This is my first time posting a build thread and I am not very good with computers, I have had a few builds started and never finished which is why I have never posted anything. Divorce, house buying, kids, etc, have set me back a bit but finally Im on my feet and have a shop and car that is pretty much on the road. I waited till I was almost done before posting this due to the fact I wanted to make sure my build was gonna get finished. So hear the journey goes! I got the car in October of 2014, I already had a coupe I was building but saw the ad for the 1929 sedan pop up on craigslist, it was around the corner from me and priced well so I had to check it out. I went to look at it ended up talking the owner down a lot due to the fact he needed it off his property to sell his house. I went to get the Sedan a week later with one of my best friends in his 1973 F-250 ford that had seen better days and better brakes, lol. Ill just say it was an interesting day.
Cool. You say you no good with computer's, well I see good punctuated tx, and pics. That's all you need. Great stuff, look forward to seeing what yourve done.
I got the car in my shop, the previous owner said the car had sat for 20 years, I ended up getting it fired up with the original motor. my plan was to get it running with the original motor and running gear to drive around while building my coupe, BUT........ After looking over the entire car and realizing everything it was gonna need to keep it mostly original I decided to take the body off the frame and build an entire new chassis and make a hot rod from it.
After taking the body off and putting it on the ground in my shop, I new it would have to sit low. I really like the look of low cars and the rear sitting a little lower than the front. I started to draw up a chassis the way I would like it to look and came to the conclusion to have the front of the chassis swept and the rear Z'd since the rear would be covered. Building my own chassis for my first car build didn't really intimidate me too much because I have prior welding and fabrication experience. I bought 2x4 steel for the chassis, ended up building my own center x member. I used a Model A front and rear x member that I got from a local car builder in Santa Cruz, A Craigslist ad for wheels and tires lead me to him resulting in buying a bunch of other parts from him as well. He is also a very nice gentlemen and had great information on Model A building, so to say the least it was great to contact him and get to know him. I somewhat followed the original A frame dimensions. I made the wheel base 106" Z'd the rear 14" and swept the front 4". I also tapered the front portion of the rails from the cowl to the front x member. It tapers down from 4" to 3" at the front x member. Im running a 3" drop axle and a reversed eyed spring up front, and a stock rear A spring with some leaves removed for the rear. the rear spring sits on top of a 1950 Pontiac rear end. I am going to be blunt about the rear end, will I ever use one again for a build? NO! I had the hardest time trying to find a pinion yoke to mate it to a modern driveline, and after finding one that worked I still had to modify it. Not to mention I still don't know how its going to do on the road.
Watching it so far....BTW, a 56 [only] Pontiac flange bolts on a 50 third member with no modifications.....sorry, if I'd known what you were doing I'd helped you out with the info...
That's great info, no need to be sorry, my fault I didn't post this build sooner. I can still change the third member! Thanks
Some more pics of the frame, and body set on the frame. I am trying to go in order as best I can of my build, so excuse me if I miss something important. The rear end is 4 linked, the center x member I made from 2x4 box steel cutting a side off and basically making it a C channel. the transmission x member is a piece of 1x2 steel. This is the frame basically finished minus the front shock mounts, and frame horns. Also, this build is a total budget build. I am using parts that I had lying around the shop for a while, including the engine and transmission. which is the typical SBC and turbo 350 setup, I wanted to keep stuff simple and relatively cheap for parts for my first car build. everything on this car I got for next to nothing not including the brand new parts from speedway and summit. I decided to channel the body 4 inches, and haven't decided if I want to chop it yet. her are some more pics of the inner structure and subfloor I built.... I don't have a fancy sheet metal brake, beed roller, English wheel, so everything I made was by hand with a cut off wheel and welder. the inner sub floor structure I wrapped with 12g sheet metal. I made the trans tunnel by welding small strips of sheet metal together. Came out ok, not the nicest, but I am later going to cover it with insulator and carpet.
The power plant I decided to run is SBC with a turbo 350, came out of a running 60's El Camino. My buddy got the engine 5 years ago and has since sat in his storage container. I got the motor and trans in a trade. I pulled off the heads, cleaned the pistons, ne valve seals, basically freshened it up and painted the block black, and thankfully it ran!
Having fun, looks like you got a great start so far!! Nice shop, especially for the Santa Cruz area! What part are you in?
Thanks 6X2, I actually live in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Felton, took me a while to get this shop built but finally got it!
The motor and trans mocked up, I am running a 1930 A grill with a mustang radiator. I made the mount for the radiator and it mounts directly in front of the front x member in order to get the grill the right height to match the Cowell. I am running 40 ford juice brakes up front with round back spindles. The front tires are firestone 5.60'-15 and the rears are 7.10-15, black 15" steelies with beauty rings . The steering box is a new speedway Corvair box, with a home made mount. With all the weight on the car it sits roughly 7 inches off the ground. After finishing up the frame I cleaned it up and hand brushed pour 15 on it, it came out pretty nice. everyone thinks its powder coated! I also pour 15'd the rear axle.
I forgot to mention, when I had first picked up the sedan it had a tow hitch on it and the buggy spring was broken completely in half, haha. someone had worked this A! And while taking it apart I found 5 coins in the lower rear corners, they dated back to 1919. I thought it was pretty cool finding more history within the history!
The radius rods I am using are split 37 ford. I made my own mounts with my cut off wheel and flapper disk. I acquired a bit and tapered the holes 7 degrees.
After getting the inside of the body buttoned up I decided to build my own seat frame. I was looking around my shop and my shed, I found a futon frame that belonged to my girlfriend and decided to use that for the seat frame, and no I did not ask for permission first, lol. I cut up the futon frame and made a temporary seat until I can afford to get something a little nicer.
The master cylinder I used is just a generic speedway one, I plumed all the brake lines and tightened everything up and thought I was good to go (hahahaha) so I thought. I used a cheap Orielly auto parts flaring tool (Big Mistake) I had all the lines and valves in, started bleeding the brakes and leaks at every fitting. I tried to re-do a couple and they still leaked. At this point the Orielly Flaring tool got thrown across my shop and I went inside and bought an expensive one. The tool I bought was a little pricy but well worth it because this isn't the only car I am building. Unfortunately the body is already back on the frame and I now have to crawl under the car to fix all the lines (learning experience). I did 3/16 lines and used a pipe to bend all of them. Sorry I didn't take any pics of the lines before I put the body back on the frame because I was excided to get the car back together. I had 10 gallon aluminum tank so used that for the tank and mounted it at the rear of the car, the original tank is now the wiring harnesses home. I used the speedway 12 circuit harness relatively cheap and I used this harness on my 58 ford pickup, very simple and easy to figure out. I am running the original A headlights they were converted to sealed beam and I am still waiting for the 12v bulbs. My buddy hooked me up with some Harley take off turn signal/running lights for the front and rear. I am using those for the turn signals and running lights. I used Autometer gauges that I mounted in the original gauge assembly. I used a locker shifter for the trans.
I used lake headers from speedway, they were originally bought for my flathead in my coupe but decided to go a different rout with that car. I welded them up to the SBC flange with my MIG welder. The car is very loud. So might have to run some baffles. These next pictures are where I am at with the car at this point, I posted this build pretty fast however it has taken me a year to get it to this point with a good amount of breaks in between. I am leaving the body the way it is for now, will end up doing the patches on the cowl, rear wheel wells back of the body, etc. I am still trying to decide on paint color also and whether I am going to chop it or not. I am currently waiting for new brake line fittings, the engine is running and has good oil pressure, firing the car up was great motivation to keep moving forward and getting it driving. I will continue to post as the rest of the build finishes up, and once its driving, will take some better pics of its stance on the road. Thanks for looking if there are any questions with how I did a certain thing feel free to ask.
Just read through the whole thing. Looks great dude. Seeing as I know you and worked with you for a while I'm somewhat familiar with all of your hurdles the past few years. Warms my heart to see that you've slogged through some BS and are almost at the "finish line." Not to mention the horrendous commute and long hours you work it amazes me the energy and motivation you still have to knock away at this thing. It's builds like this that inspired me to try my hand at building one of these things. Keep the updates coming! I like the stance and the channel. Looks good un chopped and the floor and seating you made looks tits. This thing will be awesome when you finally get it on the road.
Love it, and love your motivation. You've really accomplished an amazing amount of work, I need to come up and see your shop.
I like it, those front shocks might give you problems though, you only have an inch of travel or less before they bottom out.
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