Projects Fry's Model A coupe build RECAP

Had a local upholstery shop do it. Showed him roof pics of the Hilton built gentleman’s coupe from the hamb. It just uses snaps all the way around and rolls up when off. Turned out great. Will see if roof stays on at highway speed, if not will go with a boat awning at the front, but wanted to try just snaps for now.

 

Looks great. I bet the kids loved it!

 

Very inspiring thread. You are a very talented man. Well done!

 

Thanks so much guys. Appreciate it. Adding some secret anti theft devices coming up then I think we will be ready for our road trip in 3 weeks

 

Just re read this all and figured I’d bump it to the front page where more people can see it and sneak in a link to your trip to deuce days

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/deuce-days-road-trip-review.1158864/

 

I just read through this build, what a great Job
building your first Hot Rod ! It reminds of my
first one 50 years ago learning as I worked on
It. You did a fantastic job , and deserve all the
comments on quality received! I had two little boys
asking when will it be done Dad. lol

Rich

 

That picture is icing on the cake! Hope you All enjoy it for many years to come.

 

Thanks Tim!
That’s great.

I haven’t done much to it since the trip.
For those of you that hadn’t read the trip review, I pulled some studs out of the heads so trip ended early after we got to Victoria. We did make it all the way there and had a ton of fun. Something I want to do more of in 2020. It truly drove awesome, no complaints best road trip ever.

I do have the engine out, and it’s at a performance shop in the city.
Getting heads tuned up and screw in studs installed.
It didn’t fully wipe the cam out, just started to wear so they say there isn’t much wrong internally, really no metal went through.
Really the cam didn’t wear much, so not sure if cam was really going flat or just pulling studs out of heads was the only problem. Rather be safe than sorry though.
Getting a bigger cam and some tweaks to get some more power and it’ll be dyno’ed when done which is exciting to actually know what it puts out and it’ll be bulletproof... hopefully.

I found that even with the lower 1700-1800 rpm on highway, and the light car at 2500lbs it got pretty marginal mileage. My cam said it was supposed to be from 1400-5800 rpm so I figured spinning at the rpm I was it should have been ok.

I averaged around 15 mpg, as high as 18 climbing some mountains but flat prairie was pretty consistent at 15. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a mileage hound, I just directed the build in a way that it would be fun to drive, get great mileage and still have lots of power.
So if it sucks anyway, I figured I would re-gear it, and since I’m not much for moderation I went from 3.00 to 3.89s.

That should get the car moving and still at 55mph it’ll only go from 1750 to 2280 rpm, which is livable.

It was pretty fun to drive before and could spin the tires fairly easily, so with some more ponies and the low gears it should be a terror... can’t wait.

Im also hoping to get some mags and cheaters this year and do some 1/4 mile hits, hoping the engine shop can squeeze 350 hp out of the 327, coupled with the light car hopefully would go pretty quick even with my granny shifting. Maybe steer some kids away from the turbo LS path. Haha, probably not.

 

Watch you get better mpg with the steeper gears lol. Just gotta get that cam in the sweet spot. Excited to see it come back with more gear and more hp!

 

Random but have you ever mocked up a hood on it? Just curious

 

Nice build ,are you happy with the carby or regretting not going with sniper? Only asking not sure my self which way to go some people over here in oz love the sniper and others say don’t waste your money , great pic of build and road trip, thanks

 

No I haven't, but I sure would like one. It would give it a different look without the orange engine. Kinda thought about painting the engine black to continue the minimalist look, but a little extra personality is nice, and 327s probably should be orange

 

You know what, it actually worked great. Same internals in the carb as it got shipped with and just external tuning and it drove great through all sorts of elevation changes without so much as a hiccup. Fires right up and runs great, so far have not regretted it. Its nice to not cheat the timeline as well, pre-64 for this one.

 

I'd say just a 1 piece top just for road trips, leave it off for running around town. Make it out of aluminum and leave it unpainted.

 

In my opinion, it does not get any better than this and the photograph of your daughter in the passenger seat; perfection. Great job Fry.

 

Thanks rusty, I mentioned to the kids that I’d like to do some one on one trips with them this year. Now that’s all they talk about, sometimes a guy gets wrapped up in this and that in hot rods and life, and forget how much these days are big memories for them.
Looking forward to a great 2020.

 

And some random, not totally car related, pics..



Heading to the water park in the summer



She loves cruising.



Wife driving in preparation of the Victoria trip. Nothing like ladies that drive stick haha.

 

A little juxtaposition, at our first (and only) car show, and early on during the build.

 

Love it. My little mini me was cool with hot rod rides for a little while and the. Had about a full year of not wanting anything to do with a ride.

the new year struck and now it’s all she talks about gonna have to pick her up from preschool in the old car this spring

 

So it was dyno day today! Picked up my 327 and got to watch it run on the dyno after being tuned.
Pretty happy with the results, just over one hp per cubic with it bored .040.
With the new gears it should be a handful.




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Hahaha should be fun ‼️ Bruce does a good job as always ‼️

 

Nice!

 

As good as it gets, pretty kids, pretty wife, pretty car, pretty dyno sheet.
Life is good right now enjoy it all, best part it's all home made.

 

Thanks for the rad comment. Started to warm up this week so drove it every day to work this week. Hope to mile the thing out this year!

 

Damn nice work, just read your whole thread and got me excited to make some progress on my A

 

Bought some used slicks locally and thought some torq thrusts would fit the bill.
Looks great. Could use some kidney beans on the front and pie crust cheaters for the rear but this will do for now.




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That gave it some attitude! Looks great.

 

Even some 5 inch wide 5 spoke would work. I think speedway has-or had- both the spokes and the kidney beans style available in 5x5.5 bolt pattern

car looks great!

 

Thanks!
Yeah, even some chrome steelies similar to these current front wheels would look ok.
All costs money though. Maybe next year I’ll go with a full radial setup and some different front wheels. For now this will get me down the track to give it a try. If we are ever allowed to drag race this year.


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still has some good rake with the shorter diameter. Thought the 29.5s would maybe look too short, but I like the height.




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