Looking to Get Started...

Thanks Arkiehotrods - Yeah, I’ve been pretty motivated. This is something that I’ve wanted to do for awhile now. Happy to see others as excited as I am about the transformation.

 

Thanks Lothiandon1940 - I can’t believe that I have only had the car for two weeks... seems longer to me. Looking forward to meeting you in person. Please let me know if there are any MD meetings or get togethers.

 

Thanks vtwhead - This site has helped move my project along. Without it I’m sure I would still be staring at the oil leak. I still have a long way to go.... lowering, juice brakes, hop up the Banger...

 

..........Will do.

 

You made short work of that! Enjoy driving it while you make plans for the next steps

 

At the very least I would keep the fenders, running boards and aprons. May never go back on this car but you may want a full fendered roadster in the future!

 

Tman - True. That is something to think about.

 

Also if you ever decide to sell the car the buyer pool might be larger if people know that the fenders et.al. are also available. It's possible that if you sell that you might get more for these parts with the car than you can get now by selling separately. That is, if you reach that one (or more) buyer that will buy it with fenders but won't without them you might realize a higher total selling price than selling separately now.

Of course that won't matter as it'll be your heirs that will be driving or selling the car.

 

Just went out for about a 15 mile drive/cruise. Observations. I’d say it runs good. It accelerates pretty smooth but the deceleration creates a significant amount of vibrations. Too much. I’m going to install the float a motor mounts to see if that helps. The brakes suck. I live in a pretty hilly area and I damn near have to stand on the brakes going down hill. Not good. I guess I know my new priority. Super fun though! Ha!


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Got news for ya. Maybe not. I know what I'd be doing being I've done it several times before already. So ya know, this is the Standard learning curve. One thing always leads to another.

 

Just so I am clear.... significant vibration on engine deceleration is not normal for a Model A, correct?

I am going to start double checking everything I can check. Doesn’t seem easy to check u-joints since it is all closed up. I will have to look that one up. Float A Motor mounts a good idea? Anything else I could or should check?

 

Pist-n-Broke - You haven’t steered me wrong yet... I value your input. What would you be doing?

 

The brakes on mine were pretty much brand new when I got it, although the parking brakes were assembled backwards in the rear drums. LOL The car seemed to stop fine for me (once I got used to it)....not as good as my wife's van, but pretty decent all things considered. I mostly drive it "the back way" avoiding as much congested traffic as I can. When I dropped the front end, I added a set of brake "floaters" to the front brakes as many had suggested. I guess they help balance the pressure between the front shoes. I also took the opportunity to adjust all the brakes according the instructions in that maintenance book you got. That said, I haven't driven it on many hills, so can't speak for their effectiveness there. LOL A set of floaters and a thorough adjusting to spec may go a long way for now while you gather stuff for juice brakes if you go that way.

 

drdave - Thanks. I will get the brake floaters and do another brake adjustment ‘by the numbers’. Floaters for just the front brakes or front and rear?

What about the deceleration vibrations? You seeing that?

 

This seems to be quite the normal on most stock Bangers. I had it explained to me like this once. You have 4 cyl's in line and a Flywheel that weighs 80 lbs. On up speed the flywheel gains centrifugal force. When you let up on the accelerator quickly the Cyl's want to slow down faster than the Flywheel will let them. being the Cyl's are in line and not a V shape there is nothing to stop the Vibs created by the Flywheel over revving the Crankshaft. This is also a contributing factor in the stock Cranks braking. 3 things can help minimize this. One of course is the B style crank. Two, remove about 30 lbs off the Flywheel. Three is to find the sweet spot while gaining R.P.M's and not go up past it. When your used to driving a V-8 it's hard not to automatically try to R.P.M. through the gears like it is one, That don't work very well or very long.

40 - 48 Brakes on all 4 corners. There are many Schools on how to do that. Most involve some kind of Kit and some welding. Myself, I learned to keep it simple. With a little thought and minor fab you can use the STOCK brake pedal. Also in my book no need to cut or redrill the backing plates for spring perch clearance. That in itself gets a ton of nay sayers but the proof is doing it and showing them. Some people you can't convince until you do just that. I do know the stock brakes work but one fast emergency and sorta good may not do the job. I'm not a risk taker. Todays traffic is a bit different than 1940's traffic.

 

Post-n-Broke - Thanks again. Got it. I will still try to minimize the deceleration vibration by thoroughly checking everything out but understand that it is probably normal. I do plan to eventually do juice brakes. I will certainly take you guys along with me as I am sure I will have more questions.

 

Here's a little info that might help you along. Guys talk a lot about Horse Power numbers. To me that's not the big deal, it's how you use what you have. Torque is the big thing and R.P.M. is next. To maximize what you have you need to know where those two cross over. If you keep squeezing R.P.M's out of a motor past the peak Torque point your wasting time. The perfect shift point is at that intersection. That's where you'll find the sweet spot and the least amount of Vibs as the motor decells. Once in high gear you can squeeze more but you want to get back down to the intersection for best driving range for the motor. On a stock Model A that's around 42 to 45 M.P.H. as I have found. Even though I own a Banger powered vehicle that's why I haven't finished this one and don't plan to drive it much if and when it does get done. My right foot has a comfort zone those little motors can't live up to.

 

Pist-n-Broke, you could write a book. Excellent advice. That's why I love this place, all because of folks like yourself.

 

What are your thoughts on a 331 caddi v8 and trans? Would that be a year’s worth of work for me to do that swap?

 

.....As fast as you work, a couple of days!!

 

Thanks for the complement. I'm not really that smart, I've just learned a lot of very expensive lessons getting to this point in life. The Top Notch guys that made the Band-Aids for me and explained my stupidity deserve all the credit. The up side for me is that I've had a Hell of a lot of Fun getting here.

 

Honestly it's a better route than a flathead V8 IMHO.
I suggest manual....Early Ford v8 3 speed.
Wil Cap adapters...
'39-48 car front and rear axle assemblies with springs and bones
'32 K Member or F1 transmission crossmember. The F1 crossmember can be found as many F1 owners cut out that crossmember.
F-1 steering and shock towers
Do not split the bones more than you have too
This puts you into the Mid-50s

Both the early and late Cadillac 331-390 1949-1962 can be adapted to the ford 3 speed. The earlier 331s being the easiest.
the 4 speed Hydros were good but they are heavy and tricky to find anyone who knows anything about them. Also the Cad-Hydro will require a driveshaft, rear ect ect ect.....

 

This got real, real quick.

 

I don't know enough about your background to say one way or another. For me and back when I tried to do 40 hrs a week if this was my one and only job I would probably say 4 hard weeks of work. Now that time schedule never happens due to waiting on pieces or having things made outside your hands on zone. Heck just trying to find a good Rad shop to make a new one can take a month to get back. It depends on how well you can plan ahead and your Hands on ability and who you go to for the things you can't do yourself. Personally given where your at now I would advise building a total new chassis front to back start to finish make it run and stop and then in one weekend do a Body Swap. That way your still driving around having fun and not Grounded when something don't go according to plans.

 

I just have floaters on the front. I must have read somewhere that they only go in the front....don't remember specifically where I got that from, though. So far as the vibrations, I got nothing for you there. It's been almost a year since I drove mine (started redoing the interior and got hung up waiting on the front seat cover from the manufacturer for several months LOL), but I don't recall it vibrating. Could be I am just hitting that "sweet spot" @Pist-n-Broke is talking about.....I'm don't really push the car and drive it mostly like a grandma since I'm still a noob to driving a stock A. LOL

 

I guess I ventured out too soon.


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Oh No!...What happened? Hope nothing terminal.

 

OOPS, Didn't see all of the oil on the bed of the rollback. Sucks.

 

So... no warning signs. It was running good but when I went to start it after a quick spray at the car wash the starter wouldn’t work and the engine seems locked up. I tried to crank start it but the engine would not turn over in neutral. I tried sticking it in gear and moving it back and forth to maybe break it loose, no joy. Could be something with the starter jamming against the flywheel or worse... I’ll look at it tomorrow.


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No oil from my car.


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