Projects 1927 MoPar Powered Model T Coupe

Hey all. I come to you from the south Puget Sound area in Washington state. Decided I should share my 6 month long build. I'll make posts every few days till I run out of pictures and stories.

I purchased a middle of the road 1927 Mode T Coupe body, Model A frame and some suspension in mid January. The frame came with a 55 chevy rear end that came out to be a 3.55 gear set and a nice old 4" dropped front axle. Being an oddball I chose a 23" Mopar 6 cylinder for my power plant and found a good rebuild-able candidate with an overdrive column shift trans for free. Once I had it all at the shop I started mocking everything up. Figured out how much I had to stretch and step the frame to get things where I wanted to put it.

 

I commend the brave choice in powerplant. Though I've found the inline Mopar flatheads to have practically no upper end power, so getting an overdrive transmission is a good pick. Do you have all the actuator solenoids and cables? One solenoid typically goes on the firewall, while the other is on the transmission. There's also the overdrive pull-cable on the dash that engages the unit.

George Ashe in Pennsylvania has been doing Overdrive and inline six parts for decades, give him and his son a call if you have any questions: (814) 354-2621

I'm not sure what your budget is, but I have some vintage speed parts that would go on your motor. I was saving them for a build of my own, but plans changed. Shoot me a PM anytime.

 

Ended up 2 weeks after acquiring the first body coming across a complete body with all the bells and whistles for a smoking deal on FB marketplace. All the inferior was there with exception of the seat. All the interior panels, glass, window garnish moldings, seat pan riser, good window regulators and door latches, the works. Ended up sending my dad and a buddy of mine sight unseen to pick it up for me. I ended up getting not only the body but splash shields, fenders, a hood, grille shell, frame and running boards. needless to say I wash happy when it all showed up at the shop in the dark.

 

Thanks for the Contact Info!

This is my first 20's - 30's build and the thought of going fast never really crossed my mind when I got started. I was shooting more for something DIFFERENT to drive to local car shows and to cruise nights in Enumclaw, Sumner and Puyallup. I have had a thing for 23" Mopar flatheads since the 54 Plymouth Belvedere I had in high school.

 

After the good fortune on the second body I ended up having the opportunity to pick up and second mostly complete 1953 P24 Plymouth engine. This time with a '38 dodge 3 speed truck transmission and bell housing hanging off the back. needless to say I was excited to have a top shift transmission and not have to sort out the column shift linkage.

 

Welcome from a fellow T coupe owner. I like the oddball six engine. Back in my twenties, I owned a '39 Fargo with the top shift transmission, It did not have synchromesh and it was necessary to double clutch. Not too bad shifting up, but that 3 to 2 shift needed to be careful. Shifting from 2 to 1? Don't do it.

 

Great score on the 38 transmission! I like driving my 35 Dodge with the floor shift far more than any column shift car. Lots of interchangeable parts between the years of flathead production, so should be able to build a great drivetrain with what you have. Any ideas on rear axle?

 

The rear axle I have is a 1955 Chevrolet out of a PowerGlide car with a 3.55 gear set. Someone had already many, many moons ago, welded ford spring perch's on it and did a nice job of it too. So that said all I had left to do was cut the leaf spring perches off the tubes, clean em up and paint it. I'm using a Model A spring in the rear with ladder bars and lever shocks for the suspension. (you'll see all that shortly when I post more pics)

 

Sounds like a cool little T coupe project. I’ll be following along.

 

Once I had all the parts in one place I figured out how and where I wanted to step and stretch the frame to get the right wheel base and rake. Ended up using a rear section my buddy had and some rectangular tubing to do the step and stretch. After that I started getting the suspension setup. was going to use some cool, old Mr Roadster cast aluminum radius rod mounts but someone before me had over tightened the ball joints in them and cracked the tapered bosses. So scratch that. Wound up going with some speedway steel ones instead. Shot from the hip on the rear suspension (you'll see in the pics ) toyed with mounting the ladder bars parallel, two different ways. Wised up then did some reading and finally settled on adding a cross member and angling them in toward the center of the car for the most drive ability. Once the rear was mocked up I test fit the engine and trans in an effort to get some weight on the suspension and see where everything was going to sit. Had to excavate quite a bit of the stock center cross member but with the addition of a cross member behind it for the rear suspension I'm not too worried about it.

 

Sounds really similar to what I'm running. Mine's a 1957 Chevrolet, but running 3:36 gears.

 

Very similar, I was reading your thread quite a lot when I got started. Great work by the way! I might go for a 3.36 gear set later on but at the moment it drives real nice with the 3.55's in it.

 

Just wanted to say Howdy .... While we lived in Orting, I was born at Tacoma General in 1962 .... closest Hospital at the time. My relatives lived in Buckley, I went to school in McMilan .... In my teens I cruised the loop in Puyallup ... I was the Bonney Lake Dog catcher ...... We traveled the same circles.
Today I'm pure Texan ...

I hear ya on the 218 flathead 6 ...... This engine was built from the early 30's to the mid 1970's.
They did very little changes over the years .... they just worked so good no major changes were needed.
I agree the 1950 Ford 239 flathead V8 offers 5 more HP then the Mopar 218.

Both can be modified & Hot Rodded.

I'm stuck on the idea I had a 1951 Ford V8 in high school so as a adult I want another .... they sound so cool.

I know my 218 Mopar is simply a superior engine, creates decent HP, has no cooling issues .... is easy to work on & adjust valves, oil pump, rings or bearings ..... simple carburetor to work with.
The design worked so well they made the engine into the 70's for agriculture & over sea applications.

Just saying the Ford flathead was never built into the 1970's & was plagued with different issues including over heating or running hot.

Never feel sad for having the Mopar 6 .... They sound pretty cool ..... The Ford V8 is the best sounding engine ever created .... about the best they have going for them.

 

Glad to see you using the transmission ears for mounting. Since most MoPar engines of that era use the front cradle mounts, and that can result in unforeseen torque on the mounts if not triangulated.

 

interesting project, I've got a soft spot for T's and MoPar flat sixes have had a few of each
but never combined

 

Great post and build - nice pics too - enjoy your build - you’ve found the best site on the internet - check out the build thread index post at top - helped me a lot

 

thread now added to the Build Thread Index

 

I did indeed use the Dodge bell housing for the rear engine mounts. To do that I ended up fabricating my own brackets that bolt to the ends of the bell housing ears and then sit on top of Ford flathead style biscuit engine mounts. Started with some Speedway ones but didn't like the quality and their ability to slide from side to side. So I bought some brackets out of Texas that came with the nice biscuits with bands and lower cups. They made all the difference in how things went together. For the front engine mount I took the already butchered "Floating Power" arch and grafter square tube to the sides to interface with some frame standoffs. This build has gone so fast so far that I only have a couple pictures with the mounts in them. Wish I had taken some better shots. The following pics are out of sequence but show the brackets better.

 

With the engine Loosely mounted in the frame I started working on figuring out where the body should sit. I also did some test fitting of the seat and steering column for driving position. Figuring out the final engine position was a bit tough but once I had the body where it should be things got easier. Ended up cutting a bunch of clearance in the center cross member for the parking brake and the shifter stand of the transmission so that I could set the engine back as far as possible. Ended up with the rear two cylinders just past the firewall making it look like a 4 cylinder from afar but you see the last 2 cylinders up close.

 

Ya doing some really good work there - really like yer post and pics - keep moving forward brother flea

 

I have several 218 Mopar flat sixes and if I ever get my current projects all caught I am seriously thinking of using one of them in a '27 Dodge coupe. They are only about a 1/2" longer than the stock 4 banger. Use '30's front and rear axles for Hyd brakes and 4.5" bolt pattern wheels. Would be similar to your T coupe but bigger.

Dave

 

In my mind, I always compare my T coupe to my old Fargo, because I placed all the controls in about the same place. Your flathead six takes that to another level. Here in Canada, the Mopars used the 25" engine in everything - just varying the bore and stroke to get the different engine displacements.

 

I have a 230 in my ‘53 Dodge half ton with a 3.55 Cherokee rear end and T5, runs really well around town and on the freeway. It looks like you have a truck bellhousing and throttle linkage. The T isn’t going to weigh much and should go pretty good. I had George Asche split my exhaust manifold and convert the intake manifold to dual carbs, that woke it up! Highly recommend him.

 

After I got the body and suspension mocked up where I felt it was in a good spot I decided to pattern the firewall cutout and get the green body on the frame. This was a major milestone in the project. there's nothing quite like when you put some of the final assembly parts together and see you ideas take shape.

 

In my haste and because of lack of tools and patience, I ended up breaking the top cover on the Vega box from hitting the end of the pinion shaft trying to get the pitman arm off. Ended up making a new cover. It was a fun little machining project in the middle of a sea of fabrication. I also Machined up some mounting tabs for the shock links at about the same time.

 

Here is a link to help ID the specific engine you have.
https://www.t137.com/registry/help/otherengines/otherengines.php

 

Thanks, both engines I have are P24's out of 53 Plymouths. I've been through that registry quite a few times and also my service manual that covers P15-P25. Ended up learning about the Plymouth stuff in the late 2000's while working on a P25 in a 54 Belvedere. Caught the early MoPar bug back then too.

 

Old Mopars and a model T coupe. I think i like you.
I have a 53 Dodge since 86 and my 27 coupe gets a 55 Dodge mill.

 

With the body finally on the frame and the engine mostly in it's final location. I moved on to getting the steering figured out. I ended up going with a Vega box and cross steer. For the column and wheel I got one from a 47 Plymouth and cut it down. Made a nice pass through in the firewall by boring out a piece of pipe so the column would slide through it and welded it into a closeout panel at the base of the firewall. Later I welded the end clamp from the 47 column to the end of the pipe to pinch the column on the engine side of the firewall. For the column drop I split a piece of pipe and welded it to the cross bar of an exhaust clamp then fab'd the other half to a sheet metal bracket that bolts to the bottom of the dash and welded the "U" of the exhaust clamp to it with the studs facing up under the dash. Makes for a nice positive clamp at the bottom and top of the column. Mocked up the distributor has tons of room but with wires in the cap I end up with just over a 1/6" of clearance between the DD shaft and the wire boots.