I didn’t get much information on the parts I bought, but I looked closer at the brakes last night. I’m no expert, but the pads on both appear to have never been used? Not sure how old they are, but they look like they haven’t been run. Would anyone be opposed to trying to use them before purchasing new ones? Also, the drums I got are new but look like they’ve been sitting around for a while. Would it be beneficial to get them turned now? Or run them first and see how they feel?
I wouldn't mess with old glued shoes. Send them here to get relined and arced to fit your drums exactly: https://brakeandequipment.com/ As for the drums, I much prefer a nice pair of originals if you have them. Around here it costs $10 to turn them. If they have any rust on them, have the guy give them a light cleanup. Then have him measure them accurately so you can order the shoes properly from the place I showed.
Thats fair on the brake shoes, probably not a good idea since I know nothing about them. Is getting the shoes relined the way to go as opposed to buying a new set? I'd like to find a place here in Canada to do it, shipping back and forth over the border can add up.. The drums that the hubs are currently in are in pretty rough shape.. Not sure if Im too interested in running them. How come the originals over a set of new ones? Just the material used back then is better then todays repro's?
Because finding the good repros (Boling Brothers) was hard as they were out of stock (seem to be in stock now though). Many other repro drums have a bad reputation for being out of square, and out of balance. YMMV Since I'm not in any hurry, and have been collecting parts for decades, I have good original drums in the shed. I spend $50 for a complete set of brakes, rather than $300 for a pair of repro drums. And an FYI, the common repro drums are made to fit 40 style hubs. The hubs you show and seems you are drilling the studs out of are 48's. I don't know of any repro drums that fit those.
Well that sucks.. the guy just gave me the drums because he thought I could use the hubs that are with them. I guess I also need to find new hubs. Or as you mentioned above, hubs and drums and have those original drums reworked. Im in no hurry to do the brake swap, I have lots of other things to work on and dont have any rear brake parts. So I'll keep working on what I have and try to keep my eyes open. Thanks alchemy for the info!
48 hubs are sought after by the guys who want to adapt Buick finned drums. Finish your removal job and set them on the shelf for trading to the right guy.
Made some progress the last few days. I didn’t take many photos because I couldn’t waste any time, had to get the chop done and bring the car back to my house. It’s not perfect, but I believe it’s mostly done. I could probably spend a lot more time welding and grinding over and over, but I’m happy with how it came out. Something else to put on my resume. I drove it home with no windows today, a bit chilly but it looks like today was the last half ass warm day. I also got the windshield frame chopped and put back together. No glass yet but it looks good. I still need to fill the holes someone drilled along the top of the frame. There’s probably 6 or 7 holes drilled on the DS of the windshield frame.. But here’s a side by side comparison chop vs no chop. Hopefully I’ll be back at it again soon.
^^^^ Chop looks great! The original idea of chopping a top, (not the land speed racing reason), was to just make the car look lower. Your chop follows the “lower looking” version…sort of like Ford stylists should have done!
Thanks a lot A Boner. For my first time, I think it turned out good. I'm not going for any land speed records, I just think chopped hot rods look super cool. It was also maybe 30 or so hours I got to spend with my dad working on cool stuff in the garage! All my kids are sick, Xmas stuff going on, but hopefully more updates soon..
Long overdue for an update. I haven’t had much time in the garage recently, but today I finally made a little progress. Better than nothing. I took @alchemy ’s advice and removed the backer pieces I used when welding the top back on. A grinder, hammer and chisel worked quite well. Didn’t take as long as I thought. I then put some primer on the inside of my welds. It looks a little more cleaned up inside now. Next I think I’ll start removing the window regulators and clean them all, grease them up and make the rear windows go all the way down. More to come.
Today I took one of the rear windows and regulators out. The metal channel on the bottom of the window was rotten and was preventing the regulator from moving all the way, makes sense why the window wouldn’t go down all the way. I also cleaned all the old rubber that the window rolls up into, that needs to be replaced. Then I removed about 1000 nails out of all the inner wood structure. Slowly making progress. Question for you guys - I was planning on purchasing new window felt from the model A supplier and cutting it down to fit the new shortened window openings. Is there a better way to do this? Is there a felt kit for chopped cars? Or a roll of generic felt that I can glue into place then drop the window in? Thanks for reading!
This should drop you into page 26 of the thread, where he's working on the wood and mentions window stuff. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/60s-era-street-strip-model-a-coupe.1159568/page-26 I'm sure there are other posts for a model A.
I will have a read and do some more digging. Hopefully find someone that details the window installation. Thank you!
Did a search for "Model a window" here and there wasn't any step by step found. You might want to try a restoration forum (Ford Barn?) since you are using stock stuff. They have been doing restos for decades and should have something to help. Also the picture is worth a thousand words video is good too place. I didn't watch either video, they just came up in results. Don't follow either channel either, so I am not vouching for the info... Judging from the thumbnails, you should at least get a couple different viewpoints (stock and rod). and
I've watched all the install videos on window glass, but I haven't seen one where they do it on a chopped car and whether they use window felts from a model a supplier and modify them or... I just want to look a bit more into it, before buying all new stuff, modifying them only to find out I could have done it a more cost effective way. Thank you I appreciate it! It was fun and rewarding once it was finished.
I would look for generic window channel in the proper width, and cut it to length yourself. I think the A used a rubber top seal, but I would use the same window channel as the sides on the top. Just make sure you don’t glue the channels in too much in case you need to remove them later.
Thanks @alchemy. I browsed online for some "C channel window felt" and I found a place that sells it by the foot, but doesn't ship to Canada.. I'll call around to local automotive window places and see if they have anything. Most of my online searches, they're products are for specific cars - which I dont mind, I can cut it up however I see fit. But its extremely expensive.. More digging to be done.
Now with the holidays over I'm hoping to get back in the garage and get some work done more frequently. I recently purchased a cheap multi process welder. I really needed a mig machine at home, the more I dig into this car the more I was realizing this. But everyone on here with a tig, their welds look so nice. So I plan on dividing my time up between working on the car and learning how to tig. We'll see how I make out... Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone following along!
I got some time today, I pulled the front end out from under the car. Next step will be tearing it apart and starting to swap everything over to the ‘32 axle. I’ve had the front end out before to reverse the main leaf’s, but haven’t removed brakes, perches, king pins. This is all new to me so hopefully it all comes apart nicely.
It’s been a while since I’ve updated. I’ve been buying more parts and slowly picking away at the to do list. I unfortunately haven’t been able to locate rear brakes, so I’ve decided to stick with my mechanical brakes until I get everything together. I still really want to drive the car, so don’t want it out of commission for too long. I’ll continue to collect parts and when the time comes I’ll dig into the juice brakes. In the meantime I disassembled the front end, cleaned up all the parts, primed and painted black. I just used a Rustoleum semi gloss black and brushed it on, looks good enough. The perch threads got ruined taking them off, got used Ford perch’s and am using them. I’ll need to modify the tie rod, and likely bend the steering arms on the model A spindles. Next tool purchase is a torch I think.. I had to make spacers from the model A wishbone and 32’ axle. I did that using 1/4” flat bar. I added a leaf back into the pack too, it kept bottoming out last summer and with the extra low I’ll get with the 32 axle I decided to could add a leaf back in. The front end is ready to go back in, I forgot I need to modify where the ball of the wishbone connects to the car, I know some guys here have suggested different ideas, I’ll need to do more research. I have a few more things to button up first. More progress reports coming soon.
While driving the car home after I chopped it I realized quickly I needed to lower the seats - could barely get in the thing! The other day, while waiting for parts to install the front end and button up the windows, I decided to tear the seats apart. I think I have an idea in mind as to what I’ll do with them. This is all the nails that came out of two seats.
I got the windows, felt window channels, and rubber seals all installed. Cleaned up the old window regulators and greased everything. The windows roll all the way up and all the way down now, quite pleased with how everything looks and functions. I bought a glass cutter on Amazon and watched some YouTube videos, figured I could cut my rear window myself. It worked, wasn’t a nice clean cut but with the window glued in place and trim piece on you can’t really tell..
Today started off well, I filled the holes in the windshield frame. Splashed some paint on it, roughed it up, now it looks old and rough like the rest of it. I figured I’d try to cut the windshield down to size. I got two really good scores across one side, then my Amazon glass cutter broke. What a surprise. I wanted to score both sides really well since it was such a long cut. But I’m impatient and figured I’d try to brake it with just scoring the one side. Didn’t work, cracked the windshield.. live and learn. Next week I’ll call around and see if someone can make me something.
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