I've been visiting this forum for some time now - not contributing but gathering a lot of good information. There's a lot of knowledge residing on the HAMB. I've always been a chevy fan but have had a fasination with old style souped-up flathead V8 powered hotrods. Old school post war SoCal etc - how they used to be. The HAMB has been inspirational so I've made the plunge and started a build - 1930 Model AV8 coupe. A 1930 car with 1940 running gear as a 1950 build - only a few years late! No modern stuff - all old Ford gear with as much of the original car retained. Just like taking grandpa's old car and souping it up in the back yard. So because of the fasination with the old flathead V8 engines I naturally started there. It didn't take long to get a good running stock 59A complete with a '39 trans. Soon after that I got onto some rebuilt 97's and an old mint Fenton intake. The build has started! Got to say at this point that following the Chris Casny 31 coupe build has been inspiring. Thanks Chris. I've always like the '30-31 Model A coupes with the cool visor and cowl fuel filler. I managed to get a sad looking but solid ex California body - very little rust but heaps of dents and battle damage! The floor had been cut out by someone for channelling but it did come with the body. So I welded it straight back in again as I'm going for the traditional hiboy look. Next a stock Model A chassis and a dropped front end and '40 rear end. Here's how it all looked when I started off.....truely a diamond in the rough!
As I'm already well progressed with the project this thread is a bit retrospective... So here's the engine dressed with the rebuilt old Strombergs (not repros) on the Fenton intake. I like the Fenton as it seems "everyone" is running repro Edelbrocks and Offys. Its hip to be square! Body has been sandblasted and cleaned up ready for restoration! Wasn't long before a heap of stuff arrived from Macs - let the rebuild start! New door skins were an easier option than trying to fix the damage from being walked all over. The body took a bit of straightening out but a bit of persistance and care soon took care of the wrinkles and dents. No bullets holes in this one - that would've been kinda cool.. The body didn't have any wood fitted but had some damaged and unuseable pieces I could use as patterns. I made my own roof wood kit rather than order one and wait. I just laminated the curved pieces and shaped them up to match the bits I had. I also want to leave the top wood exposed so I made sure of a good finish! This car is to have a stripped out (but nice) look and an unlined interior is part of the theme.
This car is being reborn in the Mighty Manawatu - North Island New Zealand. Hopefully I'll get to the beach hop and the dust up etc next year!
Excellent! When you get up this way come and say G'day . I usually do "push truck" duties at the Dust Up with Ethel . .
Lookin good so far...I'm about to start a 30 traditional build also. I also like the 66....have a couple of those myself.
I kinda like the idea of sticking with an original 'A' frame under this car as I'm trying to keep as much of the "original" Model A as possible - true AV8 style. Even though this car is really made up of a whole lot of separate parts collected - not actually from the one car as such. The frame has been dealt to with a light sandblast and smoothing out to make it look a bit nicer. I've left a few of the brackets in place for that "stock but stripped-down" look. There was some very minor rust pebbling to be filled in a couple of places but generally a very good frame - square, tight and straight. Not bad for over 80 years old. As per the Bishop/Tardell "hotrod bible" I went for the tried-n-true frame-height kickup at the rear cross member exactly by the book. This gives about 2.5 inches out of the ride height to start off. Combine that with a '26 T rear spring (a good 2-3 inches lower than an A spring) with 2-3 leaves removed (another 1.5 inches off), reversed eyes (a further 1.5 inches) should give a total drop of about 7-8 inches at least depending on the final weight etc. I can play around a bit with spring leaves etc to get the best ride height and look I'm after. I'm running 7.00-16 old school Firestones on the back so it should look "right" with the top of tire following the wheel arch body line. I like that look. Up front things look a bit tight for room between the radiator and firewall for the old flattie. It looks like "Diver Dan" could be head-banging the radiator - especially if I go for a heavy duty thick core. So I made the big call to shove-out the front cross member 1.5" to the start of the frame horn curve. I like the idea of a little bit more wheel base and the look of a bit more "hood" length too - even though I probably won't run one. So no further need for the stock Model A hood now - it's too short! Still not as long in the wheelbase and engine bay as a '32 framed 'A' but closer. I'm using the original front cross member with a reversed eye 'A' spring less a few leaves to get it as low as I can. I got hold of an old Mordrop 'A' front axle - dropped about 3.5 inches. Front tires will be 4.75-5.00-16 Firestones for the "big 'n little" look skinnys. Should sit pretty nice I reckon when it's finished. I bent down the steering arms so I can still run the tie-rod under the split bones which is good. No tie-rod to frame clearance worries here. The body work is now all done with here as far as straighting out 82 years of use and abuse. There were rust pinholes in the two floor panels under the seat base and behind from the body sitting on the ground outside somewhere. So new panels were cut to size with swages rolled in to closely match the original look and provide support. The new panel under the seat was made flat to give clearance over the torque-tube as it's going to be pretty close for room under there with exhausts and all. An all new raised trunk floor was also made up and welded in with a hump to clear the raised rear cross member. I opted to tek-screw in the main top panel of this to give it a bit of an "aircraft" construction look. Also meant I didn't have to climb underneath to weld the "box" assembly into the sub rails etc. I hate trying to weld things from underneath! The sub-rails were reworked for the kick-up and the fender wells notched to clear the rear spring too. All pretty standard stuff done thousands of times before I know - but all good fun to do for yourself! Next up will be the much "anticipated" roof chop! Short back and sides please....
Aah.... always good to see another real hot rod being built in NZ. Where I live it's 99.9% street rods, so I get quite excited when a traditional rod shows its face.
Thanks for the positive comments! As this is my first hotrod I want to be sure everything is going to fit together so I mocked up the basic car & body, frame, engine/trans etc. Henry never designed his Model A to have this to happen to it! Despite looking closely at numerous photos I've still been a bit concerned with the amount of room (or lack of it) between the firewall, and the radiator for the old flathead. I thought the problem area would most likely be with the rear of the cylinder heads and the firewall. But no the breather on top of the fuel pump assy is actually where it's tightest. I located the engine mounts as per the B/T book and yep it is a bit on the tight side between the breather and the firewall but it will be okay. Moving the front cross member forward a tad has definitely been a smart move as that is the exact space now between the dizzy cap and the radiator core. They would have been touching otherwise. Taking out the radiator just to adjust the points etc would have been a real bitch. The rear transmission mount sits on a dropped cross-member I fabricated from 2in box section and bolted to the frame. I also mounted the '39 master cylinder to it to keep things tidy. I still kept the original cross member in place but had to give it some extra clearance around the torque tube. So the next thing is the steering box. I got a mint steering box from an F100 but it looks a bit bulky. An F1 box would have been better but they are getting difficult to source around here - and expensive. Besides I'm kinda keen on using the Model A 2-tooth box as part of my "keeping as much original Model A stuff as possible" concept. To make the old steering box work a bit nicer I gave it an overhaul with new bearings etc and a needle-bearing housing for the sector shaft along with a shorter pitman arm. Clearance for any of the steering box options was going to be an issue so with the engine in place I opted to go with the Model A box moved back toward the firewall about 2 inches. The original mounting holes in the frame were filled to reduce the number of holes along this part of the frame. I then lengthened the original column-drop 2 inches using a spacer I made to keep the column angle just right. I also chopped the column and shaft down 4 inches to put the steering wheel in a good position as the seat will be lower too due to the impending top chop.
Wow, just found this thread. Looks great keep it up. As i'm just over the hill and I run with the Palmy HRC I'll probably see this around in the not too distant future. Scotty
It had to happen never been any question this car is too tall and something had to be done about it! So; the time has come as the Walrus said no more procrastinating or looking for any other jobs to do instead. So, chop it 3 inches or 4? I like 4 inches but Im 6ft-3 without a hat. After sitting in the car and trying to work it all out I just took a guess in the end and split the difference three and a half inches to go! The car is not channelled so at least Ive got that amount of headroom left. Even though Ive never chopped a roof before I am a determined DIY person. I did my research; surfing the web and trolling through the HAMB threads (thanks BTW) so I knew where to cut. Learnt all about pie-cuts etc and was able to pick up on all the handy hints I needed to know before starting. Even with all this preparation, information and advice I still had some trepidation I am not an auto engineer. After bracing the body internally I measured, drew some lines and laid out some masking tape and painted on the guidelines. I then peeled off the tape and ..went to bed. Woke up the next morning, had a coffee (to calm the nerves) and got straight to it chop time! I got out my new sabre saw and cut the pillars along the top mark leaving a little bit uncut to hold the roof in place while I worked my way carefully around the rest of the car including the doors. Then the moment we all anticipate lift-off! I then did the lower cuts all round and stood back looking at what I had done Mmmm. So I took the obligatory photos for posterity before reattaching the lid. I was quite surprised at how stable the detached top was not at all floppy as expected. That new wood Id put in definitely added strength to the roof. A bit of tack-welding and more tack welding and more tack welding and then final welding and hey presto! I like it a lot. That steel around the rear corner panels is very thin though something I had to be extra careful with. I used a MIG to weld the roof back on so I thought it would be a good idea to anneal the welds with a propane torch to soften up the metal a bit at the joint so hopefully no cracking in the future. I pie-cut the pillar returns etc nice and long to allow for the tapers keeping the inside surfaces flat and straight for the window glass. The rear quarter window openings needed the most care but it all worked out pretty good. I tidied the joints with a bit of light panel hammer & dolly work and didnt need much filler at all - just sand and primed to finish off. Now it looks like a hotrod! Not too bad for my first roof chop! As the car is to remain unlined for the foreseeable future I made sure the inside join lines were as tidy and discreet as possible. I also took care not to chop through the vertical wood around the rear windows but instead dismantled reshaped and re-did the mortice joints. No chop line through the wood! I tackled the inside window garnishes next - cheating a bit with the windscreen post garnishes. I just trimmed off and reshaped the bottom then flattened them out ever so slightly. The chop had lowered the windscreen swing arm pivot studs on the pillars and trimming the garnishes from the bottom kept all the holes aligned. Easy! For the windscreen all I did was to cut at the top corners of the frame and redo the holes and corner tangs to match. Job done .beer oclock!
Great build. Nice work on the chop. Anywhere between 3 and 4" looks so right on A coupes. Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
Thanks, yeah it definitely needed the chop. I didn't realise just how tall it really looked before the chop! It now looks like how Henry should have built in the first place!
Okay with the top-chop now out of the way it's time to do some "light" engineering. I like making parts and because I'm doing it myself I feel more like I'm building the car the traditional way like they used to. And that is the whole idea. I'm not a big fan of the combined headlight/shock mount style - the headlights tend to shake enough over bumps without the shocks adding to the forces on them. Besides I like the look of stalks made from a cut-down original headlight bar. If they're done well they look real nice and swoopy too. First up was to bend the headlight bar ends. I used a '28 one I had because the end pads are a slightly narrower shape than the '30 one. They'll sit neatly inline on top of the rails. I just did the usual method; heat and twist and bend to fit. I did each end using the centre bar to hang onto; checked the shape is good and that they both look the same. Then cut the bar away and grind the cups smooth. I trialled up the final mounting position with some old '28 lamps fitted on to get the look and fit just right before drilling the frame. I needed to allow for the radiator shell, front cross member, and shock mounts so I didn't end up with any of the bolts clashing etc. I also have less flat area left on the frame horn top now the front cross-member is forward of the original position. I used original bolts to fit the headlight "stalks" (as they are now called) to the frame. I'm going to use a pair of mint original '30 "Two-Lite" type headlights I have - with 12V bulbs fitted. The headlights will sit nice and low so the beam will shine directly into a possum's eyes like 2 moons in the dark - just before he gets run down. I thought about running some old style rotary shocks but I've decided to go with 'em new fangled erplane types! I'm using shorty SoCal shocks front and rear and I figured a little bit of chrome bling up front too won't hurt. The rest of the car is minimal bling other than a few shiny original bits. Because I didn't want to drill the old MorDrop axle I went for Speedway lower shock mounts - they're a good idea and easy. I mocked up the upper shock eye position allowing for axle travel etc and took some measurements. I held the F1 shock mounts in place how I thought they should go and then cut them down to suit. Once tack welded I bolted them in place to check everything was where it should be. I then made LH and RH as they lean out slightly. Nice hot deep-vee welds; grind smooth and finish-file with a rat-tail file to get some original looking surface texture back. They look like they were made that way. Another job done. Time for a cup of tea and a lie-down - yeah right! Next up is finishing off the steering. I made up an adjustable drag link using the old Model A tie-rod. I didn't know they had a solid piece braized in each end until I cut into it! Still I was able to replicate that by sweating in a new end piece prior to re-threading it. I re-used the ends fitted with new Teflon cups to make the steering a bit smoother. To reduce the draglink angles I bent a slight joggle in the hoop steering arm. So hopefully the Model A steering setup on this car should now be about as good as it gets with all the improvements I've made. A re-built 2-tooth box; needle bearing sector shaft housing; short pitman arm; needle bearing kingpins; new ball joints and the teflon cups. The skinny front tires will help too!
Thanks! It's not that I actually work that fast - nobody is that fast....Truth is I'm using time-slip technology I built using a Flux Capacitor removed from some old vintage DeLorean I bought back in 2025 off some kid!
Great progress ! , hey when your done with the coupe could I borrow that flux capacitor ? I'd like to shoot back and eliminate meeting my first wife! .
Work is continuing with the last of the frame fabrication work pretty much done now including finally welding the front radius arm brackets in place now Im happy with the position etc. These brackets I made earlier had only been held in place with clamps while got the steering box, pitman arm and draglink clearances sorted. At this point it was time to do something about brakes. I had a complete 40 set up for the front end that came with the axle - drums, shoes, backing plates, square-backed spindles with arms intact etc. Some previous owner had put the shoes in the wrong way round so two shoes were completely worn out while the other two were hardly worn at all. So after getting the worn shoes relined locally the whole lot was reassembled and fitted up. This build is a bit too old school for big Buick finned drums so I installed some press-on aluminium scalloped coolies for a bit of an old school high performance look. I machined them out a bit more inside so they would fit further on the drum. Ill leave them unpainted I think. The rear end was a bit more of a challenge as brakes on the old banjo rear end had been stripped off ages ago. Fortunately good backing plates were still on there. I had previously made up and welded on the spring perches while setting up the car so the original axle seals got toasted. I had also shortened the torque tube and driveshaft at that time so all that was needed now was to put in new bearings and seals inside. I was lucky in that the wheel bearing races and axles were in good shape with no measurable wear youve got to have the occasional win! All the differential parts inside looked good too so that was all put back as-is after a bit of a cleanup. No matter how hard I tried I couldnt get a decent set of hubs or brake drums for the rear end. All the ones I found were so hammered and just too bad to use. The only thing to do to keep the project going along was to order in new rear hubs and drums from Speedway job done. New repro shoes and all the other missing bits for the rear brakes were also purchased new at this time so I could keep things going along Im very impatient with this sort of thing. It wasnt long before all the bits arrived and were installed. I had a bit of trouble with the new shoes and drums fitting though. Whenever I tightened the rear wheel nuts the brakes would lock up! It seems the lumps on the backside of the 40 rims pushed on the drums and closed them up on the shoes even with all adjusters backed right off just too tight a fit with everything new I guess. That took some work to finally overcome brake shoe dust everywhere. So the rear end went under the car properly this time with all the bits fitting up real nice in the finish. At this point the last of the body work has also been done a bit of block sanding and priming to go and ready for painting. Its amazing how when you work around the car you keep finding areas that have been missed! Once I was sure Id got everything, a quick blast of black shadow-coat was sprayed on. I even considered this for a final look but no Ill stick with the original plan a proper (old style) paint job. Things are starting to come together now it even looks like a real car now!
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