Projects Stock Model A rails F1 or F100 box?

Good day everyone . Another dead horse question with one missing point. I’m looking into the F1 or F100 steering boxes for my 31A but one question I have is what years F1 or F100 boxes will position correctly for a non-channeled or modified body? I will be dropping in a “52” 8BA with stock manifolds and want to keep the stock steering column angle as well as stock looking steering set-up. I see many people recommend these boxes with the flange modification which I’m ok with doing however the column input shaft on some is lower positioned on some and others on the top side relatively to the pitman arm shaft . How will this affect angle? Also what modifications to the steering column rod will need to be done to receive the model a column tube and steering wheel? As mentioned above I’d like to keep the column angle , steering wheel angle and column length as stock as possible. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

Thinking that a lot of this is explained in the Tardel book.
I had good results using a F1 box on a 31 coupe. I did the flange mod with the help of NeilinCa here on the Hamb who turned down the snout.
For the column, I used Limeworks (here in So. Ca). They make a column tube with a bell and made a new shaft in the correct length.
I had to use a Limeworks spacer to drop the column 2” IIRC.
All worked well. May be some pics on my 31 build thread....

 

All years of F1 boxes are the same. 53-55 and the 56 F100 box are the same except the 56 has a longer steering shaft.

The F100 box has the steering shaft exit on the top like the Model A box but probably won’t clear the flathead. I tried it with my build but couldn’t get it to work with stock manifolds. You could move the engine or steering box placement around a bit and make it work though. There is also the issue of the really big pitman arm used on the F100 box. Lots of people don’t like it in the more slender model A frame.

The F1 box is smaller and has the steering shaft exit on the bottom which provides more room. It will change the angle on the steering wheel from stock more so than the F100 box.

Thanks,

—louis

 

I'm going with F-1 simply because I bought a donor ch***is that has a lot of the pieces I need or can use. I've got a buddy who can turn down the snout if I can drag him away from his girlfriend long enough. It may be easier to strip it down, clean it up and send it off though.