4WD under a Model A body? Pics?????

ok since we have about 2.5 feet of snow on the ground and it's only december, i can't help but think my next build is going to be a tudor on a late model 4wd... my buddy has the donor 84 Chevy truck, with a straight axle and a plow... so now i'm looking for some pics...

 

seeing how high a model a is to begin with, I've toyed with the idea of running a full fendered truck that looks bone stock from the outside but has 4wd. the skinny model A wires with some super knobby tires on em would look like dirt bike tires though LOL

 

yeah but i bet that dam thing could go anywhere!

 

I want Rocky's new rig about now - lucky sum*****.

 

How about six wheel drive?

 

don't use hotrod material. keep it traditional. use a 70's camaro body.

 

Your name isnt very fitting.

Try harder.

 

For cryin' out loud, if you must do this use the most rotten and decrepit Model A Tudor body you can find and use only pop-rivets and old street signs to fill the holes.
That way no one will know you are, or were, a hotrodder, they'll just know you're a 4WD guy.

 

Maybe the naysayers would be appeased if you used a more traditional 4x4 platform like a Willys.LOL
Be trad,build it your way with what you have and what you can afford then CLANK right OVER anyone who don't like it.

 

This is my winter "hotrod". '59 Willys. Super Hurricane flathead 6. Patina for days. Pushes snow just fine.

 

I found the thread I was looking for here http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=229248&page=4

much cooler pics...

 

Be honest with you the Model A doesn't need 4 wheel drive.

I remember when I was a kid and my Dad drove one to work as a daily. We got hit here with a **** load of snow and all he did was cut down Mom's clothes line in the back yard and cut it up in 18" lengths, tied a ton of knots in them and tied them around the 19" wires. Worked fine and he never missed a day of work.

Have another story about going thru a flooded viaduct but I'll save it for another day.

 

Several here,page two has the most pics.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200478

 

now this thang is just huge!

 

I think this was on a suburban ch***is. Very clean and nicely done build. Sorry I dont remember more details.

 

Stupid...

 

The ride height of a stock Model A is plenty high enough to do 4WD under it without jacking up the car much at all if any, and the idea that the car needs to be jacked up to be a 4WD is just absurd. There's no reason why you can't tailer your car to do whatever you want in any kind of weather and use semi elliptics and straight axle or torsion bars and radius rods or independent from whatever.
If your worried about being looked down on by your piers for having a jacked up car, just do the planning and engineering it takes to keep the ride height close to stock. If you leave the stock front splash aprons in place and run solid wheels, few people would even notice.

 

I t would be sweet to do this right. This just isn't right though.

 

http://www.fourwheeler.com/featuredvehicles/129_0510_1921_ford_model_t_4x4/index.html

 

Back in the late 60s I lived in nothern Michigan, near Oscoda. there was a Model A restorer there, who had a 31 pickup with 4 wheel drive. it had the stock banger hooked to a Jeep trans, and transfer case, stock springs, and Jeep axles with 19" wheels on them. It had split wishbones from a later Ford, and unless you looked at the diff in front, it looked stock.

He had a plow for it, and used it to clean his driveway, in addition to being his winter driver.

 

Let's think about this...
"I" need my driveway cleared
I'm a "young" rodder (trad-rod, rat-rod(sorry I swore), hot-rod, etc) or maybe I am older non-rodder who used to have an old car. Heck.. even a restorer!
I have a choice between some guy in a new, plain 4x4 or someone with an old body-styled rig.
You tell me which one I'd hire or my kids/grandkids would like to see doing the job and talk about it in school?
Think you could hire that out to clean driveways?
Go for it and send pictures.

 

fun

 

A mate of mine put 4WD running gear under a mid 30's Fargo pickup truck. Used the stock ch***is and installed Toyota Landcruiser front and rear diffs on the Fargo semi elliptic springs, Cruiser transfer case and a 307 Chevvie.

He towed a trailer with his 34 coupe drag car on it, and hauled a caravan halfway across Australia behind it on a road trip holiday.

Now that thing wasn't traditional, but boy was it a lot of fun!

Cheers, Glen.

 

You may be right, those look like 'yota wheels also. That explains why its sitting low in back with the weight of the m/c in the bed.

 

I think a COE would look bad*** on a 4WD frame.

 

You might be a redneck if....

But that US Mail tractor tire A does look kinda cool, in a cartoonish way.


Early Bronco, Jeep or S10 4x4 components are about all I'd consider for this type of conversion, and the S10 I believe uses an independent suspension under 4wd models. Probably a lot less work to just go get a Jeepster pickup or wagon, though.

 

You can still buy a kit from the originator's son. I want to have one some day. The designer/builder tried to get Ford to authorize this kit as an accessory, but Ford wanted to buy him out and be rid of him. A few years later, here comes Marmon-Herrington and gets the deal this fellow was looking for. Go figure


The Model A pictured does have far east axles under it.

 

The Willys Wagons & Pickups have a narrow track width, so do Broncos through about '77, Wagonners through early '80s, & early K5 Blazers - regular Jeeps are almost too narrow. The thing with the Willys is they have mostly flat frame rails which would be much easier to adapt to an early body than a modern frame with all sorts of humps & dips...

 

sounds like building something no one else would ever want.