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Hot Rods Hiboy 31 Model A Build

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Barbarian, Oct 13, 2020.

  1. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    I've been reading and periodically posting questions on here for a little while now. I owned an off topic mopar muscle car for awhile and just sold it to get into a 30's hot rod. I've been into early 30's Fords for as long as I can remember and finally took the plunge. I was fortunate enough to have a pretty far along project in a matter of a few days. Found an abandoned chassis engineering rolling chassis through a friend that has been sitting for about 20 years and bought it for pretty cheap. I was planning on building a roadster but then came across a 30/31 coupe body that was far too clean to pass up.

    I'm going to try my best to use what I have and minimize the expense. I have a 327 out of a 68 camaro and a 200r4 transmission. The chassis is powder coated; the black is nice but the silver looks cheap and is pitted. I'll be disassembling most of this and painting black or chroming. It has a forged chassis engineering 4" drop axle that I'll be drilling. I really would like to remove the front 4 bar setup and go to a more traditional looking hairpin or drilled split wishbone. I'm hesitant to open up this can of worms with the mounting bracket location but I want the look so it'll most likely happen. Rear is a ford 9 with 4.11s so the overdrive should work well.

    Overall plan is to try to build this somewhat traditional looking but I'm probably going to break a bunch of rules so sorry in advance. I have a pretty clear vision of how I want this to look; spoke fronts, vintage torque thrust rears on cheater slicks, 4-5" chop, drilled front axle, finned engine components with a 144 or 177 street blower. Paint will be a shade of dark grey/blue with a vintage looking brown interior. I'm sure some of this will evolve as the build progresses but I wanted to ensure I had a clear vision before I got to far ahead and wanted to shift directions. I appreciate any and all advice/help along the way.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Oct 13, 2020
  2. alchemy
    Joined: Sep 27, 2002
    Posts: 20,406

    alchemy
    Member

    What’s a 144 blower? Shouldn’t you mean 4-71 GMC?
     
  3. Very nice looking body. I'm anxious to watch the transformation.
     
  4. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    It's a smaller blower that's been produced by several companies such as b&m, weiand, etc. They typically are run on relatively stock engines with around 5psi. I think the common sizes are 142, 144, 177. Nothing too radical because I don't want to go to nuts with the engine build. I am coming from a 512 stroker mopar race engine in my previous car and that was hard to enjoy on a casual cruise.
     

  5. floored
    Joined: Apr 11, 2007
    Posts: 470

    floored
    Member

    B&M small style blower
     
    kidcampbell71 likes this.
  6. scrap metal 48
    Joined: Sep 6, 2009
    Posts: 6,079

    scrap metal 48
    Member

    Great start but watch out, model A's are addictive....
     
  7. Looks like a great start!
     
  8. oldsman41
    Joined: Jun 25, 2010
    Posts: 1,556

    oldsman41
    Member

    Another one bites the dust. It’s a sickness man. Great start
     
  9. That body looks super straight from the pics. Can't see any rust through on the doors...
     
  10. Primered Forever
    Joined: Jul 7, 2008
    Posts: 933

    Primered Forever
    Member
    from Joplin,MO

    That’s a very clean body! Good luck with your build!
     
  11. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    yea it is stupid clean. I was all set to build a roadster and was holding out for a body but when I came across this I could not pass it up for the money I got it for. The body had been stored in a warehouse for the past 3 years. The owner prior to him cut out the little rust it had and coated the body in household paint. So to compromise with my desires for a roadster, I’m going to have an open top with a snap cover. Inspiration from the gentlemens coupe build on here.

    Body has all the hinges and latches, hood top and sides, doors have a single small spot to patch, sub rails I can’t find any issues, original wood is all all there, garnish moldings. Only missing the side and back glass. I’m in NJ and the original windshield has a 69 reg sticker on it. Very neat
     
  12. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    Slowly starting some progress on stripping the house paint off. Using a razor blade and it’s coming off in sheets so far on the large flat areas. Will address the small crevices later, trying my best not
    to use paint stripper unless I need to.

    As my hands get sore I’m also going to start disassembling the front suspension to paint, replace bushings and prep for the switchover to hairpins.
     

    Attached Files:

    kidcampbell71 and brEad like this.
  13. -Brent-
    Joined: Nov 20, 2006
    Posts: 7,349

    -Brent-
    Member

    Neat project!

    That HF scaffold is a perfect solution. I need to do the same thing. Thanks for the idea!
     
  14. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    Yea it was around $200. Set it to the height of my pickup tailgate and slid the body right out and onto the scaffold. Once you find where it balances, it won't move at all. I strapped it down just for safe measure. I can roll it around myself now problem. But most importantly, I can roll it over my chassis to save space and allow the wife to park in the other garage bay during inclement weather.
     
    nochop, kidcampbell71 and Just Gary like this.
  15. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    So I got to it last night and drilled some holes. Of course confirmed I had a forged axle first. Took about an hour to map it all out. Went with a lucky 13 holes, 7/8” hole size, spaced 2.25” apart on center (or 1 foam sumo stress guy). CE in center of the axle made finding the center fool proof; it was dead on between the two letters. And the center line in the E was my horizontal center mark. Old craftsman drill press set to lowest speed of 300rpm. Drilled 1/4” pilot holes to start, plenty of cutting oil. First hole took like 30 minutes as I got the feel for the pressure my drill press liked, how much oil is too much, getting my nerves in check etc. About 3 hours from first measuring to final hole drilled. Broke a pilot bit on my 10th hole being an idiot so that sucked but was lucky it was deep enough that I could start the hole saw and no harm done. May fill and smooth out the CE, it kind of bothers me but it also looks like COE, cab over pickup? So maybe it’ll stay. Tells a cool story?
     

    Attached Files:

  16. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    Still need to clean up inside the holes and bevel the edge, but couldn’t resist mocking it up. Love how this came out. I could probably fit another hole on each side to make it 15. I didn’t because the web angles up so I stayed out of that area.
     

    Attached Files:

  17. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    Hairpins came in today from P&J. Couldn’t resist seeing how they’d look. Will be cutting off the 4 bar mounts and welding on the hairpin mounts. Going to be pulling the whole front end apart to have the parts powder coated. Probably going with all semi-gloss black on most parts. Will leave the hairpins chrome, hoping the black batwings don't clash too hard otherwise I'll have those chromed as well. May paint the axle red oxide to see how that looks. Going for a bit of a 60s drag car look.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Nov 3, 2020
  18. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    Also picked up a 2nd row seat from a caravan today from a local junkyard for $25
     

    Attached Files:

  19. It looks like a sway bar on the front axle, how's that gonna work when the engine goes in? Room wise.
    Is there one on the back axle?
     
    loudbang likes this.
  20. Blues4U
    Joined: Oct 1, 2015
    Posts: 7,589

    Blues4U
    Member
    from So Cal

    You won't need the sway bar with the hairpins anyway, the hairpins will provide all the anti-roll you need.
     
    loudbang likes this.
  21. Blues4U
    Joined: Oct 1, 2015
    Posts: 7,589

    Blues4U
    Member
    from So Cal

    BTW, cool project, I'll be following along.
     
    lothiandon1940 and loudbang like this.
  22. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    So no gain at all in having it? Previous owner had a sbc mounted and it cleared fine. I was going to keep it but if it won’t do jack I’ll get rid of it
     
    loudbang likes this.
  23. Blues4U
    Joined: Oct 1, 2015
    Posts: 7,589

    Blues4U
    Member
    from So Cal

    The 4-bar front end wouldn't provide the same anti-roll effect the hairpins will. If it's not in the way you could leave it be and see how it works. If the car pushes in turns removing it will help reduce that.
     
    loudbang likes this.
  24. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    Good to know thanks. Maybe I’ll just remove it and run some bolts into the threaded holes in case I ever want to add it on later. I like the idea of less to simplify if I’m not losing function.
     
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  25. A Boner
    Joined: Dec 25, 2004
    Posts: 7,419

    A Boner
    Member

    I’m thinking you could use a flatter front spring...which would lower the front end...so the hairpin mounting brackets could be a little shorter, and not hang down so far... they look a little wonky if they stick down too far below the frame! IMHO
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2020
    loudbang likes this.
  26. Very cool thread, I'm sorry -not trying to hi-jack it- can someone please explain the difference between the sway bar here and a panhard bar? I'm new to this and would appreciate the input- I'm following this thread and good luck on the build!!!
     
    loudbang likes this.
  27. Blues4U
    Joined: Oct 1, 2015
    Posts: 7,589

    Blues4U
    Member
    from So Cal

    The sway bar provides resistance against body roll, helping to keep the car flat through turns. A panhard bar keeps the axle centered in the chassis. Especially useful on cars with buggy spring suspension when using cross steering, or on cars where the spring sits ahead of the axle and is not in compression, such as the 46 - 48 Ford. So, 2 different functions, 1 provides anti-roll; the other keeps the axle centered.
     
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  28. Got it, thank you!!
     
    loudbang likes this.
  29. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    Yea I have a new frame bracket I’ll be welding on. It’s about a 1/3 if the height of the current 4 bar frame bracket
     
    A Boner, brEad and loudbang like this.
  30. Barbarian
    Joined: May 5, 2019
    Posts: 569

    Barbarian
    Member
    from New Jersey

    Tore down the 327 today. Off to the machine shop next week to go over the block before I dump any money into it.
     

    Attached Files:

    loudbang likes this.

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