30 Model A - 32 frame Do's and Don'ts?

From your pictures it appears that you didn't maintain the stock frame width dimensions between the pinch at the front of the cowl and the pinch at the front of the rear wheelwell. I tried to maintain the 43 1/2" outside to outside at the widest point of my frame and it appears the shadow line will be about a half inch...

I had to saw cut the flanges and pinch my rails 3/4" on each side right at the front of the rear wheelwell to maintain the stock deuce width of 43 1/2" at the front of the wheelwell and fit the rails inside the wheelwell dim of 42" where the frame turns up. See my post #52 on page 3 of this thread...

 

thanks for your help, i'm about a half an inch the whole side of the body except at the rear of the cowl. i'll pull the body back off this weekend and remeasure the frame width and spread it apart, hopefully i can make it work without to much hassle

 

Oneilfab,

I ended up with the same "shadow" on my car, but I took a frame that was built for a 32, and pinched it. Had I built it for a model A body originally I would have contoured it a little more to the body shape.
Ralph

 

What is everyone using for body to frame mounting? Just the standard welt with the wood sub rail inserts? Need some ideas!

 

Contouring the rails is no joke....looks killer. I'm putting an A on Deuce rails and have had some of the same issues you have now. In a perfect world I'd consider contouring but don't believe I can make it happen with this car. I can handle the shadow. Might want to step back from all the measurements and just get those rails where you think they look best with the body. Good luck.

 

FourBang,

Using welt as well(since the frame goes directly under the subrails) in all spots, except under the door openings(rail), I cut/made a couple pieces of Oak the full length of the door opening. They are held in by the zinc "Ford" script step plates and give it support when stepping in and out.

 

I too am in the beginning stages of a '30 on '32 rails. Am planning on keeping the '32 tank also and did find quite a bit on here of it being done. Not to change the subject or hijack the thread but here are a few pics I found. Pretty straight forward, just need to cut about 2" out of the lower rear panel and reshape the corners to make things fit. Do a search on the subject, you'll be suprised what comes up. Hope I don't piss off the owners of the pics and if I do I appologize. Thanks for all the info this far, it's been a ton of help.

 

It appears that you need about four inches of clearance right?
Take that "bar" off that goes below that panel and section the panel two inches, correct?

That bar is a pretty beefy piece that I assume adds some integrity. Is it fine to delete that?

 

Thanks for posting those tank pictures, that was in info I was looking for.

 

good post...'bout ready to pull off the cabroliet body and drop it on my 32 frame...

 

Thanks for the info, I like the idea of the oak under the step plate for stability.
I have now got my body mocked up and am finalizing the exact location before i construct the sub rails in the rear. Seems I have a 3/16" - 1/4" gap between the body and frame right behind my doors. Is this normal? I hope the combination of welting and being bolted down will correct this. Anyone else notice this at first?
(No mini channel, pinch, or trim in the wheel wells)

Also is there a recorded "exact" location where these model a body's should be mounted? I notice that centering the wheel well with the tire is not always done. But from what it looks like, I've got mine a little too forward on the frame.

 

Looks like the same point my build is at. I'm going to buy some 1x6 oak and fit it inbetween the subrails and the frame to fill and strengthen.

 

For those of you notching and piecutting the frame: the unboxed rails bend easily in a decent shop press, they are probably DQ-type steel and softer than you might think. just sayin.

 

Is that what I need to do also?
I quickly found that the Model A wooden mounts will not work in any way.

How about a long piece of 1/8" rubber cut to fit the frame combined with the 1/8" welting? Does anyone think that will work?

 

You don't have to do oak, metal works fine, or lower the body flatter on the frame. (More cutting, grinding....)
The way mine sits right now, and that may change, I have a 1" rake body to frame.

I need to get some current pics and post 'em up

 

Check your front body mounts to make sure they are flat. I had to raise mine up(flatten then) to get the body to set flat on the rails. Plus if you haven't cut out your rear subrails completely, it may cause that small gap.

 

Seems like there's allot of questions about what to do in the front with the subrails. I struggled with this for a while too but what I did on my coupe to channel it down and get rid of the gap without adding wood blocking etc. was to completely cut out the front toe kick section of subrail behind the firewall. Once I did this the whole body dropped down on my rails and fit a 100 times better. Not saying this will work for everyone because I also had my rails pinched for my body but if you have I would suggest trying this.

Once I had the body dropped down where I wanted it I welded the toe kick section back in. Sorry I couldn't find a picture of this but it's pretty easy to picture.

 

That's kinda what I did, only I sliced the front mount, moved it up, and rewelded it.

 

Bass put up some some good pic's showing what he did to the front mounts on Bubba's Coupe. The frame is not pinched on this car and the cowl was horizontally pie cut so the body would set on top of the rails. Go to post #3 and scroll down to pic #7.

 

Pie cutting the cowl is the way I have done several 30/31s in my shop. Lets the body sit down tight on the frame.

 

Me my brother and our friend Jeremy spent last night cutting out a little more of the subrails to get his 30 coupe on a set of pinched 32 rails. I think the only thing that's holding us up now is the flange on the cowl bottom. Otherwise it's going to look awesome and this thread has helped a bunch!

 

Anybody got any pics they could share???

 

Nice frame work, can you post more photos?

 

Alright guys,
I took the oak shim advice and picked up a 6x9x1 board yesterday.
I clamped it to the bottom of the frame in order to trace the contour.
Took it into the school wood shop today and cut out two full length pieces to run from the front mount under the cowl to the last of the remaining subframe in the rear quarter.
Next I planed it down to roughly 3/4". After a few trips back and forth from the car I did some sanding and have them near perfect. Now I need to remove the small tab that hold the front of the rear quarter to the subframe. I will modify and reinforce that area with a few welds on each side tomorrow. Then the body will sit flush with the added frame welt when everything goes together. Here are a few pics from my phone.

 

Thanks- probably easiest to just go to my user profile and look at my album.

 

btt, lots of good info i will be needing soon

 

If I use A cross members will this take care of the width problem?

 

While this is back up, here's a good tech on fitting the 30/31 cowl to the deuce frame...
TECH: Fitting A 31 Cowl To A 32 Frame

 

Ttt.

 

Can you put a model A on a 32 frame and use the 32 fuel tank...if so what do you have to do to make it work....because mine isnt working..lol, thx