This project has been ongoing for the last 5 years every summer between my years in college. I'm just now getting the chance to write up a build thread on it. This is a first time project for both of us, although my grandfather has years of experience working on heavy and agricultural equipment as well as fabrication, and I have a few years under my belt of the same as well. So bear with me and enjoy the story. In 2015 around the time I graduated high school, my grandfather and I threw around the idea of working on one of the many old cars he had lying around. He had recently purchased a 1930 model A coupe a few years before and he had always wanted an open wheel car so we chose it. Here's a picture when he bought it. She's a little rough, but she mostly all there.
The first thing we decided to do was chop it down. Looking back now it probably wasn't the best thing to start first thing on, but it turned out pretty good. I wanted to chop it 3 in, my grandpa wanted 2 , so we met in the middle and chose 2.5. Here's a few pics of laying it out. Keep in mind we had no idea what we were doing. Pretty much just shot from the hip on this one. The wood is to keep a straight line.
too late now... the quarter window tapers narrower as it flows downward... take a small carpenter's square and a section of small square tubing cut to the length of your desired chop... tape it to the vertical of the square... with the beltlines level set the tubing edge level against the rear edge of the quarter window... mark the body where both ends of the square tube touch the body... this will ensure the window is the same length F to R when you set the top back on the body... done this a dozen times... works well...
Appreciate the tip! Will keep it in mind for the next one i do. would've definitely done it different if i could do it over, but it still turned out good in my opinion. More pics coming soon
Next we wanted something to place the body on after removing it from the chassis, so we built our own rotisserie. Then removed the body and rolled the chassis out of the way.
Then we discovered just how bad of shape it was actually in. Frame was solid, but the sub-frame was completely shot and someone got ahold of it with a welder after hitting the pipe. Several bolt were welded in to fill gaps and the welds in general looked like someone vomited molten metal all over them. bottom 3-6 inches of the body was rusted out all the way around, as usual.
At this point we started deciding on the details of the build and how we wanted it. Frame: Ditch the model A frame for 32 rails. Rearend: Quickchange Front end: dropped I beam axle Engine: Flathead V8 Next step was to remove the body from the sub-frame and give it a look over to see if it was salvageable. It was too bent up rotted out and ruined by bad repairs to save it, so we decided to fabricate our own from tubing. Got it all painted up after test fitting it without the doors on. Then realized we forgot to notch out for the doors. So we went back and welded in some angle iron.
It’s thin gauge it’s not that heavy. Not too worried about what automobile manufacturers do. After all they are trying to build as cheap as they can get by with and still be reliable. The extra pounds won’t hurt it’s not a drag car. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
IMO... manufacturers used channel as it used less steel, but it also flexes much more than tube... the 2 bolt under the cowl are tightened to adjust the rear of the door gap... [tighten them, check the gaps, then shim the bolts to get your rear gaps right]...
Next we started cutting out all the rust and welding in the patch panels. All the lower quarter patch panels were purchased, but the rest we shaped ourselves. The nasty stuff on the metal is a rust preventative.
In the summer of 2015 I went to the street rod nationals for the first time, and I've been back every year since. Our original plan was to find a good flathead block and build the motor ourselves. At the show we ended up finding a complete engine setup exactly how we wanted at the swap meet. The guy who built it had been building flatheads his whole life and according to him this was the last one he built. he was somewhere in his late 70s to 80s and had gotten down with some health issues. I believe his name was Daryl. The trailer came with it. Don't mind the giant junk pile in the back. It's 30 years worth of excavator, tractor, and bulldozer parts. Here's the specs Merc crank 3/4 race Isky cam 3 holly 94 carbs bored 30 over Ross pistons Offy heads and intake Also here's some pics of some cool rides at the show. Circa 2015
Now onto some more patch panels and getting panels that don't wanna fit into shipshape. Sucks when you buy a panel that's expected to fit and its nowhere close. Excuse the mess. Work in progress. Cut out the fender wells. They were all rusted out on the bottom. had to put more curve into the rear panel to make it fit correctly. Next moved onto some wood work Grandfather was a carpenter in his early days so we tackled the wood ourselves. Copied what was left of the original pieces and altered them a little to make them easier to make. May not be up to the par of some, but it'll work for what we are doing.
It's Chassis time! I might be jumping around a bit but it's hard to remember exactly what order everything was done in. Had a chassis delivered to the shop from brookeville roadster. And man is she pretty. Awesome guys to work with. Next step was setting the body on it to line up the frame holes with out body and fabricated sub-frame. Rebel the shop foreman. Had to slightly move one body mount about a half inch Then fabbed up the rear sub-frame now that we could see how the frame layed out.
Two thumbs up for both of you to have the ambition and courage to take the plunge and the nice work so far. I noticed a lot of home engineered and built with "whatever happens to be handy" tooling in the backgrounds. The rotisserie is worthy of a thread of it's own! Ed
I like the way you are not afraid to just roll up your sleeves and build things yourself. Looking great guys!
F A N T A S T I C. Just shows with determination what you can achieve . You guy obviously have some decent skills . The coupe looked decent from 20’ , after clean up you must have got a shock that it was bad in all the normal places ,but that did not scare you.
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