The whole stance and proportions are pretty much spot on! Yes, you do work fast. Well done. Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
How did you get the rust off your frame? Was it pitted and what did you use to seal it? I like your progress and look forward to the progress. Subscribed!
Hi Rat.Racer, The frame I got was in pretty good shape so it didn't take much to get the rust off it - it was more dificult getting the thick layer of brushed on epoxy enamel off! I had the frame sand-blasted professionally - I'm not a fan of dip stripping as there can be problems with residue being held in lap joints such as with the riveted cross members. Ask your sandblasting shop about alternative media. They even use walnut shell as a "delicate" media especially for softer metals etc. Apart from that I just used a good quality metal inpregnated filler for the rust dimples - which weren't very bad. Hope that helps.
thanks for all the info and pics your thread gave me the final push and i cut my 30 coupe sunday . it was the best thing iv done to the car since iv goten it, again thanks for the good pics and strait forward info
Excellent, thank you. I don't think mine is too bad, I've seen worse on here come out better. But, I haven't taken it apart yet to get into the guts. So, we'll see how it goes.
Cool! I reckon it's all about mind over matter when it comes to carrying out your first roof chop. It's best to get all the info you can so you can do the job properly but it's so easy to over-think the whole deal. !! Model A's are one of the easiest cars to chop though - even with the tapers in the pillars etc. Once done though it really makes it all worthwhile cause you can't beat a nicely chopped 'A' coupe!
Getting the small things done . With the final phase of setting things up and checking everything fits, its getting to be time to disassemble it all for the last time. So while its still together I fitted up things like the door handles which are repro and needed some work to fit properly. I had to trim a bit off the handle shafts and file the holes in the doors etc so they worked properly. I didnt want to do any of this sort of thing after the car was painted. At this point I also fitted the last of the wood into the body. The door pillar wood was originally fixed in there before the outer panel skin was fitted so I had to remove the old screws that were sticking out in the door pillar channels. I decided to glue the wood in this time with a generous amount of good quality construction adhesive - they are not going to come out in one piece! Front floor boards were cut to size from plywood with holes put in for pedals, steering column, gearbox tower, handbrake lever and master cylinder access. I bought a repro master cylinder access cover for that proper look and recessed it in so it sat flush. I was quite pleased with that little detail and having the new floor boards sitting in place really makes the car look a lot more finished inside! I also made up a fairly basic seat out of more plywood as Id seen done on the HAMB once. Basically 2 pieces of plywood fixed together with hinges across the rear. This means the seat back can fold forward for access behind depending on where I decide to locate the trunk partition. I mounted the new seat base directly onto the original seat sliders bolted from below and using T-nuts set into the plywood seat base. This gets the seat nice and low which is good for someone my height in a chopped car! I also mounted the seat quite far back for additional leg room to help too. The seat back is also laid back a little to what looked about right. It was a bit of a relief to find I could do all this and still keep the old steel parcel shelf in place. I bought some seat foam and cut and trimmed it to fit. Firm 4 inch foam for the base and softer stuff for the back. Because I wanted to replicate the feel of the old inner spring seat I overlaid the base foam with a layer of closed-cell foam like camp bed-roll stuff. Unfortunately I messed up the seat width on the first attempt and had to remake it wider and with more outward flare at the top rear. Those coupe bodies do get a lot wider at the waist. Anyway Im real pleased with the second version! I made up a throttle linkage arm from the pedal through the firewall while the engine is in place. Im using a genuine old Fulton gas pedal I bought. These were an accessory for the Model A in the old days and would be kinda cool to use. It took a bit of careful lining up of where things should sit and where the holes in the firewall needed to be etc but it all worked out. Again some helpful info from the HAMB got me on the right track. I didnt have an old Ford linkage or arm so I fashioned one up using 3/8 bar carefully turning a ball on one end with a nice taper in the lathe. Very light touch with the machining as it got pretty slender near the finish! Just heat and bend to get a nice shape etc and then slide the plain end inside the car ready to be trimmed to length. I then made up a boss with twin grub screws to hold the short arm under the pedal. With the pedal screwed to the floor board it all looked pretty good. So with all this done along with a heap other small jobs ticked off the list (I'm a list guy) its now getting close to the big tear-down. Yikes!
Thanks man! Once I'm finished with climbing in and out of the car with dirty clothes and hands the plan is to cover the seat in deep 2" tuck 'n roll black leatherette with a round bolster top and bottom - maybe even some piping around the edges etc too. The door panels and front kick panels will be T&R to match. The rest of the interior will remain unlined painted flat black with the oiled wood left exposed. Not going too "high-end" with the interior - keeping it basic but nice.
Ive been busy doing all the small jobs and getting as many things done as I can while the car is basically still in one piece. Everything has been assembled as much as possible. Things like the clutch linkage has been made, installed and checked. Pedals, steering, doors, windscreen frame, lights, brackets, seat etc all fitted up and checked for fit. So the time has now come for the big dismantle. Psychologically this is like a huge step backwards from where things are at - but its a good thing really. Big picture reminder here! So the first thing was to make some room as the car is going to be sprawled all over the shop soon. The steering column was first out then the seat, doors floor boards and so on. I then placed a timber piece through the door openings and slung a strop and lifter over a beam in the workshop and lifted the body clear of the frame. Its the first time the body and frame have been separate for some time weird. I rolled the frame out from under the suspended body and lowered the body onto some saw-horses. Without the engine in way now I can access lower firewall area where I had replaced the piece cut out by a previous owner and finally finish that job. I tipped the body right up on its nose and finished the last of the welding and cleanup work underneath and painted the whole underside. Now thats the look of progress! Next up was to lift the engine out of the frame, remove the front and rear axles I just rolled them away! With the frame stripped down to nothing I flipped it over and finished all the last of the welding jobs including the last welds for the rear kick-up. Painting time! I painted the frame, front axle assembly and rear end with a flat black epoxy for a low-key look. The brake drums and backing plates were then painted satin black with a nice epoxy gloss black used on the radius arms front and rear for a bit of contrast. I re-assembled the frame front and rear ends in and engine and transmission all painted and back in place and sitting back on the wheels. This is a good time to run all the brake lines easy access to everywhere. A much better idea than working from underneath the car and real easy to bleed the brakes. With everything reinstalled and hooked up it was time the put the body back on the frame for the final time yeeha! This thing is really coming along now - time to decide on the final shade of paint for the body!
Cheers.... The upper shock mounts are pretty simple as you can see. I wanted to keep the shocks up out of the way as much as possible - so they weren't hanging down looking ugly from behind. I also went for SoCal shorty shocks to reduce the o/all length which helps too. The upper rear mounts are just light 2" angle cut to length with a bit of an angle cut out to support the pin. The shock pins were turned from grade 8.8 bolts - for both top and bottom. The lower mounts onto the axle are from 2"x1" RHS with the pin drilled right through for strength. A little lower brace plate was added between the RHS and the housing. All very simple - like me! The shocks sit on more of an angle than normal so as to help reduce side movement of the rear - shackle swing can be an issue at bumpy corner time. I carried the raised trunk floor "box" the full width between the subrails to allow for the shock mounts and exhausts so it all fits in nice.
Looking Awesome, like the build and build notes, the car is going to look great, have you checked that the single circuit master cylinder will pass cert? Look forward to seeing the finished product.
Time to re-assemble this thing now everything is in its place on the frame and hooked up while the body was off the frame. The lower firewall repair is finished and primed ready for paint now too like the rest of the body. That piece of the firewall was removed by a previous owner who was planning to channel the body over a frame and was done for transmission clearance. I had to make that missing piece but couldn't finish the install due to the engine being in the car at that time. I so was pleased to finally get that job finished as it was bugging me. With the underside of the body all done and painted there was no reason to not put the body back on the frame this time for good! Happy days! I taped the body mount blocks in place so they didnt slide off until the bolts were installed while placing the body on the frame. With the engine and brake pedals now in place it was going to be tricky getting things back together. I figured I could carefully move the body down around the pedals as I really didnt want to pull anything apart now. As it turned out there was just enough room to do this I had to push down on clutch pedal during the process but it worked out. So with the body back on it was time to reinstall the steering column, gear lever, floorboards and all the other stuff thats been laying around the shop floor. The steering has all been re-fitted with the column in set place and even a quick DIY wheel alignment job done. Now I can at least roll the thing around and steer it where I want it to go. So with the doors back on its time to finally prepare this thing for painting. Yeeeeha!
So its time to finally paint the body! This is where this project will really start looking like an actual car! Its definitely a major turning point and something Ive been looking forward to for a while now. I had decided it will be much easier for me to paint the body with it on the frame as it means I dont have to try and move or lift it risking damage to a fresh paint job. Besides I dont have a paint booth at home so its going to be a back yard job and I need to wheel it outside. Ive painted a couple of cars on the back lawn before and with a bit of preparation (and good weather) Ive proven it can be done successfully and cheap. Just dont mow the lawns beforehand and leave the clippings laying on the ground! Im not looking for a new out of the shop HQ finish for this paint job more of a well used 20 year old patina kinda thing keepin it real. In the interests of simplicity (ie dumbing it down) I decided to go for a single stage (one-shot deal) metallic paint basically fancy enamel with some special stuff in it to make it a bit better. This will give me a finish more in keeping with the look Im after rather than a basecoat/clear coat system gives. This stuff dries fast with a good finish off the gun too. Well that was the sales pitch I got. The shop gave me a thinner to use that would reduce the gloss level a bit too as this metallic paint apparently doesnt like flattener added into the mix. So Ill go with that advice. It was a pretty good day for painting outside no wind and just a bit cloudy with no rain forecast brilliant. So it was now time to roll the car outside for the first time. Ah SHIT! Nothing like sunlight to show up little defects in the paint prep damn it! I thought I got them all last time. So another final once-around with 400-600 grit paper and finishing putty. Hopefully thats got them all now. Only thing is with the unplanned extra time taken for the final-final prep, the day (and car) were starting to warm up Ill have to work fast! Extra thinning will help keep the paint workable so it doesnt dry as it hits the car. That tends to give a real gritty looking finish not exactly what Im going for! So with the rear wheels off and plastic drop-sheets and masking all in place it was time to get into it. All the tight areas and door jambs were painted first followed by a tack coat all over. Then fill the gun for one more lap around the whole car with a nice finish coat working fast to keep a wet edge all the way. Pheew all done! Now it can sit there and the paint will cook hard in the warm sun. I have to say; it came out pretty darn well even if a little bit too shiny for me. Still, I can remedy that shine later but in the meantime it sure does look perty with a glossy finish! Im real pleased with the over the counter-mix graphite colour too. I was surprised at how quickly this paint dried to the touch and hardened up with a nice smooth finish too - must be good stuff alright. Anyway; lets get this thing back inside the wind has come up and I see rain clouds forming! So if you are not going for a slick paint job and have the basic gear; Id certainly recommend considering the DIY approach it worked out pretty good for me. Ive seen worst.
The Jalopy Journal
