Projects 60's Era Street/Strip Model A Coupe

@The37Kid

Bob,

Here's a pic of the Wasatch mountains as I was heading back home from Brian's last night. We live about 15 miles apart. He's on the western side of the valley and I'm on the east side about a mile and a half from those mountains.



This traffic is also why I wouldn't run spindle mounts on the coupe!

 

Damn! making me look like a slacker! that yellow cad looks sooooooo good!
I've got a smattering of grade 8 yellow cad hardware on my roadster and it has all faded out of the bright yellow into a yellow/silver color. will be interesting to see how those parts hold up and wear in.

I bought parts off a guy that had a neat homebrew cad plating setup in his shop, It's a neat very clean- all business- looking alternative to chrome. always thought it would be neat to try someday.

 

Brent
Such a cool Model A and nice work throughout, thought I'd offer a couple suggestions.
I was stinging from the chrome plating price quotes I had been getting for my roadster so when I heard about the electroless nickel plating process and price it was a no brainer because I had also been considering a "less shiny" finish for these parts.



I don't recall the numbers but I was impressed with the outcome as I had some sweat equity invested as I too had prepped everything with Scotchbrite pads.

Like you I wanted a minimalist/basic hot rod look in my trunk and door panels but didn't know how I was going to pull it off.....then I discovered ABS, this shot was taken before the ABS floor riser cover was made, I'm happy with the outcome on these also.

 

Slacker? Hardly! Trips like yours have me inspired to keep plugging along!

I don't think the offset shifter bracket is going hold up, maybe it's too smooth. The other stuff feels better in hand.

 

Trunk-Mounted Battery Tray:

Mark this project as one that took too long, got a little overkill, but was a lot of fun to think through and fab.

There's no "show me your battery tray" threads on the internet, so I was on my own to find something that would be a good starting point for a trunk-mounted battery. I wanted to use something from the era rather than a prefabricated option.

I spent a lot of time looking for battery tray that I could run pretty much as is. In the end, I went with the least expensive option - a 57 Chevy Pickup battery tray. It's 16 ga, had some shelf wear and a little surface rust here and there. It looks like an old NOS repop piece. The guy I got it from had a bunch of early 1970s reproduction parts. The tag on this had some handwriting that was definitely from an earlier era.





Many trays either have recesses built in for bolt head clearance, so a battery could sit above it OR they have brackets spot welded for firewall mounts and such. The 57 pickup trays had brackets but I'm going to flat-mount it.

The plan was to make side mounts similar to what's on the tray, now. I had my friend Carl cut a piece of 16ga from a pattern I made and I spot welded it from the center and worked my way out.

Concerned about the recessed hardware pulling through the tray and a nearly 50# projectile wreaking havoc in a wreck, I did a bunch of tests with the dimple dies to see how I could get my 3/8" to fit best.



As an insurance policy, I had Carl cut four 16 gauge circles that I'd recess and weld to the tray so that the mount surface thickness is doubled up.







Then, I needed the tray to fit where I wanted it to sit. I went to a really cool local lumber yard that specializes in hardwoods. It's named MacBeath Hardwoods. They have all kinds of wood, it's a really neat place.



I scrounged around and grabbed a few pieces of what I assumed were oak from the dollar-a-pound bin.





I whittled the oak "shims" down so the tray sat flush with the side channel on the floor. It worked out better than I could have planned. The tray's shape mates right in where the subrail transitions down. Since the tray would be covering a body mount bolt, I drilled a big access hole in the tray.





To keep the fuel tank and battery safely secured, I made some oversized stainless washers.



Here's everything together.



And finally, I stole the battery out of the OT neighbor in the garage and tested it out. The battery I run will probably be a little smaller in size.

 

Just the right amount of over thought. Another great piece you can check off the list!

 

good stuff man! keep it rolling!

I'm glad to see you've gotten some zest back for this project.

 

Thanks fellas!

I'm glad to be back on it, too. I'm going to get a secondary heater to help the minisplit to keep moving forward these next few months.

 

Nice repurpose! But I am kinda biased as I have a '57 Chevy pickup. Are you leaving the original tie downs on the tray or do you have some other upcoming surprise for us all?

 

I'm going to leave them. I think it looks kinda cool and the rare guy like you who has seen one first hand will know what it's from. I thought about using an original style tie down, too, but I'd like to use an AGM battery and I don't want to limit myself to one battery type.

 

Brent, you are out of control! Just kidding, I love the thought and attention to detail. Carry on brother.

 

Preparing Those #@%%ing Brackets:

I knew these brackets belonged to the coupe because they were in a bin with A parts and they were sandblasted but a while back I couldn't figure out where they went. @cornfed came through and pointed out where they belong. I had to chuckle when cleaning them up.

Here's where they go, just FYI.



Some blue overspray from way back can be seen.



And for no good reason, I smoothed the jacked edge where the stamping squished the steel together.





I've been shopping the local classifieds for a sandblast cabinet. That would've made short work of these.

Usually I wouldn't post something like this but progress is progress.

 

Looking good Brent, it's all about the details!

 

Brent, I've worked with a few different blasters over the years.
Aside from the compressor and vacuum (major supporting features) the big things are range of motion at working height and view area. You usually have only a 5-10 inch circle of comfortable working area and you end up staring in that same area. A small change in this makes a big difference. Make sure it fits you or can be changed to fit. Hunched over or craning to see sucks.

 

Moon Tank Brackets Gussets Welded and Glass Beaded and Trunk Mock-Up:

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Brian zapped the gussets and glass-beaded the brackets but not before he cleaned them up a little further than I did.



They look really sharp.





I had to mock the trunk up to see everything in place. On a long trip this is what it would look like. For normal day-to-day use, the gas can and tool box could be left in the shop and I'd have a little space for a bag or whatever.



I still have the side upholstery panels to fab, the rear taillight panel to get fitted correctly and the rumble lid converted to decklid.

All that stuff is coming up.

I picked up a used 240v electric salamander heater to help keep the shop warmer this winter. We won't talk about the hourly cost to operate it... we'll just focus on the shop being warm and progress being made... okay? Hahaha.

 

A Happy Thanksgiving to all HAMB members, to you Brent and your family as well!

 

Have a great Thanksgiving Brent and family.

 

So! What up?