Bought my first car (57 Dodge - woowee tailfins!) when I was 13, by the time I was old enough to get my license that one was long gone and I'd moved on to bikes. Worked on lots of project cars over the years, some of my own, some for friends, can't remember a time when I didn't have a project. Right now I'm trying to finish up on a 57 Chevy Shortbox. My garage is small so I need to get the truck done so I can start on my NEW project. A little while ago I picked up a 30 A coupe, something I'd wanted since I was a kid cutting pictures out of car mags and sticking them on the wall in my room (anyone remember Rod Action ?, cut up quite a few little books too) Anyway, the car has been in storage since '63 and it is complete. The po had it for the last 20 years and really never did anything with it other than move it from a barn to a shed and then try to take it apart a little bit then put it back together. One little side note to this story, about 12 years ago, a 30 A coupe came up for sale here and I was deep in a resto project on another car. Short story I couldn't grab it, which I regretted because complete A coupes don't come up around here very often, especially ones in storage since '63 ! That's right, it's the same car, 12 years later. I had forgotten about it until I saw it for sale one day. I called him up, gave him whatever I had in my pocket and shook on it. Sold my bike the next day and had the coupe at my house in no time flat! I didn't want to miss my chance on it again. All the old tires are holding air so not too hard to push around, haven't tried to see if it will turn over. The body will need a few patches in the usual places but I am thrilled with how complete it is. One thing I really do need is a driver's side rear fender. This is one of the things I was talking about that was "taken apart" by the po. Unfortunately it looks like he used a can opener to get it off! Here's a pic taken when the po brought it home in '91 Plans call for full fenders (cuz the roads here are always covered with sand and rocks), chop, fabric roof insert, early to mid sixties style paint. More details to be figured out later, lots of choices to make on front and rear suspension (definitely solid axle), transmission, tires etc.. Lots of killer cars on here, I hope I can capture some small bit of them in my bomb. Oh yeah, every time I finish a project I say that's it, next time I'm going to buy a "finished" car and just put my personal touches on it. Well. here we go again, this is my Last Build!
Very nice find! Heck I think Id do some minor things to it and drive it for a while. Looks sweet like that... But then again Im a model A guys too! Enjoy your new ride and project.
The Jalopy Journal
