Projects 60's Era Street/Strip Model A Coupe

Besides, once they're chromed they are gonna look amazing.

 

looks good. i walked around my car alot as it was being built. what do you think about dropping the rear a few inches. i think it would fill the rear fender better. most of the pics posted of other cars have a lower stance for comparison.

 

I love the rake.

For this car, the rear height is perfect to me. It'll likely settle some when it's on the road.

I wanted to set it up and let it land where it landed. I had two springs, the stock and the dropped rear spring (2" difference). The lower spring took all the attitude out and it left the car looking benign/boring/pedestrian.

 

OK Brent .... enough looking at it ... it's time to get fired up and get it done.

Body work is not 'hard' (IMO) ... but hard-work. Get yourself some of the right tools, sanding blocks, a couple of gallons of Slick Sand, take it down to bare metal, etch prime it, sand it with 36 grit and lay a coat of body filler (Rage filler) over the entire car, then block sand with 36 grit using guide coat ... repeat on areas needed. Then block sand over the 36 with 80 using guide coat.
You will be learning by doing and will see the results.
Always sand in a X pattern
Once its all flat, no guide coat showing, no high & low spots, clean and lay down 3 coats of Slick Sand - follow the directions. Once cured, have your rolls of sticky back sandpaper for dry sanding with your blocks ready, you need 120, 220,320 ....
Guide coat and block the surfaces with 120 dry always in a X pattern
Then repeat with 220
Clean and recoat with Slick Sand - 3 more coats and let cure
Guide coat sand with 220
Clean and sand with guide coat with 320
At this point it should be super straight and flat -
Depending on what your color choice is I stop here.
If it's going to be Black I will block one last time with 400
clean and apply sealer - choose the sealer color that complements the top coat color.
Depending on how many hours a day you can commit to this process will determine how long it will take you. I had around 7 weeks (6 days a week-12 hours a day) doing my A Coupe and I have no fenders or hood.
My car came out awesome, I used 4 different bases to achieve the pearl metal flake color I wanted, then 4 coats of clear ... let cure and start the wet sanding in 3 stages of grits and then buffing.
I high quality super straight body and paint work like mine will cost you $15-$25K around here ....
so I did it myself once again.
And no, I do not do this for a living or profession, I decided to learn when I was 20 because I could never afford to pay to have it done. I'm now 64.
You Can Do It !

*you will get allot of different opinions, as there are professionals on here that can help guide you.

As a young guy that got into Hot Rods at the age of 15 I learned quickly that I had to figure out a way to do it myself or I wasn't going to have anything.... so I just did.

Anyway, I love your Coupe build and attention to details.
Enjoy the journey, the end result will be worth it all.
Glenn ... old Hamber of 20 years.

 

I would rather live with dents than cover the entire car in frigging bondo!

Half the old cars running around are missing the body lines from this!

 

Most of the filler will end up on the floor.

After the fab work is done (front floor, header, exhaust, repair some BS, uncalled-for hackery by the guys who put it in sealer, etc.) and I move onto the body work, I am going to remove a lot of the dents. Well, as much as I can.

I've been studying up on it and I picked up a shrinking disc and a couple other tools. I'll hammer and dolly as much as I can, stud pull a few other areas and learn as I go.

I'm actually really excited to do the body work and paint but there's a bunch of stuff left before I get to that point.

This body will never be perfect and that's not my standard. I've learned that "perfect" keeps more projects undone. But, I will do my best and have fun and thrash it when it's done.

 

I've been fired up for a while. I told myself that I won't dive into this car until the other projects are done and that's had me getting a lot of other stuff finished or sold. There are 2 small projects left. Next week the shop is getting a mini-split and there's an OT vehicle that has a 2-page list of things to do to get it out of the garage and on the road. By spring the only thing I'll be focusing on in the garage is this coupe.

I love the guide you wrote down. The car has been blasted once and then sanded before the sealer. If it's an epoxy sealer, I may leave it and work over it where it hasn't been stripped during dent removal. I think that's the only deviation from your post. I certainly won't have 12 hours a day to work on it, either! I wish! Haha.

 

I am sure the body and and paint will be just fine with what your plan is Brent. Remember, if you make them to nice they are not fun anymore. That's what happened with a 4x4 show truck I showed back in the 90's. The truck evolved into a super show piece and then all I did was worry about it getting scratched or dirty. My drag coupe is by no means perfect, she has some bumps and bruises. But she is driven and raced, and still presents very well. Hell on the occasion I take it to a show she usually wins something , why I am not sure.

 

You and I have had similar learning lessons. I dumped a lot of money into an old CJ Jeep. It got out of hand... you know making one thing too nice lead to the snowball effect. I liked it better when it was a rusty hulk. Then, I had a beater car with full-on race engine... that was way more fun. So, I get exactly what you're saying. (I won't polish my floor though - that's for sickos!!!)

All the way to the end I'm sticking to my 60's street/strip plan. It'll look nice for a thrasher. If people look closely, they'll find "flaws", they'll see character, they'll see some racecar shit, some showy bits, and a car that gets used.

If I don't like something, I'm not going to leave it. If it's a flaw that bugs me, I'll damn sure change it.

One thing about me is I'm not sloppy. I don't rush through things so there won't be sanding scratches left in the filler, or pinholes in the chop and such. But I will leave a couple of little things here and there that I think are just part of the car's charm.

 

Yea. We are the same. You just described my coupe to a tee. I some times think of re-doing the body work and painting her, but I would be erasing history off the car. The paint has been on this car since the late 60's and the hand done pinstripe accents .

 

I don't want to wipe, clean and polish anything anymore, takes the fun out of it. People used to talk about how clean all my stuff was when we went to the drag strip, make a pass, come back and wipe everything off, just don't have that energy anymore. Ahotrod is right on his method of getting a car straight but my hands and back don't do the block sanding that well anymore.

 

You jammed from the gram. I had to come find you old school style on the HAMB. Your model A is looking great!

 

Ha! Let's bring back the good ol' forum days!

I "took a break" from IG and haven't been back on. I was spending way too much time looking at other people getting things done.

Thanks for the compliment on the coupe. I have been working on some OT projects. The shop now has heat, a bunch of new tool storage, and I spend an hour or two out there daily working on OT to-do lists so I can make my way to the coupe.

 

Been reading through this thread over a number of days. Amazing build! Love all the details. Can't wait to see it completed.

 

Hey Brent. Give us a picture of the coupe, anything you have done. We need a drag coupe fix.

 

I've been working in the shop daily but not much going on with the coupe. I'm getting close to where the coupe is the only shop project left.

Recently, though, I made a block off for the gas tank fill hole that I left in the cowl top. No real need other than to keep someone from thinking that's where the gas goes or from dropping something in there.






I found a thick washer that fit the top of the spark arrestor/screen and then I filed it to fit a 1/2" drive socket extension. The screen got trimmed off and then the washer got soldered to the ring that fastens to the tank.

 

Glad for the update

 

So killer

 

No wonder i cant find a good grille when you are collecting them all

 

Put a pair of mooneyes in there...looking out...for the nosey ones...

 

Hahaha! I will stop when I find the perfect one.

 

If you want to sell any drop me an IM thanks

 

I don't have a fuel tank there either so I adapted a small homemade SS tank to hold water and an electric pump for the windshield washers ...... yeah I know but it's an Aussie registration requirement.

 

Model A Floor Templating:

I posted a few of these pics elsewhere on the HAMB and since it got bumped up, now is as good as any to update y'all.

First pic is a very rough draft template. I was tired of seeing the car untouched, so I grabbed a roll of tape and messed around.



The floor isn't square so there was a bunch of trial and error. It was fun getting the final pattern set.



And since we'll be bending up the floor elsewhere, I made these angle blocks.

 

Great placement of the Gas Pedal Brent...I have thought many times about moving my pedal over...Room for any boot and no chance of hitting brake and gas at the same time...

When my brakes wear down the Brake pedal goes lower coming in close contact with the Gas...the other reason is comfort...

I have spoon, you full on Bass Drum...

Get the Ole foot over there with the Missus...These A Bones are real Cosy inside...

 

@Stogy it's a really neat, old Ansen pedal out of some old race car. The hand-made toe loop is pretty neat, too.

I changed the hardware because the old stuff was very janky.

 

Inspiration and Vintage Ambience...Yes there's some challenges to edge distance which highlights too many beers, rushing, lack of knowledge of, Dull Drills...Its a fine line, depending on metal, edge distances vary and of course application...I certainly would look for cracks and I'm sure you did...

Its funny the Bass drum reference as in both professions you don't want a ANY slip....

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No issues with the pedal. There is hardly any wear, even the spring is great. We'll get a new spring on there for longevity's sake.

 

I was just thinking the brace...especially the bottom bolted hole...even if it was cracked there's enough meat it would never follow through and perhaps a thick flat washer under that nut would space out the grip...I'm an Aviation Mechanic and the was Drilled into our Head...for good reason...I love the Ambience, The Soul...