Hi guys, like many others on here I'm going to start my build thread in hope of not falling to the wayside. I've been a member for quite some time and have bought a handful of parts years ago before the minimum post rule which is part of why I'm starting his thread so I can have the privileges to message and buy parts. Story of the car thus far; my dad bought the car complete in non running order for $800 back in 2005. It sat for a few years before we started on it but we always knew we wanted to do a traditional hot rod build. This is our first build of this sort however we have done complete restorations on a number of 60's Mustangs so we kinda know what we're getting in to. Over the past years we stripped it down and bought parts that aligned with our build plan to include a running 1950 truck flathead and trans crossmember, 1940 ford juice brakes, 1939 ford trans and pedal assembly, 16" wire wheels, 4 inch drop front axle setup from speedway, reversed eye rear spring with top three leafs cut and relocated on the bottom of the pack and "Z'd" the frame in the rear. We are hoping to have it lot driving by spring as to see what kind of shape the driveline is in. The body is pretty roached but repairable, there is some extensive damage to the driver's quarter which I'm not looking forward to working so I'm always on the lookout for another roached quarter panel that has a good body line. We're also in need of an F1 steering box, there is a couple in the classifieds but as stated before I dont have enough posts yet. Anyways I plan on posting work in progress photos through the winter so any words of wisdom along the way would be appreciated. The coupe as we bought it Stripped down and frame Z'd Sand blasted and primed New front end set up The damaged quarter panel, you can also see the remnants of what were bullet holes behind the quarter window that had been body worked and painted over, I'd like to know the story behind those... Engine and trans ready to be fit
I've owned the car for 15yrs and have never noticed that! I had to run out to the shop and check, looks like someone changed them out at some point, all the rest are 17's.
Good day in the shop, mated the trans to the A's rear end and located and welded in the engine mounts. Next step will be the trans crossmember.
Even by 2005 standards, you STOLE that A-bone! Looks like a great car to start with...and it's heading in the right direction. Nice job.
We cut about 3/4" out of the middle of crossmember to get the rear of the trans down to clear floors and keep the driveline in the straightest line as possible, carb base was set level as well. This is only tacked up for final fitment at the moment but you can see we tried to make it look as factory as possible by keeping all original radius of bends.
After fitting the body to the frame we had clearance issues with the fuel pump and backside of the engine, we only needed about an inch to clear everything but we wanted a little more room for ease of maintenance so we decide to cut out a larger portion and move it back 1 3/4".
This is where we left off for today, we used a floorboard panel we had laying around for our setback pieces, it's hard to tell in the pic but we bent the original firewall towards the rear and tied it into the radius of the setback piece, our plan is to make it look like it was stamped that way, no welds showing or tight angles.
like it... maybe don't listen to those that tell you to build one just like theirs... take a step back, print pix of cars you and your loved ones like, compare the different car's details using the pix, get more pix if needed... build the car you like and can afford... drive it till you can't... . memory says ; 1928-'29 = 21". wire 1930-'31 = 19". wire 1932 = 18". wire 1933-'34 = 17". wire 1935 = 16". wire 1936 - '39 = 16" wide five. steelie. 1940 = 16"... 4" wide. steelie 1941 -'48 car and '41 - '50 something... trucks = 16"... 4.5" wide... steelie...
Plenty of room now around the backside of the engine. Moving on to the steering next, looking for an F1 box if anyone's got one laying around....
You seem to be headed down the same path as my coupe except mine is full fendered. I didn't cut the drivers side of the firewall as much because of brake pedal clearance and wanted to run an old spoon gas pedal. I used studs rather than head bolts which was a mistake, can't pull the right head without pulling the engine if I ever need to. Same step in the rear of the frame and an F1 steering box. Modified the steering box with a Model A snout and moved it as close to the frame as possible for clearance. Looks like a good start !
Nice! I didn't think about the brake or gas pedal being an issue, we did notice the head coming off with studs may be an issue.
I'm running stock Model A pedals on an adapter and it puts the pedals in the stock position in relation to the steering column. I also left the notch for the steering column.
Nice. I've got a lot of the same parts on my '31 ('52 8BA, '39 toploader etc), but didn't Z the frame and didn't cut the firewall. Took some engineering but it's all in and looks the part. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
The Jalopy Journal
