As we all are part of a hot rod scene there is always that one car or body or parts that gets passed around so many times that at some point someone needs to grab the bull by the horns and build it. This is the case with the sedan you are about see in this build thread. In the late 90's I found what I thought was a 30-31 model A truck cab for sale real cheap. The cab ended up being a 30-31 sedan that someone in Naco Mexico had cut up into a truck cab as a gas station service truck. The door lettering said Gas De Naco Gas so that is how the car got its name. After getting it home I realized at that time it was way beyond me to fix it, so I sold it to a fellow HAMBer in town. That fellow HAMBer who I believe is no longer here started to collect parts to turn in back into a sedan. It was sold again to a friend of mine who ended up with my first hot rod and still has it today. He had bought it for his son who at the time was 5 years old. It sat in their backyard for years as a playhouse. Fast forward to 2010 and a lot of cars later another friend of mine who is not a builder but loves car asked what it would take to build a hot rod on a budget. I advised having him look through a lot of magazines and come up with what he wanted. After about 6 months of doing magazine clippings of paint, body, interior, wheels, chassis etc we came up with what he wanted. First on the list was finding a 30-31 model A 2 door sedan that is where the other friends now abandoned playhouse comes in. So with the sedan body loaded up and back at my place and most of the parts collected for the build it was time to get started. The first couple of Saturdays and evenings went well teaching a newbie what it's like to start building a hot rod you can call your own. As more and more time was being spent it became very clear to my friend that building hot rods is very time-consuming and as he put it "not like TV". In the end, I bought him out of the project as he still wanted to be in the hot rod world but I did not want him to have a bad taste in his mouth in trying to sell a pile of parts as most people would never understand that asking price for what was there. I paid him exactly what he had in the project which afforded him the ability to buy a nice shoebox Ford that he drives all the time and gets tons of enjoyment from. Here are the stats on the car below. The car is for sale as of now even though it's not finished but 90% of the hard work is done. Here is the link for the ad in the cars for sale area. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1930-ford-2-door-sedan-the-gas-de-naco-sedan.1226127/ Check back as I will continue to update this build thread with progress as we continue to work on the sedan until it is running and driving or sold beforehand. Here are all the details of the build below. 1932 American stampings frame with tubular X member model A front cross member and tubular rear cross member. 1930 A wishbones split and dropped and drilled axle 1940 spindles and brakes 1940 Ford steelies with Firestone 450/475 x 16 tires Vega steering 350/350 Chevy Vega steering new aluminum radiator for model A so the grill shell will match the cowl profile steel reproduction 32 grill shell and grill restored guide 682 lights custom fab floors all way throughout on square tube structure Ford 9 inch with open 3:25 gears Dutchman axles 1936 Ford split wishbones 1940 Ford rear spring 16 x 4 1/2 Ford steelies with 750 x 16 Firestones Lokar shifter and new driveshaft Chopped about 6 inches The roof is not filled yet but do have 1962 Falcon wagon roof skin to weld in (no ribs) 1932 reproduction gas tank
So here is the latest photo as it sits right now. Should have all the rest of the patch panels in soon and then begin to finish fitting the doors and begin to wire it up and get it running. Stay tuned.
A couple of people have PM me asking about the paint. The yellow paint was stripped off by hand with razor blades to find the original Henry Ford black lacquer that is still left. Car is in the classifieds as well so check that out and stay tuned for more updates on this build.
Rolled it outside for the first time to clean the garage and turn it around so I can finish all the rear patch panels and back window area.
Im not normally a sedan guy but that really speaks to me. Been looking at your for sale post on and off
And that concludes the build of the Gas De Naco Sedan. It has been sold and onto its new owner who should have it on the road soon.
I'm pretty sure the guy I sold it to sold it again, not running, and it has gone through some hands but it is on the road now as it was for sale here again. Just not sure who got it running.
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