Hot Rods The No Frame Model A Modified

Rob, The car is even more impressive in person, good to see you and your friend, along with swapping stories. Remember, give me a heads up when you will be racing down this way.

 

Burlens here in the UK are the go to source for everything SU. They make new SUs and do refurbishment. The technical department will advise on non-standard applications.

You are basically playing with a number of variables; needle size, jet height, spring pressure and dashpot oil viscosity. All can be adjusted to get where you need to be. A common problem is that the engine bogs down when you snap to WOT. This is because the piston rises too quickly. Solution can be a stronger spring, thicker dashpot oil or a weight in dashpot - I use an M32 washer in HIF 38 and 44 carbs.

Congratulations on a brilliant and unique build.

Sent from my moto g(6) play using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

That's cool! Your little modified is stellar!

 

Cool Roadster.....thinking out of the box is what I'd like to see more of on the H.A.M.B.!

My day dream hot rod would be a Bonneville style highboy, Model A or Deuce roadster, with un-boxed 32 rails. Instead of a transmission crossmember, I'd make a uni-body type combination belly pan, floor, seat riser and transmission mount out of somewhat thick sheetmetal. The belly pan would be at the bottom of the frame rails , or even slightly lower....sit way down in the car, Bonneville style. The transmission/driveshaft tunnel would be inside the cockpit. There would be a roll cage welded to the frame, and mounted inside the body sheetmetal and the sheetmetal panels and doors would mount to/hang on the roll cage.
Hopefully someone will do this.....Bonneville style hot rods on the street!

 

rottenleonard : I am a fabricator: if I have a 'print'(or even a 'drawing'), I can build almost anything, But YOU have the ability to build from a 'concept' that I find AMAZING!! Thank you for opening our eyes to other than "traditional" possibilities for "builds"!!

 

Always good to hang out with you Marty, you have a way of making a history lesson awful entertaining. You and Jim need to start a new book and get these stories in print.

 

How did i miss this build? Holy schmoley you are a very clever dude. I just shake my head in disbelief at these wild builds , and they still look traditional.

 

Although I'm sure you will, please post any changes &/or updates to the car, especially including how you "fix" any problems you might find!!

 

How about a quick mention on the salt vs your modified? Did you get it back to how it was before the salt attacked it? If you can't tell.....I really like Bonneville, it's so outstanding on so many levels, but the salt all over all those beautiful hot rods makes me CRINGE!

 

We have a long ways to go, it's merely a driving project at this point. Stay tuned...

 

SOOO Many Cool Ideas!...Very Nice!
Thanks for all the Pictures!!
Have You Ever Heard (Thought) of a BOX Sir?...(Inside or Out...)

Aloha Tommy

 

BTTT

 

bttt

 

The only updates i have is some parts I picked up from "Frames". These came off a Halibrand 201 QC. I need to get my hands on a 37-48 Ford car rear diff to use with them. Planning on re-using the ends of the model A housing as will as the current brakes and wheels. I gotta finish up another restoration before i can get going on it. Also a Mitchell sincro trans is in the plans as the "romance" of double clutching wore off pretty fast.

 

Thank you! Always glad to hear what's happening with your projects!

 

Progress?

 

I have been working on it a bit, my friend John gave me an 40 rearend that had been sitting out in the weather. It pretty well took every weapon I had in the shop to get it apart, but I was able to save the pieces that I actually need. I ordered a bellhousing that is an aluminum reproduction that mates a T5 to the Flathead and still uses the stock pedal assembly. The novelty of a non synchromesh transmission wore off pretty quickly.) Another friend named Bo gave me a T5 from his Mustang which is much appreciated but seems awful heavy for the job. Anybody know of a full synchromesh Lightweight transmission that might be a good substitute? This would be the easy route. But I'm not sure It's exactly what I want. The pictures are obviously out of order Oh, but you get the idea. I ordered a new set of ring and pinion that are 3.54 gear set vrs the 4.11 i had along with the overdrive should make the drive to www.hotrodarama.us at the end of july much more do-able.

 

I have become confused.

Are you saying the Mustang T5 is too heavy "weight" wise or too beefy "strength" wise? I have a few T5s and they all weigh about the same amount.

If you could scrounge up a T4, it might be a bit lighter. I've never bothered to weigh one, but I can pick up the T5 I'm running in my car with one hand if I can get a good grip on it. It's a NWC S10 version. (not saying it's easy to do one-handed, but it's lighter than a cast iron bodied trans.)

 

It's a bit of both just large overall and fairly heavy compared to the 3-speed model A that came out of it. We're only dealing with maybe 50 horsepower this T5 trans came out of a 5.0 Mustang which probably had at least double the horsepower we don't need much and I'm probably splitting straws but thats a bit of what the whole car is about.

 

Leonard...
Good call on the T5, ultimate tranny.
Glad you 'roughed thru' the S-U's. Doctored them for years on Brit cars, then hopped-up Harleys...Great carbs that just need a little understanding anywhere above or below sea level... (grin)
Thoroughly enjoyed the build, delighted that Marty Strode was aboard. Kudos!

 

I picked up a BW T50 (Chevy Monza et al), to attach to a V8-60 some day (Future Project No. 14). Five speed OD, normal GM bolt pattern, compact, and quite handsome (see picture). However, the shifter is set back quite a bit; I plan on fabricating a shifter assembly to mount further forward, connecting through a rod with slots machined on each end (like a clevis), to the cut-down standard lever. Of course, this transmission is for open drive shaft; I'm assuming your QC will be compatible.

And of course there are dozens of foriegn units that should work. I'm not that knowledgable on late model stuff, but I think I'd look into Miata, and maybe Volvo, and Toyota/Nissan (including light pick-ups).

 

Miata has an integral bell I think. A lot of modern stuff will have integral bellhousings, so it may be a goose hunt, but the JDM world is a good place to look for small/light.

 

Volvo M40 or M41, just about bolts to a Model A bellhousing, in an original car people use an AA bellhousing because it is shorter, I don't think that will be an issue for you, The 40 is a synchro 4 speed the 41 has overdrive. Look up Hamb member Artiki , he has a build thread including pictures here somewhere.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-banger-trans-swap.168654/#post-3052890

 

I have a Crosley engine attached to an old Volvo OD transmission; have no idea what the model designation is. (Crosleys are 44 cid, about 22 percent as big as a ModelA, so this is a major overkill!) It had been converted to the Crosley torque tube rear end, which I was told was very easy to do. I think I saw a post on the HAMB that claimed it is a simple operation to mate the Volvo box to a Model A torque tube.

 

That M40 certainly looks good and the size looks way better than the t5. A quick ePay search didn't turn anything up, not sure how common they are in the states. Stole these pictures from @Rat_Fink here on the board.

 

HAMB to the rescue. That looks about perfect.

 

Man .. I tell you what .. the Mazda talk got me going. I crawled under a 6 speed RX8 .. the bell housing is NOT integral. It's long ass bellhousing, bolted to transmission, bolted to tail housing.

Aluminum case. Can get measurements for sh*ts & grins .. maybe tomorrow.

The 5 speeds are even smaller, & also do not have integrated bellhousing. 1990 to 2005 are the year range for those .. used in multi models.

Obviously machine work needed .. but man .. cool alternative, if you could figure out a hot rod 6 speed.

 

Guys are putting Toyota 5 speeds (at least I think it's a Toyota) in MG midgets and Austin Healy Sprites. They have small engines, and the cars are really small, so the trannys must be small. If you would like I could do some digging and find out what tranny they are using.

 

Here's what I dug up with a quick search, https://mossmotors.com/mg-midget-au...riveshaft/conversion-kit-5-speed-gearbox-1280
http://032516d.netsolhost.com/mgb_transmission.html
And it looks like they are using Datsun and maybe a Ford tranny. The link to the Ford tranny wasn't any good. So do a google search for MG midget 5spd conversion.

 

The trans has to be able to take the torque of a Model A , Toyota and most other Japanese trans are as big as the T5, but not as strong, I have a Toyota here was adapted to a flathead , ( came with a motor I bought) it is screwed , the gears just not robust enough. MG midgets are only 1275cc, low torque, the Model A is 3300cc , all torque bugger all revs.
Volvo is proven as is T5, but the Volvo is a much simpler trans and the overdrive is electric...