So about a month ago, I've stumbled onto a new project. I had a 1930 5-window follow me home to sit along side my '29 Sports Coupe. The plans for this are already underway. Since I've already got one restored, this one will be more of a traditional rod. I've got the Pete & Jake's chassis on order, staying with a traditional Model-A frame in lieu of the '32. I'm also adding the conveniences of juice brakes and a couple of other things as I'd love to be able to drive this some time soon.
These are pictures from last weekend, as I started the tear-down process on it, getting it ready to move over to the new chassis which should be ready in the next couple of weeks. I have a little bit more work to do so that I can separate the body from the chassis. That'll also allow me to weld up some of the holes that I'm not going to use going forward. I'll be changing the back-end, getting rid of the rumble seat, and putting a trunk in there. I'm hoping to put a 20-gal fuel tank in the back, which will allow me to free up some room in the front for AC (required here) and a current wiring harness. I happen to have a Chevy 350 sitting on an engine stand that was left over after converting my '72 truck to a Cummins, and still need to source a 700r4 as a transmission. (The SM-465/NP-205 combination would have been dreadful in this little car.) Yes, I know it's a chevy, but I'm countering that fact with the knowledge that it's free. I'm not looking at chopping the top, well, at least not initially. I think that the decision will come when I have the body on the new chassis, and a nice wheel/tire combination under it. That'll probably be my final decision point. I've decided to go the "old-school" route to recess the firewall, heading down the wheelbarrow path. I've got to say, I kind of like the clean look of that. I'm sure that other things'll come up when I get some time to think about them, but this is the start for now. Stay tuned...
I've got a Chevy Crate HO-350 that I pulled out of my truck when I did the Cummins conversion with that.
Got some more work done this weekend. I figured that I'd go ahead and disconnect the fenders and start working on removing the body mounts. I didn't encounter any major issues with frozen nuts or bolts, but with the garage ending up at over 110 in the afternoon, I ended up just trying to stay hydrated and not push myself too hard. After that was done, I figured that it was time to start cleaning up the motor. As I mentioned earlier, I have a crate 350 that's been sitting on a stand in my garage since about June of 2013. I'd run it in my truck since about '04, and it's been a good engine, but 10 years of built up gunk from running without any inner wheel wells left a thick combination of dust & oil that's proven to be an effective casing. So, couple of cans of gunk, some brushes, and a couple of baths from the power washer, and it's all cleaned up. Finally, for the day, I decided to go ahead and tackle getting the old vinyl roof off. I'd like to run a California Slider sunroof in this thing, so I've been looking into those. The wood is in really good shape, and I haven't found any issues with the car at all as I've been going through it. I'm looking forward to seeing what's coming next...
looks like a great start. since you are using a model A frame and not a `32 frame can i assume the car will have fenders? on fenderless model A's i like the looks of the Deuce frame if i lived in Arizona i would definitely have AC in the garage
Thanks. Yes, I am planning on running the car full-fendered. I was a little bit inspired from a Hotrod Magazine article that followed Hotrods by Dean on body swapping a Model-A on a new TCI chassis. http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/1506-ford-model-a-instant-hot-rod/ I liked the end result and modeled my plan around the work that they'd done. They didn't do much with the car itself, which is where I'll be differing. I'm still working some color combinations in my head and haven't finalized on anything quite yet. But, that's kind of the plan in a nutshell.
Not much work getting done over the last couple of weekends. We had family in town all of last weekend, my youngest turned 18 yesterday, and I was gone most of the week traveling for work. I did manage to get the deck lid off of the back, and the stack of parts is slowly growing. I'm actually thinking of leaving the spare tire mount in place on the back. You don't see that on many hot rods, and I think it may stand out as being a little bit different, but only time will tell. The parts starting to take up space in the garage: And those taking up space in the back of the truck, getting ready to head down for a quick sand blast & primer coat.
Well, I've neglected this thread for some time. Things haven't been moving quickly. The peak of the summer had me ordering parts and pieces, getting ready to move on this. I did get everything back from being sandblasted. I finally got some time in the garage this weekend, so more updates to come. For the time being, I'll just post some eye candy that I put on the engine.
Aside from the engine dress up kit, I’ve continued to roll along a little bit. I’ve spent a bunch of time trying to pull things off of the body of the car. Windshield out, door glass removed, window regulators out, rumble seat floor board out, pulling 100’s of nails out of the wood done. Still need to weld up the holes on the left rear from the grab bar on the side. I never posted pictures of the chassis I picked up. Along those lines, I picked up a 700r4 this last weekend. I mated it up to the engine and got that bolted in place so I can start taking measurements to cut the firewall up. No pictures after getting the body on to the cart, or after I cleaned up the garage a bit, but I’ll leave you with a parting shot from Saturday afternoon.
Thanks, I just wish the circumstances were different on the cars I've acquired... I'm just a guy that knows people that know people... unfortunately there are those watching me from above as I finish what they've started.
It's all eye candy... I know it's not traditionally traditional, but I'm working with what I've got. The 350 came out of my '72 Truck... I needed to get something that would fit in the hood and behind the radiator.
Understood. Because I'm planning on running this with the full hood, I wasn't able to run the same A/C, PS, Alt setup that I had in the truck. I was initially looking at one of the serpentine systems so that I could keep the engine lines inside of the 31's engine bay. After looking around for a while, I settled on Billet Systems V-Track system. It fits really cleanly inside the engine's width. I opted to just run the A/C, Alt set-up, dropping the PS.
All that shiny stuff on the engine and not a krylon rebuild on it first? Id give the motor a shot of color too while youre at it.
It's all just mock-up right now. Finding things like headers that don't fit, need to come up with a different transmission cooler since the ports in the radiator are blocked, and it seems I'll need to do a pusher electric fan... I'd rather find that out now than after everything is pretty.
Nice project Scott. If you wanted to make the shiny police happy you could paint the brackets to make it blend in better.
the 90's called. they want their valve covers and pulley system back. nice body tho! you should sell it to me before you have to hack the firewall all up to fit the body
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