So the story begins. I'd been hunting for a project for quite some time, and out of the blue I stumbled across a pair of 1929 Ford Model As. The older gentleman who owned the family farm did not seem to be much of a car guy, at one point I made a cash offer but he countered, "Just take all this junk off my yard! The only condition is those things better be done before I kick the bucket." So the deadline was set, and the 1st of September 2014 I loaded up the lifeless cars on to a trailer and dragged them home. My original plan was to only fix one of them, but as things progressed I figured both of them needed some love. Lots of progress is already completed, but I better start from day 1. 29 Fordor and a 29 Phaeton were now my source of entertainment. So with a 0$ start up cost, dreaming was easy. Everything would bolt together and I figured that the cars of the past were so simple that my project would be cruising in no time. But then when I woke up, things weren't quite as easy. The Fordor was completely made out of now rotted wood. A rollover in this thing would mean weeks of yanking splinters out of places that even I avoid going. I gathered enough wood for a healthy bonfire. So I bought a cheapo pipe bender and got to work. Around that time we also scooped up a 1951 Meteor. "Ran when parked, some new plugs and some good gas and she'll go" We've all heard that before. Lots of time later we managed to get the pistons moving and valves were free, but weren't moving on their own. Odd... Damn cam was found in 3 pieces. But then I got an idea, a wonderful *awful* idea. The phaeton would be my next victim.
The phaeton was completely rotten. The bottom 4" had holes everywhere, 1 of the back pieces was missing, the other was beat to hell. But hey, it's free right? So a slice and a dice and now 2 doors Mockup #1
Back to the Sedan. This is where black and white comes in. Some things are not quite as simple as putting them in a category, some boundaries love to be broken. Hot rodding thrives on this feeling. I'll make sure to tread this line very carefully. To me, hot rodding is a mindset. It's the skill, creativity, and commitment of being able to adapt so many different elements to work together reach a certain goal. My goal is to go fast, and my hot rods better do that. 2 door 50's style convertible vs. 4 door sedan, these cars will be made to be polar opposites, evil twins almost. The phaeton will be jet black and the sedan will be pearly white. The sedan will spread its wings in an off topic environment. I'll continue the build thread as long as possible before the sedan gets too wild. So I came to the conclusion that the skimpy little model A frame under the sedan would stand no chance of being able to handle the weight/power I plan to throw at it. So we had to beef up bones a bit. Sedan's front and rear axle out of a 1961 ford unibody parts truck. I built a unibody when I was in high school, and we had to buy an entire truck just to get the tailgate so a few parts were robbed for my hot rod. So I tacked together a bit of the sheetmetal I had, but I was still missing a roof. I believe this car was a "leatherback" because I can't find any evidence of sheetmetal ever seeing the back end of this beast. So then I was on the hunt for a roof.,
Back to black. Had to repair lots of rust in the phaeton, lots of fun. These were the first patches I had ever done. We also robbed the rear axle out of the 51 meteor that donated the 8BA flathead. I figured the meteor might be a little lonely after we put her back in storage so I went and paid a little visit. But I saw something I liked That dash was calling me. So unbolted it, fired up the spark machine and made it fit it's new home. Aha now it's got style. And after weeks of searching, I found myself a roof! not the prettiest, but it was also free! That's it for now, hope you enjoy!
Thanks for the support! As for the free stuff... I think being young helped me out a bunch. I was 19 when I started this and I think that the some of the older folks just want to see the next generation interested in this old junk
I'm laid up for a few weeks and living extemporaneously through guys like you. Please keep it coming.
Roughly Mid October 2014 I was working with a construction company building a shop waay out in the boonies, overlooking a coulee. It just so happened that on truss day I was scampering up and down, and something at the bottom of the coulee kept glimmering at me. On lunch break I nabbed a co-worker's binoculars (standard car/deer hunter equipment) and stood up top the trusses, and sure enough there must have been at least 50 curvy cars staring right back at me. Fast forward the few longest hours of my life and I was standing there in the middle of a 1950's car graveyard. The old farmer first seemed quite skeptical of some kid wanting parts, at one point he had a Model A coupe himself but it was stolen right out of the hills 3 years prior. but I explained my situation and he seemed quite enthused and said I could take what I needed. So the next day I went back with a generator and a handful of zip disks and whacked that roof off. Little rough, and I was not aware of the size difference between the 2 door and 4 door. Doh! Now she fits
Back in the RPU department, we sent the 8BA to the machine shop to check it all out for cracks and what not, so I decided to try to teach myself a little metal working. One of the pieces behind the door was quite rusted (the other one, not pictured) so I cut it out and used some random tools to get the bottom line like the other one. Welded and smoothed. Sorry, cellphone pics. Then built a sub frame. working from the doors back I began to recreate the 2 door back end. It was quite small, so I decided to stretch it out 5" Then I purchased myself an english wheel for 300$, and crushed a few fingers. Kind of morphed some steel too. The upper body line was different between the two pieces, so I had to find a way to blend the side to the back. Made a template out of 1/8" plate and hammered the sides over for depth. No shrinker or stretcher here so I had to make slices along the small side. tacked on so far semi successful, I'm happy
The sedan was getting a little jealous of all the attention I was giving to the convertible, so I decided to even it up. I used the same method of cutting the 2" into the side of 2x1 steel tubing to make the floor structure/ sub frame. The sheet metal (doors, cowl, back end, half the roof) were completely tacked together at this point. tack welded the hinges to my pre-fabbed door frames and to the hinge support. Now I had to use my mangled roof pieces to try and make something. Relief cuts
Then got distracted once again, the phaeton's firewall was quite ugly. The rest of the car looked pretty decent so this was bugging me. and windshield posts And a little later this arrived. The machine man had his fun, the flatty got a slight over bore, new pistons, valves and guides, and a custom ground cam. The the that's all folks! Thanks a bunch to all you hamb guys, all the knowledge and skill I saw right here taught me more than I could imagine. 3 months prior to this point I had never bent sheet metal or put in a patch. I owe a beer to you guys.
My apologies, been away from the computer for quite some time. The engine is a v8, only sliced half the plastic open for pictures. Within a few days my dad and I assembled it all up. For now we'll run it as is but we have plans for a 2x2 or 3x2 carb setup. Holley 94 vs strombergs? hop-up recommendations would be appreciated. There were still lots of issues with the body. The back piece I tried to save was cracked and about 5" too short. The only option for me now was to attempt to weld a new piece to the bottom. It still fit a little bit funny but now at least it was something to go off of. However the bottom body line simply stopped, not cool Ta-da! roughed in at least. At this point I wasn't all that educated as far as traditional goes, and being as its a first hot rod build for my father and I, we opted for the easy route and ordered parts from speedway. Next build will be old school, promise
Back to the sedan! I ordered bear claw latches because the original latches were no longer existent. But the doors weren't swinging yet so I had some work ahead of me. The only way I could figure to make it work was to physically weld the hinge to my steel doors frame and to the door support. Strong, but the only downside is no adjustment. This day made me quite happy so I sat inside and made a bunch of vroom noises until my imagination ran out. After a little bit I decided to build some roof support Question, how do people fix the glass in these? Does the frame come apart or should I just bring the whole thing to the glass shop? Thanks in advance! more tomorrow
Hah! Free Model A's. Hmmm...Exactly how I started! (1955: $3 body, '31 Cabriolet) Had to move it by Saturday, no friends with pickups, or trailers. I was 13, and on my own. Loaded the body onto a rolling '36 Ford frame with friends Jim Rose and Eddie Burkhouse. A tramp was looking for some pliers to open a handle-less faucet for some water...we helped him, and he helped us lift the body onto the frame, which we pushed home. (2 miles...) Many 'elders' helped me through, because I was young. And polite. And eager to learn. Kudos to you, this is a serious bunch of metalwork you have attacked. Bless your Dad for jumping in. I lost mine at 12. Soak the heck out of the screws at the windshield frame corners. (P.B. Blaster) You may have to drill the screws out, use Mechanics' Left Hand Drill Bits.
What's better than having one Model A build going? Having two going at the same time! Very enjoyable thread, can't wait for more. Very cool.
Thanks for all the support, guys. Its greatly appreciated! At this point I was tired of looking at rust all the time so I rolled it outside and ground the whole beast down to bare steel I found a few minor blemishes, but whatever was still there was quite solid. The bottoms of the doors were rotten, so I cut those out and patched them up. No pics unfortunately. So now I had sat in my fordor, but the ex-phaeton seemed sad not having any bones under it. A few nights working like hell and I made some progress, It's a 3 speed column shift. Hooking it all up will be interesting. Then I lured in a few friends with free beer to come give me a hand lifting the body on and dropping the engine in. Reminds me of 20 year old car guys are suckers for free beer
What a nice pair of projects, I can relate to the Fordor, you are making progress a lot faster than I am. Bob
Looks like you have excellent building skills as well as an artistic eye. I am sure you will have both of them done before the old codger kicks the bucket..
No unfortunately the other piece was missing when I got the car, so I had to make do with this one. I'll keep my eyes open if you're looking for one!
The Jalopy Journal
