Projects 60's Era Street/Strip Model A Coupe

Half Way To Sitting on Wheels:



This has been a long time coming! The spindle mounts are for mock-up. I'll be running 16x4, Ford wheels and brakes.

 

The car will get stock style shackles.

Ryan had this old chromed pair, which he sent a pic of... he knows how to get me - hahaha. There'll be a little chrome on the chassis (here and there) and it's hard to say, "no" to old chrome.

 

Too bad you couldn't add some airheart brakes to those spindle mounts!

 

I hear you, there.

Restraint is so important, for me. I believe one choice could have the whole build take a new direction. I've had the opportunity to buy a couple pairs of spindle mounts but I want to drive the car a lot and with Utah drivers you have to keep your head on a swivel... even in a modern OT vehicle. So, Ford drums it is. I did get my front backing plates modified for self energizing by @Bass and the rears, I upgraded to 64s, because they are self adjusting... that's about as modern as I'm getting.

The plan has alway been keep it simple. Though this stuff is expensive, my goal is to keep it to what was plentiful in the era.

Also, I want to be able to swap wheels easily. I picture this car running a chrome set and the set of magnesium rears and steelie fronts.

 

You know Brent, I still have the Halibrand mag front spindle mounts that match the rears I sent you. Front brakes aren’t that big a deal, just 60% of your braking power.


Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

@duncan et al., no dice, not for me, anyway. Even though I think they're awesome wheels and have pals who run them I can think of a few better wheels that fit the plan. Now, if you had a set of these, THAT would be another story.



I've taken some guidance from the rule books of the era (not the HAMB "rules", the NHRA, haha) and though some of the changes, like bumpers and sectioned fenders, are kind-of gray areas. - spindle mounts w/o brakes certainly were not.

Actually, I never considered spindle mounts or airharts because the car is a 60's street car - first and foremost. I like the rules as a guideline for what we're building. It's funny, @Von Hartmann were just talking about this today.

You know what I really want? I want to drop my kids off at school and do burnouts when I leave the school lot. I want to be loud, so loud, that they hear me ripping down the street as they're walking to their classroom. I want that to be burned into their brain so that when they're old - and I'm dead and gone - that's a memory they share.

 

Neat build! My kids memory would be of the cops hauling me off. LOL. Lippy

 

^^^^^^
for me now, it would be the grandkids-lol. In the 60's when I was growing up Colorado had a law about engaging in a speed contest. Was a 12 point loss on license. Since you only got 12 points to start with.....the law applied to burn outs even if not racing someone. Also had excessive noise law that cherry bombs would get you busted on.

 

Sometimes, you need to toss a fender on to see the idea.

 

It’s cool how radically altered the fenders are but it’s not something people will notice right away.

Just that something is different

 

Brent,

Even though it is still early in the project what you have there already looks tough! I can't wait to see everything come together.

Steve

 

@Tim and @Thor1 thanks, fellas.

When I first saw the Maratta car, in pics, I didn't know why it looked fast sitting still. Eventually, the car was found and I've been a student of it since. The fenders from this car are why I did mine.

I send updates over to Dean, who now owns the Maratta Rake/Missile, and he sent this pic, today.



It's a good visual to understand the look. Close to the same section width has been removed.

 

Now we're talking!! Brings back good memories of sitting on my grandparents veranda in the 60's! They lived directly across the street from a drive in restaurant and a Firestone garage. This style of hotrod would fill the lots on a Saturday evening and a Sunday afternoon. Love what your doing!! Thx for sharing!

 

Hairpins and Batwings:

First, the hairpins on the Freakin' A build were one of the reasons why I got into contact with Ryan, years back. Now, the A is sporting its own, unique set.


People had given me grief for using 32 bones as donors. However, I agreed with Ryan when he said, it's fun to chop up rare parts if you're turning them into something cool.




A new favorite view.




@duncan, here's one of your wheels. She's going to have to come up a bit in the rear, especially with that big Olds/Pontiac 9.3" housing.

 

Very cool! Did/ will you narrow the running board brackets? I see them on the frame so it piqued my curiosity

 

Not narrowed, yet. When we narrowed the boards we decided to wait to get them mounted on this chassis to do it.

 

You know I pick up my son every Friday from school since he was in grade school, if it's not snowing or raining it's in one of the cars and all my cars are rowdy. Kids yell out the windows, a teacher once ask my son if I owned any normal cars, when school let's out lots of kids come by to check them out, they all know it's Connor's dad when they hear the rumble they tell me, even comes up at parent teacher conference...ha ha
He's asked me to take him to school on the last day in the Henry J and pick him up in the t-bucket, I took off work to oblige, last year he ask me to do a burnout on the last day. Kids love old cars and you better make sure you corrupt their senses when you get that thing done !

 

Love that, Swade! This is the best line in this whole thread. It says a lot about you as a man! I appreciate that from across the country.

That's part of my dream 100%.

 

I love following this build, keep the updates coming!

Those hairpins rule!

Sent from my CLT-L09 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Thanks, will do!

Here are a couple more hairpin pics:

 

We're at this point that in order to get the rear situated, we need to get the engine/trans mocked AND in order to set the engine and trans we need the steering box placed AND in order to get the steering box placed we need the body in place.

All that said, here's a teaser of the mock-up engine with my bellhousing, trans, headers and Hurst mount. Most likely the dual quad will end up on my 327.

I'd love my motor to be dressed similarly.

The headers may not stay. If they do, the driver's side is going to need to be modified to clear the steering box.

Anyway, the teasers:








It's just sitting there... for the imagination.

 

You know what I really want? I want to drop my kids off at school and do burnouts when I leave the school lot. I want to be loud, so loud, that they hear me ripping down the street as they're walking to their classroom. I want that to be burned into their brain so that when they're old - and I'm dead and gone - that's a memory they share.[/QUOTE]

I picked up my daughter one day after school in my HotRod , it was crowded , kids on the sidewalk were jumping up and down , losing their minds , parents had grumpy faces on , the crossing guard stopped traffic like she was parting the Red Sea and says “ get that car the hell out of here !! “ I’m kinda guessing on her exact words cause I couldn’t hear her , but it was some angry flag waving .
My daughter asked it we could do it the next day , so it was worth it .

 

Yes!!!

 

Any idea what brand the headers are? Hedman? Doug's? Or what they were designed for?

 

I picked up my daughter one day after school in my HotRod , it was crowded , kids on the sidewalk were jumping up and down , losing their minds , parents had grumpy faces on , the crossing guard stopped traffic like she was parting the Red Sea and says “ get that car the hell out of here !! “ I’m kinda guessing on her exact words cause I couldn’t hear her , but it was some angry flag waving .
My daughter asked it we could do it the next day , so it was worth it .[/QUOTE]

HELL YES!!! Makes me want to have kids. LOL!!!

 

They are Hedman's. Got them from a HAMBer whose dad was going to run them on a 32 but it never happened.

They're likely not going to work in this car, either because the driver's side is probably going to be right in the way of the steering box.

Originally I was thinking Nova II manifolds swapped to diver to passenger and passenger to driver. Brezezinski's modifies them for racing and they'd probably work well... just not look as cool.

 

Consider that a drag coupe deserves wild, gasser style headers to compliment the wicked stance.

Home built headers are my favorite hot rodding task.

 

I'll have to think on it.

Keeping restraint in mind, I don't want to go wild. There are plenty of examples of 60s hot rods running stock manifolds. Lots of them chromed. One that comes to mind is Jeff Black's 28/29 roadster with a 327 and a chrome frame.

Right now, headers/manifolds rank a lot lower in importance. Having slept on it, a neat set-up would be to have something similar to these headers that drops 6" more toward the front. That would allow a lot more clearance.

 

Lotsa choices. That is one well-equipped shop you are working in. I'd love to have that Do All.