Hot Rods 31 Model A Victoria Build w/Pics – Miss Vicky

Nice Dave!!! That's the ticket! As big as the engine looks it's going to look even bigger in real life because you cannot run hood sides with a hemi without a blister....so that's something to look forward to. Bigger!


Hurry hurry hurry!

 

We're back in business! Got the new (temporary) 283 in for the season. Meanwhile, I'm getting started on rebuilding a Chrysler 354 to drop into Miss Vicky sometime down the road.

Here's a video of the first time she's run since November.

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Question:
Can I slow down the idle by adjusting the idle mixture screws? She's idling at about 1,100 RPM.

 

Nice, Dave! Glad you got it all back together.
No leaks?

 

Sweet!!! Sounds rad!

 

It would slow it down, but that would be way too lean to get that much rpm drop. Idle mixture setting to spec, should only drop 25 TOTAL rpm's from the best idle mix setting.

If no vac leaks ,for sure, on secondary throttle blades, or anywhere else, then the primary throttle screw should be able to idle it so low, it would stall.


If you know there are no vac leaks and the center carb will not idle down, then there is something keeping the throttle plates from closing enough to stall it. Look at choke links, any binding, etc. The plates should close completely if the screw is backed out. In a normal idle speed, they are not closed all the way, I just mentioned that "closed" test for diagnosis

 

Cool man! Sounds good! Looking forward to seeing it in person!!!

Question... What did you coat your headers with? Are they jet coated or just VHT'd??

 

I wondered the same thing.
Whatever it is, I want it in silver, please!

 

That's just black VHT spray paint. I didn't want to waste money getting them coated since they're just temporary.

But I discovered a cool little trick to make VHT shiny this time around. As you know, VHT goes on very flat. I got a few fingerprints on the headers when I was installing them, so I tried to wipe them off before I fired the motor and baked the finish on. Well, the more I rubbed, the shinier they got, so I went ahead and buffed them all over with a cotton rag. The finish you see in the video is the result. And it's now baked on. I like it.

 

Nice. I guess I have to re-spray them to do it?

 

Exactly what I was thinking of using and that is an AWESOME tip!!! That's totally the finish I would like for mine as well.

Did you use a VHT type primer as well, or go straight on the headers with the black??

 

NICE!! Car's looking great, Dave -- should be nice to get a full Spring/Summer/Fall of driving it...


Malcolm

 

Yep. I just scuffed them thoroughly with a scotch bright pad and used a wax and grease remover on them before I sprayed them.

No primer Scott. When I built the headers, part of my process for blending the welds included sanding the entire things with progressively finer sand paper up to 600 grit so they had a nice consistent silver color all over them. Then I just sprayed them with VHT clear. The pipes blued pretty quickly, so I sanded them down again and sprayed them black for the Jalopyrama. And when I was pulling and putting the motor back in, I scuffed them and sprayed them black again. This is the time that I buffed them before baking.

Thanks brother, your heap is looking swell too.

 

i was wondering how close that 32 cowl vent was to the model a profile

 

got your old tires in mine

 

OK, here's a small update on what I've been doing with Miss Vicky. In addition to building a 354 Chrysler, I've been working on a few small things.

First, I picked up a 31 spline 4.11 third member with a trac-loc on Craigs List for a hundred bucks. I had a buddy that builds rears check it out and he gave it a clean bill of health. So I just need to drop it in.






I built a rear seat that maximizes the space I have in the back of the car.
It's just plywood that I'll glue high density foam to and cover in black vinyl until I get the real upholstery done. The back of the seat bottom rests on and bolts directly to the floor and the front has a riser made from a 2x6. I made all the tabs out of 1/8" stock and welded threaded bungs into the floor so it's easily removable. The seat back has five 1/8" tabs that fit into slots on the seat bottom and the top of the back is held in pace with 3 lag bolts into the wood body structure. I also tried to match the arch of the seat back to the rear window opening and the front seat backs.












Lastly, I finally got my front seat belts installed. I was able to use one of the body bolts on each side of the car that go into the frame for the retractable part on the outside. I made a bracket for the two belts on the inside between the seats.

 

Are these retractable?
Pretty fancy

Looking good, Dave!

 

Dave,
Man - where do you find the time?! The Vicky looks Fantastic.
Hope you were wearing a mask when you stole that 4.11 pumpkin WITH trac-loc

Terry

 

well good to see the vicky makin headway, was thinkin I have had 5 race cars since my vicky, my how time flys. yours sure is gonna be nice though keep up the good work, sam

 

Safety first! Looks great David!
Very nice picture of the family and the extended family, too.

 

Any chance you have plans / measurements on the floor you made .I am doing a similar project and don't want to buy the wood floor to get door with measurements , ect .

 

I don't have any plans, but I can share what I did for my floor. First of all my frame is pinched at the cowl about 3/4 inch per side. I made the subrails from 1x2 square tubing right on top of the frame rails. I pie cut the tubing as much as I needed to match the shape of the rails and then drilled holes and bolted the tubing directly to the frame rails. From there I welded up all the pie cuts I could get to. Next I added several cross braces made from the same 1x2 tubing to tie the subrails together. Once the two sides were tied together, I unbolted the subrails from the frame and welded up the bottom of the assembly. After grinding the welds smooth, I bolted the subrail and floor substructure back onto the frame. Then I lowered the body over the frame. I channeled the body 3/4 inches and welded the body to the subrails. Then I unbolted the subrail/body assembly from the frame and stood the body on it's firewall to finish the welding from the bottom. From there, I just cut pieces of 16 gauge sheet metal to fill in the holes between the cross braces. I also figured out where my seats would go and welded in shorter pieces of square tubing perpendicular to the cross braces to bolt the seats to.

 

I found some time this weekend to pull the open 3.50 third member. Now I need to clean things up a little, scrape off the old gasket and put in the 4.11 Trac-loc mentioned above.

Do any of you guys recommend synthetic gear oil over regular 90 weight?

 

Nice Dave!
Make sure you put copper washers on the bolts when assembling it.
So you're not leaking.

I just put 90 wt in mine.

 

Go under the nut on the outside when you tighten the third member.
Guy that rebuilt mine said that nobody ever does that but it prevent leaks...

But if yours was fine without them, maybe you don't have to worry about it.

 

I like the 75-90 mobil1 syn for rears unless older and unknown then non syn.

 

I've always used 90 weight, works fine.
It's all looking rather splendid.

 

Thanks guys, since 90 weight seems to be acceptable, I might just put the gear oil I drained out back in it. It's only got 1,000 miles on it.

And Langy, thank you very much for the compliment, it means a lot coming from you.

 

Welp, I got the 4.11 trac loc in and took a little trip down to North Carolina. Miss Vicky pulls really hard off the line and tachs about 2,000 rpm in 5th at about 65/70 mph. That's right where I wanted to be. An unexpected bonus from the gear change is that I can now use 5th gear at 45+ mph. The lower gear gives it enough grunt to not bog in overdrive at slower speeds. I haven't gotten on it 100% since I did the gear change. I'm going to take her to the strip just to see what she'll do.

Meanwhile, I've been plugging away at the little things that don't seem to amount to much, but take forever.

I've chopped, body worked and painted all my garnish moldings.










And I've figured out all my side window channels, gotten the regulators working and made my glass patterns. I cut the patterns from 1/4 inch MDF because it doesn't warp and it's the same thickness as tempered safety glass.




I need to source some universal rubber/felt window scrapers to keep water out of the gap between the windows and the body. Apparently, Model As never had rubber there, so rain water just ran into the car.

 

Nice Dave!
Let me know if you want to get a quote from my glass guy up here too.
'cause you weren't too happy with the guy that cut your wind shield, if I remember right...