I can't believe I won the auction... My fiance's gonna be pissed...

So I found this 30 Model A 2-door sedan in pretty good shape and pretty complete on EBay (I know, but everything local is overpriced garbage) in Youngstown, OH, a few hours from me, and bid on it not thinkin' I'd win. But I did. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled, I LOVE the Model A sedans, not sure if I've seen one I didn't like. So I can't wait to get it home and get started. I think I did OK on the deal, it wasn't DIRT cheap, but I think its a decent price, not to mention a clear Ohio ***le (WV is a pain in the *** to get a homebuilt car ***led or even a replacement ***le, but to just transfer one is a piece of cake). I guess I shoulda thought about gettin' the damn thing home though, now I gotta track down a car trailer (don't wanna chance that it might not roll, so I don't wanna use a dolly) and something with enough stank to pull it (my Explorer is gonna be borderline, its a 2 door), but I can't wait to get started. Here it is:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8066099817

Now I just gotta tell the little woman that I bought another car, on top of a Cougar that I've pretty much put off indefinitely and the Mach 1 that's sitting around waiting to get sold. But I am THRILLED to get the A! It looks good and solid and mostly there. I know its a bad idea to buy a car sight unseen, but what the hell, the dude's got UNBELIEVABLE feedback.

 

Looks good.

I live like 10 minutes from there!

 

Not bad.

When you show her what the wedding money bought, you might have an ex-fiance..

Hope that doesnt happen, and she will see, if she hasnt already, what being married to a car guy is all about.

Good luck with the car!

 

I checked out the auction link, I think you got a good deal...It seems everyone wants a '32 (including me), but Model A's kick ***.

What ideas are going through your head, what are you going to do to it?

 

good deal. they aint that cheap here is the south.

 

Hey man seems like a pretty good deal, if you ask me. Yer money ahead not buying a total rustbucket.

Now, about that Mach 1...got a pic and a price in mind?

 

Well, gonna do as "traditional" a hot rod as money allows... I'd like to at least use the front half of the frame, hang a suicide front end out front on spilt bones (I'll likely trade my unsplits for a set of splits, don't want to break up another set if someone wants them), channel the body down level with the bottom of the frame, and put my 393C 4-V/4 speed Toploader combo in and find a 9" housing for my 3.89 locker chunk I've got. If I end up really HAVING to I'll backhalf the frame, but if I can get away with z-ing it I'd rather just do that. Not really a traditional style motor, but I've gotten almost all the parts to do it and I like C's, plus I'm gonna stick an Offy tunnel on it and a pair of AFBs, and build some lake headers outta some old ****py headers I've got. Not sure if I'll chop the top any, I figure I'll channel the body to where I like it, step back, and see what I think (and how my legs fit).

I like the vertical pillars on the car alot... Seems like alot easy to chop if I want to. I just LOVE A sedans, always have. I'm definitely a sedan guy, I set out to buy one when I bought my Cougar but couldn't p*** up a good deal. I'd take about any nice A sedan I could get, they just look too perfect when they're put down where they should be.

I THINK my fiance will be cool with it... At least as I finish this one, I bought the Cougar and it turned out to be a bit more of a basket case than I orignally thought (but I didn't pay squat for it, so no real harm done), so I'm gonna back burner it, maybe save it for when my 16 month old gets an interest and put it together with/for him. I put the Mach 1 together to get sold and it should fund this purchase.

 

It looks real nice but has some bad previous owner-itis. If you live out in California you could probably get nicer cheaper.... I haven't gotten around to getting the pictures taken, I kid you not I said that when I was putting it together that I wanted to take pictures on a nice sunny day (its grabber yellow w/ black Mach 1 treatments)... This was about 2 weeks ago and its rained EVERY friggin' day since. Started when I put the last piece, the antenna on. I said that New England is flooded 'cause I put my Mach 1 together. It's a good lookin' car and the motor just needs hooked up and it'll be ready to run, but after a while its gonna take a entire tear down and better body work (bad bondo job on the new 1/4s, ****py smoothing job on the rear fender extensions). Thats really how I'm gonna sell it, as a car that you can get road worthy in a weekend or 2, drive for half a dozen years, then tear it down and fix her up.

 

looks good, break her in right from the get go....

 

looks good I just sold my friends modle a roadster on E??? tonight also.Redsled

 

Damn,That's just down the road from my house.I wish I would have known about it. Ya never know whats lurking behind closed garage doors. Great score. Good luck on the build keep us posted.

 

Tell her it's an investment in your future, better than money in the bank.

 

Congrats on the car. It could be a nice car when it's done. Living with a car guy definately has its downfalls, but almost every guy has a hobby. My wife seemed to guy the argument that we need some distraction and fun away from work and that at least you could find me in the garage. Some guys go golfing or sailing all weekend.

I made a deal with my wife not to have more than 2 projects at any time. I've p***ed up a lot of sweet deals along the way, but I've kept my promise. But frankly women do bring some wisdom into the picture. Lets face it, working 50-60 hours per week, having a young son and wife, how many projects can you realistically tackle without affecting your family and filling up the driveway?

Good luck on "the talk".

 

The ***le of this post cracked me up. I won an ebay auction last week on some rims that I thought I didn't have a chance in hell on winning-right before Mother's Day Wife was pretty cool with it, although the rims will sit for about 3 weeks 'til I get the money to buy tires I'll just take that time to polish the hell out of them

 

Looks pretty soild, not a bad price at all. I payed that much for my 30-31 coupe, and it is just a body.

 

If you've got a Cougar sitting...and a Mach One not finished, how in hell are you going to get into completely rebuilding a Model A into a hot rod??? You're going to lose interest real fast and then you'll have another pile of parts sitting.

And if you're already worried about telling your fiance you spent some money (and you got it for a good price, btw), then you're in a heap of **** for the rest of your married life. Good Luck.

R-

 

Looks like a good deal to me, nice A.

 

looks great man..i just bough a 29 a off ebay a while back...good buy man

 

Looks good!

Just remember your fiance's isn't here and we know you would never bid on a Model A that you know you wouldn't win. But, if the story keeps you out of trouble, we will back you up. Nice car!

Mike

 

I have to agree with the guy a few posts back - this is no muscle car project you are embarking on here. You need to get all you other projects wrapped up and/or sold off before you turn a screw on the A.

I have been in the hot rod shop business a long time, and I can't count the number of "young guy" employees with a '68 Chevelle(or similar) that decided after working in the shop for 4-6 months that they were going to build a '32 Ford. This is a totally different project than a Mustang, be prepared.

My best advice is always the same - ONE project at a time.

BTW....AWESOME deal on that car! I just gave $3500 for a similarly complete/nice '29 p/u to build for a customer. I thought I got a deal on that....but you have pulled off a great buy! Good luck!

 

I disagree. you can certianly build 2 or 3 cars at a time-if that is what you do for a living. that said, it IS what I do for a living, and I have not touched my personal project in 3 years, and my wifes has not been messed with for at least 7 months. every one elses **** is coming along nicely,tho!

 

i wish i had won it. right in my back yard. when are coming to get it?

 

Well, I told the fiance, she really didn't care. She knew I was lookin' around, when I showed her she said "I thought you wanted a car without a top?". I showed her a few pics of A's without roof panels and she said she wanted me to do that. So it went well, since the Mustang's getting sold she didn't care.

Not sure when I'm gonna make it up there to pick it up yet, I've talked to the seller and he's pretty flexible. I'll be at the beach next weekend and he's out of town this weekend, so it's up in the air. I still have to get some trailer plans, I had one offered to me but I want to talk to a guy who's a friend of a friend that drag races and has a big*** dually Ram.

This is really the only project I'll be concerned with... The Mustang's getting sold (I'm hoping for 3 or 4 grand, but my fiance thinks it'll bring more like 5), I've had it for about 7 years or so and have know I was gonna sell it for a while now, it was just a matter of putting the effort into something I wasn't gonna keep (it's together and ready to sell now though). I drove it for years til I blew the motor, at that point I just got fed up with it, parked it, and more or less didn't mess with it after that point.

I've never really been focused on the Cougar, when I bought it I was really looking for a hot rod project and got it offered to me for a thousand bucks for the whole car, powertrain and all, and enough spare parts to almost build a second one. I have plans for it, but the kinda plans I have I can't afford at this point in my life, so instead of half-***ing it and never really be happy with it, I'm just gonna put it in the back corner of the garage til funds allow it to be built the way I want it. I can afford at this point though to build the Model-A the way I want, it's mainly gonna be low-buck/low-flash unless I already have a expensive part; if I wait on the Cougar it can actually be the car I want, not the car I could afford at the time. I haven't really worked steadily on a project since my Mustang was running, so I won't have to divide my time between projects.

 

Ilive in Cali and can't find anything.

 

The Cougar sounds like it would make a great donor car. Use all of it's parts and you can build the Model A cheap! The first thing to get rid of is this....



As for the fiance, here is a quote from my old friend "Fast Eddie" (Who used to sing with The Del Vikings). "A woman is like a taxi cab. There's always another one waiting around the corner!"

pigpen

 

It looks like a fair deal. The body looks solid.......

 

Thats one cheap project

 

You made a hell of a buy no matter where you are located....Now get your *** busy and off load the genie model A stuff back to the guys that can use it and you will own the Body and frame "Free & Clear". Pack your bags for the Honeymoon as my best guess is that you are going to have a little loose change if you build an open wheel Tradition "Real" Hot Rod. Good Luck !...with the Car.....for the other there's nothin like dividing your income & doubling your Troubles.