From This to This in 13 Months

The man that built this car absolutely knows what time it is. Read his blog. The car is more "traditional" than a lot of the "traditional" stuff you see.

BTW, about the paint frenzy, we called it black primer, or sometimes gray primer, because that's what it was. On a hot rod, you'd spend your time and money getting the mechanicals right and then patch up the body, blow on some primer to make it look sort of uniform and run the car. Shiney paint was way down on the list.

If memory serves, didn't a primered roadster take the show at Oakland one year?

 

Ryan, I want to appologize if I said anything I wasn't supposed to. I get a little twisted when something like this happens because something similar happened to me a few years ago at a 'gold chainer' car show. And it was a spectator (that didn't even own a ride himself) that slammed my ride. There really isn't any room in this hobby for haters, we're ALL here and involved to have fun...dammit!

 

Damn there's a lot of douchebags here, just like in the real world (LOL). That's a sweeeeet model A!

 

Thanks again for the positive feedback on “Bobbie,” the ‘29 coupe. The car came out of Wake County, and was a “restoration” by a farmer, (named Bob,) up there. Essentially what he did was rescue a car from under a lean to, which had been there since the early 50’s. The first picture is how he found it. It needed every patch panel when he got it. I was impressed that he had done some decent patch work, although my experience is that nobody would have really restored the car, as it needs completely new subrails to be “right.” For my purposes, though, it was perfect. And while he did a decent job of welding, the green paint was pretty nasty, to say nothing of an ugly shade, IMO.

I sold the complete (running,) chassis out from under the car, and ended up with a fairly solid, relatively complete collection of body and sheet metal. A couple of friends and myself boxed up another A chassis and fabbed in the mounts for motor, trans, rear, etc. A lot of this is covered on my blog.

The interior was basically toasted, except the guy had put in a vague attempt at a headliner, which I thought lent character to the car. It’s in there. The rest of the interior came from a guy on the Fordbarn who wanted to put in a new interior into his totally restored (MAFCA standards,) Business Coupe. I got the whole thing for $40! I found some ‘28-’29 seats, and me and my girl put the used covers on. Instant interior. And although it does have some frayed edges, it is really in pretty nice condition.

The steering wheel and column is from a ‘48 F-1 pickup. One of my ideas was to use the column shifter to the 3 speed Sagy, but it didn’t work out. (Very long story!) I ended up with a King Shifter, (search the classifieds,) which is a very nice piece, right from the day. The column hooks to a ‘40 passenger steering box. (To my eye, one of the main differences ‘tween a “street rod,” and a hot rod is the size and placement of the steering wheel. Look in the little books. The steering wheels were huge, and they stuck right up in the driver’s face.) The stock dash panel with the original speedo, (64,000 miles,) uses the original gas gauge, and a temp and modern amp gauge which we added. The rest of the controls are on a panel at the front of the seat riser.

The Jersey Suede had an original set of Ansen swinging pedals hanging on his wall for eons, and I whined long enough about needing it that he finally made me a deal . The air cleaner is an original “Badger” from Billy Belmont, and the date is 1961. Most of the other stuff is standard hot rod fare, and, as mentioned in my blog there are some “concessions,” like the P&J ladder bars, the Snow White water pump riser, Corvette M/C, etc. I like what JustPlainBill says over on the monthly banger thread about our obsessions with “period correctness.” I agree that period correctness is fine, but sometimes safety, availability, or just plain better design is totally acceptable.

Thanks again for your input, comments, and support.

 

Great job. It's your car, you built it your way, now go and enjoy it.

 

nice job on it. dig the car man.

 

Hell of a job! I wouldn't change a thing.

 

Hey Gillette nice job!

P.S. I'm still running that 16" wire wheel I got from you

Tom

 

Just about any model A looks good, I liked reading your Blog and your posts on here. Good job! Thanks!

 

Looks great. the first and second cars I had didnt even have flat [primer] on the whole car because I couldnt afford to prime the the damn thing except for spots that I had worked on. The 265 is another neat thing. I found the car I have now [33 ford 5 window] when I was working in a junk yard back in the fifties. I still have the car with paint on it because I could afford it now. Keep up the good work.

 

Thats a lovely little coupe, built just how you wanted it, can't say fairer than that. You will never please everyone and shouldn't even try, if you had a vision off what the coupe should have looked like and its turned out that way then the job is a good one. Enjoy the spoils off your work, youv'e earned it
It helps that you are lucky enough to have been around rods/customs for 45 years or so to gain the insight into how something should look to be traditional.

I have a 56 4 door here that has a knocking 265 in it, I have got a run off the mill 350/400 box to replace into the chevy and I'm planning on running the 265 in a rod once its freshened up. They are quite a lively little engine for their size , especially when they are taken from a door chevy and put into a roadster .

Paul.

 

Thanks, NeilinCA, that blog has really got my brain moving.
Idig the car, just like it was built. Good Job!

 

my old AV8 painted with a brush... to me & my brother in law, it looked like a million bucks.

 

...now that is a cool truck!

 

Man, who let all those grouchy people onto your thread? The car looks great!