November 2024 Hot Rod of the Month

Year: 1929
Make: Ford
Model: A Roadster
Engine: Flathead V8
Transmission: 1939 Ford closed driveline
Rear End: 1939 Ford banjo with welded quickchange

More about the car:

All original Ford. The frame is the original one the body was found on. Zee’d in the back before the rear axle the height of the frame. 1935 Ford truck grill over a brass Walker radiator. A homemade F1 style transmission crossmember is located just in front of the stock Model A one. Anti chatter rods have been made to connect the engine to the cross member to stop the rear axle/torque tube from pushing the engine forward. 1933 Ford front axle dropped by Victory Rod and Custom. It has an unknown reverse eye front spring with the Teflon pads removed and copper discs riveted to the spring leaves with brass rivets. The front brakes are 1940 Ford with real Buick drums machined to fit. 1940 Ford single chamber master cylinder and an early V8 Ford parking brake has been modified to fit. F1 steering box and pedals. Windshield has a 2.5” chop. Gauges are all vintage Stewart Warner with nos original senders. Temp gauge individually switches to a sender in either head. Vintage nos 5000 rpm Sun Tach receiving signal from firewall mounted transmitter box. All switches and dash lights are from allied WW2 aircraft. The dash fuel priming pump is from a WW2 P51 Mustang fighter. Steering wheel is a vintage 17” racing wheel. Seats are from WW2 F4U Corsair fighter planes. Seat belts are nos 1945 dated turret gunner belts. Horn is a cable operated vintage 50s electric cow horn. All wiring is modern cloth covered and all connections are soldered to nos 40s vintage terminals and connectors. All fasteners are either used vintage or nos vintage in the case of all the brass screws the hold the engine turned copper interior panels on. I chose copper because it probably would have been more available to a regular builder than aluminum. All the bolts on the car have been either drilled for safety wire or cotter pins and castellated nuts. Rear axle is a 1939 axle with 1940 brakes and a Ford center section modified/welded into a Bell Speed quickchange. The rear spring is a modified Model A spring with the eyes reversed. The torque tube and driveshaft are 1940 Ford and shortened. The rear radius rods are 1941 Ford modified to point up the pinion up 5 degrees allow the quick changes to fit with the torque tube. Early 1940s Ford wheels with 5.00 – 16 Firestone dirt track tires on the front and 7.50 -16 on the rear with vintage 1939 beauty rings. This was a rumble seat car but I modified the lid into a trunk. Early Ford V8 trunk handle. Vintage 50s aftermarket licence plate light and nos 1947 Kaiser tail lights. Crafty B flip type fuel filler. The engine started as an 8RT truck flathead. I bought it running on stand off a truck guy who put a Mercury crank in it. I installed the Aluminum 8BA heads Ford Canada used in the first 3 months of 1949 for the Shoebox. I also added an Edmonds intake and two rebuilt vintage large logo Stromberg 97 carbs. Vintage 50 Filtercooler oil filter with rubber oil lines. Bubba mechanical advance distributor. Dual belt setup with mechanical Ford fan. The exhaust tubes have an inter metal core made to have replaceable ceramic/fibre mat or stainless wrapped around it. The headlights are nos heavy cast ones with stainless guards for a 1940s logging truck made by a company called Simms. My grandfather was given them by a salesman hoping to supply them for his entire fleet of trucks. They were never used and he gave them to me in the early 80s. I never had the right car to put them on until now. Most of the vintage period fasteners and electrical connectors I also got from my grandfather in the 80s. As car guys who collect this old stuff, we all hope to pass our collection of stuff to a person or family member who actually appreciates it and understands the useful value old parts have. I was that family for my grandfather. I took everything even though I had no place for it. It helps that he was super organized. The car was finally on the road this summer. Many years of collecting parts and it took several years to build along side other cars and projects I did at the same time. It was built and painted in a dirt floor shop so small you can’t walk around the car. A real ‘built in a chicken coup” car. I didn’t want to fake any of the age on anything and I used the parts in their best as found condition that I could obtain. I didn’t do this for any other reason than it’s the car I wanted. The car I would have built as close to how I would have been able to build it in a small dirt floor shop in the early 50s with what I’d have available.