Projects 29 Model A Couprielet, A Phantom Sleeper

This is very clever. To me this thread reminds me of hot rodding back in the 70's. You just built your own parts, because the catalogs were few and far between. Hats off my friend.

 

Hey Guys.
Another long overdue update.

 

This is what finished cardboard template looks like.

 

On the underside, i added extra reinforcement to stiffen it up

 

The extra reinforcement comprised of timber strips encased in masking tape.

 

With the cardboard template finished, i fine checked it against the plywood buck and was able to finish it as well.

 

I am happy with how it looks and i am keen to get a start on the buck for the sides once i get some more ply.

 

The difficulty i was having getting the leading edge correct led to me making it a removable section. That meant that if i damaged the edge by over sanding then i could unscrew it and replace it without having to discard the whole buck.

 

Until I can afford more ply, i have been focusing on doing a few other things.

 

This is the template for the B Pillar.

 

I took the pattern from my 30 Pickup Cab.

 

Last weekend i picked up something else that will speed up the build. I have decided to focus on it until I can afford more ply.

 

I will get some more photos shortly.

 

glad to see you posting again... plywood was $8 a sheet... then desert storm, everything got shipped in plywood boxes. quadrupled the price...
Truck B pillars are a little different, have an added radiused strip at the top, may be shorter... then again the A pillar on a truck is 1" taller than a coupe... B pillars ?.

 

Hey Guys.
I was able to get a bit more done on the buck, this time the side buck. Originally it was to be a similar set up to the top buck, a solid slab of ply. But with the budget exhausted, I decided to take a more resourceful route by building it out of scrap instead. This is as far as I have got.

 

This buck is a lot lighter and hopefully will be as strong as the other one, once I have finished adding the flat bar and tek screws.

 

With the buck nearing completion' I have been turning my attention back to the sub rails. Yesterday I dragged out the spare frame and took the cowl down and placed the sub rails over the frame and put the cowl on the frame. I mocked up a basic body using one of the doors, hood and grill shell. The template I had made of the B Pillar was placed behind the door to determine the layout. In doing so I took a long good look at the sub rails and decided it would be possible to salvage them.

 

The pitting is pretty bad especially behind the seat frame. But with the fabrication equipment, I can make up the sections that will need replacement, which is most of it behind the seat frame.

 

One thing that will make the task easier is the plywood bucks I made up. These will become a Jig for the sub rails.

 

The cross rail will be cut up to repair the others.

 

As for the actual sub rails, cardboard patterns will be taken fron the most damaged areas and the sections will be fabricated and cross checked against the damaged sections.

 

Great project! I would also love to see how you are making the hinges for your hood sections. I will be needing to make a hood for my car shortly and would like to have a hinge down the center of the hood top. Thanks.

 

The hinges are pretty straight forward.

 

You can buy these at your local hardware store.

 

Thanks. In one picture it looked like you were forming hinges like those on original hoods.

 

I did make up a set of sides with stock style hinges that attached to the original hood tops.

 

Hey Guys.
I had the first full weekend at home for some time. I took advantage of this to get stuck into doing the sub rails. This is how it looks at the moment. I was going to take patterns and make templates but skipped that process.

 

Still a lot of work to do, but its slowly taking shape. Not bad for a couple of days work.

 

Originally I was going to use the sections i had made up in the 3 in 1 but none were accurate so I went back to the drawing board. These sections were made with a combination of hammer forming and tipping dies. The sub rail section was completely hammer formed and jigsaw cut for extra strength for the joins to the original. The hammer forming for the sub rails was actually done on the top rail of my 34 BB Ford truck frame which was the perfect width.

 

This section is joined to the rear section rather than the front. Until i can determine the overall length i wont be welding the two parts together. That process involves fitting the rumble seat floor pan into place and attaching it to get the two sections aligned.