins and still be able to line up the hood/rad no problem? I don't see why there should be an issue since the body line is essentially from the top of the hood. I want to run this car without the sides I am thinking. Here she is as it stands now, or sits whatever you wanna call it. I really can't wait to get the body mounted with the doors working properly so I can start to throw some fenders on it!!! I think running the stock breaks is fine with this motor yes? I guess I need to poor some fluid down the spark plugs and then see in a few days if I can wheel it little by little in gear. Should I take the starter off it in case that is seized as well? Another thing, the hood mount on the cowel side, can I just make that or should I get a repo one? Does it really matter for lining up the hood?
Please do not start that engine with that fan blade on it. Do not even try to straighten it. It is a bomb waiting for centrifugal force to ignite it.
Really like your sketch of what the roof plan is-car's coming together great. I have mech. brakes in my roadster, with the upgraded "floater" kit, and they work fine- juice, schmoosh! Ya just gotta pay attention! Have fun.
Ok, thanks for the advice..I'll try to get my hands on a new one! What happens it just breaks a part? I think it will look pretty sharp with a roof like that, I did the sketch with all the fenders off a blueprint just never finished it. Can't wait to start piecing it all together! Breaks sound good, thanks! Also I noticed you can give the car gas from the steering wheel, crazy shit !!!!
Starting a Banger Model A is like a field sobriety test- dist. advance and gas on column- clutch and/or brake, and starter button all at the same time!! Neat little cars. Hood sides definitely optional.
Quote"=Ok, thanks for the advice..I'll try to get my hands on a new one! What happens it just breaks a part? If your lucky and the Hood is closed you'll end up with a New louver. If not you better hope your not standing along side the motor. You never know what direction they are headed when they let go. The Wizzard
:=) sounds very cool, I can't wait! Awesome car btw! Haha gotcha, this happened to my father on a diesel compressor from the 60s. It nailed him dead in the shoulder, few inches to the left and his head would of been off! Question here folks. Please look at the gap here on my door as it's mocked. I have a tiny bit more straightening to do on it tomorrow and then I am going to attempt lining up the body. How big of a gap do I need to leave on the door from the subrail? To my understanding there is a rubber trim that goes down there? Got some break fluid, going to pull the starter off the motor and poor it down the plugs. Hopefully she will break free.
That is one bad ass looking car!!! Thanks man. A little update for yall. It turns out the motor was not seized, which is great! After pouring brake fluid down the spark plugs and shifting into 3rd gear I was able to push the car ahead with no issues. This has been great news for me. I am going to order some new spark plugs and points to try and get this motor running. Yes I am going to change the fan! I'll get some pics over the weekend. I took the lower sections of the hood a part. Started to take the one door latch out on the passenger side but two screws broke inside. Ran out of oxygen so was no able to heat with a torch. Need to get some quality drill bits to get through. Once this is done I am hoping to get the body lined up. This is going to be interesting but well worth it to see it back together again!! Again I want to ask, is a bit of a gap like in the picture above in my last post on the door to subrail ok? With the interior installed and rubber down there it should seal fine right?
Fit and finish by today's standards wasn't going on back in 1929- when I first put the doors on my coupe, I could fit my finger between it and the body at the bottom.I asked a friend who had done a couple of these cars.He came over and said"Watch this", put his knee against the lower part of the door, and yanked the top back toward him.I almost shit a brick.He laughed, and swung the door shut---perfect fit! I know it sounds like a "Fred Flintstone" approach ( and I'm sure some on here will freak out), but I've done the same thing with other doors and twisted tailgates,and it does work.Not for the faint of heart.It's hard to make an "A" airtight ( and almost impossible to make it watertight). Good luck with it, and I hope your motor is a runner.
Awesome but of info as my little coupe has the same thing! Seems I may be 'tweaking' the doors a little... As for your build mate it's coming together excellently! Great to read the progress, keep it up
I think it's great that you've diving in, learning, asking questions, solving problems along the way - pure damn hot rodding to me! Keep up the hard work and get it running and driving -- will give you a LOT of motivation to keep moving forward, solving the next set of problems and taking one solid step at a time. The mechanical brakes can be made to work (I have them on a 32), just depends what shape they are currently in and how much work/money you need to put into them. Another approach is putting 39-48 Ford hydraulic brakes on the car - which was what was typically done back in the day when somebody hotrodded one and needed to stop at a decent speed. One step at a time through . . . keep up the pace!
Thanks mate. You will be pleased to see that I got it lined up so far!! Cheers pal, appreciate it. Thank you! You are right man, yesterday my paps and I got the body attached with the doors opening and closing...it was a good feeling. It no longer looks like the car I ripped a part and thought would never get back together. Thanks for the info on the brakes, gonna take a better look once I settle up the body. So not a lot to see here folks but some progress that feels like a relief. I have to order or fabricate another bung as it cracked during removal. So here is the good news....my dad and I got the body tacked in place with the doors opening and closing!! Now I need to make the top braces and fix the spacing by a tiny bit so everything closes smoothly. This is pretty exciting for me, can't wait to see what it will look like by the end of the week. The hood is when you press it down actually lines up with the body, but it is kinked on the surface near the main rod. Gonna have to use the body hammer and dolly to straighten it out some.
You guys are really making progress on that project! Remember to eat and sleep once in awhile!She's lookin' good- all ahead full;damn the torpedoes!
Cool project man, you're basically doing what I did/am doing; jumping in head first and learning as you go. You will find out, however, when it comes to lining up the cowl, a full hood would have been best but you can still make it work with just the hood top. Make sure you're doing a lot of eyeballing from dead straight on. The hood will tell you right away. Your top is flat, however, so you need to get the shape back into that. Caress it gently man. Biggest mistake I see people make with a hammer and dolly is stretching the metal too much instead of just moving or shrinking it. I'm sure there are tons of videos on YouTube under hammer and dollie. Check them out. Also, with your doors and other general body alignment, you're going to find that 75% of the time you're going to need to use shims. Usually under the foremost cowl mount. They'll make your hours worth of head scratching and heartache disappear in about 15 minutes. Mac's sells them I think, if you can't get them locally. And lastly, you sand blasted your entire body (which is awesome, same thing I did) so why are there so many swirl marks from the sander/grinder in the areas where no patches were done? If you're doing that just for "clean up looks", STOP my friend. Its just a bunch of unnecessary heat to the body and loss/thinning of metal. I'm no pro but I've learned a lot while building my roadster (hopefully done with it in the next 2 or 3 months!) and hopefully my experiences can help you out. Good luck with your build dude, I'm really excited for you! -Chris
Just found you in the "watched threads" archives- what's cookin'?? I bought this coupe in Aug.- car I built about 12 years ago. I told the guy if he ever wanted to sell it let me know and he did Needs "refreshing" but runs like a scalded cat! ( 302 HO Mustang motor) FTF ( fuck the flatheads!) ( big bucks, no power!) Hope all is well- Happy Holidays. Mike B.
Now that was not very Christmasee of you! Those of us who are into Flatheads might just pray that your Yule Log gets infested with Bark Beetles! LOL! I built/run a 302 HO in a road-race Mustang - we make about 350HP at the rear wheels (nice roller motor), but it will never look as nice as this:
That's a great looking motor for sure, but this one drove me crazy. ( I'm not a hardcore mechanic so it doesn't take much!) No offense intended to you Flathead guys- I just need to recover from a bad experience! I'll keep the Yule Logs outside for safety's sake- Happy Holidays! Didn't mean to hijack the thread, mea culpa.
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