Model A roadster from rust

I did not feel like working on my 53 last night. I put the pieces of roadster together last night. It is a bunch of junk, an early A coupe rear body, an early roadster cowl, a set of beat early sedan doors, and a deck lid that cost more than the rest of the parts. The hardest part will be making some pleasing revel lines on the body, but I have some ideas. I plan on spending about 30 hours in the next week working on it. It will go back out side sunday, and I will get back to fixing the body work on my 1953 chevrolet.

It will not get it done by sunday, I just needed a change of pace for a few nights. I am not sure how much if any I will narrow the doors. It makes for a real big interior for a fat kid.

 

looking forward to progress pics.

 

When I get to work in the am I will post a pic of my all in one square/body/ch***is jig. I drilled and tapped a piece of 2x4 1/4 wall square tube at 31 3/4"x 2 3/8. Going by the frame specs on the wescott site that is the measurement from side to side on the cowl mounting points. I will never claim to know everything, but i will at least build a square, and true body, and ch***is. The cowl I am using was dug out of a field beside a barn after a flood last year. it took a high lift jack and 2 ratchet straps to get it to bolt to the jig.

I did not get anyting else done this evening. I have been online looking at pictures of real roadsters, and handmade ones. I am having a hard time comming up with the measurements I need. I am not trying to make a roadster copy, but to know how far off of stock what I am building would be nice. The way I figure, what is so pleasing about stock proportions is related to height, body length, and wheel base. I am not trying to build a super low, "newstalgia" rod, just a roadster that fits me, and has enough wheel base to be stable, and comfortable without looking like a fenderless suburban.

The real draw to this project (other than a change of pace for motivation) is to get some practical model A build time before I start cutting on the cherry stuff I have collected. I have a great deal of knowlage building things that do not apply to model A's, this is new, and very different. It is also more enjoyable turning other peoples junk into cool stuff. I have always enjoyed the projects that are the hardest, as in "you cant get there from here"

 

can you post up some links on the sites you're researching? That would be cool so that some of us could use as a reference whenever we search this thread. Thanks!


speedy

 

why are you going to make revel lines on the body? unless you just want to...thats the way they came from Ford. by the way the 2 dr sedan ,coupe and sports coupe doors are the same. just line your rear body line up to the bottom of the square door line.(thats where it originaly was anyway) youll see the line on the quarters just starts to get square and "swoop" up about the last inch.

 

Nothing good, I have killed the HAMB search, and not found much to help. The best bet so far has been google image search(lots of pics I have seen here before). I have had to change the printer cartridge I have printed so many pics. The biggest problem is I am not an artist, just a solid fabricator. I am learnig how to gauge proportion from pictures. I have a grill shell tatooed across my back, of the vehicle I have spent the last 15years working on, and it is far from a Model A.

You know when something just has the right "look", well that is what I am trying to establish with my pile of rust. I can connect the dots and make it look OK, but I am still working on the dots. The best part is I have thought about it non stop for the last 24hours. I miss getting that virgin on prom night feeling. It has been a fun 24hours.

 

The upper revel line on an early(28/29) coupe is on the top. The rear tub, and roof section bolt together. There is only one revel line on the lower body tub of an early coupe. I have that figured out anyway, just working on how long to make the doors. Too long, and even at 6'2" I will be struggling to reach the steering wheel, or I will have a filler pannel behind the seat. I will be running a longer wheel base, but I do not want the body to look like one of the extended brookville truck cabs.

 

Sweet!!!! lets see some pics at the end of your first day

 

Check out metalshapes roadster, it has sport coupe quarters on 32 rails, it is a clean well proportioned body.

 

Jason,,,Looks like your makin' some progress and like me ya got too many projects going on at one time HRP

 

So where did you find all that cherry stuff you mentioned?

 

i id the same thing. the parts i got were "garbage".. psh..... if its got shape its still usable.

 

I have some cool stories of finding Model A stuff, but the cherry stuff just required stepping up and paying good money for good steel. I have less than 500 in all the stuff I am using right now, and I paid 200 for that damn hammerd deck lid. I would be money ahead to sell the junk to someone that wants to think that trashed sheetmetal is easy to fix, and spend good money on good body parts. That would not be any fun, and like I said earlier this is my chance to learn more about the details of building model A's.
Last night I came up with some ideas to square up my cowl. I will have a nice jig that will work to square up any of my other bodies, and can be used to reverse build a frame. I am using the frame specs from wescott. I will take some more pics tonight. I was out in the shop way to late, and was just trying to get something done. Picture taking was the last thing I was thinking about.

I borrowed the idea for the plywood body grid from One of the projects here, I know the car, but cant think of the screen name. In the past I have marked lines on the floor, but this works way better. I am not planning to work on this straight through, so being able to mave the body and quickly set it back up is very important. I have my 53 chevrolet blown apart, trying to fix the body work, and get it ready for nice paint. I needed a diversion, I hate bondo removal. When I get the roadster tacked together, it will be put aside, so I can finish the 53. I am a poster child for A.D.D.

The picture shows the square tube that bolts to the cowl. I cut some 2x2 angle to go from front to back, so I can have an adjustable jig, that squares the cowl to the back of the body. I am thinking that this will make fitting the pieces alot easier, and should make it faster to build a subfloor for a clean channel. It will be kind of like an adjustable frame, and it will make building a frame that matches the body go alot quicker.