Great work and writing. I made a c clamp like that 30 plus years ago , still use it for flathead valves . Keep it up
I've got a much anticipated update; the title of this thread is no longer relevant.... At precisely 1:59 PM mountain time, a 30-31 Brookville body was purchased from a nice gentleman located in Texas. Serendipitously, a family friend happened to be driving from Tennessee to Colorado, hauling a half empty trailer and willing to make the slight detour. Now if this wasn't meant to be, I have no clue what is...other than the fact I'll be sleeping in the garage for the next 2 nights. Excitement doesn't come close to describing my feelings right now. Mark my words, this car will be driving this summer! Registration, that's a whole other animal. By the way, something seems really familiar about the name written on the box......
Super clean body, and the wood is already done!! Do you mind doing me a favor? Can you snap me some pics of the sub rails, from the front of the doors to the firewall? I gotta recreate mine for my roadster.
Guess so. The guy said he got the body from some famous shop but I didn’t put 2 + 2 together until I saw the name on the box. Hopefully the body is blessed by Vern himself!
Nice You may want to install a B Dist. and timing gear cover as the B has a auto advance. Once Timing is set no need to adjust.
The body is on, shimmed and the doors close like butter....for now. Oh boy, did I get myself into one hell of a fight with the trunk pan. The Z gave me all sorts of headaches. It was know there’d be some “trimming and massaging” of the body but this turned out to be surgery. Besides the hole in the pan cut out to clear the rear spring mount, both sides had some fairly complex cuts made to clear the frame. As of now, the holes are open to the trunk but will later have sheet metal boxed/welded in. Stupid me welded the aft most body mount holes closed....again the body had to be levitated to re-drill the holes. Speaking of levitation, I gotta say, I came up with a pretty slick way to lift and lower the body without another human present. Some eye bolts in the ceiling along with the synching straps you use to haul motorcycles worked a treat. The doubled 2x4s the car came on worked great as cross supports with additional eye bolts screwed in. Today was a long day, but (insert car name here) is starting to look like a really for real automobile. I’m really digging the height of the car. My son says it looks like one of those bugs that walk on water...I kinda agree.
Well, son of a! The flywheel housing is cracked. I know conventional mig welding is out of the question. I also know some folks say drill the ends of the cracks and run it. Stumped......thoughts?
Cast iron? Many methods have been used over the years, from welding (usually involving heating ovens first) to an oldie, something you could do at home. Drill, tap and install a piece of threaded rod. cut flush and do another overlapping the first. Look for cast iron stitching. There were a bunch of different weld/braze videos listed to compare. Since this can open the crack a bit and the flat surface in your application is critical, I'd check into pro repair and replacement costs to see what your choices are in relation to time, cost and final result. As always, cheap, fast, right, pick two!
There are guys that can weld that with nickel rod. If it was mine and a stock banger I would braze it. Brazing is probably as strong as the rest of it and a lot stronger than most of the pundits think. It is a legitimate vintage repair on cast metal. You would want to have it surfaced afterword. I wonder why it cracked? Warped? Misaligned? Loose? I doubt if it was torque.
I am about to Z my model A frame, which will eventually have a 30-31 body. Any advice before I go at it? I'm taking the risk of doing it now before I have the body..
They do crack. but, henry made 4 million of em, I would find another. If you were close, i'd give you one. they are not that valuable. best of luck for you
Gonna check Bert’s tomorrow to se if they have a good original. Repops are about $500! Wish you were close, you seem to know a heck of a lot about A’s.
I did the same. It all depends on how much you want to Z. If you’re just going for about 3”, Vern Tardel’s method is really easy, any more and the entire trunk pan pretty much needs to be cut out/butchered. Honestly, wish I would have just used the model T spring I have rather than modifying the body. But it is what it is and it ain’t gonna go back to what it was.
I have fixed similar with drill end of crack,preheat part to 400 degrees and arcweld with nickel rod.Has worked well
Good luck finding an un cracked original. Never seen one. Was a weak design and worse if the shims are not used in assembly.
Score! Found an un cracked 31 housing at Bert’s. That place is a goldmine. May have come home with other crap too...
All the small things….. Acquired a beast of an air compressor. Took all the paint off the tank. Waiting for 4 more gallons of evapo-rust to fill the tank up and flush all the rust out. The plan is to fill er to the top and let sit for 2-3 days. Removing all the rust on the body with a combination of mechanical and chemical warfare. Fitted the blue dots. Trying to fit the damn trunk latch. Requires some welding up of sheet metal, hole drilling, and other finagling. Starting to plan for paint, going to give it a go myself. I painted a truck about 17 years ago and it turned out, well, like I painted it in my garage. This time around, I’m going to take my time and do it “right.” The car will be gloss black. Currently researching the appropriate primer, base and clear. It doesn’t need to be perfect but I’d really love to make it look like it wasn’t half assed. Still no flywheel or Thomas head….dying to drop the motor in! Other than that, there hasn’t been much happening. Had to put my best bud down so motivation has been lacking. Was really looking to taking my dog for a cruise, he would have loved it.
If you are an amateur painter with no fancy paint booth, you can still get a nice looking job by wet sanding /buffing to remove any imperfections, and get a nice shine too. You're new sheet metal should block out nice and straight in primer, then 4 coats gives you enough paint to buff. Clear is just another step for a possible screw up, cost money, and gets you only a slightly better shine. Also, straight paint can be repaired easier than a clear coat. I am a hack painter myself, lets see what the pro's have to say
I have the same deal with my wife. And as long as it miraculously doesn’t snow or ice on her car she sees no need to park in the garage. Just found your thread. Great read, love the plan. Subscribed for the rest of the ride.
Sorry about your dog you can't get that kind of friendship anywhere else. You are making great progress. Here is how a friend cleans gas tanks. He starts with a couple of gallons of gravel.
I clean gas tanks similar to that, but use my wheel painting machine, which runs at 5 RPM, and use a tube of BB's so as not to scratch off the zinc plating in the tank.
The Jalopy Journal
