The Family Hot Rod, or a Poor Man's Deuce Tudor

Thanks for the photos. That wood must be some hard stuff.

 

Will, I like the way you think, from the first post it's been SAFETY, FAMILY, CLEAN BUILD, your doing a great job here! THANKS for taking the time to show & help others!

 

Fun stuff today!!! I thought it would be easier to start the engine with a single carb, but after I got a little deeper into it I decided there were just too many things I would have to do over. So I am going straight to the dual carb manifold that I have been planning to run all along. It was exciting to see it in the car!





I have the swivel arms to connect the carbs, just need to cut a piece of rod for them. And after some head scratching it looks like I have figured out how to use the French fuel pump - it is a metric thread and I am planning to use a piece of brake line that I picked up from my local foreign car parts house. If it works out like I think I will post some more info about the parts.

Oh yeah, my buddy Cole was helping me today. He says two carbs are definitely better than one...



Will Kimble

 

Hey CW's40TPU, that is a very nice compliment - thanks. I really struggled trying to decide what I was going to build, so it means a lot to hear that my actions are matching my goals & vision.

And Rathbone - mahogany is known for being stable and strong for its weight, but it is not particularly hard. If I was going to bolt the radiator down solid to the frame I would not use it as a shim. But I think it will be more than adequate in this situation since all it is supporting is the weight of the radiator and the additional force of the compressed spring.

Will Kimble
www.kimblemandolins.com

 

Nice car, nice build. Your attention to detail is obvious.

 

Looks great love the engine colour and the detail....Rod.

 

I haven't done a jalopy (bones from the sedan body) update lately, so here are a few pics from the local cruise-in tonight.







I tried to drive it home a week ago - the wiring harness caught on fire and I had to douse it with my travel mug of coffee. My buddy Tom Rupp took pity on me and towed it to my house, and he also surprised me by fixing the burnt wiring. Helluva nice thing to do.

Short term plans are to make the brakes work more than a little, adjust the valves/lifters, and drop a B distributor in it. Hopefully it will make it to the SOSS picnic on August 14.

Long term plans are unknown, but I sold off the fenders and running boards so they are out of the picture.

Will Kimble

 

Looks GREAT Will! I am making S-L-O-W progress on mine, still gathering parts, got the frame boxed, front-end mocked up found a set of rear bones , started cleaning them up and ready to get my rear-end mocked up, Got 3 of my 4 wheels needed, still on a big search for a fourth.... so on and so on... Keep up the good work, we need to get together soon and pop the top on a few....

 

OK, got the headlights mounted:







I have been focused on getting the engine ready to fire, I am getting close but still lack spark plug wires, need to mount the solenoid & battery box, and need some help with wiring. I am also waiting for those aluminum elbows from Gene at MEC, hopefully that will be a solution for my lower radiator hoses.

It isn't impossible for me to make my goal of driving to a local car show in Reading on September 26, but it is starting to look unlikely. I may need some help to pull it off.

Will Kimble

 

Wow, looks great!

 

its awesome, the dual carb looks a lot better then just the 1.

 

Great build. Love the stance and the choices you are making. Nice craftsmanship and attention to detail.

 

Looks fantastic Will!

Really like the lines your going along!

Any updates?

HC.

 

Will, I love what you're doing with your A and it looks like you have a good helper! Keep up the good work!

 

Agreed! Looks Fantastic!!!

 

wow. I really love this thread. I dig how its all coming together.

 

Wow, this is coming together really quickly and looking great!!

 

Nice A Will! My 17 year old son Dan has to see your build. He has a very rough 31 A Tudor and he wants to put it on a 32 ch***is, 283 Chevy, automatic, etc. I sent him a text to find you on the HAMB and follow your progress. (BTW he also has my mando, a Mid-Mo that I bought back in 2002. Great instrument as I recovered from my stroke and put my fiddle away. Still recovering from that...)

What was used for the flooring material, a cut down reproduction 32 sedan pan? I noticed that the pan wasnt totally centered in the A body.

Mark

 

Thanks everybody. I don't really have an update, just a couple tips I wanted to post in hopes that it will help somebody out.

French Fuel Pump - OK, the French fuel pump is inexpensive, compact, and has a lever you can "tickle" to fill the float bowls by hand. It also has the "input" and "output" in a different relationship than the originals and it turned out to be advantageous for my setup. The output is a barb and is easy to deal with but the input is some sort of fine thread metric thing - ugh. I wanted a hose barb for it, but there was no way. I tried to find a compression fitting of some sort at my old time hardware store as well as my local NAPA, but no luck. I finally headed to my local foreign car parts store and found some pre-made brake lines that worked perfect. I used a Model A compression fitting and steel line from my sediment bowl, a short piece of hose to connect, and one end of the brake line. Here are a couple shots that show the in/out orientation, the hand lever, and the brake line:





Next up is the vacuum line from the front cover to the intake manifold. I am using a stock crab distributor and you need this vacuum line to go with the centrifugal advance in the distributor - I think the adjustment is called the vacuum brake.

Well I didn't have any of the original fittings and couldn't find what I was looking for on any of the core engines that I could get my hands on. I ordered some stuff from Mac's but was still missing a banjo bolt of some sort, line was wrong for the Offy manifold, etc.

I ended up using an elbow and compression fitting from my local old time hardware store, so my manifold side was good. On a hunch I tried a vacuum line that connects to the intake manifold and runs the windshield wipers on a Model A - perfect fit on the front cover. So I bent a copper line and used those fittings.

 

Hi Mark,

The floor pan in the back is '32 from Brookville and is trimmed to fit. It replaced the rear pan as well as the last wooden floorboard and added a LOT of stiffness to the body. I almost used a 283, I think that is a good call. Just can't bring myself to use an auto in my hotrod even though it really simplifies things.

Hey, those Mid-Mo mandos were really good! Called "Big Muddy" now I think... Music is good for you, I am glad to hear the mando helped your recovery. I am amazed at how I have been able to connect with people through the music & instruments, powerful stuff for sure.

Best wishes,
Will Kimble
www.kimblemandolins.com

 

I want to drive this thing so bad... My goal has always been to drive it to the Reading car show that our local Model A club is putting on, would have to make a couple miles each way by September 26. So near and yet so far.

After a hilarious failed first attempt I got the spark plug wires made to my satisfaction. I plan to pull them back off and solder the 90 degree ends (non-Rajah), just didn't have an appropriate soldering iron today:





The radiator is off so I can lower the spacer blocks by 1/4" to better line up with the lower radiator elbows that I got from MEC. Made it a lot easier to make the spark plug wires.

Also got the tail light / license plate bracket made. It looks like I intended - tail light covers the spare tire bracket holes and license plate covers the '32 rear crossmember - but is too close to the body and a little flimsy so I will probably have to redo it to slightly different dimensions:



Finally, I got the pedals and master cylinder mounted. Looks like I need to come up with a little more travel from my clutch pedal, and need to work the battery box into place with the master cylinder. This part went smoother than I thought, and the lines are all bent and ready to go in the car so hopefully I will have brakes soon - probably before I am ready to fire the engine.



I think I have what I need to make the floorboards tomorrow, and am also planning to source a slightly longer fan belt so I can get the generator off the intake manifold. Need to order some tube for the upper radiator hoses and pick up a radiator cap. ****on these things up and try to get it wired and lit off.

Will Kimble

 

Awesome build. As clean as it gets. Love it!!!

I want a 59ab soooo bad!

 

Sweet build! I have the same thing pictured in my head for someday when I'm not broke.

 

After months of fear, I had an epiphany about wiring last night while studying a bunch of diagrams. I decided to mount a Model A terminal box and wire it as a Model A with exceptions for the solenoid and starter ****on. Bought some supplies this morning and had the main dash/ignition/starter wiring done in a few hours this evening.

Poured in some gas, and she started up as soon as she got fuel in the carbs. Man, that Uncle Max must really know his stuff because it ran perfect and we never touched the carbs. Sounded awesome through the open headers, clean and responsive. Got her good and hot and will torque the heads again tomorrow. A little valve noise on the p***enger side, but the driver side is quiet and there were no leaks, smoke, or any other funny business. Basically it is as good as you could hope for from a clean-looking used flathead V8 of unknown history. How exciting, and what a relief for it to sound so good.

The only thing I screwed up was to connect the dash light to the ammeter instead of the iginition switch, so it is on all the time. Easy fix. I haven't connected the generator to the circuit, either, but that should be pretty easy. And I need to include a fuse somewhere. It will also take a little time to get everything looking the way I want, but that is easy once you have everything working correctly.

I will tackle the lights & horn separately and am planning to use a '32 V8 light harness pretty much intact.

Now I REALLY want to drive it, so I will be getting after the brakes again soon. Just needs new wheel cylinders out back, hook up the lines (already bent and ready to go), and bleed it.

Will Kimble
www.kimblemandolins.com

 

Awesome!!!

 

Just came across this build. Wow, very inspirational.

 

I am uncle max and I approve of this post.

 

Nice work Will, and you shoot some really great pics.

 

I am excited to report that I am on the road! There are still some bugs to work out and I am staying close to home, but I am very pleased with how it drives so far.











I debated a long time about how to hook up the throttle pedal... I always figured I would use an old Ford s**** pedal but after holding a couple in my hands I was worried I would end up putting the pedal where it fit best - rather than where my foot wanted it to go.

I decided to use a stand alone streetrod-type s**** pedal, and placed it where I thought it would be most comfortable. By coincidence I was able to use the middle length rod from a Model A set without alteration and simply added a ball stud to the s**** pedal and the bar that connects the two carburetors. Again, it worked out by coincidence that I could replace the allen set screw in the rearmost throttle arm with a ball stud. Turned out pretty clean, although I wish there wasn't so much stuff on the driver's side of the intake manifold.





Thanks for all of the help and encouragement, hopefully I will see you out there soon!

Will Kimble
www.kimblemandolins.com

 

Beautiful job, Will...you really nailed it!