Projects Jan 2023 Updated: 31Apickup: 31 A coupe Build

Though I'd finally start a build thread for my 31 A coupe on 32 rails. Picked up the car back in 2011 while still living in Michigan. It was a neighbor's old father son project that never got finished. They picked up the car in 1971 in the Upper peninsula. It was hard to pass up although I was in the process of thinning my stuff out for a move to the PNW. I sold off many extra parts that came with it along with the chassis.

 

With the move in 2013, it took a while to get the garage set up and get going. I checked around on having a pinched 32 frame built. I ended up having a frame built by Tim Davis of Clark Hot Rods out of Daytona beach. He used JW rails, with Chassis Engineering X member. Tim was great to deal with and he even arranged shipping.
I set the frame up as a roller, but will finalize all of the welds and set up once I get a drivetrain chosen. I had a 32 heavy dropped axle I've had stashed for years (got in at the Nats North when it was in Detroit for $50), I set of 33-34 split wishbones, a 66 Bronco 9 inch with Rjays ladder bars and spring hangars (alliance discount) and a SoCal narrow spring.

 

Decided to go with a mini channel in the front of about 3/4".

 

The ends of the body cross-members at the center of the car needed to be trimmed off to clear the frame when you drop it slightly. I'll clean them up further when I pull the body later.

 

The rear of my 32 frame was also pinched, it just fits inside the rear body by trimming the inner part of the subrails. I leveled the body, centered the rear wheelwell and decided to build my own new rear sub rails. picked up some 14 ga sheet metal, bent it between some angle iron using my Thor hammer ( found it in the middle of the road one day). Then I cut and welded them. It was a lot of work but they came out as I envisioned.

 

Nice

 

I decided to mount the body with wood blocks similar to how it was originally mounted, The cowl was bolted through the frame, the center body crossmember I welded mounts inside of the frame, another set at the next crossmember, then two tabs off of the rear spring crossmember. Leveled up the body and trimmed the stock front blocks due to the 3/4" channel, then made up my own blocks for the back two sets,

 

Here's how the cowl is mounted and looks with the channel.

 

Started the body work with the left front cowl patch panel. The third picture is a comparison of the original bead profile and the patch panel. They are not exact, but pretty close. I think I got these thru Snyders.

 

Here's the panel held in place and then spot welded in, then finished. The last picture shows a comparison of the cowl bead to the door bead, I posted this in another thread to show that they didn't match in shape from the factory. The door is solid with no patches.

 

My laptop died this summer and I finally got another, have to recover some of my picture. Did make more progress this past summer. Did the passenger side cowl, both quarter patches and the lower wheel wells. Here's the passenger side cowl

 

Here's the right quarter. It had been patch back in the 70's. They pop riveted a patch to the sub structure, then overlapped the patch panel, gas welded it, beat it down with a hammer then leaded over it. They had initially attached it with aluminum rivets which were leaded over also. Those were corroding and the lead popping over them, I removed the lead, ground out the weld and removed the patch. Did quite a bit of hammer and dolly work and some heat shrinking. I tried to save as much of the solid metal as possible. Replaced the rotted away portions of the sub rails. The bottom of the patch panel flange is bent at a 90, I figured a way to get the back bent up the way they should, trimmed and fit the panel. Then slowly welded it in.

 

Here's the left quarter, was originally patched the same as the other side. The wheel lip was pulled in and thin, so a made a hammer form and shaped a new piece and then worked it with a body hammer to get the outward radius (bottom photo).

 

Right wheel well. I had bought the patch panels for these. The beads aren't stamped as deep as the original. Decided to just patch the bottom. I made up a die for my press to press the bead deeper (I'll post a picture of that later), also made a hammer form for the curve over the axle. Have to do some final welding and grinding yet.

 

Here's the left wheel well. Had to do a small bump out at the front where the frame bumps out.

 

Where you have cut the bottom of the cowl front out, maybe use a body to rear bumper braces... come 2 at a time, riveted together... drill out the rivet and one side does both cowl sides... they work like '33 '34 trucks...

 

Great detail! If you have any more pics of the rear sub section being made please post them up. I'm saving this thread for future reference.

 

I didn't take many photos when I made up the sub-rails, if I can recover the data from my old hard drive I may have a few more.
Here's what I used to press the wheel wells beads deeper and to proper shape.
The first photo shows how the bead looks in the repro panel and a cut piece from the original panel that it needs to match.
The second photo shows my homemade die. I used a piece of first generation Trex decking scrap, cut a cove shape in it with the table saw. Seen a woodworking show on PBS where they showed how to cut coves for some project and decided it may work for this. I had to do several trial runs until I had the Depth and width correct. Then took a piece of metal pipe I had laying around, it was close in size, cut a strip off to the right depth then plug welded it to a metal plate.
The last photo shows after pressing which matched the original upper piece on the car.

 

On the Quarter panels, the bottom wraps up under the sub rail originally. The repro patch panels have the bottom bent at a 90. The trick was to bend the back up like the original without distorting the bead. The first photo is just an example as I didn't take photos when I did it, I used solid steel wedge that I had around, clamped it in the press then prying the flange side up, until I could get at it with a body hammer. Then took the pressure off and slid the panel and repeated since the wedge was only about 2" wide. Came out uniform without distortion. Then worked back until I had it bent up the entire length. That was my backyard method.
The lower two photos show a piece of the original quarter for reference.

 

Started on my headlight bar. I've had this 32 headlight bar and a set of Guide headlights that I got from a swap meet for $20 when I was in high school back in the late 70's.
I cut both ends off next to the mounting cup.
Then ground and rounds the ends of the cups.
Third photo show the cut off ends that will be used as the stands. Need to heat and bend them out slightly. That's as far I as I've got so far.

 

looking good...
when you weld some kind of light cups or bar onto your stands make sure they tilt forward and down...
or you will be out "racoon huntin"]

 

There is a front and back to the light bar, plus it was a V8 car so it had the V8 emblem on the bar which should be vertical.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

cool...

 

That bead die is slick.

 

Hey sloppy jalopies, can you give more info about the body to bumper brace. What year?

 

any updates ? maybe pics of truck?

 

The body to bumper braces are on almost all the model A bodies, they rivet to the bumper brace and bolt up under the rear cross rail... you will find them on discarded bumpers...
coupe / cabbie and roadster are a little longer than the sedan / touring...
one bumper brace will make both front body mounts...
I have found cheap used braces on ebay… usually when they only have one...

 

I haven't updated my build in a while, thought I'd do some catch up over my progress since last spring.
At one point in time, there was a sheet of metal screwed over the roof opening. After it was removed, the last owner had a guy do some lead work on the car. They just dimpled the holes slightly and pushed lead into them. I melted the lead out, hammered and dollied them smooth, then welded them up with the mig. A total of 36 holes. Plus they did the same on the visor.

 

Cut out and shaped a piece of sheet metal for the rear floor. Need to go back and bead roll and flange the edges.

 

The spare tire carrier looks like it was used to push the car numerous times. The lower cross member was bent in, along with the panel below the deck lid. I removed the lower panel, and cut a long slice in the top and bottom of the lower crossmember and pulled it out. I cut the portion where the spare tire carrier bolted on and welded up the mounting wholes and then rewelded it into place. I spent quite a bit of time on the panel below the decklid, but it was really oil canning, so decided to a new panel from Brookville which I haven' t fit up yet.