Thread: Model A Ratrod -- what's a good drivetrain donor car?

Tweet

wow great bones to start with i am in envy.

An S10 Two Wheel Drive PicKup Rearend Is The Perfect Width For A Model A With Fenders. Thats What I Have Under My Roadster Pickup---brian


Brian is right. I'm using one under my '39. They come in lots of different ratios and even posi-traction. They are so plentiful you can pick them up pretty cheap, and the strength is good, too. Chrome center section covers can be put on to dress them up.


Don

Hey Pete, want some pix to get the creative juices flowing??? Check out these coupes.


Don

PeterRatCoupe, as Model A hulks go yours looks surprisingly good in the rear wheel wells, bottom of the cowl and rear panel. Think it over before you go radical. I wish I had found a metal car but as Brian shows the fenders can look good so I am putting 'glass fenders on a 'glass roadster body! Assuming you got the doors with the rest of the car maybe you could use 'glass fenders and put most of the work into a mild top chop and of course my favorite idea of a green plastic insert in the roof hole. Just for comment, the Brookville A frame is exceptionally straight and is set up on a jig with laser alignment but mine came with a kickup in the rear. The kickup plus the solid rectangular tube nature of the frame has been excellent to work on up till now when I have decided to add a rear bumper to protect the 'glass fenders. What this means is some messing around with the heavy spring steel rear bumper brackets and Brian found the front brackets very hard to saw through. That is that if you decide to box the present frame you might look ahead and see where the rear bumper brackets fit INSIDE the frame channel and leave that part unboxed to use the brackets later on. I think I will solve my problem by sawing/burning off the inward bending part of the bumper brackets but you could keep the bolt-on design if you so choose and save some trouble later on if you look at the underside of a complete stock A. Well I am just rambling, but it looks like you have some nice metal there so don't cut it up too much, just a little 2" chop would be nice!
By the way, I have a '74 Maverick rear with just rebuilt pumpkin, no change in width but it does seem a tad wide with 3 1/2" offset wheels. That is to say if you use a Ford 8" rear you will need to pay attention the to the wheel offset. I may switch to another set of wheels with a 4" offset just to get outside clearance with the fenders but of course without fenders that is no problem as long as you clear the inner fender wells, but a deep channel like the gray coupe above could cause a need for planning the rear width carefully.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Guys, thanks so much for the info and comments.

Don, that red satin coupe is fabulous. Trips, lake pipes, no fenders, no hubcaps... that's where I'm looking to go. Traditional, simple, retro rod. No giant horsepower motor - just a reliable setup for driving. That car, in satin black, lose the drilled visor, and you're just about where I want to be. I'm not sure on a top chop. I'm about 6'3", and I've already crawled inside my coupe and sat down, and it's not cavernous, so I'm thinking maybe leave it just as it is, no channel, no chop, just give it a good stance with a drop front axle, and a proper rear. Big and little tires... you get the idea.

Yeah, the Suburban was chock full of the rest of the parts. Door, radiator, shell, winshield parts, seat parts, hoods, roof parts, wood parts, etc., etc. Picked it up from a guy who restores As to show condition, so I pretty much got whatever parts were in his garage that he felt weren't up to his standards, or parts that he had better examples of, but are fine for a hot rod, at least to me.

My Dad had a model A as a kid, and then a 46 Ford with a flathead, so flathead power is not out of the question. My Dad's pretty excited about the rod, so I'd like to have a flatty. But I'm not building a show car, so I'll want to drive it a LOT when it's done, thus I'm concerned about the reliability of the flatty, after what I've read on cracking blocks, etc., but that's way off anyway, so I'll have to wait and see. SBC would appear to be so much simpler, and I know them well, and it's cheaper, and more plentiful. But, the flatty is more traditional, and has a higher "Dad factor."

I'd like to box the frame and use it, as it appears to be in decent shape (and I'm not made of money), and I'm not putting in a 500 hp motor. Once I get the body off and sand and inspect the frame fully, we'll see where it stands.

Pete