So OK. I have a 29 roadster, 4 banger, mech brakes, original rear end, and has a T5 installed with a pretty nice conversion kit. Having had my fill of restoring I bought it as is 4 years ago. The old hot rodder in me has finally surfaced. Need a bit of advice. Either SBC (<=350) or mid 30s flathead. Want to mate either to the T5. Hydraulics to be added. Might replace A rear end. Not sure. Dropped front axle. the advice requested. 1. Is the FH worth buying and rebuilding or is the SBC the way to go? 2. Cheapest way to convert to hydraulics? 3. Should I keep the T5 or find a Turbo 350? And a million other things I have not thought of yet.
I bought my already built but it’s similar to what I dreamed about since the mid60’s. Model A with a SBC and automatic. It came with hydraulic brakes via a 1940ish brakes and rear end. I like the automatic transmission because I am tired of the clutch, “arthritis in the left hip was a big influence”.
Personally, I like both options. Some will give you a bit of stick with a sbc, but parts are easy to get, they are reliable and also, they fill a Model A engine bay nicely. Depends on your budget as well. All this coming from a guy that stuffs FE Ford engines into Model A's, lol. Keep us all posted on here so we can follow along. Have fun either way and build it for your own approval and not someone elses, cheers
It is not hard to predict that a flathead will cost more to build. Trans, what do like? 2 pedals or three
Hot Rod the 4. Having grown bored building V8s. I'm having fun with a couple B engines. A new build 100+ hp flathead, Aluminum head, cam, dual Strombergs and the other a OHV record holder that needed restoration and a fresh Rutherford head. I've found the mechanical brakes are fine if you use the Randy Gross parts and floaters. There is no cheap way to do juice brakes those parts left the junkyards years ago. If you go SBC whichever rear you put in will have juice brakes. In today's world it's probably cheaper to add discs to the front than collect all the early (used or repop) juice brake parts.
I'm building a '29 AV8 now. I would suggest a mild build to the banger and DRIVE THE***** OUT OF IT. Then figure out what you want to do with budget and scope. I would suggest later flathead ('48 ish or later). Maybe use the 5 spd you have behind it. '40 Hydraulics (pretty easyish). QUALITY dropped front axle (no chinese*****) Oh, and PICTURES are always welcomed and mandatory
My 30 pickup had a B motor with a Winfield head, Mallory distributor, Holley 94 and a header. It was fun to drive but not a good highway car, my 30 Sport Coupe has an 8BA flathead, mild cam. Offenhauser heads, two Holley 94's, headers, a 41 pickup trans and a Model A rearend with 3:54 gears. It's a fun car to drive and will run highway speeds but I'm building a 29 Roadster Pickup with a warmed over Banger. It all depends what you want to do with the car, I'm perfectly happy tooling around on secondary roads with the banger but I've had 5 Model A's and enjoy them,
Can’t think of anything prettier than that ‘30 coup with the FH V 8. As far as what I want to do with it…. Drive it ! I live in back country Idaho my front roads are backroads Spokane/Coeur d’Alene is 50 miles west, Missoula 120 miles east with many mountains in between. My project will start with hydraulics conversion then on to suspension and chassis boxing. . The engine is after that. I was leaning toward the SBC ‘till I saw your Coup
You are at the point where you want more. We have all been there. Write down your expectations, including all the little stuff you can think of. Price it out. It will probably be a figure where you question your sanity or start looking at complete, running cars like @jimmy six mentioned. Soap box time Part of the reason this hobby is losing any new blood is because there are no entry level or beginner cars. I don't mean to put down your current car, it could be a show winner and priced out of the average person's range already. But, taking a running driving car and redoing it to a higher level is moving one more car higher on the pecking order. It will almost certainly not be profitable to do this, and rodders have always made their cars faster, better and prettier. I get that. But if you can find a car that already has that combo of features you want and you can pass along the current car to someone who wants it's features, it's a win-win.
I think having the t5 conversion already done, itd be cool to do a built banger and just lower it and put juice brakes on it. If you play around with the rear gears I would think youd have no problem with the banger and T5 and driving on highway, but also its your car. I had a banger in my car with the A transmission and built a chassis seperate to move the body over on. SBC, t5 and 40 banjo rear with 3.78 gears. I can go about 70mph at 2400rpm in 5th. A banger wouldnt have the acceleration like a chevy but I bet it would be a good enough highway driver. You could always just buy another model a and just build a chassis with whatever combo you want and then youd have a cool SBC/t5 hot rod as well as a hopped up banger/t5 hot rod haha
I say hop up the banger a bit, lower suspension. Maybe hydraulic brakes, but the mechanical work with proper adjustment and maintenance. Another option is since you have the T5. Get an iron duke 4 cyl. It will bolt easy to the GM pattern T5****uming that's what you have. Keeps the rest of drivetrain as it is with torque tube. More power, but still kind of traditional. Then do the suspension lowering and possible brakes. Or if you have the Ford pattern trans, think about the 2.3 Ford 4 cyl. Realistically, your car already has the worst part of the drivetrain, the stock trans, removed and the nice shifting and OD of the T5. So build using that advantage you already have.
Check out Jake's new roadster with a Chevy II and mechanical brakes. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/jim-jake-jacobs-latest-hot-rod.1274717/
It my money or my car, but I am with some of the others in liking the idea of hopping the banger up, or going with the flathead. The SBC would be faster and probably easier, but who wants that? I would keep the T5, but you should go with whatever will make you want to drive it more.
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