When your fabrication and welding skills start to progress you’ll get to a point where not much scares you as far as repair goes. Whether it’s rust or just old body damage anything can be fixed with enough time and skills. Over the past few years I’ve started to get myself to that point where I often have to approach a rusty panel with the question “Is it worth my time to fix it?”. The answer can differ for many reasons. Is the panel easily available aftermarket or good used? How expensive are the panels? How soon do I need it versus how long it takes to get a replacement part?
Tag: model a
How to Fabricate a Cowl Panel From Scratch
I somehow ended up with this ’29 Model A Roadster carcass I want to build a little replica-racer out of. It was cheap, the bones were there and I figured I could build it up when I found some non-existent free time. I’m a little stubborn and although I could buy an entire new steel replica body, or all of the panels new to make this car all solid again, I’d rather build the panels I need from scratch and bring a close to 90-year old car back from the dead for very little money out of my pocket. I decided I wanted to start in the front of the body and work my way back. The side cowl panels are almost ALWAYS rotted out on the bottom of these cars and after I looked at the remains of the originals I decided I could easily tackle making new panels for only a few bucks in sheet metal.
Fitting a bench Seat into a Channeled Hot Rod
Channeling an early 30’s car looks the cat’s meow but it creates ALL sorts of problems with actually making the car drivable inside. Every step of this project I’ve had to take a step back and figure out how to fit everything into the car with the decreased room inside. Because the transmission and driveshaft tunnel protrude up above the floor now I couldn’t just put the seat up on top of the tunnel or I’d have my head up out of the roof. I needed to get the driver and passengers butts as close to the floor as possible.
Tech Tip- How to Move a Bent Edge
On my Model A project I channeled the car down over the chassis which required me to build new floor supports and pans. The way I built it all up I needed to make 6 small pans that would fit down in between each supports. This meant I had to nail the bends on either edge so the final inside measurement allowed the pans to drop down in between the supports tightly. I will have to take the pans in and out throughout the rest of the project so I wanted them to drop in and fit snug, but not so tight I needed to use a hammer to force them in (this could also bow the panel).
Building a Simple Hot Rod Chassis From Scratch
I decided to start building the chassis for a 1930 Model A Coupe project I’ve been gathering parts for. The vision for this project was to build a traditional hot rod using a strong chassis that gives the car a nice stance all while utilizing some old and original parts to give the build the “soul” of a car built back in the late 1940’s-early 1950’s. This means other than raw material used and the replacement maintenance type parts, we’ll be building it using old “stuff”.
How to Build Simple Engine Mounts for a Hot Rod
To me building a hot rod or custom car is all about building with what you’ve got, using some ingenuity, and making things from scratch. Sure you can point and click with your mouse and buy a “hot rod in a box” from online vendors, but I think that those cars lose the soul that makes a hot rod so dang cool. Recently I built a chassis for a 1930 Ford Model A coupe I’m putting together and I needed to make some simple motor mounts to attach the Flathead to the chassis. I know you can buy some, but where’s the fun in that?! I decided to show a simple way to make some mounts from scratch.
How to Convert Late Ford Banjo Rear End to Spring Over Axle
When you’re building old cars you sometimes have to work with “what you’ve got”, especially when you’re on a tight budget. If you’re building a hot rod using period correct parts you may need to mix and match parts to get something that works for your particular vehicle.
How to separate a Transverse or Buggy Spring
If it’s one thing I learned as kid from my dad was that you need to fear and respect the suspension, specifically the springs on a vehicle. They can have a lot of built up tension in them when still mounted together that can be very dangerous if released uncontrollably. […]
2014 AACA Hershey Fall Swap Meet Report
For most here at Eastwood The fall AACA Hershey swap meet has become a tradition to visit each year. The reality with Hershey is that if you can’t take off of work and come mid-week, you’re going to miss the REAL good deals. Heck, some of the best deals are scored by fellow vendors on setup day it seems! I decided to swing by on the first official day of the swap meet and see what this year had in store.