Projects Project Mattitude: the Beginning

I can definitely tell you the domino effect is fun. But what makes this challenge so entertaining to me is how the Coupster is kind of the bastard child of hot rods. It's frowned upon and they never look right. I'm taking that challenge of making something out of a Coupster. Yeah, there's a lot of modifications that I have in mind and those will create a lot of domino effects, but to be able to say "this was a Sports Coupe" and have the strictest of traditional police look at me and go "no way" is going to be worth the effort. This is a big undertaking for a kid who's never built a ground-up hot rod before, but who says a kid's first build has to be easy? I'm setting the bar real high for myself so as I get older, I'll be determined to make the next build just as good if not better than the previous. I hate cookie cutters so this one is definitely not going to be a cookie cutter Coupster.

All the panels I've modified are all bolted in so in the end when everything's cooled down, the welding is done, and the grinding is done, it will still bolt back in. I'm not taking the chance of welding something up while it's not bolted to the car. I'm very cautious of this.

I don't know about the windshield yet. I might just run it without one then I'll definitely figure out the windshield before paint. Odds are it won't be cookie cutter either.

 

Dangnabit, Tim, you type faster than I can.

I meant the top of the air cleaners, not carb. Thank you for point that out.. I do remember that thread and that's what I plan to do to mine.

All right. Thanks. I'll get on that.

 

looking back at your rendering it would kinda look cool with one of those half circle driver only windshields mounted on the tank like a euro sports car from way back. hopefully you know what im talking about there, or you know, make a sweet tonue cover and get some goggles

 

haha, you made a comment about you 'talking to much' so i figured id let you meet your match except you spell things correctly ha.

another thought was you could check out my friends T build thread for chassi ideas. his user name is oldsboy. lots of good pix and clear explinations for you to ponder

 

I do know what you're talking about. I'm not really a fan of those windshields though. The tonneau cover and goggles does sound pretty good though..

 

You've worn my fingers to the point of exhaustion. Yeaahh.. I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to writing skills and punctuation. That's what prevents me from matching your speed.

 

I love that T build thread. I think I'm subscribed to it too. It's refreshing to see someone actually build a Model T sedan the way that he is rather than one of those r*t r*ds.

 

Bttt for the day crowd.


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starting to come around. looking good

 

oh had a thought that i forgot to include last night.

i dont know of any dual master cylinders from that era, HOWEVER!

i had come up with an idea to get around that a few years ago and then later saw it in some photos of period correct-ish cars. I had not considered just putting it under the floor were no one would ever see it at the time,

what you do is mount two single m/c's on the firewall, kinda like youd see if someone was using a hydrolic clutch. but on the pedal side you have the rods connect to a bar at each end and have your pedal atach in the middle of that. so your brake pedal looks like a T at the top. then your working both m/c's at the same time at the same rate ect ect.

then you run one line to the back and one to the front, then you get the advantage of a dual pot with out having it be right there in the open. i like the old chevy truck fruit jar/round looking ones myself.

granted it could be mistaken for a cylinder for a later manual trans, but it is done with old parts avaible at the time and shouldnt look out of place.

just an idea for ya.

 

Just spent a coupla hrs reading the entire thread- nice work! It is great to see you thinking so many things out instead of just jumping in (which is probably something I would do). I'm also pretty new to old cars so it is nice to see someone new do something so well; gives me hope. Subscribed!

 

Tim - I do recall seeing that set up in Zibo's Chief RPU thread. I don't know if I'm a fan of that.. It feels kind of kooky to me. I'll have to just put it off until I come to that fork in the road which won't be for a while. For now, it's cutting stuff up, welding it back together, and beating it until it's straight.

Skoh73 - Thanks man! It's been an interesting trip so far. A lot of it has been pre-planned, but some of them have also been "screw it, just do it and see what problems arise." Everything's turned out specutarly so far. Tonight's been great too.

That's right. I'm about to update what I just did for the last few hours.. Stay tuned, folks.


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I decided to head into the garage and do something minor, even if it was clean and move something, so I could feel like I had at least been productive today. Well, that snowballed.

A while back, I started hand filing the cowl brace, hitting all the high spots and it came out smooth aside from one low spot which I'll get back to later.




I had started drilling out rivets and spot welds on the side of the cowl so I could just use the cowl side instead of moving around both cowls, firewall, and front subrails which was still one unit.. Which was getting old quickly. I got pretty excited that I was able to get the cowl side separated from the unit without hacking it and bending it out of recognition. Now I know how Tom Hanks felt in "Castaway" when he created fire for the first time. But as a guy new to building such an old car, it certainly provided inspiration to keep going.

The subrails seem to be in the expected "usual" conditions based on what I've seen on here. Still, I'd feel better replacing those.. The devil is in the details.




You can see why I wanted the cowl side separate so I can contemplate narrowing the A-post. One of the challenge is how the top of the A-post is thick and then downward it tapers inward. This sure is making me think a lot and brainstorm but I feel confident I'll be able to pull it off. Time will tell.




Thanks to everyone who's been reading and giving feedback.


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Car is looking good

 

I was brainstorming the channel and realized that I might not have to raise the motor that much since the body will be 4 inches lower than it is. The upsweep, should I decide to do it, will raise the motor a little so I might be fine in that area. Anyone have any experience with this?

Another question I came across regarding channeling the body is whether or not leaving the body on is required. Has anyone ever channeled the subrails with the body detached to it? My thinking is I can take all the body panels off, both A and B posts (cowl posts and door jambs), and channel the subrails over the frame, then reattach the posts and body to it.

Is that a bad idea? I just think it would simplify things more and give me the advantage of better quality control with the subrails being in the open.


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i know ive seen cars channeled with the body off, just dont forget about your firewall if you already have one made for the as itd need chopped up as well. i want to say Joe did the Moran coupe that way? do a search for Moran coupe or user name Jrussell there should be pix for you to peruse.

the brakes do look a little different doing them double like that, a way around that would be to use reverse pull m/c's and mount the masters under the dash instead of on the firewall. but at that point you are back to the underfloor position of just using a dual mc because no ones going to see it.

there are tons of examples of that sort of set up shown on the hamb, i want to say scootermcad <-spelling? has photos of his A cowl top off showing the inner structure and pedals set up like this.

just more food for thought

 

I couldn't find a tech on dual shifters for side-shifter transmissions. I did go through Zibo's RPU thread and I love it. I also found a really good picture of the dual shifter set up on his blog though. I should be able to figure out something from that.

Tim - You've given me a 7 course meal for thought over the last 2 days but there's a lot of ideas bouncing around. You've been very responsive! Thank you for that.

Mini-update: I got the passenger side cowl side off and bolted onto the A-post and started drilling out the spot welds on the gas tank so I can get the firewall off.

Dang! Henry sure liked spot welds. Those are a PITA to find if you can't see the little "dip" where they usually are. I haven't gotten the firewall off yet but I got plenty of good drilling practice. My fingers are sore from changing drill bits so much.. That chuck key rod is frigging thin.


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i'd just send him a pm im sure he could tell you more.

as far as i can tell one shifter is reverse and first, and the other is 2 and 3. put the car in first, rev, pull it out of first into neutral, push second lever from neutral to second. he made some mention if it being that way i believe but i could be wrong.

says it shifts super fast.

 

Mini-update: I just bought the '57 Chevy 283 motor and a bundle of Model A parts from my brother-in-law. Thanks Bradley. I also picked up a Holley carb at the Amarillo Swap Meet but I'll need 3 more as I want to run a WC4D set up if I can find one.. Could someone tell me if the Holley is something they would have used back then? I'm not knowledgeable on all the kinds of 2-barrel carburetors from the era. I know I don't want to run GM Rochester carbs. I wouldn't mind Strombergs though.. But for now, I'm set on Holleys unless one of you can convince me otherwise.

It has everything (body patches, floor structure patches, multiple body parts, hinges, several axles, a F1 steering box and column, wheels, et cetera) I need to finish the body of my Model A as well as get started on the frame which I finally own. My body has been sitting on it for the last several months but now that I own it, I can finally start turning it into a roller..

Should I try and register the frame before I start doing anything to it?

I finally have everything I need to get the body complete, frame rolling, and maybe even steering. This is a great feeling.


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Let me rephrase that question.. I sound like such a newcomer. (probably because I sort of am)
Is the Holley carburetor I have a 94? I don't see the number stamped on it, although I do see the stamp on the side of the float bowl that says "Holley 2100 Carburetor
Detriot, USA." The circle on the other side doesn't appear to have any markings inside it. There is a circle stamped onto the back of the carburetor (opposite from the float bowl) but it doesn't have any insignia on it.

I'm sure this is period correct and a 94 but I just want experienced eyes to confirm that this is a 94. There was also a Holley next to it with smaller butterflies in the bottom so I compared the two. This is the one with the bigger butterfly opening in the bottom.


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Yep that's a 94.... but there are a ton of variations on the 94!

 

These are most of the parts I got in the deal with my brother in law.. I got all these patch panels, all the subrails needed to replace my old one completely, cowl sides, 2 sets of door skins (entire door from body line down and the bottom 4-ish inches), rear quarter corner patches, wheel wells, patch panels for the front part of the quarters, rumble deck brace, some more inner braces, a F-100 (correct?) box and column (I turned the steering shaft and the pitman rod spun easily), 2 grille shells (one is beat up pretty bad, the other is just pitted), A-post to A-post brace for the front of the roof, the upper panel between the deck lid and roof, lower panel between deck lid and subrail, some miscellaneous braces in the tote box, deck lid (minor damage, not much rust) with the inner rails, a set of wire wheels and the '57 Chevy 283 you can see above Chaddillac's comment.

The story on the 283 is that the previous owner rebuilt it and put it on the stand then passed away before sticking it in a car. It was sold at an auction to my brother-in-law and he looked inside the valve cover and says it looks fresh.. I also got the frame in the previous pictures you can see with 2 Model A wheels.

What isn't pictured is 2 sets of cowls and doors, 3 complete sets of A-pillars from a Sports coupe, rear quarters, hacked up sub-rails, repop visor, 3 or 4 axles (one is late model.. first to go), a banjo rear for sure, and what appears to be mid-'40's Ford front suspension, axle, brakes, spring, wishbones. I might be missing a couple other items but that's the majority of the parts I got in the deal.

What would you price the entire bundle of patch panels, Model A Sports coupe body, frame, body parts, axles, and motor for? I want to see if I came ahead or if my brother-in-law came ahead in the deal.. I'm almost confident it's me.

What do y'all think?

 

Looks like you got a lot of great parts. What the value is, I don't know. Whether you got a good deal, depends on what you paid for it all. As long as you're happy with it all, that's the most important thing.

 

True. Good answer. I'm pretty happy with it. I have all the parts I need to get my body done as well as get started on my frame, then enough parts to build another sports coupe body which I'll sell for sure. I'll be using the parts I need and selling what I don't need to offset the purchase.


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Mini-update: I separated the front and rear axles on the Model A frame. The nuts just spun clean off after having to break the rust just a little. The front axle looks straight and nice. The rear axle is locked up but complete.. But that won't be going back in.

I also stuck the dummy door in place just to picture it closer to done. Now that I have a couple of sets of doors in better shape, I'll pick the better ones of the pair and modify them soon, then I can get rolling on doing the A-posts, door hinges, rust repair, the body line around the cockpit, then whatever else comes up. Oh.. I do have to fix this annoying oil-canning problem on the driver's quarter. If that won't work, I'll use one of the other quarters but let's hope I don't have to.


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Looking good! You're all set with all that metal, let me know if you want to part with those wheels.

 

Thank you! I actually do want to part with these. I'd even trade them for something I need for this project.. I don't really plan on running wires anyways. Do you have anything you think I might be interested in? PM me if you do.

 

Mini-update: I got home from school today and right after the Rangers game, went straight to work. I just fiddled around with the doors and took some pictures.. I went to Harbor Freight and got some supplies so there will be progress this weekend. First, I put my body on its new dolly to roll around and moved it outside for an outside shot the other day and realized a side profile shot would help so I took another one today.



In the photo below, you can see the proportions much better although the sun in the back doesn't help any. I'll take another picture tomorrow with the door on it as it was too dark to take one outside. But, here's some slight progress..





Expect more tomorrow. (sorry about the bad cell phone shots)

 

Lookin' good Matt....you driving it to the cruise next month?

 

Not next month but I'm pretty confident I'll get it up and driving for the one after that if I spend a couple all-nighters a week on it.