Projects My first build. 1929/31 model A

Thanks! I've had the some thoughts about it, but I have too much rust to sort out before I get that far. I still don't know if I should fit the roof with wood or maybe make it detachable, or cut the window posts and use my hallock window and go the coupster route. Don't know how that would look with my early cowl and boxy designed posts. Was it done in the early days?

 

Did a search and found an awesome coupster build http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/index.php?threads/Banger-Build---Dirty-Dutchmen.946953/. This is one of my options, I love the look of this one!

Picture from the thread above

 

I am going to have my top done in black hartz material with or without the quarter windows. I am going to have them make the center snap off. Take a look at a thread "The Gentleman's Coupe" on here or in the last issue of The Rodders Journal. I think it looks good and is more functional than a roadster.

 

I am going to have my top done in black hartz material with or without the quarter windows. I am going to have them make the center snap off. Take a look at a thread "The Gentleman's Coupe" on here or in the last issue of The Rodders Journal. I think it looks good and is more functional than a roadster.

 

I agree a coupe would be more functional than a roadster, we have summer three months of the year and the rest is just crappy.

Are you planning on closing the rear windows and make it a 3w?

 

Sub rail extension or firewall support, I just don't know the correct term . Rusted as everything else but it's to expensive to ship from the US and I won't find anything better over here. Will be done tomorrow!

 

My Sport Coupe did not have quarter windows, and I don't care for that big area of cloth. That is why I bought a set of quarter windows from a Special Coupe. I think that I may like the look without the quarter windows once I give it a 4 or 5" chop. I will do the chop and then decide if I will use the quarter windows.

 

Aha, got it! I didn't realize you had a sport coupe . I was thinking about a 3" chop but can't even decide if I should use the special coupe roof I have or what to do. Time will tell I guess, first some rust repair!

 

Got some work done today, lower part of the firewall is done and I started on one of the lower cowl panels. Many hours of cutting, welding and grinding




I'm not very skilled when it comes to fabrication, but I'm happy with what I've accomplished so far

 

Looks great. I have heard that the special coupe was Henry's favorite model. But I'm biased because of my current project. Haha.

 

Slow day at work so I finished the left hand cowl panel today. Rusted out in the upper end.

New lip made, just need to drill the holes for the tank.

Done! Just need some lead after some massage in the English wheel. That's going to be fun to try

 

Got some work done to the cowl. Tried using an english wheel for the first time, and managed to get a nice curve in the panel.

Fabricated a new panel for the right hand side since the original was so far gone. All good except i forgot to check the curve at the door post side. It came out too straight but I will beat the life out of it (or myself) and make it fit.

I also removed the filler neck since the tank is completely gutted. Hope to be able to adapt my DuVall windsheild and make it fit nicely. I'm still having a hrd time to decide if I should run it as a coupster or use the special coupe roof. I really don't like the design of the door posts, too bulky and they don't blend in no matter what. Maybe I shoud try to slim them down a bit to look like the roadster posts?

 

Decided to break down one of my flatheads. This block is cracked between the cylinder wall and valve seat, but I'll try to fix it with stitching and then sleeve it. H&H sleeves one cylinder for $90, my local machine shop charges $415... Without the sleeve! Anyways, I know it's a Mercury block with a 4" crank, I think it's from '50 or '51.





I'm gonna flip the block over tomorrow with the help from my mechanic to continue with disassembling. Need to make the special tools for valve removal, will probably be difficult to buy over here.

 

Removed one of the valves and that was a lot easier then I expected. Everything in this engine seems to be in good condition except for one of the main bearings.

Found a machine shop that's supposed to be good and have a decent price level. Will call them tomorrow too see when they can take my blocks in and see what's needed.

 

The rest of the engine is now disassembled and the block is empty. I went to the hardware store and bought a $10 crow bar and did some creative grinding. All valves came out just fine with a small amount of persuasion.


Just the parts I need to rebuild the engine is the same figure as buying a brand new Chevy 350 crate engine, sans the machine work needed. I need cylinder heads and would love to run stock heads, I just need to find a good pair. I know a set of aluminum heads will give me more power, but I think the stockers look a lot better.

The block is bored 0.030" and everything seems to be in good condition, except for one of the main bearings that show signs of uneven wear. I'd like to give it a slight bore since there are som edges where the pistons stop, but I don't know how much the block can take. I will make sure the crank is straight before I start the assembling.

If I understand everything correctly, I have a Canadian 1BA pre August 1951 (valve seats on the exhaust ports only) from a Mercury. It seems like I have 4" crank according to one of my books, but I will look for the dimple on the counter weight. I have the bigger oil plug and the wider casting around the plug in the crank, but I find more ways to confirm it every time I google. The easiest thing would have been to measure the stroke before disassembling it, but that's obviously too late

 

I delivered the engine blocks to the welding company yesterday and will get an estimate on Monday or Tuesday. They use a technique called plasma welding which sprays molten metal in a plasma ray and that way infuses the metal to the block that has been pre heated. Hope I can afford to have it done!


This block is welded and will go to the engine shop in December to get a new valve seat and some other machining done. Can't find any other cracks and it seems to be in good overall condition. I think it's from -49 or -50 since it has seats in both inlet and exhaust valves. Couldn't find any information on the number on the block.



Been working on separating the gearbox from the old 21-stud engine I've had for a while. The block is totally gone, but I was hoping for a -39 gearbox. It's not. Probably from -38 since I can't find 78 cast in the housing. Took me three hours to split the drive train and remove everything. The input shaft was rusted to the clutch disc and I used my plasma cutter, cutting wheel, torch and the biggest pry bar I could find.



Now I can bolt the block and gearbox together as a unit and use for a mock up to relocate the engine mounts in the frame. That will take some serious cutting...

 

Cut the old mounts from the frame today and put the mock up drive train in. Had to remove the Model A steering box which was interfering with the engine block itself. I got another box with the project I bought in Cali, but that was about the same size. Having a hard time finding what kind of box it is, any ideas? All I can find is Gemmer 3CCO3 and the almighty Google is clueless





We have no clearance Clarence! The cowl will come back another 1/4" but that's it.

 

Changed the search criteria to Gemmer 3CC03 and that worked better. It's a 53-56 F100 steering box . I guess it's better then the model A and I might build a bracket on top of the frame rail to mount the box. The welding continues!

 

... yep, steering box score ! I love this build.

 

Thank you so much! Just before I read your comment I was thinking that this thread is for myself and I'm just noodling around, and no one is reading it anyway. I'll keep posting, we are at least two people reading it

 

I am reading. HAHA Keep up all the great work.

 

I had a friend visiting the shop today, and I showed him the progress. I then realized that the firewall is 1/4" too far forward on the passenger side BUT more then 1/2" too far back on the drivers side. It means I have no clearance between the firewall and engine block at all when the firewall is in its correct position... Is the next step an angle grinder to make room, or what's wrong? The rear end is in position and the torque tube is connecting to the gearbox. Is the detachable sheet metal bell housing for the 8BA more narrow and make the drive line shorter, which makes the engine sit further back?

 

More work done:
Had to cut the frame rails open to remove the engine mount brackets that I welded in the wrong position. Didn't hurt that much since the frame was pretty thin anyway, just took a lot of time to cut the old ones out and tack the new ones in.

Checking the positioning of the new bracket, several times...


New frame piece tacked in place


Welded


Finished!


By accident I noticed that the the chassis was 15 mm lower on the drivers side, and did some serious thinking about this. Measured the frame height from the floor at several positions, studied the movement when I used the jack to raise the left frame rail, and did some more thinking...
Finally I discovered that the spring was the problem. I found a 20 mm difference in the spring eyes height from the floor when the frame rested on jack stands on the frame horns. I took the front end apart and used these spacers to fit under the spring. When everything is bolted in place, it's still 10 mm's lower on the drivers side. As far as I can tell the front cross member is straight and all measurements match when the frame is on the jack stands. The spring eye is lower on the drivers side and I can't see anything wrong with the brand new So-Cal speed shop spring. Is this something anyone else have had problems with? The only reasons for this should be a bent contact surface in the crossmember (which I checked with a level), or a spring with the wrong curvature on one side of the spring


Today's work is done

 

Today I confirmed that my gearbox is a 78-7006 T, which should be the heavy duty gearbox with the long reinforcement casting underneath and a bigger case. Good news since it was bolted to the forrest find engine and that whole deal felt like a total loss. Now I just need to rebuild it together with everything else

 

My latest find, a Schroeder sprint car steering box. Side steering here we come!

 

Still building?

She looks "Happy".... But I noticed that she had a "death grip" on her purse!

Remedy for that is to thank her for letting you build the car and then give her a wad of cash and tell her to enjoy a day shopping.

Couple hundred dollars will grease the wheels on your car... so to speak!

 

What was the final result with the front spring?

 

Tobbe -- You could turn the spring around and test fit it that way. That should show whether the problem is in the spring itself or the crossmember.

 

Yes, still building but the progress is slow due to work. I have my build in a dedicated corner in my workshop, but I have no energy to stay after hours to work on the build. Usually I tinker with it on my days off.

I bought her a beauty salon so she is happy and makes money on her own. She works six days a week so that gives me plenty of time for hobbies. Don't know how many birds I killed with one stone, but it sure was a good call to buy her the business

She was probably a bit nervous, first time in a hot rod and first time to meet my friends. Now she loves California and she is coming with me when I fly over to work with the shows. I'm trying to get her interested in the cars, but she's more interested in the outlet stores

 

Haven't come that far yet. I was too tired after a whole day of cutting, grinding and welding so I didn't think of the obvious, turning the spring around. I can't see anything wrong with either spring or crossmember, but I'll try turning the spring around and take new measurements.