The Birth Of A "BANGER"!

Just thought I would share my current build with the board. We are calling it the "Banger!"

When I bought the Chopped Model “A” Sedan that became the Pulp Friction it came on an original chassis. The owner was not happy, as he had been told the engine was rebuilt. He had tried to get it running but gave up. He said it would turn over but I should just consider it a trailer for the body.

When I got it home we pulled the body off and the first thing I noticed was a nearly new muffler and exhaust pipe. It had surface rust but you could still tell it was new. So who puts new exhaust on a car that does not run? I immediately popped the distributor cap. It looked brand new as well.

The starter was not on the motor. I dug around in a box of parts and found it. It had a 24” red battery wire attached to it. My Dad and I exchanged looks. It could have been a coincidence. Maybe the previous owner only had “red” battery wire or maybe, just maybe, he didn’t know anything about Model “A”s.

Of course like most early cars, Model “A”s were positive ground. We reinstalled the starter and squeezed the positive battery cable down on the negative side of the battery and then grounded the positive. We fogged the cylinders with lube and then put the chassis in gear and rolled it back in forth a while to make sure the engine was oiled.

A few minutes later with a red neck gravity fed fuel apparatus in place, we cranked it over. It only turned over about twice and then fired up right there in the driveway. It just sat there and idled like a new one. Immediately we started to formulate building a traditional rod around it.

I found an original Riley dual carb intake manifold on Racing Junk. The guy I got it from had wanted to build a hot rod Model “A” in the late 1960s. He bought the intake with 2 down draft Stromberg 97s and hung it on his garage wall. He never got around to building one and the unit hung as garage décor for nearly 50 years.

We fabricated a low-slung chassis our selves and then dropped on what we think is sheet metal from an old Chevy roadster. It has an era correct, hand formed front dropped axel. It was dropped nearly 7 inches. It has finned Buick front brake drums and we swiped the front wishbone from the Model “A” and cut it apart to build custom radius rods. To top off the motor we added a new set of Headers from “REDS”.

Recently I read an article on a Model “A” site about changing out the original 3 speed with a T-5 from an S-10. It was really cool and simple. The pieces I needed cost less than $300. I found a local trans on Craigslist for $100 bucks and now the little “Banger” has a five speed in it. Out back is an original Halibrand quick change. We have a lot of work to do but we hope to drag it out to the HAMB Drags next year and make a few passes in the gas roadster class.

 

Cool start. Keep us posted. Todd

 

I have had a couple of Private Messages about the headers for the Model A Four Banger I mentioned. I don't want to advertise for them but if you just Google the header name you will find them. They are really nice. I put the split set on mine:

 

I got my Dad a set of Offenhauser Knee Action Shocks for Christmas and that got him stirred up again on the "Banger." We rolled it out of the shop yesterday to get a good look at the front end.



Dad fabricated these cool towers to bolt on the shocks and they also serve as the headlight mounts. He also is putting the finishing touches on the spring mount. We just had to get out of the shop and take some photos.



Also since the original post we got the T-5 Transmission swap complete.