I've been meaning to put a few photos of this up for a while, and seeing PurdueSD's brilliant phaeton on '32 rails thread has given me the kick up the backside to get it done. This is where I'm at now... This started off as a '31 coupe many years ago, running a healthy four-banger. The body was excellent and was sold off to fund another project, so a '26 Touring was bolted to the chassis. This was great fun but I was really after an A phaeton and it was an advert on the HAMB from Coop that got that moving. This was how it looked in the ad... ...and this was how it was delivered to the shipper. Once it landed in the UK, I managed to get the whole thing (I bought it without the fenders) in to the back of my '56 F100. There's even a full folding roof and side curtains in there. One home, the fun began. Well, when I say fun, I mean several years of bloody hard work. This was originally an Australian body which used wooden subrails. Part of my 'fun' was getting the body together using Tudor 'rails. Most of the important bits of the body that mounted anywhere had rotted away with the wood, so there was a fair amount of fabrication required, and even then stuff didn't want to go where it should have done. You can see from the pics how it started to come together... You can see from these that a V8 had taken over from the four-banger. I'd blown up my banger a while earlier - my avatar is the remains of the crank - so I decided to double-up on cylinders. I found a 21-stud English flathead not far from home so got that and started to build the car around it. I have quite a liking of Volvo Amazon transmissions, having put one behind my previous banger some years ago, so I got a truck bellhousing and grafted one on to the back of the V8. My old neighbour Spock did the machining before he upped and left for Canada... It was around this point that life got in the way a bit. Loss of a parent, moving home, changing job, trying to be some sort of husband and dad, the usual sort of stuff that turn a quick build in to a prolonged project. Eventually the momentum returned and it started to take shape. The rear quarters were the biggest nightmare on the car. They simply did not want to go where they needed to. A day of body jacks, chains, heat and cutting got them somewhere close. Weeks of prepping and sanding saw the paint having to go on one panel at a time so that I didn't gas the new neighbours. A hot day saw the garden being used as a baking oven... Eventually the whole car was done. First push outside to check was at night. I always recommend this if you've painted it yourself in a dirty garage... After spending a small fortune on the 21-stud, this came up. A low-mileage French military flathead, straight from the army truck. So once again, the English were usurped by the French. Several credit cards later, it has some shiny stuff and gets shoved in between the rails. Steering is moved back a touch, pedals adjusted to suit. Say it quickly and you forget how much of a pain in the ass it all was to do. Add some seating and door cards... Get it all plumbed and wired... ...and it's ready for a drive. Got it to one event last year, the VHRA GOW! hillclimb at Prescott. It drives great and really scoots along. The quick-change is an A axle and is fine, even with the V8. Got 3.33 gears in there and along with the four-speed, driving is a pleasure. It's in for a roof and rear tonneau at the end of the week as much of our summer tends to be in liquid form. For the most part this has been an enjoyable build, though it took way too long to finish. Going to enjoy the hell out of it this summer, in particular the VHRA 'Amateur Hot Rod Races' at Pendine Sands in June.
..... best post ever ! Congratulations on the "happily ever after" part of this well written story/post ! Thanks for sharing your venture. Phaetons and tourings rule ..... and so do you !
Cheers for the nice comments, folks. To wrap this one up (literally), got it back from the trimmers today. Full folding roof and half tonneau fitted. That should do it, I reckon.
Wind wings that snap onto the A pillar might be a useful addition. Hopefully pushes just enough air out of the way to keep your sleeves dry, if rain is not too heavy.
Dude, looking good! I really like that stainless A shell on there with the style you've got going on! And thanks for the compliment
I actually toyed with the idea of using a '31 rad shell, which is favourite of all, but I realised I was doing that mostly to annoy a mate who doesn't like them (Neil). Got a pic somewhere...
The Jalopy Journal
