On the customer Model A I'm working on now, I just did like 75% of that. Rear subrails made from 2x2 angle. Lower quarters, rear corners, inner wheelhouse, rear channel, rear under decklid, lower doors, and lower cowl. Not to mention new trunk rain gutters. It actually wasn't that bad. Keep chugging at the pace your at and it will fly. Lookin good.
Jack, Just checked your "A" out. The body looks way more damaged than mine. You give me hope that mine may survive ! 41 Dave
Thanks, Bill!! About how long did it all take you? Are you at it "full time" or is it an off hours deal? Just curious... The only thing holding me back at this point is the fact that all the parts vendors are out of state, so time is the enemy. I'm just waiting for stuff to show up. I guess in the meantime I can clean stuff up and keep cleaning the body. Maybe I'll try to get rid of the styrofoam "sound deadener" that's stuck all over the place in there...
Definitely an off hours deal. But not counting the tear down, it took me and my co-worker/*****/left hand man DropnDrive about 3 wknds to have it all in metal. I start primer and filler tomorrowish. I was waiting for parts most of the time too. The small sections I got from 09-40 on ebay. Lower cowl, quarters, corners, and the panel under decklid. They were OK I guess. We split the corners apart because the bodylines looked like they may have been from a 2000 Altima. The subrails I mentioned we made from 2x2 angle. The rear channel/roll pan and trunk rain gutters we got from Brookville and they were nice. Like real nice. Look at my myspace for some pics if you'd like.
Dave, if I'm here for no other reason, it's to give people hope. Oh yeah, these are for you: Circa '99: A few weeks ago: And one of the fenders I fixed: Hammer, dolly, *******, oxyacetylene torch, shrinking disc, DA.
I just ordered my corners from Howell's today (they are 09-40 on eBay). I've heard that their panels fit better than most. I got my rear sub from Mike's A-Ford-able Parts, mostly because my experience with model A's is really limited, and this one is wasted. (I've helped some friends with some minor stuff here and there, but mostly mechanical.) What's your MySpace address?
Dave, if I'm here for no other reason, it's to give people hope. Its working on me ( my hope level is going up). Please keep posting. Bob
myspace.com/moonlitekustoms or click the link in my tag and youll find it there too. There's no before pictures but you can definitely get some hope. Just imagine the patches not being in. Those arent super current, more like 2 wknds ago when we first tacked everything in.
Hey Bob, I'm glad to help in some small way!! Bill, good work there!! Waiting on parts is the real drag. I might have to hit some swap meets soon...
Thanks, my best advice is to get at least these two catalogs, Sacramento Vintage Ford and Brookville Roadster. Keep them with you while your working. Everytime you come across somehting beyond recognition, like your p*** quarter, check the catalog to see if they have it. See which way is cheaper/easier. If it will take you 4 hours to make a patch/new panel, pay yourself say $30 or $40 an hour so thats $160. If the piece is cheaper than 160, buy it and save the time aggrivation and money. This was my first Model A and I had no idea about half the **** they make for em. We spent more time making/repairing small items that they repop. Better to be in the know.
Yeah, copy that!!! Had I known that there were a bunch of sheetmetal parts available when I bought it, I might have started it sooner... When I was younger, I thought guys were wasting money buying parts that I knew I could easily make or fabricate. However, as I get older, I realize that more often than not, buying some things (hell A LOT of things) is actually saved money and time in the long run. There's no shame in it.
So this morning I went and got my O/A cylinders refilled. After that my girlfriend and I went and saw the Simpsons Movie (really funny, by the way). Anyway, when we got home, I started smoothing the quarters on my '31, and after a while, I got kinda bored, and since the subrails are gone, it's that much more difficult because I have to use a knee to steady the body while I hold a dolly on the inside and hammer the outside. I decided to take it easy on myself, and try to re-flow some of the brazing that's holding the funky firewall in place. Seemed to work pretty good!! After more than a few mini-bondo-residue fires, I called if quits for the afternoon. Here are some pix: In the first pic you can see the nail puller successfully separating the weird firewall from the stock lip. I'm not too concerned about warping the lip because of the bead rolled into it. The "custom" firewall isn't faring as well (Note the cracks from the heat in the firewall, and the scorch marks from the leftover flux and bondo residue catching fire.) I'm going to continue tomorrow and try to get the worst of it out/off/burned away. I'm not trying to pull the firewall completely at this point because aside from the cowl and the roof, it's really the only thing holding one side of the body to the other. Hey, I just got my Alliance tag!! Thanks, Ryan!!!
Continuing with un-brazing the firewall yesterday, I managed to get the cowl out, and then I got that race car dash out. There is some bracing between the cowls, so I'm planning on getting the firewall out entirely. Pix to follow. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and just order my subrails today. The sooner I get them, the sooner I can figure out where everything is supposed to go, and how it's going to get there. I was looking at the chop yesterday, and I think I'm going to wind up taking another 1/2"-3/4" out of it. Seems easier than trying to fix the cracks in the pillars, posts and doors. This will probably be done dead last though. One thing that has me worried is that fact that I have no paper on this car. I could get a bill of sale from the guy that I bought it from, no problem there, but this is all of the car that I have. And after reading a bunch of horror stories about registration here, I'm guessing that I'll need a frame and engine block in order to register it as a '31. Yes, I have been losing more than a little sleep over it...
As promised, pix of the cowl off: And the cowl removed: After I get bored with burning brazed joints apart today, I think I'll see about adding that vent permanently to the cowl.
You need to do it in a monster garage dis***embly style... throw all the junk in a big pile. Looking good. Of ya I have pics for you... but my camera is still at the garage.
That's pretty much how it's going so far!! At least that's how my welding table looks: it's a big pile of clamps and cowl and gloves and... Cool!! Send me a PM, and I'll give you my email address. I have a few tacks in the cowl, but came inside for a little break. It's hot in the garage, with my helmet, gloves and sleeves on.
Sent. I hear that. Some salesperson cat came in and asked if we had Verizon FiOS in the garage or if we wanted to purchase it. Man, we don't even have a/c or heat and you wanna kno about cable, internet and phone.
What's funny about the Verizon salesman is that when I bought this place and had the cable installed, I told the installer that I needed cable in the garage, too. (The TV is almost always on around here.) Anyway, the guy asked if I was serious, and I just pointed to all the cars and parts and stuff. He got to work after that.
Well, I was tacking the cowl vent housing/shell into the cowl yesterday afternoon, and my friggin' helmet quit. So I can't continue that until after the new one gets here in four or five days. Bummer. I think I'll continue burning out the the braze. Oh boy.
Firewall's out: Still a lot of cleanup to do there, but it's out. The lip of the original firewall is visible; it's still spotwelded to the cowls. The plan now is to get the subrails and crossrails in place, and then replace the firewall. Then I can start replacing rotten sheetmetal with available reproductions, and fabricate whatever else is missing and unavailable. Here's a shot of the cowl vent shell getting tacked into the cowl (I was attempting to burn that brazing off the backside of the shell so that I could straighten out the sheet for a better fit, but that's when my helmet quit, and was the recipient of my rage): I guess I'll continue with cleaning and such while I wait for parts to arrive...
Roof's out: Looks like I'll have to get one of those filler panels, and a new header panel, and a new visor, and and and...
Forgot to brag a little: the FedEx guy showed up shortly after I posted these roof pix. He dropped off the unsplit wishbone I scored off eBay for $11.
Thats got nothing to do with the body, get back on it! I'm laying filler this wknd, catch me catch me. Haha.
D'oh!! Busted!! Hey, I said brag a little!!! It'll be a while until I get that far. I started pulling out what's left of the wood, and realized that I'll probably have to replace the roof wood so that I can get the shape of the roof back, even though I plan to weld in a filler piece. Plus, when the sunroof was put in, yeah, they lapped it, but they also cut out a 3" section across the back of the roof, above the rear window. It wasn't noticeable with that sunroof (and all the bondo) in place. Anyway, I'm either going to have to talk whoever I buy the filler panel from (Howell's? Walden?) to leave it a little long, or I'm going to have to make a filler strip to fill that 3" gap at the back of the roof. Either way, I'm going to replace the wood to pull the top back into shape. I guess I'll sell the top kit when I'm done with it. But, first things first: still waiting on that rear sub. Should be here Friday. No idea when the corners will get here, but they were shipped on Monday.
I'll allow it, haha. I doubt Howell's will be able to work with you on that. It seems like he m*** produces a bunch in a row and sells them off then produces more and sells them. I base this on waiting over 3 weeks for him to even ship my batch of ****.
Thanks!!! That ****s about Howell's. I wish i had access to an English wheel. For that matter, I wish I'd finished the one that I started a little while ago. Hmmph. Well, maybe what I'll do when I get closer is just buy the anvils, upper, yokes, and so on, and then buy the tube to build a frame for it. It's not like it won't get used again. It just seems like it'll be a lot easier to make the whole panel than to make a 3"x48" strip that matches the crown of the top. Know what I mean?
The Jalopy Journal
