A few years ago I picket up some parts here and there at swap meets, eventually got "lucky" and got a rusted out basket case 28 Ford Tudor, body panels only. Bullet holes, rotting bottoms AND rotting roof line (probably stored upside down at one point). Someone many years ago cut the a pillars off (missing). The panels above the doors were missing. Doors are fairly good minus rot at the bottom where water filled the frame. No subrails except two fragments on each side. Rear panels besides window area is paper thin. Well, heres what I am working with... 20180505_160852 by coreythompsonhm, on Flickr 20180505_160943 by coreythompsonhm, on Flickr 20180505_160932 by coreythompsonhm, on Flickr 20180505_163134 by coreythompsonhm, on Flickr 20180505_163342 by coreythompsonhm, on Flickr 28/29 Model A by coreythompsonhm, on Flickr Somebody was using tubing and angle at one point to make subrails. It is on both cowl posts. 20180505_163104 by coreythompsonhm, on Flickr 20180505_163114 by coreythompsonhm, on Flickr I have a long road ahead of me. First step in repairs is fabricating the missing A pillars using the windshield frame as a guide, then the over the windshield header panel.
Oh yes... the cowl panels... Back when I got this body several friends were involved in the RR craze. Right away I started making some patch panels and decided to follow suit, was going to go with an aviation RR theme, did a line of rivets to attach the panel on (thankfully only) one cowl panel, then went into a "I have zero free time" portion of life. Now I have a lot of holes to fill and smooth. But thankfully changed my mind and will be doing full paint with traditional inspirations with the overall build. 20180519_165137 by coreythompsonhm, on Flickr
You must have gone from " I have zero time" to "all I have is time". Those are about the worst Model A panels a guy could start with. If you were anywhere in the Midwest my little brother could set you up with LOTS better panels for a good price. PM Corn Fed if you want to buy Model A stuff.
That is correct, though that will be changing back to working 40 hour weeks. But, guaranteed weekends and off at 1 pm is going to be nice during the summer, enough time AND money to work on it. I agree, these panels are pretty bad, but with the exception of the rear panel everything is pretty solid, except where its not. The only spot that is intimidating me is the tops of the A pillars as I have not seen up close how it all goes together. I am searching the web for pics up close of the corner as we speak. Just dunked the subrail fragment from the p***enger cowl panel that got trimmed off into evapo rust. Will be looking into other chellation solution recipes. Will see what condition the subrail is in tomorrow. If its clean and ready, I will get it installed into the p***enger side tomorrow. Im out in the northwest. I view this as a major challenge for myself so while yes, I could spend a few grand and get realllly nice panels, I want to bring this back from the s**** bin. I got the panels for 150 bucks so paying in elbow grease. But it will be one more henry back on the road.
No pics today. I spent this weekend with paper making some patterns for the roof sections of the two side panels. I am unsure of the A pillars, going to look into getting to a car show soon so I can take a peek. Got the I beam straightened out (had about a 7/8" gap at approximately center when held to a straightedge). Now its about 1/16" at the largest gap, good enough for me. Drove it down to a friends shop and magnufluxed it. Good to go, no cracks. Split the bones (need to weld in threaded bungs for rod ends). Today cleaned up the I beam and bones with a wire wheel. I have to decide if I want to get the axle dropped. I need to drill the bones for spring behind perches. A friend had bought the perches from speedway and decided to go spring above, stock location of the axle. Heard I was doing suicide front suspension and gave me the spring perches. I need to get wheels, tires, front spring, and a rear axle so I can start figuring out my z's.
If you are going to hang all the weight of the front of the car on those perches, make sure they are forged, not cast.
Well, a slight update on progress. I moved three times since these posts (read car ****tered all over in various locations). Now I’m at a house with a nice garage so it’s back in all one location. In the meantime, been scrounging parts and got some good finds. Picked up a stash of Flathead parts a couple months ago that came with a couple 8BA cores. Lots of front end parts and a lot of reading along the way. I am happy I have not barreled headlong into this project because I feel I would have screwed things up. Big part of the decisions have been to go with a Flathead and a banjo rear. I will be taking this car to bonneville at some point so I will be building with a rule book in hand. Scrounging up coupe parts have also started, focusing on building a sound frame and suspension first. Most importantly, got my four cam cores back from Pete today. Beautiful work.
Got my front suspension temporarily ***embled today. No pics today, will grab some next time I’m out in the garage.
I am absolutely horrendous at remembering to take pictures and update here. Not much has happened due to working overtime. However, here’s what’s been going on. Pics to follow. Got my radiator and cowl mounted. Starting to work on getting the body together. I picked up a different set of complete cowl posts from a member on the hamb. I picked up new sub rail parts as well from mikes a fordable, so I’m not having to do guesswork on what should be there. Firewall, lower cowl panels, gas tank, and cowl posts are in the process of getting put together. It’s been a hell of a time getting the new cowl panels tweaked and fitting, then drilled. Once that’s all completed, I need to patch in one hinge section into the p***enger side cowl post and get some hing posts attached. Subrails need to be laid out, drilled and mounted. I will be mounting at least the drivers side rear quarter. That way I can place a rear wheel there and work on moving the ride height around so I can find what I like. Then I can work on my ch***is to get it welded up in the back (got a replacement rear crossmember as mine had cracks and the U bolts were welded in). For projects that I really like doing (I am happier working on mechanical projects than body work) I am currently rebuilding three stromberg 97’s. Got some more parts on the way for them as the pwervalves were corroded and throttle shafts were worn. Got a new intake manifold, Navarro 3x2. Pistons arrived and need to find a shop to do the machine work on the block and balance the rotating ***embly. Merc crank and 3 5/16” bore. I lucked out, I pressure checked my block and NO cracks. We’ll see what happens when it gets shot blasted and inspected. I will get some pics later tonight.
please excuse the mess, we are storing my late brother in law’s car on the other side of the garage for the foreseeable future. I may need to build a shed to store my Flathead parts and blocks so I can get more room to work.
Also! I discovered that I may have mounted my spindles upside down. Tires are cambered out, I am going to flip them over and see what happens. I also couldn’t get the kingpin retaining bolts into the axle. It’s a SoCal dropped ibeam and the king pins were a speedway kit. I’m going to need to mic the bolts and the holes and see how far off they are from each other.
Made some progress today. Laid out the subrails, got the rear subrail crossmember attached and then located and drilled the front mounting holes. Got it all squared up and cut my cross channels and just put them in place. also, the spindles are on correctly. Once I get everything in and full weight of the front end, I’m going to measure the camber again and see if it’s closer to correct. If not, I will be sending it out to hopefully get it corrected.
Not much to report today besides getting all the cross channels attached with 10-32 screws. Next step will be to detach the bolts at the mounts and buck rivets to replace the screws. Im doing all this before putting my new rear crossmember in so I can attach the rear quarter panels, tack on my spring hangers, then mount my wheels. Then I can play with ride height and locate the rear crossmember. I’m planning on converting the banjo rear to ford 9” axles. So lots of steps before the crossmember gets welded in.
I got my rear U bolts and pads to mount the rear spring today. While I was looking at Millwork Hot Rods, I saw their front spring u bolts and pad so I ordered one as well. I originally bought and used the Speedway kit, but it interferes with the crossmember even with adding the spacers. I had to shave down some of the pad to make it fit and I was never happy with it. The one I received from Millworks I am much happier with. Thicker, larger diameter U bolts, and didn’t need the spacers. I split my spring pack open today, removed the spacers, shortened the bolt, and got the spring pack back together. Everything bolted up like it should and I am very happy with the quality. It will come back apart at some point to be painted, but I am very happy compared to how it was before.
The Jalopy Journal
