My surname is Compton. I bought this 1929 Model A Ford coupe from Ryan Cochran and Keith Tardel in 2016. It was featured on the Jalopy Journal as A Full Fendered Side Project. I'm just now getting around to starting my own thread. For the most part, Keith and Ryan had creative control on the build and I was fine with that. One extra thing I wanted was the side pipes. Basically I've been running open headers. The 327 smallblock puts out an awesome roar, but it gets old after a while. I've decided I will get a lot more use out of the car if I could cut the edge off, so one of the few changes will be to add some baffles. My son Kyle is a really good fabricator. He cut the stainless steel pipes and welded-in two per side. They are shown backwards in the photo, but please ignore that. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
How are the front shock mounts/fender brace working? I would like to try that on my car? How is the chop for driving? That is one nice coupe!
I should get the car back from Kyle this Saturday. He reports that it's still F-ing loud, but you now have a chance of holding a conversation inside the cab. The shock mounts seem great. The fenders and headlights look solid going down the road. I'm satisfied with that part. The chop is very well done, in the traditional style. The only thing I would change, is to section the header panel above the windshield. I believe it's possible to gain-back around four inches of visibility out front. On this car, that will require some very delicate surgery, since the visor is already molded-in. I'm not in a big hurry on that change. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
buddy removes most of the header and then uses '30-'31 visors as they mount higher on the roof buying him a little more forward vison ...
Glad I checked this out and it's great to know that you're back in hot rod mode! I followed the other thread (even borrowed a couple of ideas)and will follow this to see the improvements you make. Happy Motoring, Carp
Thanks catdad. For those of you that don’t know, I had brain surgery last June and was out of commission for almost three months. At one point, I couldn’t hold my phone, let alone operate a manual transmission. I seem to be fully healed now. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Here’s a couple of shots my son took on an original stretch of Route 66, near Galena, KS. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Glad your over the ruff edges...awesome Hotrod and as for the rumble I hear you. I did CC inserts and they did make a significant difference. The decibels now fluctuate between 90/100 (I should have measured it before). A lot of that is wind. But they can be removed and wrapped which may happen. It still has good tone as well. Again spoil us with film and details of the journey. Won't ever tire of seeing your coupe.
Love this car! I'm still tring to figure out how to get the later caps on the early wheels. @Rand Man When you get it back could you pop one of the caps off so we can see how its held on? The caps just make this coupe for me.
Jason, I think you are on the wrong track on this wheel question. I’ll post a photo tomorrow evening. If they aren’t (aftermarket) Ford wheels (which are available from Coker) I’ll eat my hat. The picture in the other thread was just a mock-up wheel that Keith used. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
ok that makes a lot more sense, I guess I never paid attention to the slots in those style wheels before. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
Update: turns out the baffles were a bad idea. Car runs fine around town, but when you really get on it, you can tell it is held back. I’m not having any part of that shit. I’m ordering some glass-pack style mufflers that may fit. I should have known. . . Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Got some Cherry Bombs installed. Will reattach the side pipes soon. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hows it sound with the cherry bombs ? I put the long porters on mine and it seems too quiet. Like the style.
It most likely is just carb jetting. Take any engine that's running correctly and by opening up the exhaust it forces an up size in carb jets to again run correctly. The inverse would be true as well. Take an engine that has open exhaust and that runs correctly will need to have a down size in carb jets if mufflers are added. Common sense will tell you that bigger jets providing more fuel and open exhaust providing more air flow will create more power. Having the wrong air fuel ratio will always drop the power level.
I’ll find out this afternoon. My son has the car and working on it. Now I’m bringing it home. I doubt it will be too quiet. The great thing about functional side pipes: I can uncork them any time. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Oh, I am sure the jetting should be addressed and I would love to have a discussion about that. I don’t even know where to get some jets. I do engineering for a living. Baffles without an expansion chamber is just poor design. The exhaust is the sewer piping for the engine. If I were to purposely design-in a restriction in the drains of a building, somebody is going to have a big mess to deal with. The glass packs may seem antique now, but they are a straight-through design with low restriction. I say my car was rodded in 1964, based on the date codes on the Stewart Warner gauge package. I’m keeping 1964 as my build era, so I say the Cherry Bombs fit right in. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Cherry bomb, disturbing the peace since 1968. Exhaust pipes are a bit more than sewer drain pipes. Velocity of the hot gas within the exhaust pipes is really important, more important than overall volume capabilities of the pipe. If you want the sewer pipe analogy- how important is the vent? You can over size the pipe but plug the vent and you're in for it.