Hey there Ive been busy building my model A (my first build, see pic) im using a steel cowl, glass back and doors. Have been steeling out the doors, and rolling up the tube to steel out the back last few weeks, ive come to the point now where I need to position my cowl exactly where it needs to be so I can set the doors up in order to locate and steel out the back. My prob is; I need some explicit info on how to attach my steel model A cowl to the floor. Now the original attachment setup that forms part of the toe board and is connected to the inside and bottom of the cowl panel and post are absent as I bought an original top tank, firewall, and bought new posts and panels to make what i thought was a complete cowl Does anyone have any ideas of an attachment setup and if so, would you be kind enough to share with me ?? any pictures would be very handy. I thought maybe some guys who have a glass cowl, might share some pics of how they steeled their cowl out and attached it to the floor? I was hoping to try and keep a toeboard config as used in the original (mainly for leg comfort) but its not a requirement any help would be greatly appreciated
I had to read your post a couple of times to figure out your delima. It looks like your missing the subrail extensions that tie the cowl and firewall together. Have you thought about buying these, it would make things a lot easier, then tie them into the rest of your floor? Rich
LIZARD not trying to hijack your post but.Where did you find new post .Im building a rpu and will soon be dealing with the same problem you are.I have a complete cowl except for the door post.GREGG
Get yourself a Brookville catalogue. They supply all the pieces in steel to build a roadster or rpu. I know they sell the subframe rail extensions. The even to steel rear panels.
I am not sure what you do and do not have with your model A cowl. When I built my steel bodied model A roadster pickup (by cutting down a 2-door sedan body), I too had to figure out how to attach the cowl/body to the frame and to securely attach the rear portion of the body to the frame so it wouldn't flex and pinch my arm at the juncture between the top of the door and the rear of the body. The body has a set of sub-rails that the actual body panels all attach to, and the sub-rails bolt to the frame. On mine, the sub-rails were very rotten, and the cowl-posts were rotted off and not attached to the sub-rails anyways. Also, when I shortened the body (moved the rear of the body up to become the rear of the cockpit), the attachment to the subrails was "iffy" at best. To address all of the above, I made a pattern from heavy cardboard, and cut out a full floor from 3/16 steel plate. I then bolted what remained of the tortured sub-rails to a perfectly flat framework which I had built, at a comfortable working height. The steel plate set on top of the subrails, and extended all the way to the front of the floor where I wanted my toe-board to start,and all the way to the rear of the moved up back-section of the cab, and all the way to the door sill on both sides. I squared up the body, shimmed the door-gaps to where they should be, braced everything, then fired up my trusty mig, and welded the whole damn thing together. (stitch here/stitch there/move around. I then built a toe-board and did the same. I then built 2 humongous gussets to run from the rear cab section down to the floor/door-sill area on both sides and stitched them into place. I drilled thru the floor plate and the sub-rails at the 4 corners with a 5/8" drill,(2-places each corner) and inserted a peice of hollow tube which was 5/8" outside x 5/16" inside thru the holes untill it stopped at the supporting frame below. I cut them off flush with the inside of the floor plate and welded them into place. They became my "bolt thru" tubes for two 5/16" bolts at each corner of the body that went into the frame mounts on the model A frame.
Sorry, I didnt know the name (subrail extensions) so I tried to discribe it as any good noob does Yeah I had thought about buying new ones, except, I do really live in outerspace, some people call it Australia though, and Ill be buggered if I can find anyone who supplies them from here. I was really hoping to keep moving on my project, as I have some time up my sleve now, thats why I was asking for info on ways I could go about fabricating a setup for my self, I kinda figured someone would have made their own "subrail extensions". Thank you for your reply
Excellent information, great pics, looks great what you have done. To add more difficulty to my project than needs to be, I want my cowl to have the ability to be seperated from the floor with ease, not as a one peice floor, back and cowl.....maybe I might need to reconsider this point for a less painfull fix. Cowl wise, all I had was a tank and firewall wall, I bought new panels and posts but none of these came with the subrail extensions that allow attachment of the cowl to the floor in such a way that the cowl can be easily removed.
tock, I take it that your going to use and original style floor? any larger shots of what you've done?
flatoz, I'm having a hard time getting bigger pictures on here. Basically just replacing the bottom 6 inches around both sides of the cowl and the body. It's my first try at this, so I'm just learning as I go. If you want bigger pictures just pm me your email.
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