Projects 60's Era Street/Strip Model A Coupe

Only a monster would do that!

Car parts are like picking up a cordless drill and pulling the trigger a couple times or tongs and giving them a couple test clacks... hahaha. First thing I did after pulling them out of the package was put them in place!

 

Metalwork Before and Afters:

The reality of an hour here and an hour there - progress is slow-moving, nit-picky stuff. On the bright side, it's cumulative and the detail pics will be nice to look back on someday. I'll be looking back thinking, "Oh man, I forgot what I learned from doing that thing I didn't know how to do..." hahaha. Anyway...

Last week, I ended with working out this:





Next is the driver's side quarter top that has an old repair. It looks like a washer was welded and then filled in, bolstering the strength of the low spot on the inside.



The spot behind it has been mostly worked out, too. Here's how the low spot looked before:



And after:





The passenger side quarter bullet hole repair is what took most of my time and effort. Here it is starting out:





As I was starting to figure out the issue:



And where I left off for the evening:

 

Snapped a pic of the mess of tools in my trunk in low light and ended up with an old Fotomat vibe. It reminded me of all the 4x6 project pics I had. They're long gone due to moves, "growing up", and foolishly thinking I'd remember it all...

 

As far as working out dents, patch panel seams and couple panels that need persuasion toward the correct contour... there's less than 20 areas after tonight. That's not counting the front fenders, which are original so they need a little love, but I'll take them off and work on them separately.

I'll lump most of that into one post to spare everyone, hahaha.

I just get so dang proud of what it looks like afterward. For a long time this stuff seemed like magic to me.

Anyway... here are a few before-and-afters of tonight's progress.

Above the pass side quarter window, before:



And after:




The passenger side roof back panel, before:



And after:



I remember this scrape happening when it was buried in storage.



And now:



99% of this could have been muddled over but I'm glad I ponied up for tools and learned. It's really rewarding. @Bluto (RIP) was right when he'd comment about learning to work metal to get the car as good as possible before filler.

What I didn't realize is that it's wonderfully therapeutic work.

 

I totally agree on the mental therapy of taking the small dents out. It is relaxing to see it come around in steps, and once you know what you are doing next it makes each one more enjoyable. Lots of mini before and afters shows you actually got something done.

 

I’d give you a hard time but the truth is after painting my last car black this is exactly
How I am. And I’ll paint it and find all the shit I still missed lol.

really love seeing you getting some steady progress made!

 

So much of modern life is lacking in the solid "I did something with my own knowledge and hands and now it's a solid, permanent improvement". That alone should give you pride.

 

Much respect for buying some hammers and teaching yourself how to do it

 

Thanks. I appreciate that.

These are, by far, my favorite tool drawers:



I started with the Harbor Freight kit and slowly added.

I've had some struggles, some of which have been documented here, that I couldn't solve by reading or watching vids. Thankfully, Matt Seret has helped quite a few times when I had questions on how to approach things. Same with Chris Davenport who really took out the mystery of the shrinking disc.

Currently, I am fighting with the passenger side cowl. Working out issues on odd shapes and/or larger panels is a challenge for me.

 

The coupe is looking amazing!

 

I haven't done much the last few weeks other than file down some welds on the seam where the fenders were narrowed. I attempted to continue the hammer and dolly work but my back, left shoulder, neck etc., are healing up from my truck getting rear-ended.

We were slowing down with traffic and the other driver hit us at twice our speed, at least. His car was totaled and under my truck. (Had to put it in 4wd to drive off of him and detatch us.)

I was hesitant to post about it since I like to keep this thread about the A and I figured I'd be back at it quickly.

I'm not taking anything for pain but I am getting treatment, which has been helping. I fixed our dryer last night and it took me 5x as long as it should have because my left side is all out of whack.



This is my spine. It's not supposed to look like that! Hahaha.

I'm going to jot a few simpler tasks down and try to knock them all out. At least then I'll be able to continue so sort of progress.

Anyway, that's the update. I hope you're all well!

 

Ouch. Take care of your spine. My spine looks like that also, but I've had scoliosis likely my whole life. What are they suggesting for recovery?

 

Ouch!
Do PT or yoga or whatever you need to get your body back to normal.

Oh yeah- I love this coupe & wanna see you drive it soon.

 

Sorry to hear about your spine Brent. I am more then familiar with pain almost every day because I am still working , auto technician at the age of 62. Take it easy buddy.

 

Looks like broken collar bone to me but not a doc. Get well soon

 

Take care of yourself but don’t just quit moving. Keep doing your therapy.

 

Definitely do your therapy I promise it will help also don’t stop doin what you normally do maybe ease up a bit but don’t stop I had a very bad accident back in January and I haven’t been able to walk due to hip surgery but doin the physical therapy has made a significant improvement on my recovery but the not being in the garage working like I usually do has been a bad deal because now that I have started getting back in the garage I have been suffering severely both mentally and physically but more physically than anything I will say for sure even though it will take longer to do things be patient and you will get better I’m a living example and am damn glad to be here Keep up the good work