Projects The Wade Model A Coupe: Build Thread & Photo Journal

how do you get those fish scale welds,most guys i know are walking the cup ,and thats what i learned at vo tech,but they dont teach much on car building,but these are killer looking welds,thanks for posting

 

Update, or Part 1.5:

The brakes are all finished now.

I had to make a bracket to adapt the late '60s Mustang master cylinder to the '40 Ford pedal assembly, and it also needed to mount the clutch master cylinder as well.

I made this with a plasma cutter, a drill press and a handheld die grinder.







Test fit...



I made sort of a "manifold" running off of the knob-style proportioning valve to split the line to the rear brakes and tie in the brake light pressure switch.



I then ran the rear brake lines from the 'manifold' through the center of the X member and down the rear legs of the X member to keep everything clean.





I then made tabs for the bottom of the frame that connect the lines to hoses that attach to each rear wheel cylinder. This keeps me from having to run a hard line cross the rear of the housing and keeps everything nice and clean.





Here's a shot of the underside in the front. The line is hidden underneath the front crossmember, and I again made tabs for the hose connections.



The hoses had to be custom made because they are longer than a typical hose for a '32 frame.





Back to the pedal assembly....I had to move the tab on the clutch pedal to the bottom.



Here's the finished pedal assembly. The clutch is (obviously) hydraulic, and it uses a NASCAR style hyd. throwout bearing that mounts to the bellhousing.




I've also finished the front backing plate conversion. I added a support the inside for the shoe pivot stud, and cut the adjuster slot in the bottom. I'm still up in the air on whether or not I want to drill out the backing plates or not.



Assembled:



The front drums are the new 2" drums that MT Car Products is doing, which were sourced from Riley Automotive. These drums take an early "inside hub" arrangement, so I had to remove some good hubs from a couple of worn '40 front drums I had.

Here's a mini tech tip for you. Take an 11/16" hole saw and chuck it in your drill press. Put the drum up on the press and run the hole saw down on top of the wheel studs one by one. Just go deep enough to cut through the thickness of the drum.



After you get all five cut, take the drum down off of the press and get a piece of 2x4 lumber and lay it on the center of the hub. Whack it with a hammer and the drum will pop off.



If your wheel studs in the hubs are good, then this saves you from having to redrill the hubs and buy new studs. It also keeps from bending the hub or the drum.

I also went ahead and re-bushed the front spindles and reamed them to size for the new kingpins.

 

This next photo may make you scratch your head a bit...if it doesn't, then you're not paying attention.



The new axles are from Strange Engineering.

I also had E.C. come over and set up the 9+ third member with a new Detroit Locker True-trac limited slip posi.



The new Vintique shell was a little too plain...



So I hammered a peak into the top...



...and cut the factory style holes into the chin using an original shell as a template.

 

Next up was the task of rebuilding eight Stromberg 97s for the Edelbrock 8x2 intake. A few of the carbs were missing parts or had problems, so I tore them down for inspection and made a list of parts that were again sourced from Riley.



I had a whole mess of carbs torn apart on my bench....



Here the carb bodies are pretty much done, and the 'Jenga' tower of carb bases still need to be cleaned up and painted.



Here's one of the finished carbs....I painted the bases with PPG base/clear gloss black. The photos don't really do the carbs justice.





With the carbs finished, I needed to build linkage. I used all stainless heim joints and tapped tubing to go between the heims. Each bank of carbs was connected together pretty quickly, but I needed a crossover shaft to connect the two banks.

It took me quite a while to figure out the best placement for the crossover, and I finally decided that it would fit best in front....there's just not a whole lot of leftover space on top of a Hemi when you get 8 Strombergs mounted up.

I used 9/32 rod for the shaft, and drilled out some .250" bronze shoulder bushings to fit the shaft. Everything else I made from plate.

Here's the mock-up tacked together.



And welded...









The linkage clears the upper radiator hose with room to spare.


And here's the finished product...I also got the valve covers back from chrome.





The throttle pedal will connect to the carbs on the rear passenger side carb. I made a longer arm for the throttle shaft to connect it..you can just see the mounting hole in this picture below if you look closely.



All the carbs are going to open at the same time....no pussy progressive linkage here.



This sort of stuff seems like it takes forever! I've got a lot of time wrapped up in the induction set-up, but I think it's really paying off because it's going to be one of the focal points of the car.

The next update will be showing the body mounted to the chassis, so stay tuned! And thanks again for all the positive comments!

-Brian

 

PS: The chassis will be in my vendor booth at the Lonestar Roundup next weekend, so drop by and check it out....and buy a T-shirt!!

 

brian,
great stuff as always cant wait for more. i needed a bass fix.
Al.

 

Awesome again Brian.....I love checking out your engineering and fab work.

 

HOLY COW!!!!! YOUR STILL THE MAN.

I have saved and saved more pics here than ever before. Bass If I ever get a winning lottery ticket I am going to KIDNAP YOU AND MAKE YOU BUILD ME CARS!!!

 

WOW Brian, that is some wicked work with a drill press, plasma and die grinder. Do you have access to a mill? you could turn out some really wicked stuff faster with a mill and a n assortment of end mills, and even your same hole saws. I don't wanna tell you how to build in any way, but brother you turn out some awesome work with basic tools. I am always amazing people with some of the things I do with a few basic tools, and some good ideas( or in many cases someone else's idea.) lol POPO if you kidnap him, lets take him to Cabo, then we can have some rough dudes from down there keep an eye on him while enjoying the beach ,I don't think your a corrupt cop though. ha ha ha. Can't wait to see this thing at the round up, but you better have a lot of 5 gallon buckets around to catch the massive amount of drool and rabid foam that will be coming from everyones mouths.

Will

 

How about a video demonstration of the linkage at work?

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Hahaha....Gotta love technology!

 

Rad!

 

Phenom!!!absolutley amazing work, your welds are river lust...fab work a work of art indeed...thanks for all your pics!

 

Hope Mad Fab crew are recording all this on video Brian. This overt proof of your skills should set you up with enough work till you're really old man!

 

Awesome! this is such a great build, I can't wait to see another update on this thing! Makes me want to get to work on my model A even though this one will put it to shame.

Haha I love that someone tagged this thread "wet panties"

 

I hope you were sitting there making vroom vroom noises as you played with that linkage! Looks awesome Bass.

 

Freakin BAD ASS build man! 10 outta 10 for sure! Makin me want to go to the garage and its 11 pm right now, neighbors would kill me.

 

I just can not stop looking at all the pics, and that linkage video is really sweet too, you can really hear the synch in all the carbs. Like a marching battalion... Awesome, keep on with the teasers

 

That is just totally awesome craftsmanship!
Similar to what RustyDeuce said, Mad Fab need to have this on one of their DVD's!

 

As always, you craftsmanship is impeccable! just amazing!

 

No one has said anything about your head scratching picture. I wonder who will pick up on your little trick, first? I love the linkage, Brian. See you next weekend.

 

nice work..........the linkage is the shit! once again you da man !

 

I'll bite, because I've thought about doing that for when I'm not runing caps. Did you machine an old hub with an old axle stub and make it bolt on like a spacer behind the wheel?

Gus

 

Out Standing Bass !!!!........Progressive is for StreetRods and grocery getters...ha ha ha ...... I think too many are making poster board outlines and passing them onto the water jet/laser guys ect...I guess from a shop stand point it saves time and money but to me looses the feel the craft it's soul....and loosing some of what HotRodding is all about, and that's making stuff...just my thoughts, I know a bunch of psyco babble...I love your work !.......Littleman

 

either that, or it works like a push through bullet.

Bass, That in itself is going to start a whole new debate on the strength of early ford axle keyways.

 

Street Rodder showed that axle trick in an issue a ways back.

 

Very cool Brian. I have always wondered do you use patterns when you cut out brackets with your plasma or just do the layout on the steel and freehand everything?

 

bad ass.... bitch'n work.

 

I love your creative skills Brian.
Top shelf brother...

 

HOLY ****!!!! That is to much to take in......after closing my jaw with my hand and looking at my feet to find a puddle of drool i must say i want to look at all the pics again and repeat the process. Amazing work!

If i could build only one rod to this caliber and one custom to the caliber of gary howard in my entire lifetime i would be satisfied!!!

 

I love the tags for this thread. Oh and the chassis is great too.