I'll make this as short as I can, but I tend to get a little long-winded so bear with me (or not). My Dad has had a hot rod '31 coupe since before I was born. By the time I turned 12, the car needed attention and a rebuild, so Dad and I did it together. We swapped out the 312 Ford/3spd for a 283/3spd, built a new chassis with a Mor Drop duece axle, homemade hairpin radius rods and 5 spoke mags. We got it running in red-oxide primer in '78 and I drove it to high school my junior and senior year. During my senior year we started on my own car, a '30 model A pickup with a 289/C4 and an 8 inch rear. I used split 'bones in the front, and it also used an old set of 5 spokes (14x6 front and 15x8 1/2 rear). I drove the '30 from Northern Ca (Eureka) to Phoenix, Az to go to school after high school. No a/c, no stereo, no way to lock it, but it was bitchin'. In Phoenix, I met a guy named Ralph Clark who used a '27 T for his daily driver. He litterally built the entire car himself. He built the frame, adapted a duece axle and a jag rear end, it had a 2000cc Ford/C4 combo and he built his own intake from scratch to use twin SU carbs. He built his own headers as well, but the thing that impressed me was that he built his own 'glass body! He took a mold off a restored '27 and actually made a really outstanding body. No the doors didn't open, but the car was low enough (full-fendered as well!) that stepping over wasn't a big deal. Anyway, I later moved back home and started racing bikes and parked the '30. Since then I've helped build my brother's chopped '31 tudor sedan with a 406/700R4 that's got hand-controls since he's a parapalegic. The car won it's class and a Best Engineered award in the '99 Portland Roadster Show, and thats after it had been on the road for a year! He's driven the snot out of the car though, it's certainly not a trailer queen, as the rock chips and thrashed front splash apron will attest. Anyway, I'm currently building a Shelby clone (isn't everyone?), but when it's done I want to build a fenderless A coupe with an early Hemi and chrome reversed wheels. I want the car to look period-correct, and by that I mean finished period correct. Regardless of what today's youth think, not all hot rods were painted black primer in '55. Mine will be either blue or orange and will be slightly channeled, or at least have the frame z'ed on each end. Anyway, that's in the future, maybe when my son's old enough to do what my Dad did for me.
Heh, that's a relief! As soon as I started shopping for a starter to my project, everyone and his brother in law eveidently got the same idea as I did. There go the prices. Watch for '30-'31 coupe prices to soar next. Although I've been surfing ebay for an idea of what steel coupe bodies have been bringing and I'm already going into sticker shock! Here's my thinking tho, why would I pay $3,500+ for a beat up A body shell, when I could get and older restoration for $6,000 then sell the chassis for whatever it would bring and have all the stuff I need? I absolutley love reading the ebay ads saying, "if you're building a hot rod, DO NOT bid on this car, it's too nice to cut up!". First of all, I don't tell the seller what to do with the money, do I? Also, there's no such thing as a Model A coupe too nice to cut up!, Jim
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