Hot Rods I finally got back to making some progress on my Model A

the front cross member is just about stock width .... maybe a half inch or so narrower than stock but that is it.

 

Lookin' even betterer, trucknut! You can stop calling it a hunk of junk now.

 

you asked if you can put a flathead in and run a hood and not modfy the firewall. check out the pics of my dads car in my album. he runs the hood sometimes. the only problem he has is he could not run a stock fuel pump. if you have any questons ley me know.

 

It's coming along, but that's what it takes...time, and of course LOTS of money. It looks like you have yourself a nice little car collection going on there, I love those early F-1's, 48-50 in particular.

-Cody

 

Coming together nice !

 

looks like its come along way. i like it. your doing a damn good job.i wish i could find one like what you started with. hell what i find around here they all have been really really bad.and i would have to morgage my house!lol

 

Thanks for the heads up... it is good to know that it can be done!!! You guys are actually not too far away. My band plays down that way every other month or so.


thanks for the complements from everyone else. I haven't done much on it in the past 2 months but plan on getting back to it this winter and spring.

 

hey, i was at the sale when you bought that car. i ended up with a truck load of parts.

 

Yeah that auction was a pretty fun day and it was nice and close for me in hind sight I should have bid on more stuff but oh well I am happy with the junk that I bought.

 

I had a fun weekend at the jalopy showdown but I spent a chunk of the time under a friends model A changing his oil pan that he took out on the bridge..... and messing with another friends carb in is woodie.

This all made me realize I am always working on other peoples stuff and never my own so I told everyone that I going to take a few weeks and make some headway on some of my projects.


Well I FINALLY made some time to work on the model A a bit...last night and tonight.

I welded up the split wishbone bungs.. ground them down nice and smooth and made some mounts for them.. I would have liked to bolt the mounts on the frame but I ended up making them on an angle and welded to the outer and inner bottom flange. I did this for 2 reasons... 1 to miss the steering box and pitman arm and 2 to get the bones angled in as much as possible.


I also mocked up the steering.... I still need to torque down all the bolts and add more bolts on the steering box mount...but the car now steers.


I dug a good running merc flathead out of the pile and pulled the pan to check things over and put a different oil pump in it...and checked everything out. I ran the motor a few years ago and it ran great... so it should be a good mockup motor that I can even run in the car for a while till I build up a hot Flathead.

I put a new clutch on it and bolted it up to the tranny. and made up mounts and clamped them in place.

I REALLY would like to be able to run a stock hood on occasion SO I really need to decide if I want to mount it all up back further and heat and clearance my nice firewall that I replaced OR have enough clearance there and probally need to make a custom mechanical fan setup.. I REALLY don't want to run an electric fan.

Right now I have truck pumps and pullies on it.


Here is a pic of it before I made the mounts and bolted up the tranny.



here is a pic with the grill shell mocked up...... I really wish I had a rad for mockup or at least measurements of where the core is in relation to the mount holes in crossmember.

 

I snapped a few more pics of everything so you can see how tight things look clearance wise.













I have been acquiring parts for my new model a project as well



it will be a full fendered 31 pickup

 

After sleeping on it I think I am going to move the motor forward a 1/2 inch to give a 1/2" clearance for the fuel pump. I really don't want to risk busting the fuel pump if I get he body on a twist down the road. I will just have to deal with the fan issue once I get a radiator.

I guess if worse comes to worse I could just weld rad mounts on the front of the crossmember and move the radiator up an inch or so.

 

can you still move the front crossmember? just move that forward an inch or so .

 

I already welded the wishbones ends on and welded the mounts to the frame so I really don't want to cut off and re do the frame mounts at this point. I am sure ginding down the welds will add stress risers to the frame

The cross member it's self I made a real tight fit to the frame, I didn't drill out all the holes and put in all the bolts but it would be pretty tough to move it much. I may try to get it forward a half inch or so... I can probably safely unthread the TRE's in the radius rods that much

I did notice a 1/4" fiber? spacer in the fan hub that looks like I could remove to gain some more clearance??

 

Well I went out and messed with the front cross member and got it forward just a tad (around 3/4"). I now have more clearance.. I will just have to modify a hood slightly if I ever decide to run one.

It looks like it may work with a stock fan if I remove or put a thinner piece of rubber in it..it must be some sort of harmonic balancer? One spot on the pump tower is still just touching the firewall once I shake stuff around so I will probally just hear that spot and give it a whack with a rounded hammer.

tonight I will weld, drill and bolt in the engine mounts permanently and then work on bolting in the tranny cross member permanently once I modify it slightly..then onto the rear axle links and driveshaft.

 

The wish bone connection is this temporary?

 

I plan on cutting out and welding triangular plates to the front and back of it to close it in.

I was originally going to try to make some kinda bracket to bolt to the frame but It would have been too clunky, that why I figured I would weld the mounts on. Do you see an issue with what I am doing with them? If so let me know I am not opposed to changing things.. it is a pain grinding welds down but I am open to suggestions.

 

Hey now... leave me and my car out of this. HaHa jk

Good work on the A though, coming together nicely. Like you were saying at the Showdown... you could get it on the road with a little bit of work and have it be a work in progress. I say... run the Merc for now!

 

It appears that your A wishbones are about level? You probably have about 2 degrees caster? You can adjust the clevis ends and get more and this will also move the rod end up so they can mount to the frame..just a thought.

 

The wishbones are close to level....I did it that way to give myself steering box clearance and to mimic the stock model A mounting height. If I end up needing more caster I will cut a slice at the front yoke, bend it and then re-weld it back up. I originally pondered setting the steering box in a different position that would have made mounting the bones easier BUT it seems like the column position and wheel position will be the most comfortable for my TALL body.......BUT even then it may be commical for bystanders to see a tall guy get out of a small car!!


The motor is now in the car without the engine hoist...but the mounts aren't totally done and fastened.



I boxed in the wishbone mounts, filled the holes that were drilled in the metal and ground them to look a little better..... once I pull the motor back out I will dress up the insides of them too.

 

Looking good John! So,it'll be running by Monday?
I admire somebody that "works" on their own stuff!

 

Maybe if I stayed up all weekend and worked on it non stop till then....

 

why not just go to a single belt pulley and early generator fan combo?

 

Do you have a pic of what the setup looks like??... seems like all the flatheads that I have are the wide belt truck setups.

If it will give me more room I am ALL for it...

 

All I did was remove the 59AB gen and fan set up. Used a 32-36 maybe up to 39 generator. and cut the front pulley off the crank pulley. Now looking at yours the distributor location might get in the way. You might have to change to a earlier front cover and crab distributor.



Obviously not ready to go, but you get the idea.

 

Wow that works great! Thanks for the tip I will try to find an earlier flathead at the junkyard next time I am there to get a generator setup like that!!!!

 

No problem man, I thought it might be a good answer to your problem rather than start moving things you've already made.

 

Well I moved the crossmeber back to where I had it before and now a stock hood fits again.......

I appreciate the help!!!



SO now I can start moving forward on the tranny cross member and rear axle.

 

Well I made a lot of progress this week BUT decided to haul it off out of my garage to dry storage elsewhere for a bit.







I started progress on getting my 1952 sleeper F-1 painted shiney.....AND need to finish the early bronco I am restoring for the wife...so I need garage space for a bit...

hopefully I will get back on this car sometime this summer or fall once the bronco is out of the garage AND my f-1 is painted shiney.

 

damn, that thing is coming along so nice... can't believe you are able to just put it to the side! i would be rarin' to get it going and on the road! but i don't know how you do it with all your projects... i would be disgusted, frustrated, and lost!