I'm new with model A's here's what I'm staring with

Hey guys, any suggestions?





I'm keeping the 4 banger. Putting another tailight on. I have powder coated the wheels and bought new tires since this pic.

I'm thinking a dropped headlight bar and lowering it. Is it possible to pull a leaf out of the front and rear?

Thanks!

 

yes you could pull a few leafs out..

one thing to have in your mind when you do this is
1 buy new spring bolts,
2 once you have removed some of the leafs from the spring pack the spring clamps will no longer clamp the leafs correctly, so either make a spacer, or use the leafs you pulled to make a spacer with.
or buy a reverse eye spring and pull some of those leafs out

you can also get a dropped axle or drop the one you have..

careful with that rear spring pack..she'll bite ya

 

use a t rear spring.
buy a drop axle or reverse eye...or both.

 

I like your ideas.Dropped axle in front,maybe a T spring in back.And maybe a good pinstripper.

 

Damn that is a nice start !! >>>>.

 

Thanks guys. I got this off of eBay last November. Rewired it, rebuilt the carb, set the brakes and then heard a noise in the motor. turns out the middle bearing cap had a broken stud. By the time I was to buy the main studs and a head gasket and head studs I was up to around $200 with shipping. I found a complete running engine on eBay for under $200, have it painted up and ready to swap. Can't wait!!!!

Oh, and are the kingpins a pain when swapping axles?

 

pretty simple especially with something as nice as that....

 

The kingpins aren't a problem if you're still using the spindles and so on that you have now.

 

Good simple plan,,the car looks nice also,,,

Dump the chrome band around the spare tire,,HRP

 

Dont let this turn into a ***** "thats to nice to cut up" thread

 

the chrome band is gone. The spare that came on it was smaller than the other tires and did not fit my new one. (i didn't like it anyway) I've actually been contemplating taking the rear bumper (spayed silver, actually a front bumper) and the spare off and see what it looks like.

 

I kinda like the chrome band on THAT particular car and colors. It sort of reminds me of the era where some guy was dudeing-up his A. Picture it with 2 tailights and a little lowering?

 

I put a T spring in the rear and reversed the eye on the front spring and pulled 2 leaves. The tires fill the wheel wells nicely now. An oldtimer here in town convinced me to reverse the spring myself. I didn't think I could do it. He told me he did it for a living with a piece of railroad iron and a 3 pound sledge, years ago. So, I had a piece of 4" channel iron and went to it. The hardest part was getting it flat. Once it was flat it curled pretty easy. I was in such a hurry I didn't take pics of the spring adventure. I will try to get some pics of the car in progress. I have a one car garage that has too much stuff in it. so it's real hard to get good pics of the car.

 

Good for you man! You're going about this the right way.

 

Sweet and congrats

 

Cut it up and make it into your idea of a cool hotrod. Plenty of A's still out there, no one will miss it as stock. Check out my original A build. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409232

 

Nice job, man! Can't wait to see those pics! Roll that ****a' outside!

 

Yes I do this is too nice to cut. Go find some piece of **** just like everybody else and start fabricating. let the whole ones be.

 

Nice car. Good choice to stay with the banger.

 

thanks guys, I will try to take some time to take some pics next time I work on it. I have to pull it out of the garage with my truck since it is not running. (my garage is lower elevation than the alley). I'm looking for a mallory distributor or a model B one for the banger. anyone got one?

 

No; no plans to cut up at this point. Just get it going and drive it. Make improvements like dizzy and intake/carb. Maybe a slight chop someday

 

If you swap over to hydraulic brakes first, installing a dropped axle will be much easier. Not to mention it will stop a whole lot better also.

 

brakes is the first place I will be spending big money on. I am compiling lots of info about what parts to gather. Thanks HAMB!!! or should I say HAMBers?

 

thats perfect, lower it and drive it!

 

Brakes, FS ignitions distributor, pull a couple of leaves and reverse the eyes - maybe that's enough.

My avatar started as a similar tudor... My thread turned into a "that's too pretty" thread. I chopped it off anyway.

 

Yea, just use a T spring. Its safer than taking leaves out.

 

Heres the front end set up in my coupe. Pretty easy to adapt hydrallic brakes and it lowered it quite a bit ( 6" give or take...)

 

Thanks Chris. Your front end looks like it all came from the factory like that!

 

OHV or high compression head. magneto, header, dual carb intake, aluminum side plates?

 

I've been real slow working on this but here is a run down on my progress since getting this car last November:

Powder coated the wheels

new tires (cheap NANCO 650-16)

new hubcaps

Model T rear spring

reversed the eye on the front spring (removed the 2nd and 4th leaf starting from the smallest leaf. I may go back and remove the 1st, 3rd and fifth instead)

I've gotten a dropped headlight bar and set it up with small motorcycle turn signals mounted to very small brackets attached by the headlight studs

I've bought a righthand rear light

I got the original engine going and it ran good but it developed a knock. I dropped the pan a realized that the middle main cap was flapping because one of the studs were broke. So I needed new main studs. I also pulled the head because there were 2 broken head studs. Well the head had a slight crack (probably could have been reused) and so now I needed a new head stud and nut set + a head gasket and possibly a new head. I found an engine on eBay complete and supposedly a runner for $189 so I ******ed that up. Now that "new" engine is painted up and ready to be swapped. I guess we will see if the engine is really a runner (it looked great thru the spark plug holes and under the valve cover was clean with adjustable lifters. it also has compression in all cylinders. So cross your fingers for me!!)

Any advise or tips or things to watch out for when pulling the old motor and transferring the bellhousing, clutch and such?

well here are some bad pics