Model A Sport Coupe Project for the wife

Tonight I fab'd up some lower shock mounts which weld to the rear end. I made a template out of paper from the ones I put on my roadster and made a pair from some plate that I had laying around. I bought a metal brake last year and decided to give it a try for the bending...worked out great. Used my chop saw for the initial cutting then used the cutoff wheel and grinder to smooth things out. Drilled some holes for height adjustment too.

Made em for just a couple of bucks too instead of placing an order.

Also got a pair of front and rear shocks and dug out a pair of F-100 upper shock mounts for the front end.

Frame boxing is progressing nicely too...I'll post some pics tomorrow.

 

I have always like "A" Sport Coupes Hot Rodded. They are just enough different from coupes and roadsters that they make real neat Hot Rods !

 

So tonight I spent some time working on and cleaning up my axle in preparation for mounting the spindles on it. There was a slight bend in the axle that I straightened out using my neighbor's press. A couple pulls and it straightened right out without any problem.
A long, long time ago someone welded big ugly shock mount tabs on each end. A little careful trimming with the torch and I cut them off, did a little grinding, and was good to go. I wire wheeled it and shot it with a couple coats of primer. Came out nice
before



after

 

How many louvers did you punch in that deck lid?

 

A think it was something like 170.....

 

LOTS of progress this weekend thanks to some help I got from a couple friends that decided to give it hell with me... Koz, and OldSkool30. Great hot rodders and even better friends. Koz really knows how to box up a frame..his work is incredible. He insets the boxing plate and welds it in good. The goes over top again grinds the weld and metal finishes it with a file. The result is a super strong box job that looks like a piece of 2x4 tubing from the inside.


Weekend Done List:
frame boxed and stepped in rear, front crossmember trimmed, kingpins fitted, front wishbones split, frame wishbone brackets mounted, front upper and lower shock mounts installed, spring perches, shackles and front spring installed, motor mounts installed, brake pedal mount installed, ladder bars and crossmember installed, rear lower shock mounts installed, rear subrails trimmed and body fitted to frame.







a little hard to see...took these tonight. I'm going to put a reverse eye rear spring in with 3 leaves removed. That will bring the rear up a little into the body, leveling out the rear ladders. I have stock A rear spring in now.

 

while I was at it again tonight I gave it a haircut and chopped it 3 inches. I didn't want to go nuts...just a moderate chop that doesn't look overdone.
Don't mind the wheels in the pics..they are just rollers...I'll be running early Ford 16 inch steelies with 7.00 -16 in the front and 5.50-16 in the rear eventually.

sorry for the dark pics..but it was late and dark in my shop

 

You're going to have two cars finished before I even get 25% done my 36.

Slow down you're making the rest of us look like slackers.

 

Really nice progress man!!! Keep it coming!

 

Tonight I finished welding the posts after the chop. Had to do lots of splicing and pulling to get the A posts lined up but everything is fitted, finish welded, and ground down.

I reinstalled the visor and put the dash in just so I could check everything out. WOO HOO.

It was too dark to take pics..so I'll take some and post up tomorrow.

 

Haha...this one won't take long..it's all falling into place somehow

 

Not bad for a music teacher , lol !

Can't wait to see the chop in person

 

starting sanding the body down...here's some better pics of the chop in the light with everything welded up, before the sanding began. I have to cut the back of the tank out because it's hitting the guages..which is why it's sitting forward a little.

 

Stuck the motor and tranny in for mockup. The motor is an old hopped up SBC with a nasty cam.....you haters keep quiet!!......the heads were redone and the whole thing should be ready to run....it came out of an old hot rod up my way that was a terror on the streets back in the day. The intake is a polished Offenhauser 3x2 setup with Rochesters and progressive linkage. I'll be swapping those valve covers for a set of finned Cal Customs after I yank the motor out and paint everything.

The headers are from Matt at lakeheaders.com. I meet him and his partner at the Jalopy Showdown and got a set that were tacked together. I'll glue them up good sometime this week.

Need to swap out the lower pulley for a single groove, move the break pedal forward slightly, and install the tranny crossmember this week too.

Going to fix the lower firewall and box it around the motor.and also put a front floor and make a tranny hump.

 

looking good Jerry!

 

nice car

 

The dash looks and fits great. What a bargain buy. In Australia, one rusty old door would cost more than $500.00.

 

nice build...

 

any top/roof plans yet?

 

I'm not sure yet what I really want to do. I'll either

A) No top at all
B) Weld on a top cut off from a coupe that I picked up
C) Make a removable hard top..kinda like Clark did.
D) Go original style with a permenant, non fold down soft top, chopped

Going to keep moving ahead and hope that the decision just dictates itself.

 

A little more progress.

Installed the correct side motor mounts in on the block with new hardware and finish welded the lake headers tonight. Got a new welder a while back so this was a good project for learning how the machine behaves.

Koz is also helping me out with modifying the tranny crossmember..should have it back soon then the frame, front, and rear suspension will be completly finished.

Saw a really cool shade of dark bungundy on my buddy Ted's 41 that caught my eye....hummm

 

I went through that stage... going the "fixed roof" route now.

I like the idea of the removable roof... and if you wanted to get "fancy" one that took the door tops off with it maybe? Clarks was unique but I didn't care for the way the roof peaked at the back end. Cool... but just not my taste.

Here's a couple... I have a ton of Sport Coupe pics that I saved somewhere in my archives.

The last pic is the clu$terf@ck I started with... the only thing I'm going to end up using is the back 1/2 of the car and the front suspension... the rest I've ditched. Like I said earlier in the thread... you got a deal on that body compared to what my naive a$$ did a few years ago.

BTW... you work FAST

 

Well, since you ARE "HomemadeHardtop," I guess you don't have any choice. Actually, a removable top would be my vote, as well... something totally custom, but in keeping with the flavor of the car.

 

great pics..thanks for posting

 

Had some time this afternoon and quickly cut and welded up my headlight bar. Just a standard model A bar with the ends cut off and welded underneath as stands.

 

I vote for "C".Great looking project!

 

Had some time tonight and made some progress. Things at work have been busy and I've been getting dad's 36 Buick ready for paint so haven't had much time to work on the sport coupe.

However, tonight I worked on the front end of the car some. I fitted the grill shell, removing about an inch from the bottom of each side giving a nice subtle downward line from the top of the cowl to the top of the shell. Ran some blue tape some I could see the line to make sure it was right.

Going to be running an original pair of E&J headlights on this one too. I guess I just really like these things. I'll be posting a tech article soon with lots of pics on how I convert these to use modern bulbs and sockets that you can get at your local parts place, with the original insides and original glass lenses. It's alot easier than you think, without disturbing any of the nice original stuff inside.

Also going to be running cowl lights as turn signals mounted on the frame rails. I did something similar to this on my green roadster but simplified the mounting a little on this one. I found some 1/8 inch wall round tubing with the inner diameter the same as the mounting ends on the cowl lights. I cut off about a 1 inch piece of the tubing for each side, tacked the tubing in the location on the bottom of the frame rail and on the angle I need to keep the lights facing forward and straight, inserted the lights, put the bolt on the back and I was good to go.

Found a nice 40 Ford column and wheel in the HAMB classifieds last week which arrived today. Should work nice.













There's quite a big height difference between this one and my green roadster which has a 4 inch drop axle and a deuce frame. I do like how this sits higher..but still will have a nice rake to it and a slick profile from the chop

 

Got back on the sport coupe tonight. The past couple weeks I've been prepping my dad's 36 for paint and haven't worked on this at all..but had some time tonight and got back on it.

I had about an hour or so to kill so I decided to put one of the lower skins on one of the doors. For some reason I was under the impression that these panels came with the factory curve profile along the door edges in already...of course I was wrong. Note to self....save the $40 or $50 next time and just make em myself out of sheet metal. What an F'n rip off these things are...oh well..live and learn.

Anyhow, a few minutes on the shrinker, strecher and I had it matching the profile I needed. Took some more measurements...cut the original swiss cheese bottom off...put a flange in, shot some primer inside the door on the inner structure, hammered and dollied the edged around and welded her up. A little schmear of plastic down the seam later on and we'll be good as new.

One down...one to go.

 

Nice progress on the sport coupe.