I started here as a lurker, somewhere between 1960 Chevy truck stuff, when the Inter webs on dial up was new. Then progressed to knowledge on AMC things pertaining to a 1973 Jeep, then recently, a 1938 Chevy Truck cab which, initially started off after reading “How to build a rat rod for $1500.”while building, buying , and flipping my parts, I started to want a more traditional rod. Unfortunately in today’s market in Southern California, a poor mans duece is not really a poor mans anything these days. But, I have been very fortunate in my dealings, so says a friend, and have somehow found my way, flipping myself into this 1931. Story goes sometime between 60’s and the 70’s the car had a rear main leak, motor was swapped with a long block replacement, and then parked until last month (owner said parked in the 60’s but tags say 1974 and they are 63’ plates). It looks to be fairly stock, with the exception of juice brakes. She has some rust in the usual places, but I think I came out ok. I have since nickel and dimed my way into a tune up of the motor to get the banger up and going. Waiting on a carb rebuild kit and some other smaller items, plus time. Plan? I’m thinking a dropped front axle, 3” (what I have), possible swept front, flat cross member or? In the rear, a spring behind axle 40’ spring (adjustable mount) then a Tardel Z if not enough. Possible upgrade to an S10 rear for a V8 upgrade in the future. I want the 700-16 or 750-16 rears I’ll run to fit the contour/line up even with the wheel wells. Not sure if this will be a build thread or not. But I figured I’d post it for motivating comments or some old crotchety guy who will post angry hate comments about defiling an on old car, “rat rodding” it or I don’t know, it is the Hamb.
Cool intake! Cool car all the way around...my $.02 is get it running then start doing little things to it You could have alot fun on banger power and it's cheaper and more rewarding to enjoy the car you have instead of tearing into it and hoping it was the car you wish it was.
Man that's a great starting car! Get it running and driving then go what ever direction it takes you.
Congrats on your progress up to now, and following through on future plans - as you are learning, none of this is as fast and easy as the TV car shows that build a Hot Rod in an hour
Nice car and great start. I like it just the way it is. Well maybe throw that 3" drop front axle. I do like your plan too.
Only thing I'd do to that car is rebuild the brakes, add new tires, get that engine running, and drive it. IMO it's a shame to tear it up and "sweep the frame" and install a "flat crossmember". Leave the fenders and it's well-earned real-life patina.
Nice score! Do a search and find @Ron Brown 's threads on his Tudor Sedan, check out how he achieved a great looking stance. Also, there is a monthly Banger thread that starts anew each month, there is plenty of info available there on hopping up that banger. Good luck with a great hot rod.
Cool....I'm another with just rebuild brakes and super tune it ! Also join the Banger thread on here....good luck !
Well that’s the plan for now is to get it moving. I was always told it does more damage letting them sit than it does keeping them moving. The swept frame and flat crossmember options are more of an idea for the “if I don’t like this, then I’ll do that” option. I’ll probably throw the axle I have on there. If I don’t like the stance, then we’ll see. I need a set of 550-16 and 700-16 or 750-16’s. Trying to find tires that fit on the Kelsey Hayes 16’s without dropping $1500 is becoming quite the challenge. I’d like radials, but I may go bias for now. Guy on here has a set, but I’d hate to throw money at something that may make the ride worse than it already would be on these SD roads. Also, anyone have thoughts on satin black powder coat vs gloss on The Kelsey Hayes wires? Gloss to me “feels” like it grabs too much of the eye? Where satin to me “feels” like it “fits” together, if that makes sense?
That car is a great place to start. As others have said, get it running and driving before you make any firm decisions about modifications. You may like it just the way it is. One thing, though is that you will not be driving up any steep hills with that carb setup. You may want to add an electric fuel pump.
I would make it safe & reliable and drive the wheels off, looks like a great candidate for a traditional hot rod! HRP
If you aren't sure what you want, don't waste money powder coating the wheels. Just spray some Krylon on them in whatever sheen you feel at the moment. My patina car has semi-gloss black Krylon touching up the rough spots on the NOS Ford wire wheels. And, if you run Ford wires on the '40 Ford brakes you will need support rings to prevent cracking the mounting surface of the wheel. They can be found at the bottom of this page: http://www.bolingbrothers.com/replacement-parts/
Agree on going through the mechanicals and driving/enjoying it for the near future. If you tear it down too far now, it may be down for years w/o having the ability to enjoy the car/participate in outings. This will give you time to figure out exactly what you may want in a full Hot Rod build, then you can start collecting parts for the updated build. This could even be a new frame/full chassis build which sees you dropping the body on once it's completed.
Fortunately for me, the spacers came on the brakes. It had the wires on it and I borrowed the ones pictured to get it on the trailer.......Thanks for reminding me about Krylon paint. In my haste of wanting to get it going, never even crossed my mind haha.
IMO putting radials on a car like that would be a big mistake, that thing really deserves bias ply with a lot of sidewall. Don't be sticking no rubber band tires on there! You can easily stay under $1500 for a full set: https://www.cokertire.com/tires.htm...24&tire_rim_diameter=1777&tire_type_multi=430
Well, you did it the right way, seems you made a few bucks and it eased your purchase of a cool car. See, I spend years buying shit, most I don’t use, sell it for less than paid for and always come up short in the end. Please send me what ya smoking Love the car BTW.
Got in my new radiator tube, hoses, and alternator/bracket. Soaked the motor in some marvel too. Found a leak in the exhaust manifold possibly (oil leaking out), so I need to swap out the gasket there and see if that fixes it. Also ran into a bit of a hiccup in getting it registered. Is it possible to raise the driver side body without bending/tweaking the cab to read the serial number? Also, anyone in SoCal by chance going to Vegas and back anytime soon? Found a set of tires, but shipping is killing it-Bias ply whitewalls @Blues4U
Bit the bullet after seeing how much tires are in the sizes I want. Figured in the long run, it’ll save time/money. Plus I needed to get the roller back to my buddies. Followed a few threads on wire wheels and sealed them up with some heavy duty silicone after getting them back from the powder coat. Went with gloss black and white walls.
Ha! Unfortunately I had to pull them to lift the body and find the serial number for my “vin inspection.” Out of what felt like 75 nuts and bolts, I think I broke 70. But I did find these for $150 yesterday. To go with a supposed rebuilt flathead I picked up a few weeks ago. Pretty excited on that one.
More parts on the way. Got this from a. Fellow Hamber, listed as a model A 4” drop. Got it because the axle I have is a 37-41 and I read a few issues could come up with it. Now I know a model a axle has a 2 1/4” perch boss and is 50 1/2” wide with 36 1/2” between the spring perches. A 32-36 has a 2” perch boss and is the same lengths as above. This bad boy has a 2” boss, 36 1/2” between perches and look to be 49 7/8” ish. For you axle aficionados, can anyone dial in the date? Pretty sure it’s 32-36. Measuring the drop from a level line across kingpins to the top of the spring perch is 5 1/4”.
Your A is amazing! Such a solid unmolested coupe! You guys out in Cali find all the good stuff.. With a car that solid, IMO, keep it traditional. It would be a shame to cut that survivor up. An s10 rear? No way. Ford banjos are fine. 9inch rears work but are overkill for a mild flatty. Shoebox Fords had cool rears in them. 8" rears can be modified to work with your bolt pattern. The s10 rear would just cheapen the whole car. Flatheads are awesome. Bangers are awesome. Keep it traditional. The car will get more respect without the modern bits. Your a lucky guy. Have fun with her.
Got some time to work on the car. Found out I got the wrong spark plugs and couldn’t find my distributor cap. Noticed some wiring was badly frayed, as in there’s copper wire there, but nothing else. Some other odd linkage items I noticed and random wires need chasing. So I opted to remove the last two bolts holding the body in place from my vin verification, pulled the body, and started working on dropping the rear while waiting for the parts to get the banger fired up. Figured I should have that done and drop axle maybe installed in the next week or so. Keep chipping at the banger as well. Also got some speed parts in for the flatty I picked up just in case.
I echo others' sentiments that bangers are cool and I feel like it would take something away from this car's identity to make such drastic changes to it. A banger rod makes a great around town runabout. Just don't put those fenders back on... she needs all the weight savings she can get. See how clean it can look without the running board struts... Or get a little more wild?
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