Winter Project .... '30 Model A Sedan

Well, I was going to wait until the Lonestar Roundup to do some shameless self promotion but the Baileigh challenge got my interest. I am running my business full time now and like most new businesses I have many tools to purchase. Also being a new business I have lots of expenses so anything that could be gotten for free would help out greatly.

Here goes:

I started this project off at metal shaping school this October in Rapid City, South Dakota called the Hot Rod Institute. I took this 1930 Model A sedan with me as my project to make something out of and learn all at the same time. The sedan had come from Andy and Son's outside of Chicago and belonged to a guy named Bill. The A was in decent exterior shape but had no floor or any interior support so it moved around like a cheap beer can. I will do my best to explain what was done, hopefully most of the pics will speak for themselves, and to answer any questions. Also, thank you to companies like Baileigh for supporting the "little guys".

The sedans rear wheels were not centered in the wheel wells and since the car had a Buick 425 nailhead in it the firewall was already touching the motor. Needless to say from the side profile the wheel well/wheel combo looked wrong and needed the wheels centered in each others profile. I decided to move the body forward, instead of moving the rear axle rearward, so I drilled out the spot welds on the firewall and prepared it to be reversed. I filled all of the holes in the firewall and set it back in the sedan to get an idea of what it looked like. I did not like the way the beads were facing the interior of the car, or the way the distributor clearance was now pushed out, so I decided to cut out the center and dual reverse the firewall. This way I got plenty of room for the 425 but the beads and distributor clearance were still facing the proper way.









Next, I wanted to move the gas tank from the cowl to one that I will fabricate in the rear of the sedan. Since this tank was in excellent shape I was thinking that instead of cutting it up someone that needed a good tank would want it. Well, people wanted it but no one would offer enough money to supplement the purchase of a new cowl from Brookville. So, off to the plasma cutter I went and then made a piece to fit the tank hole in the top of the cowl.





Well after solving a few of the exterior problems I knew that I would need a good floor and support structure to support the body. The car came on deuce rails and I did not like what was left of the original floor so I cut out what was left and decided to fabricate a new floor. I got 3/4" cold rolled tubing and welded two pieces together on the very ends on the inside seam only. This way when I bent the tubing to the shape of the rails they could flex easier and could be welded together later. This is the structure that I built after the two side rails where formed.

 

Next it was time to start putting a floor in the car seeing as it now had a support structure. I initially had contacted Tim Conder, one of my favorite artist, to do a rendering for this project but funds got tight and the time slipped away from me. I had many ideas on what I wanted the sedan to look like but I really wanted to do a more traditional car. Looking in old hot rod magazines like the "little books" I knew that people used to upholster their wheel wells and other outside areas of their cars. I wanted that upholstered look but did not want to deal with sacrificing driveability or having to clean filthy upholstery. I have been kidded by friends as to having robbed the panels off of a taco truck but I assure you I painstakingly rolled these from flat 16 gauge cold rolled sheets and did my best to make them look like diamond tuck interior from the bottom of the vehicle. Yeah, I know, who is going to see the bottom of the car, well me, and that is the look I wanted.









I new that I needed a transmission tunnel for the floor to cover the turbo 400 and I wanted it to almost be one piece, or look like it, so I started looking at the tools around the school. I had never used the power hammer before, and figured that this would be the best thing to use, so I fired it up and started going to town. I had hand hammered a gas tank before so I had a good idea how the power hammer worked and with the help of the shrinking die on the pullmax this is what I came up. There is a upper tunnel and a lower piece, I TIG welded them together, but I got the look that I wanted.











After getting the trans tunnel made I centered the wheels in the wheel wells and welded the new floor to the old body. I had to make extensions to the lower A and B pillars but everything came together well and I welded the original rear section of the body to the cross section of the new floor. I made an upper frame work for the kick panel, after looking at my own rendering, I bead rolled out the panel from 16 gauge. I also put Dzus fasteners in the kick panel for "serviceabiltiy" to reach any electronics or wiring that will be behind it. There will also be an aluminum floor, that matches the kick panel, that goes on top on the other floor with deadening material sandwiched between; also fastened with Dzus buttons. I believe that this will help with noise and heat, the car resides in Texas, and also hide any wiring to the rear.

 

After the floor was well on it's way it was time to fabricate the new dash. As most will know when I reversed the firewall I removed the gas tank/ og dash as there was no room for it. I also wanted to use a different gauge cluster that will be revealed a little lower in the post. I wanted the dash to look somewhat stock so off to the bead roller I went. I was really spoiled by having access to Lazze's bead roller. Lazze has so many dies and his bead roller has the ability to dial down the speed to help with following your laid out pattern slowly in the corners. This roller also has a motor that will out power most 4 cylinder engines and does not bog down even on hard to roll panels.





Now was the moment I had been waiting for throughout this build, the crowning piece of the dash, a Chrysler Imperial gauge cluster. I got the cluster in trade from a friend and thought that it would match perfectly with the "diamond tuck" floor panels and be period correct??? So off to all of the machines that I had access too in school to make a lower piece to the cluster. The cluster was originally in front of the driver but I wanted to mount it in the center of the dash and make a custom lower piece. I also will put a tachometer in the snout of the cluster to facilitate in hiding the hole where the steering column used to come through... anyone have a cool vintage sweeping tach? And eventually I will make, or find, a piece of trim to separate the upper cluster from the lower fabricated piece. I decided to use the stock chrome upper trim to go over the cluster.







Plenty of room behind the dash and I also made it removable.

 

This is the last of what progress I have made on the sedan so far. With 3 full days left off at school before getting to come home, it was negative 22 degrees at this time and I am from Austin Texas, I started chopping the top. I decided that I wanted to take 3" out of the top and only 1.5" out of the rear window. So I laid out the masking tape and stated looking for the best way to chop the top that would provide the best look. I also did not want to make any relief cuts in the corners of the sedan to facilitate in metal finishing the car and keeping hardly any filler from finding its way on to the body. This car is going to be a business card for me and I wanted to keep the metal work as straight as possible, I also wanted to finish the metal to the best of my ability. While I had the tops of the doors removed, with hinges, I took the liberty to line up the doors and bodylines as well as they were manufactured. This as most of you might know is not as easy as it sounds due to the doors not having the exact same lines as the body, but I did what I could without cutting the doors apart. The chop went easily and I believe that it came out well as this was my first, and I did it alone with only help to lift the top off and on.









Sorry that I did not take any in between photos but I was in a hurry to finish the car before school was over.







I wanted to say thank you to the Hamb for having a message board with so much useful information and also to Doug Larue and Lazze for the metal working skills they taught me. My business is Pipeworx and can be found at www.pipeworx.com If you are ever in or around the Austin area feel free to come by for a visit or stop by for emergency repairs during the Lonestar Roundup. Thank you for your time. Matt Quinn

 

Are you going to run fenders? Hood? The floor framework looks neat and orderly. What's next? Is that a 3" drop on front axle?

Keep us posted.

 

Looks real good so far, I like what you have done. I have the same situation myself. I have a 29 Tudor Sedan body that was seperated from the sub-frame, its like a bowl of jelly. I have been working on patch panel work while I try to figure out exactly what I want to do to make the body more rigid and figure out how I want to mate it to a frame. Are you going to build some sort of tube frame inside the body to help sturdy it up?

 

I am still laughing at the "Taco Truck" panel comments......... Sounds like a name for the rod to me...... that one ought to confuse some people......

 

badass!!! nice work man

 

Very cool hot rod. I cant wait to see it on the road.
chuck

 

I'm surprised here are only few replies on this topic?
Nice sheetmetal fabrication! Keep us posted!
What kind of fuel system will your nailhead get? Was there something about transmission or did I just skip it..?

 

Wow!!!!!

 

Great work, really dig the floor!

 

nice work

 

Fantastic work, it is so encouraging to see stuff done so right... NICE job. and I love the gauge cluster!

 

That is some nice work.

 

Beautiful fabrication and metal work! The floor panels remind me of that stainless Diner kitchen wall covering. Nice project. You should do well in business with your skills.

 

Sweet! Damn you do some fine work!

 

I wish I had half the tools and just 25% of the talant these guys do. Great job on the sheet metal.....Kudos to ya'll

 

Tell those guys they can shove it! The floor looks great!

I like model A's
I like Nailheads

I approve of this build!

 

Nice work, cool project......

 

WOW! That is some sexy work man! You HAVE to keep us posted on this!

 

OH! What are those tires??

 

ok, I'm jealous.....

 

WOW!!!!!

Just



WoW!!!!!!

 

Looking good!



Marcy

 

holy crap, that floor rules. great job on the firewall too, that has always been the downfall of reversing them for me, the beads just look off when they are turned in. amazing build.

 

Great work thus far. I really like the floor and dash treatment.

 

I like this project!

 

Man that thing is "Tits"!!!

 

Honestly, I am not a big fan of sedans, just not my thing typically, but this is damn nice looking project and class project at that. Nice work for a learner, that's for damn sure. Either you are one hell of a good student, they are damn good teachers or both. Regardless, that is some good looking work.