Has Anyone Evere Widened A Model A Cowl?

I have been looking at the hood on my model a with a 32 grillshell. It looks to me the lines of the car would flow great if the cowl section was widened? this would make the body flow as one line from the grill back. (more like a 32) I am just wondering if anyone has done this modification? If so I would love to see pics.

 

This guy did

 

You must have a 28-29 A.

The 30-31's have a wider cowl from the factory.

 

I have a 30 a coupe. Here is a picture of the car. If the cowl was wider the hood would flow strait into it. The way it is now it pinches where the hood and the cowl meets.

 

it's been done a couple of times on 30-31's there is/was a well known 31 touring years ago that was widened, kind of messed up the proportions.
IMHO Henry's stylists got it right

 

I am putting a deuce chassis under the car. If I've heard right that pushes my grill out another 4 inches.... this only compounds the problem. Im just thinking outloud. Im not saying im going to do anything.

 

I think they sell hoods that will fit with a 32 shell. As for the extra length, I think you are on your own there. Check out Brookville, i think they do that with their kit cars.

 

So what you're talking about is spreading the cowl sides out from the door to the firewall, right? The windshield area stays the same, but the firewall gets widened as does the gas tank. Seems like a lot of work, but would be interesting to see. When you put a '30/'31 on a '32 frame it's only about 1" or so narrower than the frame...1.5" or 2" would have the body overlap the frame slightly. I think it would work and not look bad.

If I remember correctly...Bass widened the bottom of the cowl on his '28/9 coupe to meet the '32 frame (instead of pinching the frame). There is no hood on it to make much of a visual distinction though.

 

Not saying you can't make it work, but the easier solution would be to call some place like Rootlieb and see if they can't hook you up with a custom hood.

 

You can always shorten the duece chassis if the length bothers you.

Sam.

 

Do some searching about A bodies on Deuce frames.

In my case the 31 rodster body fit the Deuce frame with no alterations to the body except cutting away part of the 'kick-in' at the lower front wheel well so the body could sit all the way down on the Deuce frame.

Frame mods were a couple of simple hacksaw cuts each side and pulling the frame out 3/4" per side so the frame would parallel the inside of the wheel well.

You end up with a fairly Deuce looking car, but in my case that wasn't what I was after.

With the Deuce front crossmember in the stock location the radiator can be slid back and forth a touch for hood alignment or you can order a special length hood top from Rootlieb.
$50. extra about 4-5 years ago.
I ended up with a 32 3/8" hood length and the stock 30-31 hoods are 31 5/8".

The rear of the hood sides and front of the cowl are a good overlap on the stock specification Deuce frame and in fact pretty much match what the Deuce hood/cowl juncture look like.

Deuce wheelbases are 106", A's are 104" and my 31 on 32 rails roadster has a 105" wheelbase.







Disregard the too high grille shell in the last photo.
It's been altered for a smoother cowl to hood line.

 

why not thin the grill a bit?
I'm working on my 2nd car with a home made nose...on both I've tried to correct that problem
mien are 28/29's but i know what your saying

i think though on a modelA with a32 grill everyone is so used to the way things look that changing it will look wrong, even if its right

but then again....why not?

good luck in any case
Zach

 

100mph, you want see a straight plane from the grille shell to the rear of the cowl....i'm sure it can be done...

 

Sounds like a good idea to me.

 

Are you thinking of a car called "The Fabulous Phaeton"? That was a 1930 2 door phaeton that was widened about 2 1/2" and was fitted with 2 cowl vents side by side.Built by Charlie Mannshiem of Dayton Ohio back in the early 50's.Real radical car for it's time:had 55 Packard torsion bar suspension adapted to the beam axle even with the auto leveling motor.Saw it in Boston around 1958.He drove it everywhere.A friend of mine owned it for about 25 years and sold it to Charlie's son several years ago and from what I understand it is undergoing a total restoration.Almost forgot:Charlie was Art Arfons' crew chief on his LSR cars.

Car had beautiful proportions.Wish I had a picture of it.I have a VHS tape about Charlie building it;even has Art Arfons in it. I'll see if I can come up with a picture;it was in a ton of the little pages.

 

I sure hope you can find and post a picture of Charlie Mayenschein's car. This is the powder blue one with dark blue accents? Looked everywhere for the pics, but no luck yet. Awesome car.