Well I've been lurking mostly since 2006 since I didn't really have anything but a pile of parts. Two months ago I bought what I call Rich's roadster. Rich passed in December of last year the day before my birthday. He was my neighbor at my father in laws summer place was like a dad to me and a grandfather to my boys. Rich's dream was to build a Model A for each of his four kids and himself. None of his kids were ever interested but Rich kept the dream alive by collecting parts and building a 29 Huckster/Woody body from scratch and patterns from an old rotten donor. He was a great woodworker. For the last fifteen years I tried to convince Rich to sell all of his stuff and pay someone to work on the roadster as it was complete but needed work to be road worthy. I even tried to get him to sell it to me so I could get it finished and he would still have it in his garage, no dice. Rich wanted to do the work himself but with failing health he really couldn't do it. So for the last 5yrs or so a buddy of mine, and a friend of his, who lives locally started to do the bodywork "good enough" (and not up to his usual high standards) and the mechanicals. My buddy did the lions share of the work as he was around all summer (Rich was a snowbird) and I was only there on some weekends. Our goal was to get the roadster up and running so Rich could drive it as we knew Rich was running out of time. Well as I said the bastard up and died on me and left no will to boot so it took until now to get the roadster from the estate. So now my goal is to get it put back together as it was partially disassembled and drive it stock for a summer or two and then to piss off Rich I'm gonna make a hot rod of it. He was always a stock guy and really hated seeing "good" A's made into rods. I will probable just rip off the fenders, and throw some juice brakes and some banger parts and keep driving it until I figure out what to do. Here's a picture of it now. Its not the best but you should have seen all the crap we had to move to roll it out. All of the parts that need to go back on are in it, but I need to dig out more. Oh by the way if you need any sheet metal, frames or wheels, thats Mel (Dirtyest Devil) loading up half of all the stuff Rich had into a trailer and pickup. A lot of it is real rough but if you are young and poor or just poor or need real Henry steel for patches PM Mel. He ain't gonna ship it so you need to get to Jersey to pick it up. Thanks Mel for stepping up and taking the Crap with the little bit of good stuff so it wouldn't go to the dump. And if you see Mel ask him about the "Wench" I'll update and post some better pictures as I go along.
You've got the right outlook on this project. Maybe the single most valuable thing, to keep in mind! It will make a fine 4-banger rod if that is what you'd like. Rich is watching, so make him proud!
nice score mark, drive it and enjoy!! oh yeah that flathead worked out sweet, it's ready to go thanks to jetmek. Rob
Glad to hear it worked out or at least worked! The roadster is coming home this weekend so the reassembly and patching where it needs it. Going to get it running too.
Update: Rich's ghost has traveled 190miles to harass me in NJ! The roadster has been in my driveway under a tarp as I wanted to get it started before putting in storage for the winter where I cannot work on it. I have been chasing a no spark problem for the last month. First I chased down a bad ignition switch and by passed it with a toggle, still no spark. Replaced the condenser and points still no spark and now I am really pissed, this is like my old VW Beetle, it only has 6 damn wires and 4 of them are for the spark plugs. So I decided to upgrade the dizzy to modern points and condenser and a new coil. STILL no spark and now its getting cold and windy outside I need to get it into storage before it starts snowing. Go back and check all the wiring and find the wire in the conduit to the dizzy broke at the contact end inside. So now I have spark!! so now onto step two is to check and reset the timing as I also got a new cam and of course the cam position changes when you disassemble it. Man that off set cam tool is a real time saver. Now I try to fire it up and it runs for about 30 seconds and quits. Oh by the way the carb was leaking from everywhere so I got another gasket set and used Pematex on them and the threads to seal it up, worked except the it still weeps at the throttle but not enough to stop me. I notice that there is gas leaking from around the spark plugs (they are new plugs and washers) so I tighten them a little more and that slows it down but doesn't stop it completely. I try to start it again and the pulley for the generator falls off! So I get that back on best I can so I can at least check the water pump while running and crank it over again. Holy crap there is gas and coolant seeping out between the head and the block on every compressing stroke. All the bolts were loose, I tightened them down but the damage was done, it still leaked and the head is really pitted and nasty (not the one I recall working on) so I towed it to my storage garage thats a couple of miles away until spring. Now here's the kicker I DROVE it two years ago and started it last fall before Rich died. What the hell has been going on? Must be Rich's ghost as he had painted the engine and all the bolts are still painted on. So I have now moved up the 12V conversion to the spring and need to either get a new head or find a good stock one. Anybody got either one? The ones I found in Rich's stash are all junk. Eventually I will get the Holly 94 I have rebuilt and an intake and exhaust to run it but I promised I would run it stock but may cheat a little and get a hi compression head.
Maybe a good rest over the winter will be all the roadster needs <g>. Have you thought about a B head ? Cool story ! Billy
Thanks Billy. I have a spare motor and trans. the numbers on the motor that is in it match the frame so if I decided to rod it, all the stock pieces and the motor will go into storage so that if I sell it and the next guy wants to restore it he will have the original parts.</g> So I just picked up a nice original head to put in it in the spring. I want to at least run it with the original motor so I can say I did.
Got the Roadster running yesterday and drove it the 2 miles from the garage I use for storage to my house. Man what a trip! I had the windshield folded down and even though I was only on side streets I did get it into 3rd gear. The weather was perfect. This is the first time I have driven it this far and I think this is the farthest it has gone since the 70's when Rich bought it. Nothing broke but it overheated a little, I think the timings was too far advanced, as I was so excited to drive it that I forgot all about adjusting it. Now the fun really begins as the to do list is long. My goal is to take a long trip, a couple of hundred miles, the end of the summer, but I have lots to do before that happens. So it is just around town for now.
Not sure where the original pictures went they were there, didn't even notice they were gone. So just for you here are some extraction photos
The Jalopy Journal
