im not a model A guy so im not to familiar with what some of these parts go for. im thinking of starting a build and was wondering what a fair price for a roadster or roadster p/u cowl will bring?? thanks for any help matt
Depends on a lot of things, is the dash rail there, is the gas tank useable, how many holes are cut in the firewall, door hinges, dents & rust? I think $200. without seeing a photo would be tops.
i built a '28 RPU a few years ago and went with all gennie sheetmetal. I'm ***uming you'll do the same. If so, a basic good shape closed cab cowl will set you back 100 anyway. Then roadster cowl posts another 150, then roadster dash rail 75-100. So, all in all i'd expect to pay 300 for starters. If you actually want good stuff, just buy a repro steel dash rail, and roadster cowl posts and find a nice stock closed cab cowl and piece together your own since most all the roadster cowls you'll find at a swap or on hamb have either a. a ****ed up set of cowl posts that may or may not have been repaired or b. a dash rail that has been on about 12 roasters and is worn out. save yourself the headache and buy brookville roadster cowl posts and dash rail. much nicer to work with mint stuff in my opinion. good luck!
oh and re: the gas tank......i personally don't like stock model a gauges at all, so i saved myself some money by buying a cowl with a tank that was no good to begin with, cut out the tank, and then bought a brookville '32 style steel dash for the cowl and fit it with a nice vintage gauge panel and gauges. the way to go for sure. looks way better.
If I can offer an opinion, I'd recommend saving some cash and purchasing as complete of an A roadster or RPU as you can find. The first RPU stuff I bought was a big pile of parts, pieces and panels and i kept upgrading as parts came along. This was not really an issue but what was a problem was getting help in having QUALITY metal work performed. The guy whom was helping me spent literally 3 years not doing much and telling me he'd have time to work on it soon. When he did do any work it was BEAUTIFUL but it was seldom. I was so frustrated that I jumped on the opportunity to buy a more or less beautiful, original,complete, never rusty RPU body, bed etc when it became available and sell off my old set of sheetmetal. This stuff is out there and available just be prepared with the cash when it surfaces and save yourself years of looking for decent doors, quarters, deck lids, pu beds etc...
Sold a 28-9 roadster cowl this summer for 300. was in great shape, and had the windshield stantions still on it. Wish I wouldve kept it.
i have been keeping my eye on one and he wants $900 for it i thought it was high but that is what i was told around here that is about what they go for. i dont know how much of a stock body i would use other than the cowl so i would hate to pay for stuff that im not going to use unless the price is right. my uncle picked up this one for 7k and it is a very clean car. i would rather find a nice roadster/pickup for a descent price, dont know how much of the original stuff i plan to use but probably better safe than sorry to have it rather to track the stuff down later, so maybe ill just keep looking... thanks matt
sold a 29 roadster pick up: bed, cab, chrome stanchions, w/s, hood, tardel K-member and a genuine 32 shell + insert for $5500.00, it was a VERY good deal for the person buying it. from experience, save the cash you are willing to spend and find something complete... although i am not apposed to it, piecing **** together can be more expensive than buying a complete body... not to mention time consuming.
I would gladly paid 300 for a decent roaster cowl. I been seeing sedan cowls bring close to 200 on egay lately.
I've totaled the amount that it would take to purchase all the parts to make a complete 28/29 roadster cowl from Brookville, Its over $1200. Lot of $$ but boy is it nice working with new correct sheetmetal.
***embling all the loose parts from Brookville w/o any kind of fixture would be super tough to do and get it all right and true....not to mention not having the knowledge of how everything goes together...i don't think those parts don't come with instructions. I thought i read somewhere that a guy started a build with a complete ***embled cowl from Brookville, but i'm not sure if they actually do sell a complete one, or if they'll ***emble it for you? Either way, I'm sure it's costly. Better off finding an existing set up that's decent...complete with subrails and bracing. Then you've got something substantial to start with and solid ***embled pieces you can measure off of etc. Depends on how picky you are too!! lol there's alot of unstraight/wavy rides out there, and most of the owners don't give a ****!! hahah Good luck
yeah. i pieced mine together. next time i'll just save for a few years and buy the whole damn RPU body from brookville or an unrestored/restored original before i ever do that again.
It matter what area you live in too. You can still find some stuff out west but on the mid or east coast it's pretty rusty and we don't have a lot to choose from. Not an A but I bought a 26/27 T last night, 12:30 am Christmas morning off Ebay for 173 bucks. The average around here is 200 to 300. If you can find one usable is the problem.
A real 28-29 roadster cowl can set you back $600-900 these days. I've seen them in the midwest and east coast for much, much less, but you're in So Cal, right? I'm a cheap ******* with more time than money, so I'm going the piece-together route, but these guys are right . . . you are better off buying a complete body or even a complete 28-29 truck. In the last year, I've seen at least a half dozen really nice original roadster pickups sell for about $5000. On the flip side, I have about $750 into my body/bed now, which is complete at this point, but includes sedan doors I'll have to cut down. If I could find a pair of roadster doors for under $500, I'd buy them too and be into the body for about $1300. Not too bad. All together, with the good model a frame, running gear (all 40-46 ford), 8ba, trans, and 36 wire wheels, and original 32 grill/radiator, I've picked up over the last two years, I'm into it for around $3000. Oh yeah, and this stuff was all pickup up around SoCal, so it is out there. Like I said, I'm a cheap *******. But keep in mind, the sheet metal I have is going to need some serious TLC before this project is done, but it is all decent stuff to begin with. Best of luck
$900? im sure you have seen price tags for that amount but good luck to the glue sniffer trying to get that much for just a cowl. on that note, people living in california (and around the country) need to set their prices to match current times or they'll be sitting on stuff for a long time... not to mention prices over the last 5-10 yrs have been getting utterly retarded.... its akin to the housing market.
I just bought a 29 RPU body, tailgate, stanchions and grille shell. I paid 1200.00 for it. It doesn't have any subrails(channeled at one time) but is pretty solid. I bought it from the cl***ifieds here. There where at least 10 guys after me that wanted it. I think a lot of it depends where you live. Here in Ohio 80 year tin is hard to come by. Mat
well keep your eyes and ears open for a cowl and parts, if its the right price maybe ill grab it!! matt
I have to agree, we hear about prices on here all of the time, most of it depends on your location, I feel like there is a ton of stuff out west and the people out west say they hear there is a ton out here. Its all supply and demand, model A stuff seems scarce here in Ohio, but 60s and 70s stuff seems to be everywhere, atleast from what I have seen. And there is always the old "when you are shopping, there is nothing around, as soon as you settle and buy something, just about everything you ever wanted is for sale and at a good price." I say, stop looking, one will just end up in your lap, funny how it works.
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