I acquired this '31 A body about four years ago, found it in the back of a pickup at speed week. Had several different ideas for it but finally decided on full fenders and no chop with a very comfy interior. Something to take the wife out on a date with. I just picked it up from Derrek at Boling Brothers Early Iron where I had a new chassis built along with a steel floor and best of all a column shift. The last detail is best as it allows my girl to sit right next to me and I've yet to come across an A with the set up, although I'm thinking it must have been done before. Here's a few pictures of what it is so far, give me a year or two and it will be on the highway. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10223124664412001 https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10223124664612006
I've never seen a Model A on the column. Looks like you have an overdrive too. Nice stance, cool old flat bed too.Good luck.
3 speed overdrives are the way to go. I like how there is no transmission hump on the floor too. Plenty of leg room for the wife. I put a Muncie 319 behind a 283 in my 31 Chevy sedan and was considering column shift...have not decided yet.
very nice!! Stance is right on! Helped a guy put a 40 column in an A maybe 45 years ago--took a bit but worked fine. May still be around Fresno somewhere
Column shift looks great and is a good idea in a small Model A coupe. Must of been a fun job to engineer all the linkage. I know I had a fun time doing a column shift for a automatic in my A coupe. Space wise it was a good idea.
Nice work, thank you for the pics. Back when I started to pick up the small rodding mags for a quarter, every now and then they would feature a rod with a column shift. We all understood why it was done and loved the result. Congratulations on choosing no chop,,, I personally detest any hammer job more than 3" , but best for my taste is a 13 inch window. Today in my garage I have a '48 side shifter and a '40 column and box with shifter waiting for me to marry them to my '30 coupe. Right on!
I did a 3 on the tree on my 1929 Model A coupe (Special converted to Std - Whew - another topic for sure!!) Wanted to do it the old hot rodder way and use what I had in my shop. So ended up with a steering column with 3 speed shift from the F100 in my avatar. Found a cheap shoebox 3 speed with OD, so we have that in common. Mocked it up in 2018 and drove it through last summer until October 2019. Pretty smooth after a great deal of fitting challenges. I had to move my front cross member three times to finally get the clearance needed past the flathead V8, but am glad I stuck with it. It is real entertaining to explain the concept to the younger generation! It has been quite awhile since I have posted, and attaching images have changed. If someone can coach me as to how to attach a pic, I can show you the set-up. I just painted the body and am going from mock-up to final phase in 2020. Timmy, can you post a pic of your steering box arrangement? I had to mount mine on top of the frame to make it work with the flathead. John
@crminal has a very cool 32 Cabrio That was built as a Hot Rod back in the 50s with a column shift. Kinda what made me start thinking about doing this.
Yeah I’ve seen lots of them. @flatout51 A has a column shift right now. I was going to run one in our A but I couldn’t find a way that it wasn’t hitting my knee so it went to floor shift. Very cool project looking forward to seeing what you do with this one