Like I said, this is what I started with. Not a bad cowl, a good
tank, tired doors, poor hood, repairable rumble lid, and a pair of quarters
in a pretty sad state.
Once home, the body panels were dropped, hung, clamped and propped
into position to give me an idea what it would look like.
Ha ha. the famous "movie set" pic. At this point, the front part
of the body frame is taking shape, but the rear part had to wait because
the chassis was still in it's first iteration, with the 4 bar and the P100
pickup axle.
The body panels still temporarily fitted, but the whole set, including
rumble lid and right quarter. looking back now, I cant believe how rough
it looked.
The Model A body needs a subframe to stand on. I didn't fancy buying
a pair of subrails just to cut the rear part away, (due to the kicked up
chassis). I bought some 50X25mm rectangular tubing, and made up this basic
subframe.Sill plates were cut from a coupe floor pan, and fitted back to
front over the new rectangular tube floor frame. Dimensions were generated
from the rusty remnants of the roadster floor.
Here's the rear part of the floor sub frame, following the
kickup on the newly repaired frame. '32 axle and torque tube now in place.
This picture shows the new subframe bolted to the chassis, The
repairs to the outer quarter panel, the rebuilt wheel housing, and the
leg of the temporary body brace. The brace was put in place to support
the quarters in the right position, before the lower parts were attached
to the subframe. Also visible in this shot is the kicked up frame rail.
This chassis was chopped off short, when it was converted into a tractor
when new in the 30's. Once the door pillar was repaired at the bottom,
the temporary bracing frame was removed.
This shot shows the right quarter panel in it's initial fitting.
Inner wheelwell panel is repro, but did not include the part between it
and the outer panel. (Note the hole.). Nasty little dent was knocked out
as best as I could with my limited panel beating skills.
Here's the left side with repairs made to the cowl bottom, door
bottom, lower quarter panel, and inner wheel well.
Same side a few minutes later after being attacked with a spray
can. Temp support brace still in place, rear deck panel clamped in.
'Nuther shot taken at the same time. Decklid in place, lower panel
fitted and rear quarter repair panels welded in.
Decklid was later repaired properly (well, almost). that dent in
the quarter came out quite well.
The right hand side of the car was aligned and repairs were made
to the quarter. The door was slightly better than the other side, and was
left, Lower cowl still not repaired.
Once I was happy with the repairs to the basic body shell, It was
removed so the chassis could be stripped down and blasted.
Ok, fast forward a few months, here's the body just after being
dropped back on to the freshly painted chassis.
Next up, I wanted somewhere to sit, as I was now interested in
driving it. Subframe cross tubes were to be clad in sections removed from
a 30 A coupe floor, so were painted in preparation.. The sill plates from
the coupe floor were reversed, and welded in place.
I had this little seat (With a Bedford label attached) in my loft,
so without anything better, in it went. Still a gaping hole where the rear
floor is supposed to be.
Ok, take one discarded industrial clothes locker. Blow it apart,
cut, file, weld etc, and VOILA!..
Old Rusty gets a new rear floor. The section above the axle will
house a removeable plywood panel. Still havn't finished that hole at the
front of the wheel well.
Will add more as it happens.
Mart.
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