Thought I'd start a thread if only as a record of what I've done, for continuity I'll include bits I've posted elsewhere on the HAMB. I missed out on grabbing this Model A after a friend sold it a couple of days after I got to know he had it in his barn. A couple of years later the new owner turned up in it and parked next to my '28 Chevy beach racer, I still wanted it but he was asking more than I was willing to pay. I met him a year later, made an offer and it was mine! Even if the brakes weren't good and there was a timing gear rattle, it was mine. Here it is the day I bought it. It has juice brakes, glass fibre fenders running boards and aprons, electric wipers, and an engine whistle! The best bit was finding out after I got it home that it has a B engine with a police head on it, and some obscure adjustable up draught carb with an accelerator pump, which was all very nice. Couldn't wait to get started on the de-blinging. And relax..
Then I turned to the front, way too much rusty and peeling chrome there. As I have no acetylene, I made a jig and introduced the light bar to Mr Angry Grinder. This took four goes at tacking it up, trial fits, then cutting apart again before it reluctantly came good and even cleared the headlights. Lots of welding and filing ensued. This was just one bad attempt! Liking it much more now, deleted two of the four mirrors but something has to be done about the hinge ones, not sure what but they're not ideal. Those wind wings might stay for now cos they will leave annoying to fill and paint holes, and I can turn them parallel for less drag when overtaking. The turn signals will need something better done, and that quail is on borrowed time too. Not sure if that horn is staying there, undecided.
Congratulations, apparently it was always meant to be yours. My most enjoyable part of this hobby, is getting the next project.....then start "making it mine".
Yep, I've lusted after a model coupe since my teens, never thought one would almost fall in my lap here in the UK. It's an older restoration with some paint issues that don't bother me, I hate doing bodywork but this body is as good as they come, but the mechanicals are suffering from lack of maintenance for some time. Like almost every screw, nut and bolt on the whole car was loose!
Nice job on the headlight bar. So glad the stone guard is gone from the radiator. I hate those things. Quails are extinct in hot rod world.
You may jest, but the nut that holds the steering wheel on really is loose and unbelievably was still being driven about! Haven't got round to fixing that yet.
Oops all the pin striping fell right off, what a pity, oh well never mind As the handle thingys were rusty and installed well out of alignment with each other I deleted one and blackened the other, along with the handle escutcheon and step plate. I would've deleted both, but the grand kids need something to grab onto getting in, but only for slow show times. Also deleted the landau thingys while I was at it. The canvas is very faded, pretty dirty and has mold spots, from what I've read trying to restore it to tan colour most likely isn't going to work too well. So I think it'll be turning black soon which will match the fenders and should make it look smaller, has any one done that? Searched but no luck finding pics of black top sports coupes, are there any out there?
Nice Sport Coupe glad you aren't planning on making it into a Coupster, seen too many with the tops cut off. Not sure about 30-31 with a black top but some of the 20-29 had a black top. Almost the same color as my 30 Sport Coupe, I eliminated the landau bars on mine too.
Hi Gomez, I saw your very cool car on another thread and bookmarked it, the colour looks almost the same except mine can look maroon or brown depending on the light.. No plans to coupster it, way too many wet summers here for that!
This car had juice brakes fitted which in my ignorance I thought was a good thing. When I test drove it the brakes weren't so good, although they did little to stop the car the pedal seemed hard in an unyielding sort of way, but I reckoned they just needed bleeding and maybe a clean up. The owner asked if I was going to drive it home, I said "Not likely, not without brakes", he replied "You can just use the hand brake, that's what I do' ! Had a look at the rear brakes (as usual on this car the hub nut was loose) to find the backplates were upside down with the cylinders at the bottom and the leading shoes trailing, no wonder they needed bleeding, I don't think it was ever possible to get all the air out of them by any normal means. The reason for the upside downness was that the bleed nipple would hit the ball mountings for the shocks if they were the right way up. The hand brake cables were a bit sketchy too so a little work needed to be done there also. Here's a video of the pedal to master cylinder linkage, the cross shaft hit the radius rod ends. So I raised the engine/gearbox by putting spacers under the mountings. But even then there still wasn't enough room inside the cross member to allow the piston to move the full length of the cylinder! Could old car servicing ever get more exciting?
Thanks, I watched a few heating and bending threads and realised a jig was the only way to have any chance of success by cutting it. Like doing most things for the first time I now know that taking it out of the jig to test fit was a big mistake, as it won't ever go back in exactly the same way due to heat distortion and hole clearance. The angle irons were tacked to the bar which held it in the same plane on the bench, hard to see but I had the drop and centre line scribed on the bench, so I could just slide it down after cutting. But worrying about getting the bolts in and out led me to cut the bar too far out, so the first bend hit the headlight, in the end I just left the bolt in there and welded it together at a lesser angle. The spacers under the bar in the second pic was a mistake, I cut it apart again and kept it flat on the bench for the final welding.
The original shocks are all FUBAR so the link ball was cut off as it was in the way of the cylinder bleed screw and inlet pipe connection, not any more.. Cleaned it up a bit. Tube type dampers will be fitted in the fullness of time Hole cut to clear the spring mount. Welded on a cover over the hole to keep muck and water out, put the backplate and grease catcher back on the right way up and called it good . New wheel cylinder fits now. You'd think it would be hard to get wrong given what's written on the cylinders, even got a this way forwards arrow and an R to denote rear! No expense spared! All the cylinders were rusty and pitted, the master cylinder was sent off to be bored and have a stainless liner fitted, still waiting for it's return.
I've never seen the rear brakes mounted up side down before, I've done several sets and just cut the notch in the backing plate but running modern shocks mounted to the rear axle housing. The color on my coupe is 1940 Ford Mandurian Maroon which is close to the stock Maroon for Model A's.
The brake work was going well until I realised that now the backplates were the right way up, the h/brake cable exited the guide tube at an angle, so it was rubbing on the sharp edge. And the cable to lever connection wasn't the best either. Someone on the web, forgot who, makes a kit to cure this, so I made a version of his idea. I had a pair of later Chevy h/brake cables laying about, serendipity and happenstance worked it's magic again as the Chevy outer was a perfect fit in the guide tubes and the inner was the right length! Annoyingly I had to cut the threaded ends off the cable to fit it through the tubes, so I made a couple of adapters from scrap ally. Because all this meant there was no adjustment for the handbrake I used the turnbuckle off a Chevy one welded to the ford ends. Maybe due to the previous owner constantly heaving on it instead of the foot brake, the Ford handbrake lever was almost broken right through, the other side was cracked as well, so it got welded up, welded the pin head in too for extra strength and repaired the pall tip. The posh Chevy cable is plastic coated for super smooth operation, so I was very happy with that, for a while. Shortened the spring and the new cable fits inside the drum just like the ford one I didn't like the fact that there was no compensating mechanism to balance the brakes so I came up with this idea, using the old ford cable to extend, it's still work in progress but hopefully with a bit of adjustment it should work ok. Which meant I could dump even more heavy old junk!
“Which meant I could dump even more heavy old junk!” And you end up with a cool spreader bar for a future project!
The canvas top was pretty grotty. I tried cleaning it but that didn’t work so I bought some special car top stain and slapped it on. It still needs another coat which it’ll get when I can do it outside in the sunlight, but I reckon it makes the top look much smaller, kinda more subtle, which I reckon really improves the look. No going back now!
Found another HAMBer with a black top, looks super cool to me. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/sports-coupe-chop-or-coupster.280280/
Got a few small things done. As a kid watching American movies, I was fascinated by how their cars would just start up without the driver taking their hands off the wheel. Even with open cars and Jeeps there seemed to be no driver input, like magic! It was some time before I found out about foot starter buttons, we didn't have them here, I thought it was so cool! Strangely the starter button had been extended to up under the dash, with a wooden cupboard handle on it, now that really did have to go! I turned up a foot button and shortened the rod which put back no end of cool, it still looks a bit billet but rattle can black will cure that. Also that blinging repro Quail has flown at last and a proper rad cap installed. There is a miss match between the radiator top tank and the shell, not sure why but I had to turn about 3/8" of the cap skirt to get it to fit. Fixed the quail fixing screws damage where the cap fits, so now got a snug fit low profile cap to go with the dropped lights. Made one good hinge mirror out of two, which worked out ok, dunno what to do about the other one as it's really ugly and I can't get it off, pin won't budge at all. Can't finish the brakes, still waiting for the master cylinder.
Found some drawings on line for a master cylinder mounting assembly that reverses the pedal pull to push. As the only steel I had was a bit thick, I may have over built mine a tad. Yes it may be a bit fiddly to fill, but I do have a couple of spare mirrors I may have to cut a hole in the floor under the seat for a bit of tube and funnel.
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