Projects Hotrob's fiasco of a "Model A Coupe" build thread

you and the boys have been drink'n beer, have you finished those floors yet?

 

Great build, subscribed for updates.

As others have said, I'm at the beginning of this process and appreciate all of the tips and tricks that you've learned the hard way.

 

I heard that some progress was made on this coupe... Rob and the Hard Luck boys didn't just drink beer... They got something done... why are you holding out on us Rob?

 

OK Rob,
its been 6 or 7 weeks, i need you to stay way out in front of me so I know what to do next! Glad the digits are back in working order....don't forget my floor hoops when you make it back out to the shop......

Outlaw

 

Wow, what can I say.....its been 40days since my last confession. Oh and how I have sinned.
THere has been alot of bad weather and distractions over the past few months. My hand has healed up as well as it is going to get and all in all it works as it should.
I picked up a new bike and have been feverishly getting it ready for bike week in Daytona. I can say that the transformation is complete, the weather is as it should be in Texas and I am ready to get back on the coupe.
I must say that the fact that the Roundup is right around the corner is not lost on me, even though I know the coupe will not make it this year.

There actually has been quite a bit of work on the coupe since last I reported, but it has been in such small spurts that individually it hardly seemed worthy of reporting.

So....
We decided that the fan we would have to use would be so small it would likley not be able to adequately cool the car in the hot Texas weather, and we were not willing to use an electric fan. So I painfully paid out the $300 bucks to get the Zipps waterpump riser from Southern Rods.
<CITE>www.southernrods.com</CITE>
It was the first time I had delt with them and they were cool on the phone, and the delivery was quick. What else can I say.

On a different note, I initially ordered the part from Socal Speed Shop. After 6 weeks of waiting I called them and the gal said she would have to have some one call me bach, which they did in a few minutes and the dude tells me that they were out of stock and when they called the company (ZIPPS) he was told that they were not making the part anymore. Whether this is true or not I don't know, but those of you that will run this setup might consider calling Southern Rods and picking one of these neat peices up before they are gone!!!

 

The riser uses a straight six chevy waterpump, available at any Autozone. I comes with the alt mount and A/C mount built in. I guess I will use the Alt instead of Gen like I had mocked up. I will likely just cut and remove the A/C mount on the Pass side.

I also finished up the steering one day when the Hardluck guys and 29Jay were over. Jay went to work on fabing up a lower column bracket and the rest of us got drunk. Somewhere in there we finished the column drop and the shaft from the column to the box.

 

Perhaps the coolest advance was in the floor. I finishe the transition between the driveshaft tunnel and transmission hump. I think it looks killer. THere is NO room for your feet but it was as much as I could manage with the channel like it is. I should be fine.

I also installed the new Lokar shifter www.lokar.com I went with the 16" Nostalgia shifter. I think it ended up being right around $200 with shipping. I got the Black mushroom shift handle.

I am really impressed with the Lokar. The quality is outstanding. I have seen the Gennie shifter as well, I think that is what Jay runs, and I dont like it as much. I prefer the shift detent in the top rather than having to pull the handle to the side to disengage.

The gennie quality was also really nice I just prefer the way the Lokar operates.

 

Oh...and I got a seat in. I bought it from Dan who is a pal over in Keller. 63Dan63 on here I think. He says its a caravan middle seat. I think I gave him like $80 or something. I fits perfect. THe headrests are funky but they are not staying. I will have it recovered at some point in an obscene metalflake vinyl.

Took a couple trys to get it mounted right, and in the end it is a touch higher than desired, but the tunnel would not allow it to go any lower.

BIG learning point here. You want to make as much room as possible along the way. There are several areas where I erred on the side of caution to give clearance to the suspension and driveline ect... only to later struggle with not enough room inside the car because of it.
So I guess I am saying make sure you really think stuff all the way through and do the extra work to get nice tight clearances.

A perfect example is the tunnel for the drive shaft. The bender I purchased would only give me a certain amount of radius. It was wider that I needed but I went with it because it was the easiest way to get it done. Well it looks good, but I sacrificed a lot of clearance inside the car.....anyway there ya go. THink it through first. THere are places where I did all the math thought it through and still came up short because there is only some much crap you can stuff into a gymsock, but there are otherplaces that I could have avoided problems had I considered it longer.

so here is the seat.

 

So the coupe will probably not make the roundup, but I will bring the Falcon. Its a beater but damn it it quick and fun to drive. Its been back on the road for a month or so after over a year or motor rebuild and component upgrades.

1964 Falcon
1957 Ford 9" rearend
late 70's 302/C4 combo
550 lift Crane cam
World Products Heads
Big stall, 3200 I think
econoline seats
early Mustang susp/steering

I am worried about the 5hr drive down I35 because the car is really not setup for the highway, but we will see.

 

Looks real good Rob! On the seat, I have seen where some guys will notch the bottom frame where the tunnel hits to get it lower. Basicly, you have a bench, but underneth it looks more like buckets. most of the foam from the bottom is cut away, but from the top you can only see that it is a bench.

That waterpump deal is cool! I never knew suck a thing was around. Great Thinking!

 

How did the burnouts go on Friday w/ you and Matt?

 

Hey Jay should'nt you be working?
Oh and everyone give Jay a shout and congratulate him on his win at the Autorama. Nice work Jay, you deserve it.

 

LOL.. Busted! Yes, I should be working... But I don't smoke, & there is no watercooler to hang around... so I have to get a break every now and then...

Thanks for the shout.

 

Working out tunning bugs on the Falcon, Roundup is right around the corner. The idle wants to be at 1500rpm or better. I guess thats the 550 lift cam. Not sure what is going on with the shift points either. I have adjusted the modulator and that helped some. Anyone good with C4 transmissions?

 

looking great Rob, glad you're back on the coupe,,,,and I am experiencing the same delimma regarding floor space between seats and room for simple things like an accelerator pedal. Glad the digits are back in working order....and the Falcon is looking great....
Outlaw

 

I jumped back on the coupe and got some work done. I pulled the mocked up rearend. As you may recall it gave me quite a bit of trouble getting it set up, but it is right now. I cleaned it up, finished the welds and put some paint on it yesterday.
I also painted the ladder bars and the other associated components and installed it back under the car this morning.

I put the backing plates back on pulled out the brake hardware. Most of it is trash so I ran to the parts store and got some new stuff.

I will have to start fresh in the morning with the assembly because I have to be at work at 4pm. I am however "back on the wagon" and I will hopefully be posting alot of progress in the next few weeks-months.
My club has an Event on Aug 20th and they want to see the coupe there.

Check out HardLuck Carclub on facebook for info on "HardLuck Hot Rods & Hulas. It is as I said Aug 20th 2011 at Meadowmere Park on Lake Grapevine , in Grapevine Texas. We are hosting a Luau and Pig roast on the lake. We have live music lined up with local favs "Drop Top Rockets".
Lots of fun, check us out.

 

I got the backing plates on and the wheel cylinders mounted but realized that I am missing a few odds and ends to complete the new rear brake setup.
I could not find what I needed at the parts store down the street so I went online and found this place. http://www.inlinetube.com/

These guys have it all. I have never heard of them before but they are going in my roladex for sure. They list all the weird little hard to find brake hardware for most of the Hot Rod swap type rearends.

I put in an order and will post up more when I get my package in.

 

Subscribed! I was looking for some seat pictures, that looks great. Tunnel is a bit high but it still looks awesome man.

 

Subscribed! I was looking for some seat pictures, that looks great. Tunnel is a bit high but it still looks awesome man.

I really struggled with that tunnel issue. The biggest issue was my tubing bender. What you see is as tight as I could get the bends. It was a mistake to go ahead with those loops but I could not come up with another reasonable solution that I was happy with. So you build and you learn.

I am convinced that part of the reason that so many of us keep building and building these cars is that we want a chance to remedy the mistakes we made on previous builds.

Thanks for subscribing, and keep an eye out for the introduction of my new custom 55 Ford!!!!!!!

 

Let's see some of that new sheet metal work!

 

I am on the floors now, but I will wait until they are all in and cleaned up before I post the pics.

In the mean Time I got the rest of the Brake trinkets from www.inlinetube.com
Good quality but also pretty pricey. Oh well, give me convienience or give me death.

The rear end is all painted and buttoned up, and should not have to come out again until I paint the frame. THen I can pull it all out in one piece.

Here is the finished rear brake setup. Not super coll but part of the build nonetheless.

Finally I added a sneek peek at my new whip. Come to HardLuck Hot Rods & Hulas at Lake Grapevine in Grapevine Texas, on August 20th to see it up close and personal.

 

damn you look familiar, which doesn't make sense. Build is going well, looking good!

 

fantastic build thread,easy to follow and very informative,

 

So I pulled the seat and substantially finished the floors. I borrowed Jays shears and bead roller again, thanks Jay, and got everything placed in and welded up nice.

I cut a realatively small access hole to fill the Master Cylinder. I can get the bale off and take the lid off from underneath. I made a cover with a flanged tab that will secure with one small screw. I think its trick!

I still need to finish the area that connects the firewall with the tunnel. I am going to wait until next time the motor is out so I can fit it from underneath.

Next thing on the list is dissassembly of front end for paint and final finish, then back on and plumb the brakes.

Ayone know where to get residual pressure valves besides speedway?
Theirs are NPT and standard brake lines need to be adapted. I really would rather just find some in the right thread pattern. I think its 3/8 24.
Anyway here are the pics.

 

Hope I'm not too late to prevent a bad experience.
You won't be "getting away" without support rods for long. A customer of mine supplied the experience money and knowledge with his. He expected his fancy ass blabla radiator hose to be able to do the job. His wallet knows his first guess was wrong because he had to repair or replace his radiator and blamed it on the radiator builder.
ON MY CAR, front tire problems have caused the radiator support rods to come loose from my radiator, because I didn't have them tightened enough and to actually break the support rod bracket on my radiator. I repaired it by sandwiching with a cutoff bracket from an original radiator.
Shortcuts will make for unnecessary experience and money spent. Be careful.

 

Floor looks great Rob, am waiting to see how you close off the back of the cabin. I started mine, but the corner pieces are gonna take some effort. You always come up with good ideas, so I'm working on the trunk to delay till you get to your rear firewall, to I can see how you handle it. Your car is really coming along great.

Outlaw

 

Nice build

 

You ain't done yet bro , jeebus,haha. Hope you're doing well Rob.
Gary

 

The floor looks great and I really like the beads. I'd check Pete and Jakes for a residual valve or Wilwood depending on what you're after. Looking really good man.

 

Hey Gary. Been a few. Still not done but getting closer. I tell ya I love the build process so much that I am almost worried about finishing and then having to start another one!!

Seriously I have 4 different car/bike projects going so I am rotating though them to keep fresh and allow me time to work thru problems when I encounter them.

Thanks boutlaw , Paul, Patrick, Count n carbs, and the rest for your comments and suggestions.