Projects 1930 Model A coupe build

New chassis is a roller now and hauled it to metalsmith's shop. Cowl vent is all welded in and looks great.. Body is off of the original chassis.. Complete original chassis and fenders SOLD! The subrails will be welded in next week and new hood made. I should have it all back in the shop soon for remainder of the work. Will post more pics as I get them.

 

I would love to see pictures of the cowl vent . I'm thinking about doing the same thing to my pickup

 

Would love to know what you got for the old frame and fenders etc. I am currently in the market for an A coupe and cannot decide if buying a complete car and selling what I don't use is worth the higher price over searching for a good body.


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I sold the frame and fenders for $2000 which helped offset the cost of the new frame. Some people were telling me it was worth more, but I sold it to a friend and I tried to be fair about the price. I gave him everything except the body, but no engine or transmission. When I bought my coupe, it also came with a separate model A pickup project that was in pieces. I sold that stuff too, so that helped. I paid $6000 for all of it initially, so now i have $2000 into the purchase of the body which I am happy with.

I had originally bought a completely restored car for the body, but decided that it didn't make sense to tear it apart, so I sold it and bought this one which has a very nice body in primer. If you found a restored car at a fair price that you like the paint on, it would also save you alot of money there too and a running chassis with nice fenders would probably bring a little more than I got for mine. Hope that helps...

 

Damn that helps a lot. Thanks. Just didn't have any clue what the market would be for that since I don't see many A's with fenders on them. This info is like platinum to me now

Thanks


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The body is on the 32 frame now with all of the stock subrails removed and new ones being fitted. We started mocking up the position of the body relative to the rear axle and the position of the new 32 grill shell. It's looking like the new hood will be 34" long at the top down the center line. The front of the body will be lowered down slightly to eliminate the gap between the body and the frame. The cowl vent looks perfect in the model A cowl! I have decided to leave most of the rear wheelwell and only remove the notch to match the notch in the frame rather than completely following the frame's profile.
I took a few photos and will post them later this morning.

 

Here's the cowl vent installed...

 

Fitting the new subrail kit from Steadfast Mfg... Sorry, pic is a little out of focus..

 

Playing around with ride Height, relationship of wheel to body, etc.

 

A look down the driver's side...

 

A quick glance at the passenger side with grill setting in place. We were checking measurements and placement of grill and how much the front body mounts will be cut to eliminate gap between body and frame.



Also looking to get the relationship of cowl to grill just right. After we get the front body mounts cut, we will be trimming the bottom edge of grille to lower it slightly...

 

??Looking for opinions/pros/cons regarding my decision at the moment to leave the wheelhouse intact and not cut to follow contour of top of frame and leave all except the notched area to match notch in frame??

This photo is just as a reference for my question... The ride height will be considerably lower. I have seen cars done both ways. All.. please chime in here...

 

Once the subrails are complete, we will be setting up the 32 fuel tank in the rear. Will be cutting into the lower panel on the body an inch or so to create a bit of an opening and transition for the tank.

 

Just got a few photos of the flathead and T5 transmission I am getting ready to use in this car.

It was a rebuilt engine I picked up for a previous project and didn't use. The entire running gear including this engine, transmission, complete front axle and banjo rearend with open drive conversion was all pulled from a really nice 1940 ford that the owner was converting to a streetrod.

We ran the engine and checked it out before pulling it apart to install all of the new stuff.
I have been collecting all of the goodies for this engine over the past couple of years, including a set Offenhauser finned aluminum heads, Offenhauser three deuce intake with Stromberg 97's, new headers, all of the dress-up stuff and a 12V generator.

Here are some photos of the 59A engine as the heads and oil pan were removed. Its 3 3/4" stroke and 3 3/16" + .060 bore which makes 248 cu. in. It looks to be a truck engine, because it has factory relieved block , a portion ground out between the valves and the piston bore. No ridge on the cylinders, looks like new 4 ring pistons. Valves look good and it looks like it has a reground cam in it. Maybe an Isky 77B ( mild 3/4 race cam) There is a B stamped on the end of the cam. Has a fiber cam gear which will be changed to an aluminum one.

 

Thanks! I was very fortunate to find Kenny Gilmore through another old hotrodder friend in my area and get some time in his shop for the chop and other metalwork. He does incredibly good work and he is FAST! The entire chop was complete and metal finished in 3 days. I was waiting to answer you, as I asked his permission to mention his name and shop here on the HAMB. His shop is called IJM COACHWORKS.

 

Looking good man keep it up!


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Thanks!

It's moving along pretty well and will be back in my shop by end of week or so. Can't wait to get this thing on the road!

 

Here are some progress photos of the engine.



New timing gear






Oil pan all cleaned up and ready to go.














Ready for heads once they are polished:

 

I have the polished heads on the engine now and will be getting intake and all the rest together soon. (Photos to follow)

 

The body is all done and bolted down to the new frame with new mounting points and looks great. the 32 fuel tank is installed and looks right at home under the model A. Alot of work was done to the rear of the frame to maintain a "stock" appearance. Here are the photos....

 

Here is a side view...

 

The subrail kit turned out nice too and was able to retain the original riser for the rumble seat. Am in the process of making it a removable panel for access to fuel sending unit, etc.

 

Here's a view of the driver's side...

 

Startin' to really enjoy this build!

 

New body mount locations are all sunken in like this one.

 

New 32 dash from Brookville. Looks nice in the car. Designed to have original Model A dash over the top.

 

Here's where I'm at now... With the radiator installed and grill shell clamped in place, we determined that the whole radiator needs to come down at least 1/2" inch. There isn't alot of room to fudge the placement of the shell itself and I am not wanting to remove any of the radiator core, so we will be moving part of the crossmember down, then fitting the hood. It will have a perfect slope from cowl to the grill shell.

 

Nice

 

Very nice work, but turning a 30 into a 32?

 

Thanks... It's my car... I will turn it into whatever I want . it's not possible to turn it into a 32, but I do like some of the 32 styling which I have added. Been building this car in my mind for a long time now, so now that I am actually doing it for real, I will stay true to what I originally envisioned.