It's official - I finally got a coupe that will fit my lanky a$$

Anyone who has read anything by me in the last 6 months knows I've been aching for a Model A coupe hard core. I've been trying to ignore the sage advice of experienced A drivers who tell me there is no way I could possibly fit comfortably into such a tiny car. And looking around, it didn't appear I could afford the most claptrap tissue-thin body I could find, either.

Well, I think I solved my dilemma. Yesterday, a friend and I drove down to southern Maine and pulled an incredibly solid 28 Essex body and frame out of a very nice widow's garage for a very reasonable price.

It's missing the drivetrain, hood, fenders and axles, but considering I wasn't planning on running most of that anyway, I'm doing all right. The Essex had the parallel leafs up front which I'm not too fond of for the look, so a Model A spring and axle will make it to the front and the search is on for a rear end.

The only piece of sheet metal I really want, but don't have, is the rumble seat deck lid. I could make one I s'pose, but I thought I'd fish the HAMB waters first in case someone knows where one is kicking around at.

Last Spring I pulled a stuck 308 out of 51 Hudson Hornet, fully intending to put it into a vintage stock car, but the Hudson Super-Six would look mighty fine in an Essex, I must say.

The car is roomy, in many ways larger than the Model A, and I've got a few ideas about using several Model A implements on this car that some might find neat, others sacrilegious. When you get down to brass tacks though, nearly every single part for those early Fords is reproduced ... not so much with the Essex.
Anyhow, here are a couple pics of the car loaded onto the trailer on the way home. THe doors and roof were literally just sitting on the car in mockup, so I took them off and tied them down for the long road home.
Wish me luck, once this is in the garage and up on jack stands, I'll put the doors and roof back on and take a few mock-up shots myself.






p.s. My buddy brought along these old axles, one was welded solid and the other had the drag link still attached - they made moving a car with no wheels or axles a dream- jack it up, cinch it down, and go. Kind of makes it look like a whole car, huh? Thanks, Ron.

p.p.s. Yes, that albino sasquatch lookin thing behind the car is me.

Oh yeah, and Hodad, if you're reading this, thank you again for your offer of assistance. Luckily I was able to find a buddy with some spare time and it was pretty easy when it was all said and done.

 

very cool. i do think that will work for ya. what A stuff are you thinking? visor? and i run the wide fives and the six maybe a lil vintage dirt car flair

 

Well, the front axle for sure ... I actually found an Essex visor in the woods a couple weeks ago ... go figure. The wide fives would be pretty neat ... I got a lot to think about.

I have a couple more ideas that are a bit more extreme as far as utilizing A parts, but I wanted to get out the tape measure and do a little photochopping before I air it all out there for advice and criticisms. I want to make sure it would work first and provide visuals of my proposed ideas first.

 

That looks like a great start. Nice looking sheet metal from what the pics show. I wish you well with it. I'm 6'3" and drive a T Bucket, but it's what I've always wanted, so I made it work. Us tall guys are cursed, until someone needs something from the top shelf!

 

That should make a great looking rod. And I absolutely love the idea of the 308 in it!

 

Welcome to the club! Glad to see you finally bit the bullet and bought the car.

 

and besides all that...how many dudes have an essex fer christ sakes??
for my 4 cents worth, i'd leave the tall windshield as it is. everyone has a chopped one and the tall would be as different as the whole essex thing anyways.
have fun with it and keep posting pics on the progress. don't make it look like everyone's model A.

later dudes
chuck

 

cool man ya got it. like Boyd said welcome to the club.

 

congrats man ..

 

cool shit, glad to see ya found somethin

 

Congratulations on your score and welcome to the Essex scene. You've tried the other brand x stuff and now you've got the best.I've got some '28 2dr. sedan door pieces if you want them,free,just pay the shipping.I'll get piccys if you want a look.

 

The 28 Essex coupe body is quite a bit larger than a model A that's for sure. I had one once, channeled it over a 34 Ford chassis to get the transverse front and rear ends under it. It was wide enough to fit over the 34 Ford rails with no problems, so you might want to look into this sort of chassis swap for yours.

Wish I still had mine, sold it in 1968.

Cheers, Glen.

 

Cool car, don't be afraid to interchange ford stuff that's available. To some extent carmakers back then were like bike builders today, using catalog hardware and small parts. I could swear in the late 20s every door hinge in the world was made in the same factory. good luck

 

There's a guy over on Ol' Skool Rodz name of Hudsonator who's got a couple of Hudsons going.
Smart guy, done some interesting stuff.
Take a look here: http://forum.olskoolrodz.com/forumdisplay.php?f=24


Congrats on the Essex.
I'll wait to see it mocked up before I comment on a chop.

A lot of the old cars other than Ford have quite a bit more room in them.
This 25 Dodge is a good example, but kinda hard to tell without something to give it scale.
Next time I'm up there, I'll park the 32 alongside and shoot some pics . . . if the driver will let me.




I understand that building a T-bucket style car from these bigger Dodges was a popular thing for the Australian hot rodders.

 

What you may run into is the car needing cut down in one or two spots to achieve hot rod proportions, like shortening the doors. Trying to figure out how much can be extremely difficult. With my huge hot rod we took profile pictures in front of a concrete block wall (conicidence). Once the photo shopping started, realized the car was already laid out on an 8X16 grid because of the wall in the background! Tremendously useful reference points. good luck

 

geez man

you live in N.E.

buy the book "cool cars square roll bars" by bernie and arnie shuman

do your north east predessors proud, channel the car, dont chop nuthin

and add to the history of your area man....

the book is a great lesson in hot rodding in new england

and has soooo many great cars, it drives me nuts sometimes

the banisters and the sharigans will guide you man

 

Thanks everybody. I need to get this mocked up and measured and let the photochopping begin. I'm in a rare boat as I've finally got a "canvas" that's big enough for me, and while I'm all about making modifications to give it the right look and stance and proportion, I need to do this with drivability being just as important. There's just so much one can chop, shorten and channel even a larger coupe when you're almost seven feet tall.

 

Gigantor,
Congrudaulations on your purchase. Patients does pay off sometimes. Enjoy your build and keep us posted.
Gasser Girl

 

Hey..
Great find! Listen there are a couple of chaps ariound Bangor that run Essex coupes, one is a street/strip car that is at Winterport dragway a lot. Might have trunklid if you could track'um down. Don't know names sorry
You going to Downeast Rod Run in August at Hebron Pines? I'll be there for a few days camp'n///Stop in for a cold one & lobster stew...
Pontiac Slim

 

There is an Essex sedan about that year here locally, a duece grill and shell looks like it was OE on that thing.

 

Nice find!

 

Thanks Dave - I'm pretty dang happy with it and getting A LOT of crazy ideas in my head. Once I get it sitting pretty on jack stands in the garage, I might sit out there with a sketch pad for a few hours and doodle.

 

Very good metal there Friend, nice find. Good luck to you, and keep me posted please. Perley

 

Why not make your own decklid?

BrianAngus who drops in here now and then had a tech article on building one.
Posted here on the HAMB and also on Club Hot Rod.

http://www.clubhotrod.com/

 

i have some pics you might like, a guy sent them to me for refference as i had considered a 308 for my essex. i forget if it was a hamb'er or a memebr from the classicar forum, you might be able to find some parts there, or the essex super 6 yahoo group.

 

Can't go wrong with a car that has sex right in the name -

 

lucky man nice find

 

Yes, quite a few T buckets were built out of these early Dodge cowls diown here in the 'early days' prior to being able to buy decent glass T bucket bodies. Reason was like many Aussie 'off brand' builds, gennie T buckets were pretty much unobtainable.

Cheers, Glen.

 

Noooo!

 

Ya for lanky ass fitting coupes... kinda reminded me of the bud commercials...This buds for you lanky ass fitting coupe guy!!!