November update I have moved on to get the back of the car figured out. I reinstalled the rear frame rail ends after shorting them 5" and angling them down to clear the body. I built a rear spreader bar out of SS tube that one day i will polish. I had to do a lot of cutting and reshaping on the lower truck panel to get it to even come close to fitting and having the trunk close. I installed a stock inner truck panel and had to fabricate new quarter panel triangles as mine were rusted out and did not fit the curve of the 32 frame. I installed a set of 51 Ford tail light turned vertical some thing different that the usual 39 ford light I built my own trunk prop. I still need to finish the rain gutter but the back of the car is starting to take shape
Installing the grill. Had to cut 2.5" out to get it to drop Bowen below the cowl. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks for taking the time to document this, I'm putting a '29 on a duece frame and it's been great to see done. Couple questions, how far back on the cowl supports did you cut? Did you cut all the way back to where the cowl posts are? Basically remove everything inside the tape line? What did the inside/bottom look like? I kept my '32 frame stock (unpinced) so my set up is a little different. The other question is about the rear subframe, the Steadfast guys built a 28/29 and managed to keep the '32 tank, I'm not sure if I'm going that route but it seems they'd have to dissect the rear subframe crossmember to do it. I could only find a side picture of their car. What are your thoughts? You said you had to angle the rear horns down to fit the spreader bar. You're really doing great work and you seem like the man to ask. I also totally understand the time limitations a two year brings, I've got both a six and 1.5 year old right now.
Hello El scotto I did have to remove everything thing in the masked off area I started with about 1/2" cut and just continued to grind it down until it fit the up sweep of the frame. I went right back to the cowl posts and just left the flange so I could hinge the pice back together. I don't have any pictures of the bottom but I remember I sliced the the inner frame bottom to allow it to hinge and then I cut off the excess and welded back together I have seen a few pictures of the model A being installed on the 32 frames were they removed the rear subframe crossmember and part of the rear trunk panel to fit over the tank. I had to tilt the frames down about 1" to clear the rear subframe Best of luck with your project Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Love the build man! Car looks great! Most impressive is that this is all being accomplished with a baby in the house. Keep rocking brother! Ur an inspiration!
Thanks! I have a great wife that supports my crazy dream of building my own hotrod. The Baby dose add some challenges but he is good a sleeping with all the grinding noise underneath his bedroom. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I had a local shop build me a 2.5" chopped 3 row core 32 radiator. When I went to install it I found my fan was just contacting the bottom of the rad as it is a lot thicker than the stock rad I used to mock every thing up. I moved the rad forward 1/4" and then modified the fan hud to slide the fan back 1/4" giving me about 3/8-1/2" fan clearance. Next up was mounting the windshield. o I found the stock hight just didn't look correct. So a 2" chop took care of the Fugly Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
That's a cool looking car love the stance, I do plan to lay the windshield back a little bit. For now I'm just trying to get everything square. In the cars past life it must have had some thing knock the windshield off as the old frames were just welded to the cowl. They are taking a bit of massaging to fit but it's fun to reuse the old parts. Makes you wonder what damaged it who welded it up and put it on the road again
Well I have spent a lot of time working on the windshield. Trying to get my twisted posts to fit. I discovered when I installed my cowl horn I welded on too far forward and that caused the post to sit out of alignment with the cowl Had to chop it off again and move it back 1/8" Next I have been playing with the ideal of a windshield lean. I ended up going 5 degrees back. Nothing too radical but it dose change the look I think Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have spent the last few weeks working on getting my windshield posts to fit my frame and filling in the inside for the rubber seal. I was able to use my original dash cap after straining it as it was pretty bent up. After all this work for very little progress I decided it was time to do something fun on the car. I mounted my dash and gauges and installed my fuel filler Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Weekend project update. I wanted to get my headlamps installed. I started with the original head light bar and cut it in half Next up was heating it up to bend the mounting cups flat. Then I had to twist them 90 degrees to space the lights out from the grill After an hour with the grinder they were smoothed out and look just like the SoCal ones just a lot less cash out of my pocket and reusing some original parts. Mounted up a pair of old BLC headlamps I picked up at a swap a few years ago Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hello all I have been slowly picking away at a few projects on my car the last few months. I have been working on the throttle pedal ended up building my own spoon pedal assembly I also took my stock T5 shifter and did a short throw conversion by raising the pivot point up one inch and made up a aluminum adapter as my first lathe project. Then I welded on the original shift lever and bent it so I can get my leg onto the brake in first gear I have also spent way too much time building a heater for the car. I picked up a old Heatmaster heater at a swap meet. I blasted it down repainted it and cleaned up the chrome the best I could. The original core must have frozen as the bottom tank was split open. I disassembled the core and attempted to patch it back together every time I fixed one leak another pin hole would open up. In the end I used a 65 mustang heater core and adapted it to fit with a small transmission cooler fan providing the air flow. I practiced my plumbing skills and made up a copper adapter to mount up to the fire wall to be my bulk head fittings for my heater lines Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I figure now is a good time to start on my cycle fenders. First up is the rears built some mounting slugs that I will tap to 7/16NC and will be welding them into the backing plates Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Well who knew building a hot rod would be so much work, spent the last 2 weeks of my spare time trying to get one cycle fender made and mounted. I'm finally happy with the fit to the tire has about 5/8" clearance from the tire to any part of the fender. Now I just need to figure out a system to bolt the fender to the bracket Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app