I picked this up recently after a fairly long search for the right car. It's an older restoration that spent some odd years forgotten in a damp garage by the looks of it. It's fairly solid with good metal in the lower cowl, doors, and most other areas. It does have some rust down low in the wheel wells and a spot under the rumble seat where the mice whizzed, easy fixes. The plan is to work this into a traditional highboy one system at a time without taking it all apart at once. I've got other cars in various torn down immobile states, no need to add to the pile. Interior: 1930's steering wheel, maybe a 32 ford dash, lower the seat and windshield. Exterior: Some cool tail lights, Guide headlights up front, and paint it blue eventually. Chassis: 3" drop up front, 16" wire rims, and hydraulic brakes. Engine: Temporary use of current engine to mock up downdraft carb, lake pipe, linkages, etc. Then build a new engine with high compression head and move all the stuff over to it. First thing on the agenda is pulling the fenders, running boards, and bumpers off. Second thing is scrubbing the mildew off it and a deep clean...
Great start It’s amazing how well preserved these old model As can be after 90 plus years how is the inside of the cowl fuel tank?
That's a great start, check out the monthly banger meet's if you haven't already, there's heaps of info on them!
Another banger powered hot rod...welcome to the banger brotherhood You have a late '31 with that indented firewall
I'll have to have a peek with a flashlight. The previous owner said he cleaned the tank but it wasn't removed from the car so no telling how good a cleaning it was...
I spent some time today cleaning... The amount of crud on the engine, transmission, and front axle was impressive! The engine has had some interesting color applied over the years... The transmission was under all that gunk... The axle ends have detail now... I got about 80% of the gunk off, I'll finish the rest tomorrow. I also got a chance to remove the rear fenders, bumpers, windshield, and drivers side running board. The inner banger coming forth! I recently picked up a set of 16" wire wheels with some roller tires... I could resist the temptation and installed the rears before dinner. I also pulled out my torch and heated the shifter up to bend it into a gentle curve, It's close but I'll have to do a bit of fine tuning...
Great score and greetings from a fellow Michigander! Love to see another 'banger build taking shape. I took on a similar project—feel free to reach out if you have any questions along the way.
I've been working on the Model A and spent today cleaning up the firewall electrical area as well as some cleaning and cooling system repair... I made myself some spark plug wires out of some Packard cable and some Rajah ends. I like the old style solder on ones and the star crimp clips. You need the special crimper for the Rajah tool but I like the way they look when done. Once the wires were all done I wired up the firewall terminal box as the NOS 6v coil showed up and was ready for install. I cleaned the firewall and primed it in preparation for installing the parts, it will hold the rust at bay until down the road when I paint it. Easy install, no real issues. Nice to work with such a simple system. The cooling system was dry when I got it. The lower hose piece had rusted through at some point and was full of rust flakes, replacement was mandatory... The rust through was hidden under the thick grime and after some cleaning it looked suspect. A quick poke with the screwdriver popped through the rust with little effort. I picked up a new part along with some new hoses and clamps and installed them also. I spent some more time scraping out grime, oiling things, replacing battery cables and ground straps in an effort to get it to run well. I picked up a B distributor and will time the engine at 19 degrees advance to compensate for it. I was encouraged by what I saw while working today. It appears to have good compression and was running rich but no oil fouling on the plugs. I'll pull the carburetor and examine it also. The goal is to get it running and then swap the intake and exhaust for a Stromberg 97 and megaphone lake style exhaust.
The inner child in me wants go full blast and order all the fun bits now but the old coot car guy knows better and urges patience! I have been collecting a few bits... manifold flange, exhaust megaphone, 32 chopped stanchions, and a B distributor. I've also got my feelers out for dropping the front axle 3-4", it's definitely high in the front.
I chopped my windshield to match the 2" chop '32 stanchions, definitely looks better! I also got the repro battery box in. I'm going to move it when I put in juice brakes but for now it's ok. Much nicer, the old one was 50% rusted away and the battery flopped around. I installed the new hoses and pulled a bunch of rust out of the old lower hose, much better now. I went through the Model B distributor I picked up and found whoever had installed new bushing's into it had not drilled out the oiler hole. It probably would not have lasted long without any lubrication. I bought new bushings and new points also, the distributor was sold as good but obviously needs some TLC. I always go through things to double check, it's saved me many times. Once I timed the engine for the B distributor it fired up and it sounded good. No knocking or smoking so I'm good with starting the swap to the downdraft carb and lake style exhaust.
I pulled the rotten muffler and stock manifold off the old girl today... Now we're having fun! I cut the headlight bar for the ends and spent some time with the torch bending them into some new brackets. The trick was to get the second one to match the first one! I only have one headlight so I clamped it on with some vise grips in an effort to step back and take and see how I liked it. I think it looks a bit odd, like it's too tall but then I got to thinking about what it will look like dropped 4" when the axle gets done... I was thinking of cutting a 1" out of the bracket but I'll wait until after the axle gets dropped 3 or 4 inches and see how it lines up with the tire then. My header flange and megaphone came in also... I just need to pick up some 1 1/2" bends and I can start to mock it up. The majority of the last week or so has been cleaning and selling the parts from the car I don't need. I could have just listed the stuff as is but the bumpers, chrome bits, rumble seat, and headlights cleaned up really nice. I was worth the extra time to get it all looking good and bring in some extra funds.
I spent the last two months tracking down goodies for the front axle... I found some 32-34 hubs, spindles, brakes, and NOS perches. I found a 33-36 axle too... Since I finally had most of the parts for the front I spent an hour this afternoon pulling the old one. It's pretty worn, lots of slop in the king pins and shackles. I spent some time harvesting the bits I need including the wishbone, spring, brake levers, and hardware. I got lucky, and the gobs of grease from decades of use had seeped into the perch bolt holes and they came right out, no fight. The spring itself will have the bottom leaf replaced with a NORS 32-34 leaf I pulled from a spring pack I picked up a few years ago. I'll reverse the spring eyes for some more drop. I've got some vacation coming up over Thanksgiving I plan to put to good use. I'd like to mock up the new axle this coming week...
I spent this afternoon working on the A some... Snow is coming soon so any outside activities need to be done asap! I pulled the front axle out and broke it down, salvaging the bits I need (mostly hardware but a few of the brake bits also). The kingpins themselves are shot so i'll need some of those for sure. Bye bye stock axle! I cleaned up around the banger so I have room to put the new axle assembly back in when it's ready, I've got heavy jack stands on each side so it's not going anywhere. The front spring has keepers that are just bent around the spring leaves under them so to take the spring apart I had to heat and bend them out. I'm going to pound them flat, clean them up and just drill holes in them for bolts so if I ever need to take the spring apart again it will be easier. I'm not sure how many leaves i'm going to remove, maybe two or three... I don't want to drop it too much, have to do some experimenting once it's back on and see where it sits.
I got the floor around the opening cleaned and primed. I didn't want to put the new floors in with all the grease and flaking paint going on... The floorboards themselves were hit with multiple coats of oil based finish, I'm not planning on running a floor mat so I wanted them to be tough!
I used the old tail light/license bracket and made a new mount with a gusset for strength, can't have things flopping around. Not sure what i'll do for turn signals yet but I decided to go with a stainless tail light I found that will illuminate the license plate also. Some reflectors and we're all set!
Great looking car and looking forward to reading more on your progress. I am sure you are aware of this but felt the need to mention; if the fan blade is the original tin, please replace with the new aluminum to avoid potential disaster.
Just found this thread and loving the direction you are taking your A roadster. Will be following along.
It can be pretty exciting, fan blades through hoods and radiators oh my! A new fan is definitely on the list before spring. It's not worth the risk, especially since these cars are nearing 100 year old these days.
Spent some time in the shop this AM on the banger... I sandblasted the spring leaves after heating and straightening the keepers/retainers on the one leaf. My new kingpin set came in also so I blasted the spindles so I can take them to the machine shop Monday and have the new bushings installed and honed. Also blasted and primed the perches. I want to get all the bits done so I can get the axle back under the front asap. I've got some new cams to install into my '16 Indian Chief and I can't get it into the heated side of the shop until the banger can roll out of the way. It's good motivation! After i got done blasting I moved on with disassembly of the front backing plates and hubs. One went great, took 10 minutes. The other was a trip down to frustration on the crazy train... The bad one was so stuck it took 2 hours to get it apart using every trick I had. It had obviously been sitting outside for some time and was froze up in the "brakes on" position. I was able to release the wedge and beat on the shoes from the inside alternating around the circumference and it let go just a smidge at a time, I won in the end! I was able to salvage the grease retainers, some nuts/bolts, the hubs, and backing plates but that was about it. One set of brake shoes are just too rusty to even try and reline. I'll pull the bearing races and get the hubs cleaned up so I can have them cut this week when I take the spindles in.
It's been unseasonably warm here the last few days so I'm taking full advantage to work in the unheated side of my shop where the sandblasting and larger items are cleaned of grease and rust. I got the wishbone and new axle cleaned, de-rusted and primed in preparation for painting. I also did the backing plates and grease retainers too. Back when I started this I had planned on going to juice brakes but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of staying more prewar and running the mechanicals. I picked up the needed bits which included some 32-34 brake drums and backing plates... I blasted the brake drums and removed the old bearing races but I found that one of the drums had some severe wear and there wasn't enough left to turn them down again. I found a new set of drums that looked good last week. They both looked good so I chose one and darned if I didn't have the fight of my life on my hands removing the smaller bearing race on the outside. Usually I just weld a few rings around the inside of the race and they pop right out but not this one! Welding the race had little effect so I had to heat the housing and beat on the race from the backside several times to get it out. When I did finally get it out it looked like no race I'd ever removed. The sucker was cracked and actually expended upon removal, no wonder it was so had to get out. With the difficult removal I decided to use the other brake drum and blasted that one instead. I got it painted and will take it to the machine shop along with the other good one for turning this week.
I picked my spindles up from the machine shop Friday after I got the call. I bought a new kingpin kit to replace the old worn out ones that had groves worn in them. I work a mile from a good shop so it's handy to just run over there at lunch to drop off/pick up stuff. I had them install the new bushings and hone them to fit each kingpin. I degreased and primed them today. I also re-arched the NORS main leaf of my front spring today. I made a little press tool out of a junk Ford FE rocker arm shaft and some angle iron to keep it positioned on the ram of my hydro press... It worked well and I was able to reverse the spring in 20 minutes or so. I ended up using the second leaf from the NORS spring as well and cut it down to fit and look like the original leaf. The original leaf had some decent wear from the leaf above it rubbing so the new one took care of that. I played with the spring for a bit and ended up taking to leaves out of it, we'll see where it sits when I mock it up in place. Since i'm sticking with the mechanical brakes I thought I'd try to make them float a bit. I found some NOS floating mounts for the wedges online, not sure when these were a thing but the box was really old. I know the Flathead Ted kit is out there but I thought I'd try and make a set of "poor man's" floaters and see what happens. Since I had the floating wedge mounts I thought I'd try and make some floating adjusters using the stock part and some '35/36 floating adjuster wedges. I softened the stock '31 adjuster nuts so I could machine the cone off the end and polish them smooth so the later part can move a bit back and forth when it's in position. Maybe it won't work but I thought I'd give it a try, I'm into it for all of $30 so if it flops no big deal.
Got my spindles and drums back from the machine shop, spindles are honed and drums are turned. The parts pile ready for reassembly is getting bigger, time to get them off my desk... I also installed the bushing into the main leaf and darned if it didn't go smoothly. I read a lot about this being an issue and having to ream the spring eyes but I just used a couple of sockets and a vise to slide them in, no prob. Easy! The spring and bushing are NORS so everything was clean, must have helped.
The Jalopy Journal
