Was at a car show a few weeks back and saw a model A with what at first glance looked to be a 32 chassis. On closer inspection though, I noticed it was an model A chassis with the outer sections of a 32 chassis rail running from just behind the engine to the diff opening of the rear fender well. This 'fake' chassis rail seemed to be screwed to the body and was purely cosmetic. I've never noticed this on a car before and was wondering if it's common? To be honest, I can't even say if it was steel or not. It was purely cosmetic so it could've been fibreglass? Sent from my Pixel XL using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You will find a few of them around in Australia. Pretty sure Gerald at Gnome Hot Rods sells them out of Ballarat or Bendigo and yes they are fiberglass.
Be proud of that model a frame.. The "A" frame looks more hot rod than street rod and you can use a stock hood....
A properly prepared Model A frame speaks more to authenticity than even a genuine '32 frame does. Real hot rodders were traditionally a dollar-down lot, looking to go fast on what little money they had. Everyone just had what was left over from their paycheck, after expenses. Credit cards, close to how we know them today, were not a thing until starting in 1966. Run an A frame. Be proud (after you box it).
30 years ago my friend Paul wanted a hot rod roadster and I had a '29 Ford body in the barn, Paul was making fiberglass parts and ask if he could borrow my roadster body and clean it up and use for a mold, as said sure and he built the body and frame and just about everything else in including the windshield frame. It came out pretty good although it wasn't very pleasing to the eye. He drove it like this for a couple of years and ask me could he borrow my set of frame rails and he pulled a mold from them and bolted them to the bottom of the roadster body. He also made a hood pulling the mold from a garbage can and chopped the homemade windshield frame and again pulled a mold from a Austin Healey and designed the top, looked much better. HRP
Dick Williams pulled a few sets of these from a mold he made from a gennie set. He had a 'distributor' that was gonna sell a million of 'em... Andy Brizio was the SECOND distributor of these 'glass rails. I bought a pair for a customer that 'backed out', so in my shop they stayed, up on the mezzanine. My nephew took them down one day while he was cleaning, and I jokingly set them on my frame jig, with a Poly Form '27 roadster body on top. Wouldn't you know it, Big Mouth Tony, local 'street rod gossip' stopped in, my wiseass nephew told him it was a new project for the Baylands (Fremont) Old Time Drags! A week later, at '50s Nite, the rumor was that I was building 'glass cars with 'glass frames! LOL "Is it really true, Mike???" "Yes, but only for SBF engines that are documented with less than 7.0:1 compression ratio, and single 2 bbl carb." Econorods.
I remember reading an interview with Norm Grabowski and he laffed about a guy saying how nice the frame looked. He said the frame was so welded up that they made sheet metal covers from the cowl forward to cover it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking about it. I'm just wondering if it's something heaps of guys do and I'm just slow in noticing because this is the first time I've seen it. Sent from my Pixel XL using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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