Projects Shade Tree Model A Speedster Kind of Thing

Just for kicks I looked back for a shot I could compare it to. I'll do another one from as close to this angle as I can, once I get it back on its wheels.

 

I spent this morning working on the permanent attachment of my front and rear crossmembers. The front was just about ready, I just had to drill and tap holes through the frame horns into each end of the pipe part (remember those solid end-plugs I welded in?). Those fit real nicely into some stock half round pressings inside the frame horn ends, so these 3/8" bolts really just pinch everything in tight.



I also gave the front end of the spring perch a slight radius in both planes.



What looks like flat black paint is just that rattle-can rust converter.

The rear crossmember was a little more involved. Not really complicated, just had to locate and drill a bunch of holes. I ended up with three 5/16" bolts through each frame end into the brackets, three through each crossmember end into the brackets, and one at each end through crossmember, rail, and bracket (that's the hex one). I'll watch it carefully when I get to the yard driving stage, but I think it should be pretty secure. Knock on wood.





I had these little clips that I bought for another project and didn't end up using. They are supposed to be outstanding lock washers. I don't have any commercial interest in these, and I don't know how well they will work. Another thing to keep an eye on, I reckon.



I did my best to duplicate this old shot of the naked frame, just for a better before and after.






My work area is starting to look like a homeless encampment. About time to tidy up a bit, I guess.

 

It must be nice living so far south that you don't need to worry about frost heave disrupting your frame table.
Nice work!

 

@fourspd2quad, it actually got down in the high 20's last night. Hahaha. Seriously though, not having a frame table worried me a good bit, but I hoped that if I left the motor in to help hold everything down and shimmed it level front and rear on the jack stands that I could get away with this, and so far I feel pretty confident. And lucky. What really amazes me is that this car took that mighty blow back in March and the frame is still level and square, as far as I can tell. I know how to read a carpenter's level and tape measure and how to pull diagonals, so I am pretty confident about that, too.

 

Not a lot of progress this AM. I'm taking advantage of having the axles out to replace the spring shackles. Started with the rear end today. I had about as much trouble as I anticipated I would. This thing had those old replacement rubber inserts, but I'm pretty sure the bushings were 1937 stock.



They were in there. Worn paper thin on one side, which seems like it would make things easier, but didn't seem to, for some reason.

I call this "Still Life with Aggravation":



I put a point on the tang of that rattail file, which proved to be the secret weapon. Just had to remember not to pry with it. The good old shadetree press made relatively short work of installing the new bushings. Of course I remembered to clean out the holes. After the first try, that is. Haha.



I forgot to take a picture of the spring spreading, but it was simple. I just took it down to the main leaf and flattened it with a big C clamp. These later springs don't have near the tension that a Model A does. Then just stack the rest of the leaves on and done.



I imagine that the weight of the car will flatten that spring enough to give me a better shackle angle? At least I hope so. You can see the parts of my jackleg spring spreading stuff there. lumber on the bottom, angle iron on the top to keep me from spot-loading the spring with the clamp, and then squeeze it with that big clamp. Front end tomorrow.

 

So, this morning I think to myself: "Let's just pop that rear end under the car before we start on the front shackles. It'll only take a few minutes, and then maybe we can have it on all fours by lunch." Famous last words of mice and men.
First of all, let me show you a picture of that rear end U-bolt bracket that actually illustrates how I ground it to fit the curvature of what used to be the top of the rear crossmember.



I owed y'all that from a few posts back when I tried to describe it because I had forgotten to take a picture. Anyway, on with the morning's excitement.

First off, the damn V8 speedo drive interferes with the clamshell. These early Model As have a kind of funky brake cross-rod. It's not one piece with a dip bent into it to clear the torque tube like the later ones, but a two-piece arrangement with a middle actuating doohickey that's hooked to the pedal. You may have to Google it. I think the idea was for each rod to move independently so the brakes would automatically balance. Must not have worked as well as they thought, because it was abandoned for the much simpler one-piece rod. Anyway, the inside ends of each brake rod are supported by ball sockets forged into ears on the clamshell. You can see them here:



That's what was hitting the speedometer drive. I do also have a v8 clamshell, but it doesn't have the little hook (you can also see in that picture) that catches the lip of the crossmember to support the rear end of the transmission, so I'd have to sort that out if I used it. After thinking about it for a few minutes I realized that, either way, I wasn't going to be able to keep the early brakes, which is fine because the '37 brakes are cable operated, anyway. So I decided to cut those ears off and use the original clamshell. I'll figure the brake mess out later. I bet those clamshells are worth their weight in gold, but oh well.





That took a good bit of my morning, but I thought I could still salvage enough time to make some progress up front. However, when I got the rear end into the U-joint and slipped the U-bolts into the crossmember, it became obvious that they were much too long. I still had these that clamped the Model a spring from underneath, and they were just right to pad things out. But, remember that I forged those U-joints to be narrower? Now the holes in those clamps are too far apart, so I had to oval them out.



Didn't see any need for the extra hole just hanging around, so I cut it off and prettied the ends a bit. I also had to file square edges into them because of how the U-bolt transitions from round to half-round, and file a chamfer into the inside edges (doesn't show in the picture) to get a tight fit. It was a whole production.




On top of that, I forgot to take a picture of it all ***embled. Sometimes in the midst of all of this I forget about do***enting stuff and just go. I did get this one that at least shows the general idea.



Maybe tomorrow I can get those front shackles done and see it on its wheels all ****oned up? If no new things arise.

 

Well, new things arose. I'm not going to put up a bunch of pictures of this, since the process has already been covered, but in the spirit of full disclosure and the hope that my misadventures and screw-ups might help somebody else avoid such, I'll describe it. When I got ready to shorten the frame (after I cut it), I just bolted the rear end to the transmission and the crossmember and measured and marked where to cut it. I left it all together when I welded it, and was confident that I was good. I didn't account for the slop in those old spring shackles. Once I got the new ones in and tried to re***emble everything, the bell on the front of the torque tube was 3/4" away from the bell on the transmission. Dammit. The spring had enough flex that I could have pulled it up and held it with the clamshell, but I didn't think all that constant tension would be a good thing, so I had no choice but to take the crossmember back off and shorten the frame rails an additional 3/4", measure it all again, drill new holes, on and on. It was all avoidable, if I had just stopped to think. Live and learn, I guess.

On to the front end, and I was looking forward to seeing it as a real roller. Not so fast. As I was banging around removing old shackles and pressing the new ones into the wishbone ends, I knocked enough rust and ancient grease loose that one of them just started flopping. I took a closer look, and there was probably 3/32" of clearance between the axle and the ears of the wishbone that the perch bolt goes through.



That picture is after I finally got the perch bolt out. That's me getting ahead of the story, but the gap didn't photograph well with the bolt still in. That is the bottom ear of the wishbone end, I had the whole mess upside down to drive the bolt out. This was my first try at removing one of Ford's notoriously stubborn perch bolts, and I have to say that reputation is well-deserved. Oil, heat (got the axle dull red), a 2lb sledge and big bronze drift finally did it.



Another still life. Cuss words not pictured. The bolt was in really nice shape when I got it out, so that's something. See how mushroomed the top of that section of bronze shaft is? It wasn't like that when I started. That little pointy drift was helpful after I got it going well enough that I had to remove the nut I put on there to protect the threads.



I can't figure how that gap came to be. The forged end of the wishbone doesn't seem to be bent or show any signs of abuse. The axle doesn't appear to be ground down, and the faces between the axle and the forged end are still flat and square. It's a puzzle. Figuring what to do about it was also a puzzle, but I finally decided to just make a couple of steel washer shims (you may have noticed them in that picture of the bolt) and put them on the bottom side so that the top of the perch bolt would get pulled into the top of the axle nice and tight. They were a tap in fit. Seems to have worked, for now at least. I'll add this to the list of things to keep an eye on, once we get percolating. There really is a written-out list, and it's getting pretty long.



Sorry that's such a fuzzy picture. I didn't remember to take one until I had everything back together, and it was hard to see what I was doing under there. You can see the shiny washers just above the castellated nut. It all seems tight, so I guess we'll see.

After all of that, I finally got to put the front axle under it and push it over to the same spot I used to take milestone pictures of the original Shadetree. What joy. I like the height. It's low but not so low it looks rodenty, if you know what I mean. At least not to me. Scrub line is not an issue, and I think it'll clear most speed bumps and such pretty well.











I also like the way the '37 axles look. It's unique, but I think it still looks like a traditional build. I don't know that I've seen anything exactly like it, but I feel like it could have been made back in the day?

I don't like putting pictures of myself on the internet, but I am including this one because it illustrates the seating position and the overall proportions.



I have a more serious one, but had to have a little fun with it, didn't I?

I think I might be at a stopping place for a bit. I need to decide on and acquire a radiator shell before I can start making a firewall and move on to the body. Or buy tires and go ahead and set the castor angle so I can get those split wishbone ends secured. Either way, looks like I'm about to have to make some decisions and spend some money. Oh well.

 

Here you go. Sorry for the ****py phone video quality.

 

If this project is your labor of love, you must be freakin Cupid by now!!! (lol)
I love following along. Keep on keepin on.
Tim

 

Here I was thinking I needed to scratch up my nickels and dimes and buy a grill shell, just because the '30/'31 I have is too tall. I must have briefly gotten away from my core being, somehow. I just chopped the bottom off of my old shell.



I don't imagine anyone on here is going to squawk about a Model A grill shell getting cut, but just in case, you can see it's been kind of poorly repaired around the crank hole, so it was no precious thing. Of course, I had to plop it up there and see if it looks alright. A little wide, but I have a plan for that.



I was pretty pleased with that, and was thinking of just making some brackets and leaving it bottomless like a Model T shell, but something was bothering me. I don't like seeing that aluminum radiator, and even with a grill guard, that bottom tank was going to be shining down there like a...well, you know. Scratched my head some and decided to try this:



I had to trim the flanges a little, but got it where it fit pretty good.



To stick it back together I just used small bronze rivets.



Drilling the holes was the hardest part. I couldn't get enough pressure with the hand drill (that stainless is tough stuff), but couldn't figure out any way to clamp it all together and still fit it on the drill press, so I had to drill the holes in the main part first and then clamp it and punch through the holes to transfer marks to the bottom part, then take it back apart and drill that. Both the drilling and riveting were tricky with that damn shell flopping all over the place. (As you can see from the flash pictures, I swapped my schedule today. Family time in the morning, car time in the afternoon.) I think this will work, though. And it fits my oft-repeated philosophy of using what I have. In my humble opinion, that is an historically accurate at***ude. Naturally I tried it on:



In real life the seams and rivets are pretty visible, but I don't mind that. Seeing alterations and modifications doesn't really bother me, as long as they look neat and competent. I think that's why I'm so self-conscious about my welding.

I'll have to make some brackets to hook it all together and trim my old repurposed fire screen insert to fit. And again, it's too wide, so that has to be addressed, but I'm still pretty satisfied. Stay tuned for the solution to those little issues.

 

This is a fair bit of work for a subtle change, but I like things to look right to me, so it was worth it. I decided to narrow the bottom of the radiator shell to pull the sides in. First I just split it at the center seam (that was easy because it had been tack welded there sometime in the past) and pulled it together so that I liked the fit, then clamp it so I could mark the cuts. I didn't remember to photograph any of that, but it was pretty straightforward. Here is the result:



The crank hole is pretty much gone now, but I can always cut a new one, if I decide I need it. Next, I made a little diamond shaped plate of thin steel (it's big enough to accommodate that future crank hole modification).



Then I clamped it all together and marked the outline of that plate on the backside of the shell so I could drill holes through the shell, then clamp the plate back to just one side, punch through the shell holes, drill that side, rivet it on, spring the other side in and mark it's holes, unclamp and drill the plate, then pull it all together and rivet again. Whew.



It's not real obvious there, but I did remember to wire brush both sides of that plate. Of course, as you might expect, flexing that shell resulted in a slight deformation at the top. That little pointy thing with the blue oval on it was now poking out like a beak.



I guess I thought my dirty shop floor was the most important thing in that picture? You get idea, though. This is the kind of jackleg fix that I always intend to go back and do better, but sometimes just leave as-is.



That's just a little bronze ring-shank nail pulling the beak back against that wooden cross-piece. I'm not worried about bronze and stainless and electrolysis, by the way. They get along fairly well, and this thing won't be in a marine environment. Anyway, this is what I wound up with:



And then on the car:



Like I said, subtle. Somehow comparing that picture to the last one of the previous post, it doesn't look like that much has changed, but it's a little more obvious in real life. Just not quite so sloppy looking, appears more like it was made for that radiator. Can aluminum radiators be painted black? I'll have to research.

 

Yes, there is a black radiator paint. Available at Eastwood.

 

Any updates?

 

I've been slacking on keeping up with the HAMB. Glad to see all your progress since Christmas! You truly have an artistic vision as well as a knack for explaining your process. Thanks for sharing the experience with us!

 

No real updates. I'm kind of streaky with my enthusiasms. Currently sidetracked by carpentry and boat repair projects. Also, I'm at the stage on this build where I really need to establish a firm position for the driver's seat. Everything just kind of builds off of that. Pedals, firewall, body lines, steering column angle and steering wheel position. Problem is, I need a seat in order to get that firmly established. I was thinking about building plywood bomber seats. There's a good thread on here that I would link if I wasn't so lazy, but it's easy to search up. Then these things just kind of fell in my lap:





Neither I or the fellow I bought them from have the vaguest idea what they are. I'm guessing either military or commercial delivery? Either way, I really like them. If you look close, you can see that they each still have the adjustable track, so my somewhat shorter acquaintances will be able to drive the car without having to resort to stuffing a pillow behind them. They are really light and the look speaks to me, but they are a bit too large.



Too wide, and the bases are unusually deep. I have a plan.

As a little extra, long time followers might remember that I took a lot of inspiration from this car in my first attempt at this speedster:



Really, just the rear end design of the OG Shadetree was anything like that car. I'm not trying to put on airs here or make any claims of equivalence or anything.

Anyway, here is the car I'm currently inspired by:



I guess I have a thing for those crazy British hillclimb specials? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to copy anybody else's work, but I know what I like, and I'm not above finding inspiration. By the way, that second one has a Model A or B engine with a Cragar ohv head.

I'll get back on this thing pretty soon, I think.

 

Well, that seat business wouldn't let me be, so just had to run out after lunch and see what was going to be what. After measuring, I decided 4" narrower would do the trick, so I cut that much out of every crosspiece in the structure of one of them and lopped off the front of the bottom section, as well.




A little clamping and welding re***embled the back and the rear half of the bottom, then I cut about 8" out of each side of the rest of the bottom frame and welded that back together. Ended up with this:





This is how it fits in the frame now:



This is not going to be a wide vehicle. I'm fortunate enough to not be overly wide myself for a man my age, and I have obviously given this a test sit, but a 14" seat is pushing it (pinching it?) even for my narrow ***. Maybe this car will prove to be enough incentive for me to hold the line right where it is?

I have some ideas about cushioning and whatnot. That will come in time. Felt good to make a little progress, after a few weeks off of this, though.

 

you do know about bucket seats "ala cart"--using a shopping cart upside down?

 

This is such a bad*** build, keep going!!

 

Dang. I do now. Not really the time period I'm going for, but interesting.

 

Still piddling around with these seats. I still have some welding to do on the base of the p***enger one, but the back is welded and the cuts are all made, and that's good enough for me to prop it up next to the driver's seat for a little daydreaming. I liked the way I had the seating staggered in the original build. It really does make for a more comfortable experience when you have a p***enger in a car this narrow. Just gives both of you a little more hip and shoulder room. I think I'll go with that layout again this time. I am going to have to make a little hump for the torque tube, and it's going to have to be as close a fit as I can manage, but it won't have to be too tall, so I think I can make it work. Worst case scenario is I'll have to raise those seats up a bit, but that's why I'm mocking all of this up before I start figuring out the body dimensions.







I still need to figure out how to fill those seat frames in so they will support ****s and backs. Then I guess I better tackle the floorboards, so I can sort out that tunnel and get those seats mounted. The old floorboards were pretty simple, because they sat on top of the frame rails, but that would put the seats higher than I want for this version, so these ones will be a little more complicated. Oh well.

Sharp eyes may notice an F100 steering box sitting on the frame. That came from the Bay of E. I originally bought one from the cl***ifieds here, but the Postal Service managed to lose it. Thankfully, the very understanding seller had insured it, so we were able to work that out. This one was almost twice as much, but it has been rebuilt, so that's something. Gads are they big, though. Compared to a stock Model A box, anyway. I'm also a little troubled by the fact that it is not a pre-war item, but my old box was worn out. Notchy and lots of free play, immune to adjustment. I'd love to keep it all authentic and stuff, but doubt I could find or afford a Franklin, so I'll just have to chew on my lip and drive with this one. I suppose I could have rebuilt my original set-up, but the internet raves about these later ones, so...

I'm not worried about the cut steering shaft, by the way. My column is going to have to be extended, anyway, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Made it cheaper to buy and ship than an uncut one.

 

This is an experiment that may well prove to be a failure, but that's the nature of things around here. I've been thinking about how to deal with these pipe frame seats. Fitted thin plywood bases screwed to the pipes with cushions added? Webbing pop riveted to the frames and woven? Nah. Neither of those excited me. Instead, I'm trying this technique that is used on chairs and stools. I'm hoping it will be light and comfortable. Knock on wood. I'll let the pictures do the explaining.





It's pretty hard on the fingers, doing this. I'm not a chair maker, so I'm sure there's fault to be found here, but I'm pretty encouraged so far. That's a cheap uv resistant polyester twine, 250# breaking strength, low stretch. Not period correct, but it's what I had on hand. Should be hemp or jute, but I'm ok with it. No need to start splitting hairs on this deal.

 

Well, I think this will work out, after all. I finished weaving the first seat bottom. It has a lot of unwoven spaces because I had to work around brackets and curved tubing, but it's tight and strong.



Serendipitously, the old Mart of Wal outdoor patio faux leather seat cushions I bought so many years ago and used in the old car fit these seats like they are made for them. I was puzzling over how to weave the backs and not have them end up flat, but I don't think I even need any twine up there. That cushion fills the gaps perfectly, and those holes line up with the two vertical rails in the middle . I'll just find some appropriately heavy ****ons and lash them on.



It's a surprisingly comfortable seat, at least as a static thing. Might feel different on the road, but I was never uncomfortable in the old car, so I'm hopeful.

 

man oh man!!-cool

 

Those seats came out nice. Great idea for the weave on the bottom!

 

As often happens with new things I'm learning to do, the second seat was easier to weave. I decided to reduce the number of weft (crossways, hope I'm using that term right) strands. On the first seat, the base got pretty tight from packing all of those in there. Cutting back on them saves time and material. Kept me from having to order more twine. I attached the cushions to the driver's seat (the second one I did) with ****ons. I just tied them through to the woven twine on the bottom and to the upright tubes on the backs with some heavy duty waxed Dacron thread I use for sewing leather sheaths and holsters. Seems to have worked fine. I will have to find some more ****ons, though. Hopefully ones that match pretty well. Anyway, I think these seats should be useable.

 

Those seats look amazingly correct!

 

So, if I'm going to get these contraptions mounted and move on with my seat of the pants design process, I'll need floorboards. That means I need some kind of crossmember at the rear end of the p***enger compartment for them to land on, and for the torque tube hump to attach to. That means I need to go ahead and box where I stepped the frame, because that's right where the new crossmember will be going. Pretty straightforward stuff. Cardboard pattern:



Then transfer that to some old rusty sheet metal and cut them out, one for each side.



Those scribed lines are from where I was thinking of drilling some holes, but decided against it. I haven't completely figured out how that crossmember is going to be, and just my luck it would end up on the holes if I drilled them now. Anyway, then it was just a matter of clamping them and welding the top seams.



I was going to wait on the bottom seams until I pulled this all apart for painting, but then I thought "who and I kidding?" and set about figuring how to get to them. This worked:



Now, I am in no way advocating any of you lying on your back with a O/A torch while trusting your life to an old seat belt. Your life is your business and mine is mine. I will say that seat belt was probably expected to restrain more weight in more violent conditions in its designed application than it was asked to do here. In all seriousness, I did put some fully extended jack stands under the frame rails before I crawled under there. Here are the plates fully welded, or boogered, or whatever.

 

Now that's done, I can work on the little bulkhead that will be the aft end of my p***enger compartment, and will be the rear support for my floors and torque tube hump. First I made a little glued together stick pattern and transferred it onto some old steel purlin cut-off.





I cut the bottom bend off of that purlin where that marker line is, but left the top for strength. I marked it long and bent tabs on each end so I can bolt it to the plates from yesterday.





Then I marked and cut out the little U-shaped hole for the torque tube, and bent the flanges for the floor onto the bottom edge. I don't have a sheet metal brake, so I made do with angle iron, clamps, and a hammer.



That all resulted in this:



I needed a flange for the torque tube hump to sit on, so I bent one out of a strip of leftover purlin. I was having trouble welding in that inside corner, so I just brazed it in. Those little bent feet sitting on the flanges I bent for the floor should make it plenty strong.





My plan is to fit plywood floors in there, sitting on those flanges on my new bulkhead, on the bottom flange of the frame rails, and on a corresponding flange on the factory crossmember at the rear of the transmission. When I make my torque tube hump I'll bend flanges along its length to support the inside edges of the floors. Should be pretty solid, seems like.

 

Time to spend on this project has been in short supply lately, but I'm optimistic that I'll be able to get back to it in some kind of earnest in the next few weeks. I have managed to make a little progress, though, working on the torque tube tunnel. I started with a poster board/masking tape pattern, which was simple enough to manage.







This will have flanges bent into it to support the inside edges of the floorboards, so those two little strips of wood are there to let me mark where the fold will be. I just trimmed the pattern to that line, then marked an extra inch on each side when I transferred it to the aluminum I'm using for this. Getting near the end of this road sign we found floating on its pole in Apalachee Bay after Hurricane Dennis.





Next, I bent the flanges. Again, no sheet metal brake, but the vise and a big Crescent wrench for fine tuning made a serviceable job of it.






This aluminum is about 3/32" thick, so I had a time bending it into a U shape. I used an empty torch cylinder and the cut-out from the torque tube shortening project, plus a variety of clamps and the big old Wilton bullet vise my father-in-law left me.





I guess I should have removed that incriminating orange coating first, but that is some amazingly well adhered stuff, and it's on the inside. I'm going to rely on the nature of the Model A Ford to camouflage it, eventually. Anyway, here it is at first fitting. I got ahead of myself when I put that inverted U-shaped lip into the new crossmember and didn't account for the angle that this new part sits at so it's a little high at the back end, but I already have a plan to address that. Overall, I think this will be fine once I take care of such details and fasten it all in.

 

Looking forward to Shade Tree mkII!