Been bang'n steel for what seems like forever, just trying to see some progress on my A body. Most of the work has been to repair the sickness that a previous owner had inflicted.... I swear he s***ched a mis-aligned chop job with a stick welder. The poor thing was filled with more bondo than Pep Boys.... Unfortunately so was the frame.... I threw in a few pics of how she arrived. On the back panel I s***ching in the louvers from the original hood sides as cheap venelation for the rear mounted radiator. So far the car is channelled 7.5" and chopped 5". My original plan called for 112" wheelbase, which I am pulling in to 103" so I can actually make a few u-turns. The plan is to run 1/4 ellipticals all around. Right now I am cutting out the nastiness on the sail panel and replacing it with a fresh 4" strip. I am dreading trying to hammer weld thru the rear window... Any tips?
The louvers are off the original hood sides. I cut off the edges and hinges and s***ched the mess together. I came up with the idea after I realized that I could not afford to get any punched...
rear radiator? you going rear engine w/ this thing? I see your drawing, just curious about the change. BTW: Nice work...the leuvers look cool in the back.
The green wheel drawing was a wheel & color layout board... After I finished I stepped back and said damn thats ugly... since then I have yet to pull another color sketch. The frame and suspension designs seem to have taken over. The reason I stuck the rad in the rear, was for the empty grille shell 'g***er' look up front. Something about an 'A' grille shell hangin in the breeze just kicks ***.
I dig the rear panels. It is always nice to see something different. No grill at all? Or are you still going to run one for old times sake? What is the plan for motivation?
Het Rattlecan, The chop looks dead on the money..... to hammer weld those sail panels call in a favor on a buddy and put him inside with the dolly. At first, it's alittle slow gowin', however as ya learn ta work as a team it all comes together. Go slow and you'll get it. Good luck,
clever idea using the hood louvers. i was figuring you must be going for a drag car look if you were running the radiator in the back. word to the wise though. build some sort of sealed cover to seperate the radiator from the interior compartment. we saw a guy at the Detroit BilletProof show (who had a rear mounted radiator in a sedan) blow a radiator hose while doing a burnout. his girl was in the pasenger side and i never saw someone move so fast to get out of a car. that stuff gets hot and could cause SERIOUS burns. you'll need to bring fresh air in the font of the rad somehow though. curious to see your remedy for that. maybe bring it in from under the car??? you'd prolly want some sort of air scoop under the car to grab the air and force it through the rad. electric fans will be a must aswell. air ducts on the sides would look cool. on a Ferrari! but not so much on a model A Ford. build shrouds so that it directs the cool air in and THROUGH the radiator and the hot air goes right out your louvers and does'nt hang around the rear of the rad. oh, and i'd go find the ******* who F-ed up that body and kick his ***. looks like your fixin it up right though. keep pluggin away.
I knew I should have stayed at Billetproof for the burnout contest..... My plan to seperate the rad, air compressor and fuel tank from p***enger compartment was a full wood and metal slat package shelf and floor.... What ****s is I thought it was a fairly original idea untill Pinkee's RPU. Oh well!! For venelation to the rear rad I will duct from under the car and mount twin puller fans. Aerodynamically I should be OK with flow at speed, if not, I will add controllable louvers to the package shelf to alter the pressure zones. Last night I fitted the 'chop' patch and tonight (if the wife lets me) I start welding. I will post some pics later. Thanks for the good words... They help with the motivation factor.
hey man,,, i really dig those louvers and the rear radiator idea... one thing that might be kinda cool and really different as well,,, what about putting an air inlet up under the visor, and duct the air back through the roof and down next to the rear window? im no engineer, but someone else might be able to figure out the CFM that you need to feed it, and figure out if this idea is even viable
Good idea of ducting under the visor, I will remember that for the next build. For this ride I am running with an open roof.... a roadster-tudor.
still could,,, run a duct on either side of the roof opening. might look kinda odd looking down into the car tho
Another damn good idea!! Unfortunately one of the other tricks on this car is the doors open the whole side of the car, ie the roof panel is welded to the door. This way I can literally walk straight into the car... I will probably have to run scoops/louvers off the top of the package shelf into the rad area for flow...
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