Projects 31 Model A pickup (re) Build

Slow going. Still finishing the firewall (lots of cutting, welding, grinding, and fitting). I think I've filled about 50 holes, not to mention the fact that twice I've cut out large portions to clear something (draft tube, distributor, trans dipstick), only to end up putting them back, plus all the cuts from flattening. Then making it presentable on both sides. If anyone is recessing theirs, here are the 3 pie cuts that I did on the flange in order to reverse it. Finally, I only have the holes from the spot welds to fill at this point.

Got the 62-63 Fairlane heater control installed in the dash.

Cut out the existing cowl patch (I knew when I bought it that it wasn't pretty underneath any of the patches) and then trimmed it and the cowl to reinstall. I'll remove the cab to weld in the patches and firewall.

Got my new 28-31R-C reverse eye spring from Posies. PO used a stock spring w/ only a few leaves, but the perches were too narrow so the shackles rested on the perches as-is. Need to dis***emble to remove a couple of leaves and paint it.

 

awesome, good save!

 

Mounting the rear spring perches for Model As too close together is a common error. They should duplicate the spread of a stock Model A and everything works fine. Too close and the spring bottoms out on the perch every time you hit a bump or top a quick rise in the road.
A springs should be mounted as Ford did them with the shackles under tension. When installed the shackle bars are parallel with the ground. When the frame is lowered and body weight etc added, they drop to a 45* angle more or less.

 

Posies says this spring is designed for narrower perches (~46.5"), which is what I have.

 

I added this to the Howell's thread, but I did find it interesting, so I'll add to this thread. These are two 30-31 cowl patch panels. The new one is from howell's; the other I'm not sure who made it. While the Howell's versions of the door and cowl panels that I have aren't as accurate (bottom bead is almost rectangular and vertical bead is completely absent), they both have the correct curvature. Conversely, the other set of panels that were already tacked on the truck look correct but are basically flat sheet. Damned if you do, damned if you don't I guess.

 

Got a wood dolly built for the cab. Finally got the cab off with the help of a friend (these things are so small, I love that I can fit a pickup [in pieces], a motorcycle, lift, and all my other **** in a small 2 car garage: I could barely fit my El Camino in the garage at all). Fit and started welding in the first patch. Also cut out all the BS in the front of the old floor. Still have about 50% of the welding on the patch to go, then cleanup.

 

Sadly, project is at a standstill. I stowed it away in the corner (still amazed that a whole truck, dis***embled, fits in a 1 car space) to finish a bike that hopefully will lead to more time and $ to finish.


But I did get this in the mail today, which is exciting: new data plate with my VIN from A.G. Backeast. My old data plate was toast, plus I didn't really have an VIN on the car. Not cheap, but not terribly expensive either. Quick turn around and easy though.

 

Any updates?

 

nice save brother...love that front shot...mean,real mean

 

Truck has been stashed away for far too long. I'm wrapping up a couple of bike builds, and looking forward to getting back to work on this thing. Second kid is now the way and it probably won't happen, but it would be nice to get this back on the road before then.

I didn't want to get too much truck stuff out since I still have to finish one bike, but while I'm waiting on those parts from painter I figured I'd strip some paint. I loathe doing this kind of task but at least it's progress........... Also a little hammer/dolly work in a few spots (previous damage and hinge repair). I'm mounting it to the cowl and rad shell via the holes in each corner, so I still have to weld in reinforcements behind said holes, and repair one part of the hinge.

 

Hood DONE. Completely stripped. Hinge fixed, reinforced my mounting holes and hammered out a ding or two.

 

Hey man, nice save on this truck.
You are doing nice work here,
Hope you can get the time to hit it harder.
It sure is in good hands now.
I was kind of diggin' the metalflake dash, although the ends looked like they were just kind of "there" and didn't flow into the doors.
I'll be watching you finish this up.
You are very focused on details, good quality to have.

 

Started on the right cowl.

 

Project on the backburner as usual, but I finally tackled a couple of nagging things:

• windshield was a mess with holes and a cutout for old dash
• a patch for the bead on the cowl

 

Major milestone last night (or start of one anyways): finished my right side cowl patches, but more importantly could now put my reversed/flattened/filled (blah,blah,blah) firewall back in. Now I can finally finish floors, dash, and everything inside of the cab.

 

Nothing ground breaking but front floor sections cut and partially welded in. Rt cowl completely done, including filling the old spot weld holes. And a little more paint stripping.

 

A little frustrating b/c I spend hours un****ing what's been done before i can even start fixing something. oh well, 'nuff whining.

Started on the p***enger side door

• remove old patch (as with other patches, why did anyone even bother if they were going to do it so poorly)
• will have to replace bottom inner and outer of door.
• bumped out a small crease and dent in the door (I **** at taking "before" pictures)

Scratched the surface of cleaning up some chop on the P***enger side as well.

• rear had sheetmetal strips welded in as backing and to fill the gaps and holes where the welding blew threw it. removing these ****ed. There's going to be a ton of work yet to clean this up. On the other side, I ended up cutting everything out.
• A pillar was really sloppy w/ no attempt to line it up

 

P***. door: cut out all the ****. put in the bottom (still have that little corner to clean up). Tonight I start on the outside. This was a Howell's piece. Initially I thought it was going to fit like ****, but it actually worked out quite well, and it had plenty of extra metal if you need wiggle room at both top and bottom.

 

nice job buddy

 

keep up the good work... nice project

 

More work on door 1. Got a low spot in the middle to work out (not from welding, but from the prior patch job).

And it occurred to me once I cut the inner panel out that I should have braced the door since it fit well. Well, my su****ion was correct. I'm going to have to cut it free again and get the door straight before going any further. [note to self brace other door first....]

 

3 steps backwards to go one forward.

• Sure enough I had to cut the new inner panel free to get the door straight (I knew better)
• The door skin and patch were really funky in the middle of the seam from the previous patchwork, and things got way worse before they got better as I tried to work that low spot out, both from mistakes and probably because it had to.
• once the shape was back, I finished welding and cleanup

I still have a few minor things to do to finish the P***enger side door, but seeing a finished cowl and door next to each other gave me some much needed encouragement.

 

Project coming along great!!

 

P***enger Door=DONE, including alot of extra BS:
-flatten the flange of patch
-drain holes
-couple of hairline cracks
-straighten the garnish molding
-remove hardware
-it was missing the top cover b/c the machine screws were broke off in the door frame (these were fun)
-rust cleanup up inside the door

A little work more work on the floors: cleanup of old stuff and welding on the the new stuff.

P***enger A-pillar=DONE, or as good as it's going to get w/o cutting the whole thing out. yep, it's going to need a little bit of plastic. Areas like these would have been easier to start from scratch, rather than cleaning up someone's mess. There's a "before" pic and 2 "afters".

Starting on the P***enger side of the chop. It's ugly. I think I can salvage some of it, but you can see what's definitely coming out.

 

Looking good man!

 

Looks great keep up the good work

 

You sheetmetal guys are rulers (you know who you are). The more I do, the more I realize it. It's one thing to patch something. It's an entirely different thing to strive for no (or at least minimal) body work. I have more hours into replacing and straightening this quarter of the chop than I will ever admit (plus at some point I stopped counting). But it's done. Yet again though; this would have been 100x's easier if it wasn't so f'd up to begin with. I ended up cutting all of the garbage out and starting over.

 

Cab back side. Paint stripped. and a fair amount of metal work on dings and getting it relatively straight and w/o all the oil canning and waves. before/after

 

Driver's side rear chop cleanup. Before/after.