Projects My 30 Sport Coupe Banger First Time Build

I usually play around with shoebox Fords, or later 50's/early 60's stuff, but have been wanting to give a Model A build a shot for years. Reading Joey Ukrops build thread over the last couple years was a huge motivation to keep my eye out for a car. I really wanted a banger powered roadster, but I don't see them come up often in Northern Colorado, and not at any price I'm interested in paying.

My patience seemed to have paid off, as an ad showed up on fb marketplace a few weeks ago. It only had a few pictures, but seemed to show a very nice car that was a stalled full restoration. It was very close and I went to check it out. One owner for the last 20 years, pulled out of Wyoming and had 90% of a restoration complete, other than the stuff I didn't want anyways! It was a sport coupe, but at the extremely low price I paid for this plus an entire truckload of new and used parts, I couldn't say no.

Everything currently on the car is brand new or completely rebuilt. Great running banger (all stock), rebuilt transmission, body and paint (home done, but pretty damn good), axle, frame, etc all painted and looking new. A new battery, some oil, coolant, gas, carb rebuild, and I've been driving it every day.

Trying to read a ton and learn everything I can about A hot rods and figure out what I want to do with this. I lack the fabrication skill to chop, so that's off the table for now. Trying to figure out how to make a sport coupe look keeping windshield and doors is a challenge, but I'm working on it.

Would love suggestions! Thinking about lowering it a bit, changing wheels and tires, and building out the interior a bit. I'll post here as I learn more and keep working on it.

As I dragged it home:










I have the orginal rebuilt seat springs, but I think I will be using these Rugged Ridge Jeep CJ5 replicas mounted to the original seat frame. I have one in the garage I test fit, and and happy with the look and position. 2 will fit great side by side, and no need for sliders as they will move on the original frame.


Removed front bumper and splash guard.




Removed the top bows, no interest in putting a top on this car for now, but everything still bolts back up quickly if I want to look at that later.


Getting some miles on it, and working on downshifting a unsynced 3 speed! Lot of fun.



Would really like to get rid of the rear bumpers, but I would feel bad cutting that perfect frame off at the rear of the body. Maybe I'll get over that.

 

There's a cool sport coupe build on here from Canada, will see if I can find it

 

Take a closer look.... IIRC the back bumper brackets BOLT to the frame...

 

Good deal

If you wish shoot me a message I can help with the shift dealeo.
I used teach it to big truckers.
Also Look up Stogy in Ont. Canada, and Tom T, in Williamsburg Va.
Both have made neato cool, good rod rides with that body.

 

That be Stogy The most foto shot A around, near as I can tell.
And he is a great guy to talk with. Tell him I said so.

 

I like it.

 

Looks like a ton of fun. Yup, lose the rear bumper. Any kind of wheel change should make it look lower. One of the better looking sport coupes I have seen, never thought about doing away with all the top, very early hotrod type thinking there. You could always consider some type of roll bar if you think the top needs some sort of definition. Drive on!

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/model-a-sport-coupe-the-poor-mans-roadster.1121649/
Check this thread out, lots of inspiration!
Sport Coupe's rule

 

You were right, thanks for the heads up. Looked closer tonight and it does bolt in. Got the rear bumper off.

 

Thanks! I drove it quite a bit today, I'm getting the hang of it. Appreciate the offer!

 

Right on, thanks. Rear bumper pulled off tonight. I have a set of very beat up rear fenders, thinking of cutting them at the body line to run for now. They are not really worth saving.

On the hunt already for 35 Ford 16" wheels, I think that will make a big difference in look.

More miles on the car today, took it for a vin inspection, working on title and reg and all that junk. It's running well but definitely not perfect. Going to retime it and play with the carb a bit more tomorrow.

 

I saw that, thanks. Great thread and awesome cars.

 

This is one of my favorites

 

Got some work done this weekend. I reset the timing and adjusted the carb a bit, got it running better. The high idle I had before was definitely making shifting harder. Much easier with it idling correctly. The throttle butterfly on the carb sticks a bit, and doesn't always want to return to the stop. I'll pull it again and look at that. I plan on changing to a downdraft intake and stromberg anyways so no big deal.

I cut down the beat up and rusty old rear fenders, and banged out the worst of the dents. A coat of black rustoleum for now and I'm digging the look for now. I'll brush paint them black to match the rest of the car soon.

Got some fun miles on it this weekend with my parents in town, and my little dude always loves going for rides.

 

A question as I'm new to bangers. On pretty much every cold start and until the motor gets to temp, I get alot of white smoke out of the exhaust. It seems to be burning oil on startups. Smoke goes away after motor warms up. Doesn't seem to be head gasket as the coolant is clean and level isn't changing. Oil level on dipstick isn't noticeabley changing either. What am I missing here?

 

White smoke is steam/water vapor. When you break down a hydrocarbon chain, one of the by products is water. White smoke on cold starts is pretty normal. If you aren't losing coolant, I wouldn't be too worried.

Blue smoke - oil, black smoke - fuel.

 

Right on thanks. I'll keep an eye on it. It's not losing any coolant.

 

Real Sporty !

 

You may not see a drop in coolant level, but that white smoke means moisture with your combustion. I would recommend re-torquing the head ASAP, especially if the engine wasn't run much or at all before you started driving it. Lots of opinions about the "correct" way to do the job; do some research, pick one you like, but do it!

 

Thanks, this is good input. I will check and retorque the head for sure before next drive. I have not checked that yet, and it was definitely not driven much at all since the motor was rebuilt by the PO. Appreciate it.

 

I'd love any input on wheels and tires for this. I really want to get something smaller on it to get it much lower. I'm looking everywhere for 35 ford 16" wheels but having trouble finding a reasonable set. I figure those fit the timeframe of this car the best.

What size tires look best on 16s?

I found these on ebay that look decent:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/374609318241

Are there any easily available steel wheels that are a good fit for this car?

 

That’s a lot of money for some wheels you are trusting a stranger to vouch for. Don’t they have swap meets or friends with hot rods in your part of the country? Gotta be a better source.

 

I agree. They look nice but who knows. I don't really want to take a chance on that.
I'm keeping an eye on local ads hoping to find a set.
I'm in far Northern Colorado (Fort Collins). No swap meet here or tons of hot rods that I'm aware of, but I'm always looking. Probably something going on in Denver I need to find out about.

 

There's definitely swap meets in the Denver/ FC area. Get ahold of Steve at Bert's Model A, he'll know and is a great source for pieces and parts.

 

P.S. -nice sport coupe!

 

Right on, thanks Jet. I've already bought a few things from Bert's. Will check with them.

 

Finally some updates! Drove the car as it was in the last picture for a bit. I was getting really sick of the Zenith carb. Had rebuilt it, sonic cleaned it, replaced the jets with flow tested ones from Renners, set the float level, it was dialed. However it ran so freakin rich I just couldn't figure it out. Decided to replace the carb soon....

But first I wanted to start on getting it lower. I used the hot rod AV8 complete springs from Millworks / Old Yankee.
They fit well and got the car down about 3". I'm happy with the rear height, but still need to pull a couple leaves on the front.

 

Looked a bit better getting it down.

 

Then decided to put the running board splash guards on, still need to paint them, but I like the look.
Wish I didn't trim off the front of the rear fenders, but oh well. They were rusted badly anyways.

 

I know it's not period, but it really improved drivability of the car a ton. I went with an intake and weber 2bbl from Berts. Running a Carter 6v fuel pump. No more running rich or fuel starvation issues on hills. Really happy with the outcome. Also bought a 6:1 high compression head, but haven't put that on yet. Maybe this weekend.





And I traded some parts I wasn't gonna use for a good set of 17" wires. Not sure if I'm going to use them yet, or maybe sell them and keep hunting down some 16's. We'll see.