This is a long time coming. I purchased this A fairly close to me. It was a project of a guy who was in a circle of friends. I alerted by a buddy about this car, and was at the guys place the next morning. Didn't know all the details but jumped anyways. After purchasing I started to look a little deeper. It is a amazing body with no rust or patch panels, some funky vents in the cowl but I grown to like them. They have the ability to open forward or backwards. Florida heat, Ill take as much air flow as I can get. Originally had planned a roadster with a 283/T5 drivetrain. This showed up and decided it was to far along to change and who doesn't want to own at least one true AV8 car. Build plans go full fender, pretty heavy chopped top (short guy here), 276 Flathead, 39 Lincoln trans and a 36 Columbia 2 speed.
I am fortunate to have a circle of friend and long time builders around me. I have a friend helping me as he waits for his painter to spray his 32 pickup. Unfortunately my business and home projects and space dont allow me to puts hands on this project. With the help of my sons and their friend we had the car disassembled and delivered to his shop last Saturday morning. He was playing with it Sunday afternoon. He told me the last flathead car he owned and played with was his 40 coupe he had in high school in 57. The car is going to be as plane as possible. No finned anything, no holes to "lighten" it up. Under the radar. This car was actually built by choosing parts that my wife picked out. The last car was loud and fast and she smelled of exhaust and fuel. She hated it and so did the kids at the time. I rode alone most of the time. This car is built on questions of do you like this or this? SO basically I am building this car to drive the beach roads with the top down with mt most favorite person in the world.
Sounds like a great project.I don’t have it anymore but built an AV8 coupe several years back, I was lucky and it turned out pretty nice. It seemed to be well received by most of the hard core traditionalists. And it was a very simplistic and pretty easy to build compared to some others I’ve done. It had a nice 286” 8BA I built with a 39 toploader and a quick change. I’ll post a picture of it below. I like your plans for this one. I’m a part time Floridian now for the last few years. I have a place in Port Charlotte but I don’t have any HAMB style vehicles down there at this time. Where abouts are you? it would be great to meet some HAMBers from down that way too. Well, I’ll be following your build intently. Keep us posted. Look forward to seeing it someday maybe.
Wow, that's a great selection of parts, will make a great ride. I like your original idea of 283 and T5, but flathead and Columbia is cool. Body, looks like it was a restoration at one time.
Yes it was a nicely restored cars paint looks to be lacquer. I'm going to keep the paint and have it buffed/
I live in Stuart. I’m on the eastern shore. I have been making many trips to Port Charlotte and Naples since Ian hit last year.
Check out this thread by @Stan Back He can provide more info on those "funky vents in the cowl" https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1928-mercury-torpedo-sedan.1279284/
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