Projects 1928 Model A 2 dr Phaeton Build

<<Only complaint so far with the Cornhusker kit is that the lower right bolt is just a little too tight to the cast gusset for a socket or closed end wrench to fit over. Had to do it 1/4 turn at a time with an open end 9/16.>>

@peter... Buy an older Craftsman open end wrench with a notch in the upper 'throat' of the open end. (#VA 47855)
This is a patented 'ratcheting open end' that literally ratchets in one direction. Perfect for that job in the future.
I found a miscellaneous one on the E'bay. It is $8.50, free shipping.

 

Bit of a delayed update here, sorry about that. Between a couple other projects that needed attention and running errands I had to squeeze in time where I could on the Model A.

I mocked up one of my seat options, these are Dodge A100 Van seats, most notably used in a lot of mid 60's factory drag cars. I have a couple sets because I'm a Mopar guy, and they're somewhat traditional looking, especially once upholstered in some kind of brown or maroon leather .


I'm not huge fan of the aftermarket "Bomber" seats, but I may end up that route if these don't have the right "look". Give me your thoughts.

Got the subfloor/body mounts tacked in today. These are heavily modified Boling Brother's pieces.


So for the first time, the body is supporting it's own weight on the chassis. Now I can remove the brace bars and properly do some dash/column/seat mockup so I can get some things ordered.

~Peter

 

They don't list those subrails on their website. Can you drop me a PM on pricing? Those are the first afermarket ones that look like they make sense.

 

Well, I hate to post two updates in the same day, I couldn't wait to share the latest developments.

Got a 1928-29 Grill Shell from Speedway, cut it down about 1.5" so that the hood flange is 1" lower than the cowl flange.



Got the fitment of the cowl a little better in the process.


I still need to do the rear body mounts, for now it's resting on the leaf spring perches. I'll design my own mounts and then clearance the body around the perches. What's a good rule of thumb for rear axle to body clearance on a buggy spring rear suspension?



Ugh, that shot there is pure hot rod to me. Doesn't get much better than ladder bars and a transverse leaf!





Lights out, that's it for today. Way more progress than I expected, and it's starting to really take shape!

~Peter

 

On the head with corrosion, running as is is really not a great idea. You should do something as each of those little ridges can be a point for heat concentration that can lead to pre-ignition if/when they start to glow.

 

Made some more progress this weekend. First I started messing around with the Brookville 32 Dash that's designed to bolt into the 28-29 Sedan:


Overall pretty happy with initial fit, I'm going to do something about the outer areas where it overlaps with the original Model A trim panel. Might try and graft the two into one piece like this one I found here on the HAMB:

Then I got some packages. I started buying some of the expensive, yet necessary, parts for the engine. Here's the genuine Stromberg Carbs:


Look at that flow VS a stock Ford Model 59 carb! I'm sure it'll be overkill for this flathead, even with the cam, porting, heads, headers, etc...

I'll be installing .045 Jets and 65 Power Valves to bring fuel levels back to stock 97 levels for initial startup, and then tune from there. This way I take advantage of the increased flow characteristics of the bigger carb without running rich out of the box.

Got the matching Stromberg E-Fire Crab distributor as well:

Yes, got the 7mm suppressed spark plug wires as well.

One purchase that I'm conflicted on is the new Rod Bearings. Since I'm doing a 1940 engine, that needs the full floating bearings. This one is .020 over so I placed an order with Speedway and was a little shocked at the pricing. $504 for a set!

Then imagine my confusion when they ship me these:


Don't get me wrong, I love Made in the USA parts, and I have no problem with NOS parts, but seems funny that they'd charge a premium for parts that in theory I could've bought on eBay or at a swap meet. I was figuring I was getting a newly manufactured part that perhaps takes advantages of modern metallurgy or something.

Give me your input on what I should do for Rod Bearings, the old ones didn't look terrible, but they did have some scoring lines and misc wear indication on them. I don't mind using these $500 "swap meet" bearings, but if there's a better option for the 1940-era motors, I'd love to know.

~Peter

 

Boy that seems odd to get old parts from speedway

 

Especially when their website says the brand is their own, and then they ship Johnson Bearings

 

I used the same dash.It fit pretty good.Your progress is coming along nicely.

 

You might want to take a good look at the tabs the dash bolts too, I have the same dash combo in my 29 tudor and they fit a whole lot better than your picture indicates. As far as rear end to frame clearance, looks like you may need clearance above the spring hangers also, could just be the angle of the photo. With no rear fenders, you can easily cut the wheel wells loose all the way around and lean them in until they stand straight up, then just add a piece to fill the void. I replaced mine completely with new metal and made the upper cut on the bend below the fender bolts, easier for me to weld on the corner. I did it to run 8 inch wheels and keep the tires under the fenders. Gives you lots of clearance and the rear windows and the rear seat are not affected. Cool build you've got, stay with YOUR time frame vision.

 

Nice, cool, awesome- you pick a descriptor- build. I will chime in that I like the seats and the new grille shell. Is your frame stretched in front of the cowl- I mean is it longer than stock? It looks like you have more room than some flathead model A builds. There is no notching of the front cross member etc. Thanks for sharing this journey.

 

Yeah, I need to move or redo a couple of the mounts so the dash has even gaps side to side. Rear of the body is currently sitting on the leaf spring perches. Plan is to build a rear body mount at this height and then clearance the wheel well for axle and perch clearance

Yeah, the Boling Brother's frame is stretched from the cowl to the axle centerline. I think something in the neighborhood of 1-2.5", I can't recall offhand. They built this one with the flathead/T5 in mind, so more than likely their OHV frames have even more added.


~Peter

 

You're making great progress here. +1 on the 29 grill shell. It's a good look in my opinion.

 

@caprockfabshop , I really like your build.

I'm using four stock A Tudor seats in my '28 sedan. They bolt right in, they fold & tilt for easy backseat access, they're more traditional then aftermarket bomber seats and they're readily available.
Am also using the stock A gas tank but with the bottom cut out & gauge insert filled in.
Hope this helps.

 

Thanks Gary! Yeah, I'm actually working on using the original Tudor Buckets primarily because of that folding and tip-forward appeal. Should have some pics of the re-purposed seats here soon.

~Peter

 

I want to get a steering column in now so it's easier to move around the shop. But that means I gotta tackle the exhaust clearance as well. So I get to play with some tubing! Using Hell's Hot Rods flanges but making my own headers to emulate the more traditional lakes pipes, not the megaphone style you can buy/build in kits.


Here's examples of what I'm building:




Should be a fun project by itself. I've done headers before but not lakes style, so it'll be a trial and error process as I fine tune the angles and the "look".

~Peter

 

I ave enjoyed readiing about your journey and will go back and read again thinking I would like a 29 coupe some day. tanks

 

This will be a longer post, and may eventually be a separate thread entirely. I've never liked the Megaphone look on flatheads, and after going through the "Traditional images that need no explanation", I was able to find dozens of examples that prove that prior to 1960, hardly any hot rod had any exagerated megaphone taper to the lake header. Most were using either a tapered pipe like the 1935-36 Ford Inner Driveshafts, or just straight pipe with the front primary tube welded to the front.

So here's where I started:

2" OD tubing reduced to 1.70" OD. This tapered end will be mated to the 1 5/8" primary tube off the front cylinder on either side. The Primary OD is 1.64", so there will still be a step up like in the old days, but not as abrupt as if I had left the 2" tubing uncut.

I made two, obviously.


Mocked up with the foam tubing as before:


I designed this with only the final 6" tapered so that when the 2nd cylinders merge with the header, I can take advantage of the full 1.87" inside diameter.

Since I was on a roll, I got the front primary tubes cut and finished to a matched pair:


I'm building the headers from the front to back, and going to match each primary up until the rear where I have to get creative to clear the steering shaft.


So they're coming along nicely, but I have a side project that required some research and hunting. More on that in the following post.

~Peter

 

In order to make these header street-friendly, and to allow the freedom to uncork at the dragstrip or for certain shows, I needed to make Header Plugs.

The two most common styles are: Bolt on Flange:


Or Square Plug:


Since measuring Pipe Fittings is different than Exhaust Tubing, it required some creative thinking. Also I had to consider that back in the day it was likely easier to have something custom threaded or machined. So here's what I figured out.


On this car in particular there is a subtle bulge after the down pipe and that is the Pipe fitting that the square plug is threaded into. So it was a simple matter of finding the right diameter for my 2" exhaust.

These are 1.25-1.5" adapters.

Originally the narrow end is 1.5", which is a restriction in exhaust flow.

But the output end is 1.726" which is an acceptable match for the 1.869" of the 2" tubing.

Step one was stripping the galvanized coating and then media blasting them to get any remaining coatings off. I've messed with Galvanized metal in the past, and I didn't feel like lung damage today.


Then I loped off the short end to get me to a reasonable inside diameter.



After removing extra material to get a smooth outer housing, it leaves me with a very subtle bulge like the original picture.


And flow is only minimally interrupted by the loss in diameter.


Honestly, the inside diameter loss due to the smaller outlet is still way less than if I were doing crush bent 2", since the area of the bend would have a significantly smaller interior diameter. So really from a flow standpoint, I'd wager this is still excessive for a 239CI flathead...

And yes, I made two!


So yeah, that's my efforts to replicate the period correct square plug for 1950's lakes headers.

~Peter

 

Excellent fab work as usual and true commitment to the period you're replicating.

Out of curiosity, did you consider a removable baffle for the headers instead of the turnouts? I think there are stock Mustangs these days that are louder than an uncorked flathead. A baffle insert like a motorcycle's exhaust tames them pretty good, without the (IMO) unsightly turnout and extra exhaust system. As someone weighing running open lake headers (granted I don't have noise ordinances to worry about), I'd be interested to hear your thoughts & why you went the other way.

 

Good question. It's primarily because I want to be able to drive daily and my neighbors are all elderly. I don't want the reputation of having that "loud ass rat rod". Also for road trips I'd really appreciate minimizes exhaust notes as much as possible.

Baffles are possible, I also am doing headers now so that once my engine is re-assembled and on my engine test stand, I can use these headers to break in the cam and see how the noise levels are. More than likely I'll just build the headers and leave off the threaded plug bungs for now, since I may install baffles before them even if I run full exhaust for daily usage.

~Peter

 

Do you plan on groove welding these tacks and grind off the bridges ?May I recommend a 2 1/2" grove weld Mig short circuited for low heat one every 14 " from center . I use flux core also with .035 " it's way more passes of course and leaves splatter if your ground is too close and hard to grind but it lays super flat I use a heat inhibitor gel also so when I MIG and want a flat bead on thin workpiece I have a better chance of it laying flatter since a flatter bead means an extra 1/2 volt or so on the weld machine

 

Yeah, I'm going to get a good penetration layer across all the subframe mounts, spacing the heat out so it doesn't warp anything. Then come across with a cover weld that I'll grind smooth so you won't see the seam. Gonna be a lot of metal work, but it'll result in a really clean door sill area.

Same with the B pillar supports, I haven't shown pics of that, but I've welded in additional metal there to A: add strength to the weakened metal after the chop, and B: fill in the door jamb to allow more room for weather stripping to seal against. All that area will be getting finish welded and ground smooth.

~Peter

 

Awesome yes that's great ! Welding with a smile !

 

I don't want to sound like a dick here, I know you've got your reasons for the threaded plug and you've certainly got a lot of work invested in your project, but....
Since that's a tapered thread, it MAY tend to be a bitch to get it to seal without being TIGHT, then it will take a lot of torque to get it out. That will put a big twist into the rest of your header.
JMHO......

 

Your concerns are valid. I especially am concerned about how easily it will seal once the header and plug are chromed/coated. I may end up with the two bolt flange as seen above, even though that isn't as sleek and smooth as the plug insert.

~Peter

 

On my tub I didn't run mufflers but run full exhaust out the back and it not objectionable loud. Sorry for being dirty because I haven't driven it in several months

 

Yep, that's the plan, 2" out the back with no mufflers should be acceptable. I can always add some short porter's if it's a headache.

Side note, Machine Shop has discovered some cracks that didn't appear on initial magnaflux testing. They're sonic testing now and I'm heading there this afternoon to look it over. It was already bored to 3 3/16 (239ci) specs, so might have enough room to sleeve, but might be more worthwhile to go 8BA.

~Peter

 

Mmm cracks where ? Cylinders ? And where at on the cylinder ? Now an 8BA or any other flathead can have same quirk excuse me I've not messed with 337's or the 12's but you know I got Freddie and is a very bad block with trashed cylinders yet has come along way and it's a stock bore still and instead of sleeving I am planning now a process to get rid of the pock marks machinist ( cracks are doubtful with this stock block ) says they do run deep into the cylinder wall . I'm going to grind it out with a Dremel and weld it with cast rod I found it's Muggy 77 rod seems doable and a 72 rod is also available (it may be a good root & hot pass ) if no one wants to machine it due to tooling breakage on weld I will bore it myself get me a portable bore machine like Mart has .
Meantime I have seen some threads here with guys mentioning they are running successfully with cracks in the lower cylinder area I haven't measured block thickness but seems solid but I do beware if damage pertains to the front and rear cylinders where water churns as it turns in the jackets well now that is something to deeply consider .
And if you go 8BA you have to start with yet another new project and that can be costly to your project if I needed to ditch the block I would always go with the same engine block I started out with so I can complete the project smoothly as first planned . Yes it is your choice and the reasoning to my thinking is I am doing what I've come to call a backyard build I have no room or time to restructure the Freddie&Flo Project you have better grounding to change up with a complete shop so look around . RandMan may still have a complete 51 Merc engine for rebuild I really wanted he may still have it I'm to far away ( 850-1100 dollar delivery ) and my ' friend ' of 48 years local to him wouldn't pick it up ( scared of Hot Rodders lol ) his price is right and your closer than I . See if he still has it and weigh your options by searching out your options .
Hope your engine is Ok
Enjoy the day

 

Here's the seperate thread I posted with the concerns. I figured it would get more exposure as a unique thread instead of being buried in here.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/flathead-sleeved-and-cracked.1276899/

In summary, small crack between water jacket and cylinder that was previously sleeved but the sleeve is floating with no stop. Need to replace the sleeve and not much cylinder wall thickness to work with. See above link for pics and details.

~Peter