Thread: Model A body to frame mounting question

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Hello Guys and Gals,
I'm new to the pre 60's cars and especially cars put together with wood!
I'm building a 31 Ford pickup and have a nice new Pete and Jakes frame to mount my body to and have the body blocks and rubber (but not the welting yet I'm still trying to re assemble the body pieces for repair).
My question is, should the two holes on the body wood, frame ear and body all line up? I still have the old frame (its trash though, to rotten to use) and the ear location seems the same. The farthest back hole in the block lines up with the carriage bolt hole in the body, the first hole in the ear lines up with no hole, the second ear hole (farthest forward hole in the tab) lines up with the middle hole in the bodyblock and first hole on the body, and the front most block hole lines up with the body hole only (this is the first block back at the front door post area).
So, now that I have you totally confused , can anyone help or do I need to take pictures?

I THINK I know what you mean, but a photo or two will help.

Assuming you have the correct blocks, they actually will fit onto the body and can be held in place with sheet metal screws. There are 4-5 blocks on each side with the front body mount using two 7/16 bolts through the bolt on frame bracket. I do have a diagram but can't post until tomorrow sometime. These are the brackets I think you mean:

You are not crazy. My Coupe is as you describe. Also, each of my splash aprons only has the one hole for mount bolt not two. Hope his helps

Keith

This shows the holes in my '31 splash shield - don't know the brand though they came from Lobeck. The fronts have the rubber on them, the rest were 'waiting'. All holes were there though one needed a bit of elongating on the RHS.



If you need more, then explain where

OK thanks Guys

Keith that will help once my aprons are ready to go back on.

Dave, your picture of your frame assembly also helps me with running my exhaust, did you exit below the rear axle? My setup has a triangulated 4 bar in the rear and a K member
brace.

Originally Posted by vinces31APU

OK thanks Guys



Dave, your picture of your frame assembly also helps me with running my exhaust, did you exit below the rear axle? My setup has a triangulated 4 bar in the rear and a K member
brace.

I ended up going below the axle for a couple of reasons, but primarily due to the rear mounted '32 style gas tank and associated bracketry to my TCI 'A' chassis and a very convoluted tail pipe (plus it eliminated at least two per side weld joints - potential failure points ). Still plenty of clearance and unseen from the side

Looks like your exhaust has been ceramic coated? and who are those hangers from?

Originally Posted by vinces31APU

Looks like your exhaust has been ceramic coated? and who are those hangers from?

Just the headers are Jet Hot coated. I temporarily ran short of car part funds at the exhaust build point so just used the Rustoleum Barbeque silver high temp paint - which I do have to say is holding up very well now after over a year. That photo is only a few weeks old.

The wrap around hangers are stainless - and from a vendor at NSRA York, possibly Yearwood. The frame attachment part is a common heavy duty Walker

Hey Vince, that chassis is looking good. I will get you a picture of my splash apron/s when I get home tonight. Mine are factory aprons with one hole.

Keith

When you guys did your bodys, how did you go about rustproofing. I have torn this thing completely apart, drilled out all the rivets and have been just bolting it back together temp and priming it (since those of us who live in the NY State rain forest see our steel rust almost overnight) as I repair all the rust damage (and as you can see she had a lot!) What do you think about just welding it all back together and smoothing all the rivet holes out, think it will make any difference structurally (as in Henry"s built in body flex)

Originally Posted by vinces31APU

When you guys did your bodys, how did you go about rustproofing. I have torn this thing completely apart, drilled out all the rivets and have been just bolting it back together temp and priming it (since those of us who live in the NY State rain forest see our steel rust almost overnight) as I repair all the rust damage (and as you can see she had a lot!) What do you think about just welding it all back together and smoothing all the rivet holes out, think it will make any difference structurally (as in Henry"s built in body flex)

At least I was lucky enough to start with virgin steel (Brookville) but I still epoxy primed everything then used bed liner as the final protector. My floorboards are not a single piece but are double, have an internal half inch square tube frame with seat and seat belt reinforcing. The open areas are filled with a reflective foil sandwich with a ceramic filler. I have pictures of almost every part of the car except these floorboards - dead digital camera. The internal body rails are treated the same way.

While the Brookville floor was riveted together as Ford had done, mine is welded as well - except the floor which is bolted in place but with as much seam sealer as I used, probably immobile as well.

You can see the floor panels - to a point - here. The trunk was flattened and the reinforcing added. The wood framing is for the upholstery.

Dave, did you paint it yourself or have someone do the finish body work and paint?

I'm not sure I have the patience for all that sanding etc. and as you can see not only was my truck NOT virgin steel but a poor old hag of a truck, but hey, I only paid $20.00 for it when I bought it.

I'm not counting the fact that she was in a 2 car dirt floor garage with one door and, you guessed it, she was on the no door side sunk 6 inches into the ground with about 100 old drive shafts piled in and around it. It took me 3 days to find it in there and then jack it up and move it to the open door. I actually got the old gal running for a short time on her original flat 4 banger, unique engine sound for sure! Needless to say she's was missing at least 3 inches of sheet metal most of the way around.

I just finished putting cab corners and the bottom of the cab in this weekend, but I have a pucker in the back I need to remove, something was either a little to long or a little to short but with nothing to go by and my lack of experiance with something that bad it was miraculas it turned out as well as it has.