Build Up Of A 1928 Ford Model A Roadster.

So i figure you guys might be interested in seeing my other hobby, which by now should be well known (especially to club members) which is antique cars / old cars / hot rods.

I currently have four cars, my driver '75 Kingswood, a 1961 Holden EK sedan, a 1940 Chevrolet pick up with a 5" roof chop and a '28 Model A Ford.

I'll start by posting all the build thread off other forums and then keep it updated as it progresses.

I've had the "car" since April of this year. This is what i brought home one day after i told Dad i was gona start collecting parts and bring a couple things home. Needless to say, he wassn't impressed. I just had to tear it apart and put it all inside the yard before the sun went down and he was happy enough.

The style of build will be something that a 20 year old kid would of built, in 1948, living in Southern California. All parts on the car will be from '28 - '48. Anything newer will be things like tube shocks, dash switches and gauges, repro headlights and repro grill, and some repro body parts.









Pulling the front end apart.. this wassn't as fun as i envisioned it'd be.. Nice to find that it still had grease in everything, and the spindle bearings still worked, although they look like those tapered roller bearings or whatever their called, and i don't recall those as being a factory item (Could be wrong but sure i read somewhere their not..).



This was even worse.. I'm sure you can guess whats going on..


The Chassis. Very straight, no pitting at all on any part of it and only one inch long crack on the frame horn at the front.



Was pretty stoked when i got this all together again and stepped back for a gander. Unforunately the rest of the springs are rooted from pitting, but the main leaf was absolutely perfect with no pitting at all.. guess that one worked out alright ha.







First up.. the chassis back from the blasters.





Then filled a whole bunch of holes. I'm not sure, but i'm hoping the last two, and the one around 3/4 way on the rails are body mounting holes?





Then sat the front end under the frame..



Then blasted and painted most of the front end stuff.. Spring perches will be getting the shock knob and the eye cut off eventually, but painted for now (just rattle can gloss black) to keep it all from rusting).



Then i picked up a whole bunch of parts i bought off a guy i met through a mate, who has a '29 Closed Cab Truck. Hes just using the body tub and panels, and the chassis.. i took the rest

So i mocked up the painted front end, and the rear end to have a look.









Heres a pic of where i'm working on it at the moment. We have another garage near here but its got my '61 Holden and my brothers '66 Holden in it at the moment, so i'm doing the fabrication here for now.



This is the chassis jig i made today to do my work on, so that the chassis doesn't twist, flex or warp when its boxed up.

I made it so that i can also mock up the front and rear ends without interfering with the jig itself. I'm sure that aspect will come in handy.





Here is the banger that came outta my chassis. It won't be used at this stage..





And the one that'll replace it.







This next part was a post i made earlier today.

So, a couple weeks back i chopped the mechanical brake eye and shock knob off the spring perches and this was the end result. Its half metal finished, and just painted with spray can gloss black to stop any rusting.



Then today i started by cleaning up the bellhousing mounts.. also painted gloss black for the time being.



Then i finished welding the last of the body mounting nuts in.. had all the others done last weekend.



I then proceeded to begin boxing the rails. Since i'm using the original bellhousing mounts, i've got to box the front two feet or so, and the close up that bit and leave the gap for the mounts to bolt in, and then box from there all the way to the back. So i started doing from the front crossmember to the mount today.

My boxing plates were laser cut, and came in two peices. The main part, and about a foots worth for the front. I used to front part to do this, and then for the second part before the bellhousing had to cut up the rest of the main plates.



Still gotta clean up the inside of the mounts, but clamped them in plate to know where to end the boxing.



This pic is the same left hand side of the frame, just upside down to tack the underneath of the boxing plates. You can see that i've put a 45 degree chamfer onto one of the plates, as well as leaving a 2mm gap to weld the two plates together.

For now, i want to just have it all tacked together.



I then did the drivers side. Only needed one plate to go to where roughly the steering box will sit. I'll have basically boxing from the crossmember to the steering box, then a bit more between the steering box and the bellhousing.

I'll also be putting a plate in the inside of the rails to close off each section.





One last pic of the frame upside down when i was tacking the underside of the plates.



Thats it for now. I found that the boxing plates are about 5mm too thick, so i'm taking what i've got left to work tomorrow to cut 5mm off on the guillotine so they'll fit perfectly when i get em back home tomorrow arvo.

I'll be updating more and more, since now i've got the boxing plates it'll be progressing a lot quicker

So a few more pics.

This arvo, i got most of the passenger side boxing tacked in.

First pic, got pretty much the remainder of the boxing tacked at the top.



Then flipped the frame, and had to shave down a few mm all the way along because the boxing plates are still a bit too thick. I'll have to guillotine my other rail at work tomorrow again. I ended up burning out our grinder, so i had to use the dodgy old one that has completely rooted bushes, but still spins. The disc just doesn't spin entirely on right axis.. its a bit of a deathtrap. So annoying, cause i had like three inches left and the grinder kicked the bucket.



Anyway, got it all tacked in.



And as it sits now.



I still have to box the last few inches where the gusset is at the rear of the rails, and i have to close off the front section before the bellhousing mount and also the rest of the rails just after the mount. That part should be easy though.

More to most likely come tomorrow.

Well, despite that you don't have the mental capacity nor decent eyesight to notice that there isn't any twisted metal in any of those pics, this thread isn't here just so you can try and be a smartass.

I know for one, that Andres was interested in my other hobby being old cars, so i put this up for him and others to look at and see something that is slightly out of the ordinary.

Keep in mind that i am a moderator and if you keep up your stupid posts, i'll start deleting them. Thats your last warning, any more and you'll find that your posts start going "missing".

Another update.

First, i got the driver side boxing plate in. It fit like a glove after i trimmed 3mm off it width wise on the guillotine at work today.



Then flipped the frame in the jig and tacked the other side, making sure that there was an even 1mm gap between the boxing and the rails, to ensure proper weld penetration.



I then started closing off each boxed section.. This is the pass side, and try and ignore that the picture isn't the right way up, i only noticed after i uploaded it and cbf uploading again.





I then did the drivers side. These pics include the Bellhousing mount to check for adequate gap between the mount and the boxing.





And without the mount clamped in place.



The chassis in the jig, as it sits now. Only a few bits of boxing left to do, need to get a steering column off a mate so i can finish off the drivers side and also do the end of the frame.



Also got a pic of the Roadster dash rail. Closed car dash rails were a different length to open topped cars. Need to weld up a few holes on the right side of the rail. Will get to that at a later date.



Thats all for now.

Any more updates?

Have you put it all together? you´re falling behind mate.......I would have finished it in less than a week......

Kidding mate, It took me like two hours to put together a set of 3 moon lights....

put up some more pics

Cheers

Haha. Moon lights are tricky business thats for sure.

I'll have some more updates tonight, so check back then

Pisces wrote:Please spare us - no more pictures- those bits of twisted metal look more like parts for an artificial reef We all know that FORD stands for Fix Or Repair Daily

I think a few people will find it interesting Deadsled,one can always choose not to look pisces if it is to long for them or not what they are interested in.

I didn't check the wording of the thread name but it may become a google search result if it is of resonable content.

One thing though,you might be going to do this anyway,is put a thread for each finished major stage of the work,just a thought!

So another little update..

I started doing my front shock mounts on the weekend, got them finished and bolted up this arvo.

First i had to heat and bend the 1948 Ford F1 Pickup shock mounts to suit the Model A chassis rails.





Original on the right, modified on the left.



Next on the agenda was drilling out the side rivets for the front crossmember, enlarging the hole to a 7/8th" and had to use a die grinder to take out another 2mm from the front holes, as the hole centers were 2mm out between the shock mounts and the rivet holes. No big deal.

Here they are both sides bolted, with the inside nuts welded to the front crossmember. Before you ask, the drivers side mount is perfectly straight, i guess the angle of the picture just makes it look all skewif.





Next up is the '28 Cowl and door i won on ebay on Saturday night. This Cowl is so bloody mint, its incredible. The thing is 80 years old, so its amazing that its in such good condition. It has been blasted and primed, but rust wise.. its perfect.

Only parts missing from the cowl are the gauge panel, which i have one of, the gas cap which i have and also the dash rail, which i think is included though. I have one anyway, spares are always handy for trading though. Does need a windscreen frame and windscreen posts, still gotta find those.

Oh, yes.. the gas tank is infact at the front of the body. Cool eh?







Heres the passenger door that comes with the cowl. It still needs blasting, but rust wise its mint.

Another update.

My Cowl came up from NSW, and arrived this arvo. So heres a few pics of it.



The dash rail and gauge panel i already had, although it did come with another dash rail.







This is where the windscreen posts slide onto. I'll have to repair all this sooner or later.









And heres some of the passenger door that came with it.





I'm making a pretty neat middle crossmember at work tomorrow, so i'll be able to start welding up the boxing plates in a few days.

Ok.. heres another fairly big update.

This post is all about how i made my middle X-member.

Firstly, started with something i drew up on cardboard and then folded at work last monday.. You'll notice its got a cutout on the end of it, thats because i made it so that one end actually tapers up to match up to the framerails.





Next, i pie cut the rails so that i had a nice 45 degree bend on each end, and chamfered and welded up the rails.

I also added in the filler strip for the peice that was previously missing, due to not being able to fold on a line where it tapers upwards.





I then cut a 45 degree angle on the ends, so that it'd meet up to the frame rails just like i'd drawn out. I still had to do a little extra cutting and modifying at the end of it, but it worked out good in the end.



Here is where i filled the little gaps after where each side had been pie cut. You can also see the weld penetration from where i stitch welded the filler peice in. Its fully welded, but was stitched as to keep heat and distortion to a minimum.



Next i started making the gussets and the joining plate. I cut up the gussets at work, and then oxy'd and shaped them at home. A good tip for anyone who makes stuff by oxy or plasma, when you draw your line make sure you center punch it so even after its cut, you'd get the punch marks to follow when you clean up the slag and metal finish them.



I still might drill this plate, or do something to it. Its a little bland for my liking..





I then drilled them. I think it was a 5 or 6mm hole, can't remember. I just picked up what i had laying next to the drill press.



I then tacked in the middle plate to the rails and got it into the chassis, but found that the middle plate wassn't wide enough. I musta stuffed up my measurements in my cardboard drawing somewhere. Oh well, easy fix. Had to cut it and weld some strips onto each side. Pretty simple.



I then heated up the gussets to match the curve of the middle plate. I first bent them around a peice of gal pipe we had lying around, and then put them in the vice and made the last bend to fit up to the rails. Turned out real nice i think.





Frame upside down in the jig with just the middle plate in. Had to tack the crossmember rails to the chassis on the underside.



Heres the finished crossmember tacked up.





And heres the last one, the frame with the cowl in the background. I quite like this picture actually.

I know this has been a long time coming, so heres an update.

Finally got to move it down into the carport and got heaps more room now so i'm back into it.

Heres the cowl / chassis / jig in the carport.







The car behind it, is my 1961 Holden EK Sedan. Plans for this are a two door conversion (extended front doors, shortened and welded into the body rears, air bags all round, possibly a roof chop, gold paint and white interior with cruiser skirts, and black steelies and 3" whitewalls).



Heres the 3spd 1929 Model A crashbox, mostly cleaned up before getting a good wash with the gurny.



About 2" of shit scraped off it in a ice cream tub. 81 year old stuff is so much fun!



Clean gearbox. It looks dirty, but its very much clean.







Inside my 81 year old gearbox. The gears are perfect, no chipped teeth and it all works perfectly. Could not be better.



Gearbox mounted into the frame. I did have to take out and modify my middle X member though.





I still have to take the pedals off the box and make my own pedal mounts for the right hand side. Shouldn't be too hard at all though.

Heres my 1940 Ford steering wheel, with super awesome trim ring which i've actually never seen before on another car.



Should have more pics tomorrow when i get my X member back into the frame rails..

hi deadsled ,, just going over your car collection . very cool hobby you have got going on there . can imagine it will take you many man hours to get them back on the road !! and very rewarding i recon.. def .whole lot differnet to collecting fish lol .----- hey just a few questions . will you be able to drive these cars when you finish building them ? or will you have like a wee museum for them for folk to check out ? and finally , i know this may sound really dumb no worries ,, that i am lol ,, as i have noooo idea about cars at all !! but what kinda fuel would you use for them if your building them to the original ?

Absolutely will be driving them when their done. I already drive a 1975 Holden HJ Kingswood sedan as a daily. The Roadster that i'm building (this threads subject) can be put either on LH9 (Hot Rod Rego) or LH10 (Full Rego).

There are different requirements between the two, you get away with a bit more with LH9 and LH10 is a bit stricter. I will be using the roadster daily, so it will be on full rego and will be same rego costs as any other four cylinder car.

I'm not quite sure what i'm going to do with the EK just yet, probably also put that on full rego. I will most likely de-register the Kingswood as i want to do a engine swap and repaint the car.

As far as fuel goes, its the same as any other car. I run ordinary unleaded in my Kingswood, and will be the same for the Roadster and the EK. The Roadster may get Premium though. I usually put a lead replacement into the fuel tank of the Kingswood before i put fuel in, as they had leaded fuel back in the day. Same will have to be done for the EK and the Roadster.

You can have your cylinder head rebuilt with new valves that don't require the lead replacement / leaded fuel.

I will put a few pics of my Kingswood in a new thread.

wow--- what a feeling that will be when you have finished to be driving them on the road...... maybe you could hire them out to make back your costs --- maybe ? sure you would get alot of interest thanx for the heads up on the fuel ... as i was not sure how they would work .. cool-- look forward to seeing the pics .

I wouldn't hire them out to anyone, i'm reluctant enough as it is letting others drive my Kingswood let alone the Roadster or the EK. Only a few of my best mates have driven my Kingswood so far.

The satisfaction of driving something like these, is worth it enough for me.