Projects From Shop Scraps to Roadster: Bringing a ’30 A Back to Life

Hey guys,
here’s my Model A Roadster. I run my own speed shop, but this car was built completely in my after-hours time – whenever the shop was closed and I had a few hours left. That’s why the whole thing took a little over eight years.

The base is a ’29 Model A frame, reinforced and fully riveted, old-time style, no welding. Under the hood sits a ’37 Ford Pilot flathead from England. Edmunds intake, two Strombergs, and an Iskenderian Max 1 cam.

The transmission is a rebuilt ’37 Ford box with original parts. Out back is a Kiwi Quick-Change from New Zealand. Brakes are converted to hydraulic: Ford/Lincoln Bendix up front, ’39 Ford in the rear.

Most parts came from my own stash in the shop, the rest I gathered over the years. Every bolt, every line, every detail was done by myself – copper, fuel, and brake lines hand-made, all machine work done in my own shop. No big purchase, no finished base – just bringing a pile of parts back to life, step by step.

This car is a true after-hours project. Slow, but exactly the way I wanted it.

Thanks for looking.

 

It's a beaut.

 

Very nice! I wonder if you would be willing to talk about getting something like this road legal in the EU?

 

That looks great, well done. What part of Switzerland are you in? We spent a few weeks in June staying with friends in Zurich and looking around your beautiful country.

 

That's a lovely car! What's the name of your speed shop?

 

Very nice @tom-oldi you did a great job! Thanks for sharing!!

 

Was nosing around in it earlier.....top of the line.
http://www.tmschilter.com

 

Wow! The roadster looks great. Your shop looks top notch too. Nice work.

 

Lovely.

 

Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

Beautiful roadster .

 

Nicely done.

 

Beautiful roadster!

 

Hi
For sure, would be my pleasure.
Because thats my daily business...if you like to check out my shop
www.tmschilter.com

If you have specific questions, please le me know.
Thomas

 

Hi, thanks for asking
This is my shop;
tmschilter.com

 

Hi
We are locatet 30 minutes from zürich, its called Steinen. You are welcome to stop by

 

I wish I had known of your shop when we were there, would have loved to visit. I can't see us getting back to Switzerland, it is a 24 hour flight for us and insanely expensive.

 

Doesn't the direction make a difference?

I am in the US, so unless a great deal of wealth suddenly strikes, I wouldn't need your expertise.
I was curious and thought it might interest or help others. If it's a business, I'll leave that for those who require it.

 

Very beautiful roadster.

Each EU country is different so depending on the country people live in the rules are different.
I wish we had the same rules in France as they have in Switzerland.

 

A beautiful hot rod.
I wish we had the regulations of the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands, here in Germany; everyone has their own preferences.
It's wonderful that we're even allowed to pursue our p***ion.
Regards, Harald

 

You don't want the French regulations : other than adding seat belts and changing body color, all modifications are illegal.

 

Okay... I've always had a relaxed view of France regarding this issue, but you no longer have to take your cl***ic cars in for inspection every two years, is that correct?
Regards Harald

 

Very impressive roadster....nicely done!

 

Correct if it's registered as a collector car. People used to cheat to register imported hot rods and custom cars as collector cars, but now they come to inspect the car if it's lets say a Model A or a '32 so it's now impossible to register an imported hot rod unless it was build over 30 years ago and has a known history, still a very complicated process. If it's a older car that's missing it's registration you have to have it restored stock before you can register it as a collector car. Yet we are still not allowed to modify cars, so we still do it without asking, I personnaly write on the invoice when I modify a car for a customer that it's now a none street legal modified car build for private road use and it's the customer sole responsibility to do the necessary paper work to have it registered.
We better stop talking about this because it's not the purpose of this thread.

@tom-oldi, do you have a hood for it? It looks like it was built with the intention of using one.

 

Yes, the car does have a hood. I haven’t installed it yet because I still need to finish some fine-tuning on the engine — mainly adjusting the carburetors and a few other small details.
Once that’s all sorted out, the hood will go on. I’ll be happy to take and share some photos when it’s installed.

 

Love your roadster.

 

That copper windshield frame is awesome.

 

Hey guys, thanks for all the great feedback.
Here’s another shot of the trunk. You can see the hand-built stainless fuel tank, and the wooden boxes I made for the battery and the tools.
Have a nice sunday

 

I really like the look...all the copper appointments...
...now go drive the wheels off....

 

So nice to wake up to this, this morning. Well done, Tom.