Projects Drdave accidentally buys a Model A. Now what?

Saving this to show my wife the next time she expresses disbelief in me accidently making car related purchases, like all the repro body parts I needed for the '52. At least now, she can read this and be thankful I haven't accidently bought a whole car- YET.

 

Haha!! Glad I could help….guess my life officially serves as a warning to others. Lol!!!

 

Thanks for being “that guy” Dave!

And, can’t believe we didn’t even get to talk last weekend.

 

Short weekend for sure. Wished it could have been longer and more time to catch up with everyone. I barely got to say Hi to Mick either. Lol. Hopefully next time my trip can be longer

 

Maybe I am wrong or mistaken, but a semi-popular swap from the 70’s era used a Mustang,Falcon,Comet steering box(early mid 60’s to mid 70’s)????instead of a Ford truck steering box. A bracket was available to mount the mustang box along the underside of the frame and still maintain a steering arm that went forward to the drivers left front wheel similar to a stock A setup but with much better steering than 50’s ford pickup.

 

Thanks for the info @Flatheadjohn47 I sure appreciate it! I’ll start looking for tech articles on that…I have a pile of old magazines.

 

I accidentally bought a motorcycle once. I really thought someone was going to out bid me. Next thing I knew I had bought a motorcycle.

 

Yup, @Super88 you know where I'm coming from. My father in law was at an auction once and his brother egged him into bidding on a nice T, "you're still under the reserve, what's the big deal?" Guess what...."The seller has lifted the reserve!!!" Next thing you know, he's the new owner of a T. Then, the guy is showing him how to start it: "Ever have a T before?" "No, I've had A's though." "Well, you have to push this, pull that, stand over here, hold your thumb this way or it will rip it off and then just twist...simple as pie." Then my father in law paid the man $500 to take it back. hahahaha!!!

 

You are correct, lots of early Fords done this way. I believe Pete and Jake made the bracket (and were the first i know of to install the mustang box). Really worked great and a lot better than the old MG rack and pinions we used to use.

 

I've done some quick looking and the brackets I've found so far weld to the back of a 4 bar bracket to mount the Mustang box. Anyone recall any set ups using the stock wishbone?

 

Will someone please call my wife and confirm that accidentally purchasing a car is a thing?

My favorite auction story that I tell on myself is getting distracted one day at a big business auction, and then thinking I was bidding $2 on one giant bag of packing peanuts. I won and the auctioneer just headed off to the next pile. It was at that moment that I realized he had given up on selling lots of one bag and taken bids on all the bags while I was jawing with someone. Suddenly I owned a 12' tall x 20' mound of packing peanuts for $2.

Luckily I knew a guy who owned a FedEx store and made a quick phone call, and a bunch of less than quick 30 mile round trips to deliver them. I made a marginal profit, and he was thrilled!

 

32-34 steering boxes are a better design and fit the A frame better than a later box, but yeah, probably not cheap to find one.

 

Sorry Doc, I didn’t realize you were keeping the wishbone intact. I’m guessing the wishbone will come under the frame at just about the same place that the box would need to be mounted and if that’s right I don’t have any suggestions other than looking at a rack and pinion. If there is clearance you could do something like this

all you’d need is a plate like this from Speedway

And then gusset it to the frame rail. Hope whatever you do works well.

 

Ok @Nostrebor, you win! That's the best auction story ever!!!!!!

I was didn't know about a 32-34 box swap @Dan Hay, but yeah, I bet those don't come cheap. LOL

I saw that plate @wide34 after some more searching and thought the same thing about gusseting it. Guess I'll have to look and see where the wishbone crosses over. Maybe the classic modified F1 box will end up being my best option after all.

 

Dave... I ended up installing the modified F1 box in my '29, I was happy with it.

 

I'd forgotten that Jim. I think I saved the name of the guy you got that from.

 

I don't remember his name, right off hand, but he advertises all the time on the Ford Barn. I do remember that he was from Montebello, CA.

 

Been elbow deep in home projects, so no real progress on the A other than moving it around the shop and the driveway shuffling things around. But, here's some teaser shots of the wood grained dash and garnish moldings I picked up at the Stray Kat....

 

Those turned out great!

 

Yeah those are fantastic!

 

Thanks guys! Real happy with how they turned out. Hopefully I won't scratch them putting them in. LOL

 

A little update. Had an hour after a dr's appointment yesterday so I had a little time in the shop but not enough time to get dirty and clean back up before I had to be to work. Took the time to finish mounting the 32 grille shell to the radiator. Sadly, once it was all on, I am still left with an inch or so gap between the shell and the hood. The top of the radiator is pushed back as far as it can go on the support rods, so I guess I'll run a die down the rods to get some threads further down and cut a little off the ends so I can tip it back another inch-ish.

 

Was this radiator in the car with the A shell, or a new addition?

 

It's the A radiator with the filler moved to the inside under the hood.

 

Isn't it Mel Gross?. He's the one that does F100 conversions.

 

OK. Maybe the four shell to radiator attachment holes are in different locations 30-31 vs 1932? Does the front of the radiator bottom out on the curved '32 shell, the 30-31 is more square and may have more room.

 

Where it’s an even gap all the way around that’s what I would try. Just scoot the shell back if it’s got room to move before bumping the rad

 

@drdave could you repost the pics of the rear spring setup, they're missing and I'm in the same boat.

 

Yes, the shell is all the way back up tight to the radiator (a '30) and I had to drill two new holes for the upper mounting bolts, just as I have seen on other threads about fitting 32 shell's to 30/31 A's. The bottom of the radiator is scooted back enough and the gaps are good down low, so just need to tip it back a bit more. You can see the support rod is up against the back of the radiator tank, so I'll need to shorten it a bit, but the threads also won't be deep enough, so I'll have to run the die down and cut a few more I guess. In my mind I figured that fit-age and gaps weren't a huge concern in the early days of the assembly line so there is a bit of fudge to get things to fit I guess. LOL

Yes, @1oldtimer, I will hunt back for the spring pics and post them for you when I get a chance this afternoon.

 

Here you go @1oldtimer...I think I fixed it. Going back and rereading those few posts, I see I had problems getting the pics to stay in that post. Hopefully fixed now. (click the red arrow below to take you there if you didn't already know that trick....I just recently learned it. LOL)

If it's not fixed, I reposted them again in this post: