Not-so-badass-ride

[Mexican Kerry]

Dilemma: want flathead. But neighbor's brother has a 429 in his Fairlane, and he wants to swap it out for a 302. Crazy. Might be buying a big boy if the price is right.

[Mexican Kerry]

I have a thought for the clutch. Foot space is gonna be tight, these are super narrow cars. Anybody think a hand clutch mounted on the shifter is a really bad idea?

[Mexican Kerry]

This old 3 spd toploader came with the engines I bought, need to figure out if its going to work for me. Its small, which is good. Don't really want to build a huge tunnel in the floor and lose valuable space.

[Jonwoos]

Hurry up!

[Mexican Kerry]

I'm trying! Going on the road for work later this week so not going to see much progress for a couple weeks.

[nemo]

Looks good so far.

[Mexican Kerry]

Thanks nemo! time will tell once I get to paint time. Hopefully won't need too much mud to hide my welding.

[Mexican Kerry]

Worked on the roof chop some more, haven't had much time (motivation) lately. Got one cab corner pretty much finished, and have been working on the window pillars. They are tapered so have been splitting them vertically, and spread/tightened to try making a smooth transition where the chop happened.









Looks like a mess, I'm not a great welder. Here's the same pillar, almost done now. Hope its looking better. Few pin holes to close up, and give a final shape. It'll look better with paint, trust me!

[Mexican Kerry]

Finishing up around the windows, sticking the door pillars back together. Crappy pics.









My second attempt at a rear corner worked out better, but now I have to redo some of it cause I got too aggressive with the hammer and dolly. A couple of cracks now that need to be patched back together. Boo!

[Mexican Kerry]

Important note: if you are attempting to chop an A or T (or any other car that has a lot of wood in it for structure, remove said wood before welding body back together. Had a little fire smoldering away inside the window frame for about an hour or so. Oops.

[ssracer]

Lol...DOH!

[Mexican Kerry]

Important note #2: when using an autodarkening welding mask in a tight spot (inside door jamb and you're standing with your head partially out through the roof) make sure there is line of sight from mask sensors to point of weld. Flashed myself a couple times pretty good before I realized what the hell was happening.

[Mexican Kerry]

Welding splices into pillars. Using up some scrap angle so it doesn't take up too much room, I may put in some square tubing later from top to bottom.

Not pretty, but its solid. By the time the car is finished, maybe I'll be a better welder.

[Mexican Kerry]

Taking paint off now, I'ms stripping the whole thing down to bare. This is after 2 coats of some hi test stripper I'm trying, it works pretty good. Tedious but coming off. I'm wondering if I should strip it down and just clear the body. I'll take a pic or two after.









Nothing exciting happening, just little shit that needs to happen. Needed a break from screwing with the pillars.

[Jonwoos]

Looking good!

[Mexican Kerry]

I got a bit more done last week before leaving for work again. Unfortunately, my shop is an awesome place full of cool distractions. This leads to a lot of dicking around and not much production.

Anyway, I got the passenger door welded back together despite wasting a lot of time on things like guitars whisky guns and knives.

This is at about the midway point, I've got the majority filled now, but I'll have a month of Sundays to take care of the final grinding and cleanup. Right now I'm trying to get the damn thing stuck back together so it won't fall apart. A Model A body is a bunch of small pieces of sheet metal that are screwed, bolted, and nailed together. Remove one piece and the whole thing basically tries to cave in on itself.

In case anyone is interested, this is the kind of thing I'm working on. When you remove 4" from a tapered pillar, the remaining pieces don't match up.

This:





Turns into this (with a lot of time and swearing):



And then with some cleanup, its ready for some final blending with a skim of filler/glazing putty.





*If you are reading this and actually are a body work professional, I'm open to suggestions that will make this an easier process. This is a first for me so I'm kinda wingin' it.

[Toddstang]

[Mexican Kerry]

Haven't been working on the car too much, winter spring and summer have been busy. Plus I was preoccupied with the Merc for a while but that's done now and I'm getting back at the A. Working out what I want to do with the frame and axles, think I got it figured out.

Picked up some misc parts and wheels and tires on Friday, and a kool old intake yesterday. Chevy wheels so they will be sold off but the Firestones are sweet and there's even a spare. and a second set of whitewalls so I have to find another car now haha.

[Mexican Kerry]

Picked up a bunch of square tubing and an adapter for the welder so I'm back in business today. Gonna try to get the roof framed out and back together by day's end.

[Mexican Kerry]

Rear section of main frame rails: nothing too fancy yet, still have to add the section from the firewall forward and then do a template to get the right widths when I weld in the cross members. 6" kick up in the back, may need more. Won't know until I get the rear end under it.

[Mexican Kerry]

4" z in the front of the frame, making my front rails out of 4" with a 1" taper. Cutting a wedge out and pinching back together to weld. Not much to see yet.

[Mexican Kerry]

So I screwed up. I measured from the firewall to the rear crossmember, and built the frame so the firewall would fit snug against the front z and the rear kickup would clear the rear crossmember of the floor. Too bad I forgot to allow for the lap of the two piece frame.

Not the end of the world, I have to rebuild the floor and will just have to move the new crossmember forward a bit. Too much time in the frame to start over.

[Mexican Kerry]

I built the rear kicked up section long anyway cause I didn't know exactly where I wanted to end it, allowed for cut off. Still feel stupid though, I measured the damn thing ten times before I started.

[SAMPLE- BANNED]

can't wait to see the finish car....

[Mexican Kerry]

Made adapter for engine stand to hang a flattie on it. Should have the block stripped and dropped off for cleaning and inspecting by end of week.