Hot Rods The Daily Grind - 1928 Model A Coupe Build

Back in 2009 a friend of mine and his uncle (HAMBer Jalopy Jerry) were building a '29 RPU. Once a week for 20 weeks we got together to go over the major build components. During the rest of the week the two of them would continue the build.
That got me thinking that I'd like a hot rod too. So after scouring Kijiji and eBay I started collecting parts. I wanted a Model A coupe that I could chop and channel and in September 2009 I found one. The only problem was I had to drive 24 hours to northern Ontario to get it. It turned out to be well worth it.

Here's what I came home with...




I found a boxed Model A frame and 302 with a C6 earlier in the year so I had the beginnings of my project.

Here's the frame I bought and Z'd the rear...




With only have a single car garage at the time the project sat for the winter.
Then the following spring we decided to move so the project sat for a while longer.

This past winter I was able to work more often in my two car garage.

Here's some more updates...
Starting the channel


Engine mounted


Rear

 

I guess you'll be able to get the ride height just right.. Waiting to see the body on the frame.....

 

This is my take on Bob Bleed's frame. I like the work he does.

The hard part for me was figuring how long I wanted the wheelbase. That why the rear crossmember is narrower than the rest of the frame. I had set where I thought I wanted it but once the I set the body back on it needed to be longer. So I had to make extensions. The wheelbase now is around 108".
With the rear axle in place I could start on the transmission crossmember. Again I took a while because I wanted the pinion angle correct. It took a lot of reading other threads on here but I think I got it right.




Then came setting up the ladder bars and X member.

 

So a few weeks back I started to chop it. I ended up taking 4 1/2 inches out.



I had all the garnish moldings so I screwed those in place for the chop.

 

Here's the post cut:

 

Welding it back together didn't go quite like i had hoped. The combination of my father-in-law's welder and my poor welding skills left a lot to be desired an a lot of holes. I called up Grant Schwartz (Schwartz Inc) and got my car in for him to fix my mess.

 

good start

 

Cool car man. I'm chopping mine Friday, so I appreciate the pics.

 

Thanks, in retrospect I should have braced it a bit better, both above and below the cut. It wasn't a big deal though. Tacking the doors shut seemed to work well.

 

In talking more with Grant to properly fix my mess of a chop job was beyond my budget. Here's what I took to him to fix:








Mind you the pictures don't really do my work justice. It's really a lot worse. I was globbing weld and burning through like crazy.

 

With the top on hold I decided to tackle to pedals. My brother has a dry cleaners and was getting rid of some scrap presses and dryers. On one of the presses there were a couple pedals that I thought looked pretty cool.


I cut off the one pad to attach to my brake arm


Then used the remaining pieces for my throttle pedal



I'm not quite sure how I'll connect the throttle linkage but it shouldn't be too difficult.

 

I like those pedals. Neat idea. Keep us posted!

 

Those pedals are definatly cool.

 

Its a good that you figured out you couldnt finish welding the chop and stopped. Ill give you much props for that to many guys would have just tried to finish. Then you would have ended up with a way more screwed up mess. Keep working you have a cool hotrod when your done...

 

pedals are really cool cant wait to see more work done on the model A

 

Nice work! good choice on using a ford, wish we saw more of those! It kills me though to see a good body get the floor cut out of it since my A coupe body didnt come with a floor and I need one because and Im not channeling it.

 

Yeah, it was tough to take a saw to it but I got over it and am pretty happy at how it turned out. I'll include more pics of the floor I built.

 

So here's the floor framing I put in. There will be a small storage compartment behind the seats because there won't be much room in the trunk with the gas tank and the Z'd frame.



I bent the flat bar for the driveshaft loop over my rear tire

 

Lookin' good.

 

I was able to get some of the floor and tunnel fitted. I'm happy with the way the tunnel turned out. I basically formed a piece of bristle board over the transmission, marked the points where the bend was going to be then transferred it to the steel.


Then I formed it over my front tire. This is the back piece.


The cut-outs for the shifter and e-brake weren't as difficult as I thought they would be.


With no brake I had to get creative with a piece of angle iron and some clamps to make the bends I needed.



Here's the driver's side. With the floor framed the way I did I'm not sure I'll need to run beads in the floor. I might though just to get practice.

 

So it's been quite a crappy summer. In June I lost my mom to Wegener's disease and in July I lost my job. That prompted me to take August off and do a bit of reflecting and spend more time with my family.
Once September rolled around and the rest of the family went back to school I had time on my hands to search for a job in the mornings and spend the afternoons working on the build.
I was able to get the chassis components painted and finally put back together. I decided to go with Ford Dark Toreador Red and think it looks pretty good.

 

With the chassis painted I decided to try and tackle the chop again. In the early part of the summer I picked up a Millermatic 140.

I followed Grant's suggestion and cut out my previous crappy weld job and inserted a new strip.

Before:


During:






I'll have to hammer it out a bit but I'm pleased so far.

 

Good stuff mate, sorry to hear about you mum. Love your rear cross member so you can adjust your ride height in the rear. Keep up the good work.

 

I love the color you chose for the frame.... Keep truckin brother, she's comin along good...

Dustin

 

Chassis looks good. Glad to see you havn't given up on the build, alot of guys do. I know I've thought about it. Keep on Keepin On!