Projects 1928 Model A 2 dr Phaeton Build

Ok it's a little different looking cover mines 40 years old it's all same book got mine at a car meet $3 Amazon has it for about $20 .
The Ford Model A , A Color , Upholstery and Production Fact Book

This is closest to factory manual and most convenient and quickest and got MOST of what one needs for our type of work

 

I drive all my builds hard before a customer gets them and I'm not looking closely but are you using original wood kit for the 8 body to frame mounting stations I found the air gap lessens body lift at 80 on up and takes out lower body crush and warped body panels from potholes and such . Now I'm editing I recall now you channeled the body I would still utilize a thin hardwood ' sandwiched in door mat rubber ' I buy it in 6" x 50 ft rolls I keep it around for all my mount and remounting jobs . Comes with Certs and all and since it's channeled you want to alleviate any air pockets from the undercarriage or contemplate a belly pan you can do that when your done building the car . One important thing to a successful build :
Always Give The Car A Chance To Build Itself
To me that is the Art of Building

 

The copper Tudor posted earlier looks too much like a Model T or a "tupperware" body. I bolted mine with strips of of Zonecoat and a thin strip of Ultragrey to seal them. Zonecoat is a vinyl layer used by Ford as a moisture barrier(used to be paper) on later pick-ups between the inner panel & door.

 

It's getting channeled the width of the frame. Mounting using the Boling Bros subfloor kit.
~Peter

 

Ford specs are max 1degree out. Looks like it's still barely within those numbers...


Worst case scenario I'll have to buy another axle, Speedway has their forged ones for $280, which is way cheaper than shipping this one to get fixed and shipping back. Maybe there was a reason this axle was for sale at a swap meet?
~Peter

 

Yup, you are probably right about the swap meet deal. Don't feel bad, that is something that could have happened to many of us.

 

Put in a long couple of days, and got the 1957 Chevrolet rear end oriented in place and welded the spring and ladderbar mounts on. Got everything within .03125" of square all the way around.
Yes, the center section is offset to the driver's side, but then the actual pinion input is offset again to the passenger side, so it ends up right in the middle.



So invigorated to have a rolling chassis; this one needs only a body to receive it and I'm working on that next. Got the body almost ready to cut the floor out, and then it's time to get these two together!

~Peter

 

Your project Pete, so it's your call. That said I would drill every attachment hole your gonna need for brake, fuel even wiring before you paint the frame.

 

That's the plan! Going to build it all right up to almost running/driving, and then teardown for prep and paint. Not building a show car, but definitely aiming to avoid as many headaches as possible by thinking everything through in advance.

Honestly, I like the look of bare metal, and especially in the dry atmosphere of West TX, the frame won't rust at all sitting inside. So I typically don't rush to paint.

~Peter

 

So you use as I call a ' Fitting Stage ' in the build and is necessary for proper and precision build . Alot of people only understand what they see on You Tube and those guys more interested in you seeing them than showing ALL of what is necessary for a good and long lasting build . If I tell what I think of sponsored catalog builds I'd get deleted for being political ! LOL !
Your car is looking real nice a bare metal composition I like that theme it's a ' This Is Real ' look

 

Those rear tires look so awesome. Everything else does too but damn those meats are perfect.

 

Thanks man, I knew wheels and tires were critical to nailing the "look". Hoping to get the matching fronts mounted this week.

~Peter

 

When you get to the trans/motor mounted i had to trim some off the t5 because it hangs down pretty low.I also built and then blew apart to paint.Your chassis looks great.

 

I'm a bit of an eccentric when it comes to symmetry, and I wasn't happy with the Offenhauser intake that has both carbs towards the rear of the motor to fit the generator in the stock location. So I started looking for a equally spaced dual intake; luckily it didn't take long and it happened to be a brand I've always liked.


Clean, no repairs or major damage, and at a fair price.

Got it home and media blasted and cleaned it thoroughly, then I laid out the gasket and began the age-old practice of port-matching the intake runners. Following some guides from some 1951 and 1953 Hot Rod Magazines, I got it all cleaned and polished out to 600 grit. Then I ran an abrasive wheel in the ports to clean any other rough spots.



Then it was time to drag the Auto Craft Belt Sander outside to true up the surfaces. Since we do so many old cars with rare exhaust and intake manifolds, we end up having to restore the original surfaces to correct for any warping or damage. So we bought this sander a few years back and it's been awesome!


Trued up the carb surfaces as well as the rear breather. Might as well.


The small area of corrosion around the water passage cleaned up just fine. Got a good clean surface for the gasket to seal to now. I'll obviously use some sealant as well to be doubly sure.



So yeah, that was my day of wearing respirators and trying to avoid inhaling anything too harmful.

Intake will be painted engine color, and I may polish the fins and the Fenton logo.

Back in the shop and waiting on the engine getting done now.
~Peter

 

This flathead was cast on Armistice Day 1940, and I purchased it from a big Ford guy named Bill Schriock of Minot, ND about 15yrs ago. Got it on the stand for teardown and I am liking what I see!



Oil Pan had been off recently, likely when they painted the engine as evidenced by the overspray on the main bearing castings.


All the pistons came out beautifully, and the journal bearings look good.


One of the cleanest bottoms I've seen in years.



I'll have the machine shop teardown the pistons and magnaflux the rods as well. They were all pre-stamped with the cylinder numbers, not sure if that's a Ford thing or something someone else did.

Beautiful Cam condition, likely a stock grind. I am planning on replacing with the Isky Max 1, which is their take on a 3/4 Race profile. I figure anything more radical than that and I'll be unhappy with daily driving or long trips.

No visible cracks in any of the seats, and even wear around the valve surface, I'll likely be reconditioning and using the old valves, just with new guides and springs.

So the block is at the machine shop getting tanked and magnafluxed. If it all checks out the plan is simple. If the cylinders are straight and clean, I'll be doing a mild hone and new rings but re-use the old pistons and rods. All new Bearings, new camshaft and adjustable lifters, new timing gear, etc... But not going crazy with stroking or crazy valve jobs.

Making real progress on the metal work, here's a peak at the driver's rear corner:



And got the 5.60-15 tires for the front mounted. I like the size, and the exaggerated profile compared to the rear, but the offset of the front rims is taking some getting used to. That's a lot of brake drum exposed. Wheel Vintiques only sells this offset when you go with 15x5 wheels. Most their offerings are wider.



Chime in with your thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

~Peter

 

Bill Schriock was into rods and circle track racing. My dad knew him.

 

My traditional 29 sedan.

 

I was sad to hear he passed last April, visiting his shop was always so cool to me as a kid.

~Peter

 

That group out of ND had some great racers. He used to come down here with his Late Model when I was a kid.

 

So that happened.

I then got the chassis from storage and started doing some mockup. I soon ran into a few "issues".






What's the issue? Well, that's about 2.5" above where the channeled subfloor is designed to put it. What's hanging me up?




Yep, despite having a 60" WMS axle and the most negative offset rims I could find, I'm still going to rub if I drop it the additional 2.5". I also would have the wheel arch lower than the tire:

So, I decided to take the advice of Flathead Freddie in post 92: let the car build itself.

I look at that profile and I see how well the wheel arch frames the back tire, I also see how the fit to the body at that height is also just enough that I can massage the inner sheetmetal to give a little more room for suspension sway.

And then:


This also means that the floor will be essentially flush with the door openings! Won't need the step up panels that a channeled car usually would!



Obviously I'll need to modify the Boling Brother's subfloor panels or make my own. Body mounts will be somewhat time consuming, but the advantage is that it looks way cool!


Can't fully install that upper cowl panel until the bracing is removed, but you get the idea. I wanted to use the 32 Grill I've had for years, but I feel like it would need to be sectioned to get the proportions right, and I hate to cut original and rare parts like that... Might see what a chopped 28-29 grill surround looks like.

Engine and trans get bolted in tomorrow, so I'll have some more pics then. Thanks for stopping by!

~Peter

 

That's perrrrfect. The wheel arch is an important body line... I feel like a lot of fenderless cars kinda forget it's there.

Not trying to build your car for you, but my 2c... when I go to car shows it seems like every hot rod there has a 32 grille. I know why that's a thing, but I don't wanna be every other car, I can tell you don't either.

 

X2 with what @trevorsworth said. Try the A shell! Looks great channeled 1/2 the depth of the frame, too!

 

Hey! We sold ya that one! Beautiful work cleaning it up! Glad it found a good home, back on a badass hot rod!

 

Thanks man, I'm always keeping an eye out for authentic parts to minimize the amount of chinesium on this build. Keep up the good work!

~Peter

 

chinesium good new word.know what you mean i hate the substandard stuff

 

. . . and get the grille shell centered on the front wheels and certainly not higher than the firewall is -- you gotta buy a new radiator any ways.

 

Glad your staying as close to stock cylinder bore guys get carried away with the .125 " number from what they've learned from a book by a guy named Bishop his advice trashes an engines life span I see it as inappropriate to nail a small bore straight into a max bore engine . These guys with big bucks and an ego with no heart for what they really have should stick to their LS builds .
Glad your building your engines with lots of room for integrity and long lasting blocks . These engines made it this far they deserve to survive at least another 200 years in the right hands . Glad you care Peter it makes a difference and I appreciate your beautiful work it's grand !

I'm adding to the post now I do recommend using an aluminum timing gear over fiber . Fiber is good for silent operation and does dampen harmonics but the way I look at it is fiber units were created in the day and was not a big deal if one came apart and trashed your engine you just went to the boneyard with 5 bucks from what I'm told and the stakes are higher now and aluminium gear last longer . That is how I was told and I don't use fiber gear anymore

 

Got busy with another project so didn't get quite as far as I planned. I did get the lower ear cutoff the Tremec T5 that typically hangs down and looks funny.



This is using the Cornhusker's Rod & Custom adapter kit. They also supplied the rebuild transmission as well.

Yes, my mock-up engine is another 1940 Ford Flathead. This one came out of a lifelong friend's '40 Ford Coupe and identical to mine in every critical dimension, so it will be an excellent (albeit heavy) mockup tool.

Only complaint so far with the Cornhusker kit is that the lower right bolt is just a little too tight to the cast gusset for a socket or closed end wrench to fit over. Had to do it 1/4 turn at a time with an open end 9/16.


I'll probably replace these bolts with grade 8 hex head sockets or button head bolts once I'm assembling for real. That would help with that clearance issue.

Engine and trans get bolted in tomorrow and then I can decide some critical issues like rake and body height.

~Peter

 

Apologies for the photo quality. Guess my phone was glitching out and most of these have a soft focus. I'll take better pics tomorrow as I do more work.



Got the engine and T5 installed today, clearanced the firewall just enough without going crazy.


Good ground clearance.

Note this has the double pulley off the crankshaft so I can run a fan off that forward drive while the water pump belt powers the generator. I'll be figuring out all that mounting in the near future.



For now I am using a pair of Ford carburetors but I'll be doing genuine Strombergs on the finished motor. Grace & Co air cleaners help the vintage look and also will easily fit under the hood. (I'll be running a one-piece hood top only, no sides.)




I was rummaging through some old boxes of flathead and model A parts from like 15yrs ago looking for some carburetors and found some treasure! Appear to be original Edelbrock Heads that only have a few issues to address. Looks like one cylinder must've had a head gasket failure and then water sat in the cylinder? What do you guys think on it's usability? I think my machine shop can mill the heads and maybe flycut the domes to get rid of that corrosion? Or is that even an issue?

Better pics and more progress tomorrow.

~Peter

 

Can you dry polish it out with a 2 1/2 " barrel attachment on a die grinder . You can smooth up the other combustion areas also but leave a rough pad around the spark plug area . What amount of work you do on one cylinder you also do same on the other cylinders .