Projects 60's Era Street/Strip Model A Coupe

No, I wish. Running a TCI full manual 350 turbo race trans. 4000 stall. The shifter is custom made lightning rods. Its fun.

 

Right on I was hoping for the best lol you know real hot rods have 3 pedals just like this car lol


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Swade41 does that thing have a w motor in it


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Belled Column and Olds/Pontiac 3rd Member:

The column needed to be shortened a smidge to allow fit the adapter cover. While at it, a few dents were pulled from the tube. Ryan went ahead and added a dimple to keep the tube in position.



How it looks clamped.



A new bushing was installed up top, too.



Completed.



In other news, I had a bunch of heavy parts sitting by the front door for a couple weeks. I'd been meaning to get them over to my pal who assembles 3rds and axles and plasma cut parts for a good portion of the offroad community out here.

This was his first Pontiac/Olds 3rd. It was neat chatting with him about it as he sees a lot of heavy duty 3rds. We were one washer short, somehow, so he used a Toyota part. Seems fitting, I've been an OT Toyota guy a long time... and he's built OT Toy 3rds for me in the past.

The details: The case was a spare that came out of a collection from a gentleman about an hour north of me who retired from racing. It was pristine. I held onto that a while and we loaded it up with 3.64 gears, posi, new everything (bearings, races, shims, ARP bolts.... yada yada yada), and a Toyota washer...





I'll have some bigger updates, soon. Good stuff coming.

 

Really enjoying this thread!! That diff holding fixture is neat.

 

Column Mount:

Alright, back on topic.

@Kiwi Kev posted these pics a decade ago and I've had them saved in my inspiration folder. Kev's work is honest, no BS. The plan for how we'd mount the column was directly inspired by Kevin.

Here are a couple pics of the column mount from Kev's Nasty Habit Willys build:





Simple, to the point and great looking.

Here's our variation on the same theme:



The finished piece, below.



We've added so much to the car that we're being conscious about material weight. So, instead of solid bar, here, we used tubing.



From the underside.



Pedals have been set in place.



35/36 dash in place.



From the driver's perspective.



3/4 view.



This is why I really like Ryan. He's love's Rockford, IL and it's history. Many of the tools he uses in his shop have local history. Rockford has its connections to hot rodding, racing, and motorcycles and the respect Ryan has for the city is known by anyone whose had a real conversation with him.

So, it's a really nice gesture that he snuck in a little bit of that respect, pride and admiration by using these obsolete bolts that say "Rockford" on them. They were produced in a now-closed plant with plenty of history. And some of that history is now connected to this car. Neat, right?



More soon...

 

Brent,

I just love the details on your car! The column brace and clamp are really neat. The Rockford bolts are those details that most people will never be aware of, but you will know that they are there. Thanks for bringing us along on the journey.

Steve

 

I really enjoy following your thread. Everything that you do is well thought-out and first class.

 

Love the photos of how he made the column clasp. Love it

 

This thread absolutely rules, I'm glad you shut down the 'look what I have/my mates done' people and keep it dedicated.

I literally check back every day for an update which I haven't done on the Hamb since, funnily enough Kiwi kevs threads or Ryan's Henry J thread and the A coupe.

Ive been trying to quit social media recently and find that raw hotrod feeling I used to have, back in the real Hamb build thread days and this definitely fills the spot, so thank you for that.

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Nice 3rd member Brent. I got a trophy Track 3rd member built buy FabCraft in my 59 olds/pontiac rear along with their race axles, 4;88 gears. They were great to deal with and did a fantastic job for me. Not cheap in price, but about bomb proof.

 

Have you tried sitting and pushing the pedals yet? In this photo it LOOKS like you will end up pushing just the top portion of the pedal with your sole not touching the bottom of the pedal. That will be very uncomfortable after awhile. My OT modern car has the same angle and it sucks on a long drive in stop and go traffic.

 

that’s the pedal pushed all the way down, with no master/ pushrods the pedals are just hanging straight down.

 

Yes. And, what we aren't seeing is where it sits in relation to the floor.

 

Model A with 1935/36 Dash, Hanging Pedals, and Reversed Firewall - Reinforcement:

Just to refresh, here's the original, jotted idea. We diverted a bit as you'll see.



It's not fully done but it's a lot closer. The dash brackets aren't installed. We decided not to run bars out to the cowl. We did, however run them to the hanging pedals, which was in the plan but not in the drawing.

There's a 14g reinforcement piece between the firewall and pedals. It will be welded. I wanted something that made that surface around the pedals more substantial. We didn't go overkill and you can see, some shape was put into the piece to add some rigidity.



The pedal bracketry is 1/2" tube that was forged at the the ends on the anvil. There were holes drilled and tapped in the pedal assembly frame for the rods to bolt to.





The middle pedal/master cylinder reinforcement rod uses a mounting bolt (the lower bolt on the Chevy truck master) at the base and it ties into the top like the rest.







Other than these pics, nobody will see these details. More than anything, I wanted to be able to drive the car hard, without worry. I want the firewall to be able to hold up to the stress/force that's transmitted from the hanging pedals. This Lucky's pedal assembly is WAY more stout than the Ansen unit their style derives from. I've seen plenty of Ansens or copies with cracks or broken tabs and a few cracked firewalls, too. So, we did what we thought could help prevent that.

 

Those pedal arms look beefy! Bracing looks very thoughtful, great ideas

 

Thanks, Steve! There's a bunch of little details like that in the car. It's one of the things I love about having like-minded, passionate people who care help me out.

That's a hell of a compliment, thank you. Truly. I've been thinking about this car for a long time and I've learned from a lot of mistakes on other projects... haha.

Thanks, Tim!

This is such an awesome thing to read. You and I are right in line with that thinking. One of the reasons I wanted to post details here was pretty much for the reason you mention. I'm an avid searcher and I'm always finding the info I need in posts from the old days.

I felt a good way to give back and give some life to that info was to post a thread using it.

Thanks! Carl, my pal who set up the 3rd does a ton of off road 3rd members since that's a big market out here. When I picked it up we were chatting and he was commenting on the beef of the 9.3 and all its pieces. Comparing some parts to being beefier than D60s - I think it'll hold up just fine behind the 327... hahaha. And, no, it's not cheap - AT ALL! But in reality, even if I was building a completely new comparative 9", it'd be expensive too.

 

That Lucky's hanging pedal assembly is absolute BEEF! I'm going to pull the pedal arms and soften the edges so they don't look so modern when the car is in its finishing stages.

 

There is a lot to be learned in post #285; both in the text and even more from what is shown in the pictures.

 

Connecting the 1935/36 Ford Dashboard to the Dash Bar:

The 35/36 dash is now fastened in the coupe in 2 additional spots. It's mounted in the stock Model A locations on the sides, on the top rail, and now on the dash bar.

The tabs were formed from 16ga.










Next up... body is coming off and getting back to the chassis.

 

This is one nice build, the info, pics and detail you provide is really helpful. I really like the column mount and bracing. You can tell you've been building this in your head for a long time!

 

Thanks, Mike!

 

I have to agree with @Mike Colemire, this is a well thought out build. Lots of ideas to steal, I mean borrow.

 

Brent: Great fab work, keep it up!
Great minds think alike!

Rich

 

Thanks! By all means, steal away. Most of the ideas on this car were inspired by others!

 

Mocking the 327 SBC placement/Height in a Model A Frame:

I'll be using an old Hurst front mount in front of the 327. Not only do we need to figure the frame-side mounts but we also need to mock the engine height. Here's how it was done on the coupe.



The Hurst mount was pulled off in favor of some flat steel mock-up mounts that Ryan uses to place small blocks.



They're wide enough to span the rails. They make getting things centered and to an exact height without much hassle.



Once we got the height and setback, Ryan pulled out a donor set of generic side mounts and welded some tubing that will allow the engine to sit in place.


Now, the front plates can be pulled and the engine mounts can be fabricated... with plenty of space to work.





And if the transmission needs to move up or down, it's simple.

 

Cool and simple plan for engine placement and adjusting. I like it!

 

Not much has changed. The end of the year has provided worthy distractions. But, we've ordered a bunch of steel, which is about to become mounts, ladder bars, bracketry and a few other odds and ends.

Here's the Hurst mount and the motor mount biscuits.



A closer look.



Since we talked about it a bit, here is the pedal location. This will allow my heel to sit on the floor and the ball of my foot on the pedals.



Ryan took some new pics of the finished dash bar and reinforcements (and I cleaned up the pics further) but it's all stuff we've already seen. I'll wait to post up some new work when we get there.

I hope everyone has a great new year! Whatever goals you've got, I hope they come to you swiftly!

-Brent

 

Happy New Year Brent. I look forward to seeing your progress on your coupe in 2020!

 

Happy New Year Brent!!