Sorry, I cant trust you guys on this one as I usually do. You would have me chopping, chaneling, and installing a V-8. I allready tried that with the owner. Nope, he wants it restored. Can anyone recomend a good forum for stock Model A's?
Body or mechanical? There is a whole series of mechanical restoration materials out there, Fordbarn is a great location.
When i started screwing around with Model A,s 35 years ago i did,nt have a clue. Did,nt have a PC either. Bought one of those restore your A type of books and got the job done. So really it,s that easy. ****, model A,s are easy even without a book. Don,t get me wrong, i don,t doubt your skills. Trouble with a fanatical restorer is the 100% originality they want. No short cut,s allowed.
The whole enchalada. The guy has had it since he was 16 and now he is 68 and wants to p*** it on to his kid, all restored. Its 100% complete but in pieces. In these tough economical times, I'm glad to have the work. Thanks, I will check out the Fordbarn.
I am in agreement. This guy wants to drive it and give it to his son to drive it. He is very reasonable about the project and has left it up to me to decide how far to go. No way it will be a Pebble Beach Concord de elegonce car when it leaves my shop. Just a good running, clean, nice looking Model A.
As soon as his grandkids get ahold of it they'll want to chop it, drop it, and toss in a V8. Might as well do it now and do it right the first time.
I spent a lot of tome over at http://ahooga.com/ when I was restoring a 1929 Model A pick-up. A lot of good guy's over there.
My brother and I are heirs to a family Model A Tudor sedan. And yeah, you know what we want to do but we can't do it out of respect. When the time is right and our family member has p***ed on, if we still want to hot rod it we will. While this person is still with us it will not be made into hotrod. Who knows how we'll feel. Might just be cool to have a nice restoration and hotrod something less sentimental.
Yeah, thats what I think is going on with my customer (the Model A owner) his dad gave it to him when he was 16 for transportation to high school. Then while in Med school his dad had it restored and now he wants to p*** it on to his kids. The restoration that was done in the 60's was a quicky. It needed some steel work on the body but got bondo instead. I will be doing a much better job this time around. He see's how it didnt hold up and wants it done right this time. Maybe you could do this to it. Watch this video, you wont believe it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFSGSL3Nrmc
As mentioned, ahooga, http://www.ahooga.com/ Also, check Shelly's (at Fordbarn) "links" page, these are some of the "heavy weights" http://www.geocities.com/jim_mason_49913/ http://www.abarnyard.com/ http://idisk.mac.com/forever4/Public/index.htm#***orted Nice story about the guy's car. . . Sounds like and excellent opp to practice some restraint? Good luck on the project.
Snyders carries parts for Model A and T's. They also have some very knowledgable people working for them. They also have some good books on maintaining and restoring Model A's.
I just restored a 29 model a sport coupe for a customer... I bought a couple of books and they showed just about everything....made it a lot easier than getting on the computer every time I had a question.. You should at least talk him into hydraulic brakes.Plan ahead when you need to order stock parts..some of the parts I needed took 6 months to get.. Jason.
http://forums.aaca.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm Cl***ic Auto site, restorations are the big thing there...they don't do hot rods. A lot of great people with a lot of information. Someone here can help youj.