Projects 60's Era Street/Strip Model A Coupe

Brutal. Sorry to hear you lost parts as collateral. I'm feeling the squeeze as well, not buying much new stuff these days. Reusing as much as possible.

Brent, what happened to Salt Lake Chrome do you know? One day about a year ago they just quit answering the phone. Sucks cuz I really liked that place.

 

I never got to utilize them. From what I hear the cost of business of was too much. The Salt Lake valley commercial rent is absurd (so is residential). As well, that industry is feeling the squeeze.

However on a happier note, watching all @NealinCA chrome posts... I decided to drop some off today. Since I am visiting Boise, I took a side trip and dropped off my 1st round of parts for chrome.

 

Snazzy

 

It's good to hear from you Brent - felt you would dig this photo very much...

 

^^^^^ I'll be back with a photo

 

Those photos are cool!

 

You cant mean that your side trip will be down to Neil's chrome shop in California?

...so... which chrome shop are you going to use?

If you found a good one near Boise I might want to check them out for my project.

 

Neil is using New Age Metal Finishing, in Fresno. Their work, as far as I can tell, is pretty incredible.

Since I am in the Salt Lake valley, it only makes sense that I travel 6 hours for chrome, hahaha.

I am having Northwest Chrome do the work. They're about 50 miles outside of Boise in New Plymouth, Idaho.

This is my first time with them. They were recommended to me by a local hot rodder whom had a few items plated by them.

 

I will watch with anticipation to hear your assessment of the work done by Northwest Chrome.

 

Years ago @Kevin Lee posted a pic of his heavily chopped A coupe project through the window of his garage and it was burned into my brain.

The other night, probably 12-15 years after seeing Kevin's pic, I took one in homage.



When the other project is rolled out and the A is sitting in the center, it'd probably be a really neat shot.

In the meantime, I have plenty of room to work all the way around the coupe.



I hope you're all well. I've gotten a huge list of life projects done so now I'm ready/eager to knock some more out on the coupe. Really, there's not a ton left to do...

Look for some updates, soon!

 

Will be psyched about seeing more progress on your coupe!

 

So glad to see your thread pop up again!

 

Alright alright alright!

 

U left your body work hammer by the front wheel

 

The body may look like that's the type of hammer I use... hahaha. But that's actually a wheel chock so I don't push the car into the door.

 

Just getting back into it too, thanks for the inspiration my friend...

 

Moon Fuel Tank in the Trunk (Part 1):

I dig the trunks of race cars and spartan hot rods. They're rarely photographed and it's hardly a space people show off. So, finding pictures is a bit of a fun challenge. In person, I geek out on the details... as boring and simple as they may be. I enjoy seeing how people do the simple, unseen areas.

This trunk will be relatively spartan but also have a little spill-over from the interior.

I ordered a Moon tank and had them make it to a length that will allow me to run a battery beside it. This tank is a 10" tank. Honestly, the brackets for the 600 Series tank looks goofy and not at all of the era.



The plan was to either modify originals or make brackets. They'll hardly be seen... but a little bit of thought/planning went in to making them. I was partly inspired by @Kiwi Kev and of course, the shape of the Eelco & Moon brackets of old.



I considered modifying my original Eelcos but they're for 8" tanks and they also sat too low. I needed some more height so I could reach a fuel shut-off valve. After a little time between the trunk and work bench, I came up with a solid template to start from.



Here's the first test piece. It fit perfectly. Originally, I planned to use 1/4" aluminum, which would've been as thick as the original brackets so a tight fit would be all I'd need. I scrapped the idea and went with a piece of 11ga 304 stainless. It's a little heavier but it's a tougher material and it'll hold up better to the vibrations and such. With that material change, I had to adjust the piece a bit so that I could use some rubber tubing as an isolator.



Along with the diameter change, I planned in some gussets at all the mounting areas and adjusted the shape so that the gussets could be bent and matched up to be welded easily.



Here they are after being cut out by my pal Carl (whom also took my drawing and converted it to the cut file).



Plenty of slag to be removed. They flap disc made a ton of dust. I just paid my daughter a dollar to spray wax the toolboxes in the shop, too!



After I got the first one cleaned, I couldn't wait - I bent it up and sent a pic to Carl. It's ADHD or impatience or that gene that has me touching wet paint... hahaha.



This little bender from Eastwood is handy. It made short work of all the close bends.



Once everything was cleaned up and bent. I grabbed a Model A radiator mount rod and modified it to tie the brackets together. It's not super necessary once everything is fastened for good but it helps now. I drilled the center hole for looks.



I sliced the tubing using this:



I looked up a how-to and saw Stacy David's YouTube video about it. It worked perfectly and took me 5 minutes to make!

Here are some close-ups of the brackets:



This should be plenty of clearance for a 90 and a valve.



Here it is overall. The shape of the bottom allows me some wiggle room to position it as close or far as I want it and still clear the cross-channel.



And with the tank:



Next up is to get the tank fastened to the brackets and the holes drilled in the feet.

 

Very slick!

 

Nice details on the brackets. No one may take notice , but, you’ll know.

 

Nice work

 

EXCELLENT!

 

Man that tank is pretty. Really dig that spring cover with the bead rolled X in it. Details, like you said...

 

Moon Fuel Tank in the Trunk (Part 2):

One of my sets of Eelco brackets came with threaded rod that were crudely and unevenly bent. It looked like they were bent over someone's knee rather than anything round or close to the tank's shape.

I searched around the shop and found nothing close to 9.5" diameter I'd need. My knee wasn't an option, hahaha. Behind the shop, however, I did have some scrap lumber sitting on my garden trailer. From there I could figure out how to get it done.



First step was to cut a few pieces of ply and screw them together. Then, I laid out a circle and cut it with a jig saw.



Using a bracket, marks were made so I knew where to put a clamp to hold the work piece.



To bend, I kept the clamp on the left and reinstalled the one on the right to hold the shape of the threaded rod. In this pic I cranked down the right clamp so I had a mark so the clamp was easy to locate in the same spot when needed.



Prior to bending the piece I wet the form in hopes I wouldn't catch it on fire. Once the rod was bent and fastened in, I heated it up with the torch. I cooled it with compressed air and a wet rag. The wood held up well, thankfully.



The last time I was in O'Reilly's buying the rubber tubing for the brackets, I scoped out what tubing would work for these straps. I wanted something that looked like the thin-walled stuff I'd seen on a few old tanks over the years. It wasn't spongy like rubber, it was more like plastic. Anyway, I didn't find any tubing I liked.

Ideally, I thought is would be cool to source everything nearby. But, I went down a nerdy rabbit hole and read for a couple hours about heat shrink tubing. I know alot about the stuff, now. At first the technical information hurt my brain but I get it... there's a whole world of this stuff. I hadn't ever considered.

For today, I wrapped the threaded rod with some generic heat shrink tubing to keep the tank from getting wrecked. When the appropriate stuff comes (it's fuel resistant and offers better abrasion resistance), I'll cut it to length and install it.


Before shrinking it on.



And after. Then the fun part... installing them.



At this point, they're mostly done. The straps will get re-wrapped and the gussets welded. I'm happy with how they came out.

More progress soon...

 

Beautiful!
Have ya noticed how simple but elegant engineering solutions almost disappear? Maybe because they just make perfect sense. Your tank mounts are like that.

 

Would plain round rod, threaded on the ends, have been easier to work with, at least as far as cushioning it?

 

I don't know if it would have been any easier. This has all been pretty simple stuff... even wrapping it.

A piece of rod bent and then threaded at the ends would have looked good but would still needed an isolator. There's just too much vibration. As well, I have only ever seen threaded rod used and with it - rubber, clear vinyl hose, and whatever that plastic tubing was

That said, I considered making a set when I was modifying the rod that fastens the two brackets together. When I looked into the proper rod to tap, I returned to the simpler idea of using stainless threaded rod.

 

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words. That's always the goal.

 

Neat little project to get you back into working on the hotrod. I dig it. Also like the threaded rod because it allows you quite a bit of wiggle room as far as fitment and snugness. Heat shrink is a good solution as well. You always do the deep dive I can dig that.

hopefully I’ll be back in the garage soon as well

 

Looks great Brent. Very well done. I have white heat shrink in my tank rods, it works good. Glad to see your progress and ideas again, keep it coming brother.