Poboyross's Model A Build: "Faux'dster"

LOL....I sense sarcasm and doubt.

Originally I was on the same page at Texas Speed, and I like what he's doing with his, I just don't know if that's what *I* want to do. No matter what's done, though, they will all be compared to what a true roadster looks like.

 

No not at all. I really had no clue what was going on. I thought it was a genuine '29 roadster body and you were just looking to extend it to make space. Like I said, I only got a peppering of what was going on which is my fault.


Do it to it, this has been a long time coming!

 

I was playing with an image I did for LoRodz coupester awhile back (turned out sweet, btw...his top irons look rad) and since his is more finished, I continued Photoshopping and came up with this:

Before



After



Roadster stanchions should be in the mail this week, hopefully it'll be under way next week. Sorry if I harp too much on my own thread. Out of all my hobbies, this is the only one that remains, so I guess I focus all that energy towards thinking about this!

 

My 2 cents, cut the doors down so they match the back of the body, but don't shorten them. I like the proportions length wise. But that may be my 6'4" stature talking...

 

In honor of beating a dead horse, whilst waiting on my computer to process some data, I Photoslopped a few more pics of LoRodz coupester from a few different angles. I sure hope he doesn't mind!





A buddy of mine saw this and joked that I'd now have room for a v12! Actually, it'd be room for damn near anything. Some may hate it, but I like the lengthened look on the front. Still chewing the fat, though.

 

More Photoslopping on my break today....with a channel drop:

 

Shortening doors and keeping full rear ****pit is clever, and if done in moderation (violating the First Commandment, "Anything Worth Doing is Worth Doing to Excess)
will give the car a bit of proportional mystery without actually ruining proportions.
The V10 or 12 conversion on the 305 will be harder...
Consider also lengthening up front instead while frame is still roughed in...crossmember pushed forward to the max, allows 2 different approaches...long hood or setback radiator.
I think the first issue is the rework of door tops to be closed and thinner...that is a BIG visual issue on coupesters and there have been some clever solutions.
Since doors will need something on top...a roll could be cut from some sort of tubing, curves added as needed through fairly crude means (HEAT and VIOLENCE, since work could be roughed in with roll off of car, then worked to proper as it is welded to body) and a roll starting as door tops carried around and across welded to the back of the upper rail/ventilator bar...
I think the lower pieces of the stanchions need to be pie-cut and narrowed slightly to meet the closed car pillar...not 100% sure of that. Anyway, the '29 open stanchions will add a lot.
Harder route...MORE slicing and dicing to combine said lower part of stanchions (cut off! New parts! Ouch!) with the pivot stud area cut from repro '30's to allow a folding windshield...
I have planning underway for a Home-Depot sourced dash custom made for the Hollywood panel

 

Most people hate coupsters. I saw this on ebay some years ago. I should have bought it. I love the backyard homebuilt look, I would not change anything except fix the hood better.


...and I don't like driving roadsters and I am not really a Model A guy, I just like this dang car. I'd park it in the shop just to look at it hell, I'd put it in the house

 

thanks for the mention of my car here it is all finished didnt cut anything away from my car. i left it alone and this is what i got, im also 5.4 inches tall. i like my proportions on my car the only thing i want to change is the top i want it to rake down a little more in front so it looks a little meaner.

 

Lorods,,,that has good proportions! I'm not caring much for the longer hood idea.
Great to see it progressing though!




.

 

Are you going to channel the body over the frame?

 

That's what I'm seriously considering at the moment. I guess it's more akin to vintage 30s European roadsters. Giving it proportions similar to this:

 

I believe you're talking about my build thread.. I did just that only I left the doors stock length like a coupe but moved the rear edge of the ****pit opening forward 7 inches to move it closer to the back of the seat. The result will be losing the package tray, a much cleaner appearance with the back of the seat meeting the body, and longer doors for easier access to get in and out. If I really wanted to get more proportional to a roadster, I would have to shorten the doors and lengthen the quarters but I decided against it.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=594849

And here are a couple scans of the dimensions of a stock 1929 Model A Sports Coupe and a Roadster for future references.

 

What made you decide against shortening the doors?

 

Just went back and read from where I left off last time. I feel honored that my build thread is being used as reference by you and Lucky.

Your method of shortening the body through the doors which will emphasize on the appearance of an elongated frame certainly sounds interesting. I'm curious as to what you will do with the top of the doors and the rear edge.

If you shorten the body that much, then will it leave a gap between the rear end of the engine block and firewall? I like to see engines fit in the engine bay "snugly" so there isn't too much space in around it. That's something else I've been brainstorming on is how to fit everything in the engine bay snugly without it appearing to have been crammed in there with a shoehorn while keeping a simple appearance.

Of course, I still need to put the motor in mine.

 

The thing that kills it for me (and this is just me) is messing with the wheel base that Henry intended them to have from the start. Like if you are using a model a ch***is then 103" is as good as it's ever going to get unless you're using a track nose. And if it's on a '32 well then it should be a stock wheel base there too otherwise it starts to lose it for me.

I think why mess with perfection but I'm also a minimalist so I tend to not over complicate things I think.

 

Like you, I'm a big 'un. No reason for me to take away the ease of getting in and out, especially with how low it will be. I figure it would be best for me to leave the doors stock length just to add a little individual flavor to my coupster build as well.

I like the idea of leaving it stock length as that will be one of the few give-away details when people look at my car and ***ume it's a roadster at first.

 

Not intent on jacking your thread here just offering my 2-cents. I'm throwing together a rod from some 28 cowl pieces I had lying around and a sport coupe rear section. I had no doors.
Since I channeled mine, over an A frame, there wasn't much room inside for me 6' 195 so I made up some door skins. This car is low and it is easy to set over but my point was I couldn't come up with proportions that worked either for that combo until I made a pair of doors. I'm guessing you want your doors to open and it wouldn't have been much more work for me to do that since I made these skins with jambs. I just took the easy way out since it is low. Also since the "eyebrow" isn't used in my application I added to the door length there and stretched the door an additional 2-inches. I was going to use Model A hinges at the B pillar to mount the doors but as I stated it is low enough to easily step over.
good luck with your project. Are you heading over to Thrompers Swap Meet in April?

 

That's the other thing we've been wrestling with, making sure there's no gap there, it would look cruddy. The 305 (GASP!) that I'm putting in there has the alternator offset on the front and a long water pump, that being said, I could move the cowl back 5 inches, along with moving the motor mounts back a couple of inches and theoretically still be good. There's obviously some math to do.

Are you really referring to the wheelbase? There aren't any plans to mess with the frame, but rather leave it stock length. Moving back the cowl and cutting the doors down (both height, length, and width) are the only things on the plate at the moment. There's a side consideration of doing a bit of what Tex***peed is doing on the package tray, but may not be necessary.

 

Referring back to the 2012 AMBR posted above reminded me of an earlier AMBR...the Niekamp roadster. Look at a side view of that, then cut and paste...lengthen ****pit as on coupster, shorten doors, lengthen hood.
I think it would be interesting...I suspect it would be less sleek but more dramatic in a sporty sort of way. As the stock proportions are replaced, I would lean on the door to cowl transition as a way to sleekit a bit...

 

a few words of caution: it doesn't appear that there is a steering column in your car yet? If that is the case you should really look into mocking up something pretty close to what you will be using because when the doors are shortened or the steering column lengthened, sometimes a big guy can't squeeze in between the door jamb and the steering wheel rim. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has seen this or bought something where the steering wheel had to be moved, problem is you can only move the wheel so close to the dash before you can't reach it comfortably from the seat. Just trying to help you eliminate doing things over to many times.

 

Yes I was but I wasn't saying that you were going to alter it. I was just referring to the AMBR car that you posted and how changing the wheel base on cars can throw off everything. Your photoshops with the longer hood seems to be throwing things off a bit as well like the whole rear of the car is being moved forward for some reason.

 

AH, ok...I smell what you're steppin' in.

Perhaps I should just cut it out, tack it up and see what it looks like. If it's a problem, lengthen the subrail behind the B pillar by whatever I cut off from in front, then lengthen the above deck lid panel route. Can get roadster ones from Brookville for 200 bucks. Then it would arrive back at truer Ford roadster proportions if that turns out to be what's needed. I for one like the longer hood, reminds me of the Packard roadsters and the AMBR one I posted earlier.

 

Two things;
First, thanks for the drawings! I'm starting the body fit of my o/t avitar, and even though I am fitting it up to be comfortable for me it will be interesting to see how close I get to stock.
And second, is that really the 2012 AMBR!!??!! I quit following the AMBR compe***ion years ago because the cars started looking kind of goofy and unrealistic. Yea!! a real hot rod!
Thanks, Mike

 

Yes that is really the 2012 AMBR.

It's the scratch built Howerton roadster that has been built over the last ten years by ex sprint car racer Jackie Howerton. Perfect example of what happens when a racer builds a hot rod.

See pix of it before So-Cal tarted it up and turned into a 'cartoon car' for the new owner and the 2012 AMBR comp, posts #5 and #8 here:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=373425&highlight=howerton+roadster

Also see TRJ38 for the complete story on the car.

 

I just had an epiphany! My car is built with ladder bars, but was purpose built as a race car. I need to make sure the ends that mount to the frame are hiems, or some sort of swivel joint so they don't bind in normal street turning/driveways, etc. Scratch that! Just went out in the shop and looked. My ladder bars go roughly to the center of the wheelbase, and all three mounts of either side are huge hiem joints. The panhard is on the same size hiems.
My coil overs are also mounted straight up and down, so I get 100% of their action.
The car always felt good on the track, but that's a whole different world from the street.
Sorry, I got excited!! This about your car, not mine......

 

You're FIRED.

 

Your car is incredibly RAD. I really like what you did with the doors, there. I think I'm going to chop the subframe in the door opening, move it back, then pie cut the remaining subrail to get it the 1/2" out to meet the back portion of the car again....THEN start cutting the doors down and see what happens...if it looks cruddy, then make my own doors. I'm kind of beginning to let go of keeping it to absolute Ford proportions and come up with something that pleases MY eye. Maybe it'll be a spectacular train wreck, maybe not.

Thrompers? Didn't even know about it! I just moved back, so I NEED to start hitting up these events.

 

HA! Well, you're REALLY not going to like the pics I've posted at the bottom!

I'm glad to see it moving along, too. I'll likely have a lot of naysayers, one or two folks who have a "come to Jesus" moment and decide they like it, and at least one fellah who will never speak to me again, but hell...I'm making what pleases *my* eye. Seems like messing with an A's proportions, unless you're trying to make it INTO a roadster, is high treason or blasphemy.

Well....that's the plan, God willing.




UPDATE:

My folks came into town from TN today, and my dad and I got some much needed hang out time....he helped me commit a high crime, and it was awesome.

Here's some evidence for some folks to play some hate.


BEHOLD:








AND....to really get some of you piping mad:

Can you guess what I'm considering doing?




I have to be honest, though....the reason for the consideration above is to get the subrails to line up again now that they're missing 4" in length. After strong consideration of pie cutting the rails in the door opening to match up, I came to the conclusion that it would be a helluva time to chop the doors in such a way to fit in this parallelogram opening. More logical is to ride the cowl along the same perimeter that it once followed, by widening it by 1" now that it's scooted back 4". The door cuts will be straight cuts, rewelded, and hopefully much less muss and fuss.

I chose a 4" section removal for 2 reasons: 1) It *should* mean I don't have to recess the firewall, which I dont care for the look of, anyway...and 2) It's not that uncommon for A hoods to be lengthened by 3"-4". this way, I don't have to make a whole brand new hood because it's become technically narrower from a "longer" frame (I know I pushed the cowl back...same effect more or less). I just have to make direct additions to the back of the cowl.

Commence playing your hate....

 

The door opening has been shortened in the newest pics?