Category: Model A Ford Restoration

BRAKES, Ultimate Guide To Fitting ’39-’48 Hydraulic Brakes To Your ‘A’…. Enbloc @HAMB

BRAKES, Ultimate Guide To Fitting ’39-’48 Hydraulic Brakes To Your ‘A’…. Enbloc @HAMB

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This subject seems to come up alot on the HAMB, “How do I fit hydraulics to my Model ‘A’ “. Hopefully this should show how to fit said brakes the CORRECT way.

My Model ‘A’ came already fitted with hydraulic brakes, but the more I studied them the more things I noticed were wrong with the way they were fitted. The true horrors weren’t discovered until they were actually removed from the car.

I decided the best way forward was to start again with a fresh set of backing plates.

ere is your basic ’39-’48 Ford backing plate. In this case they are the later ’46-’48 plate as they have the riveted rather than bolted bottom pivots. You will also need the correct hubs and drums as the original ‘A’ ones will not work with the hydraulic backing plates.

We’ll start with the fitting of the front brakes first.
This is the stripped hub. You’ll need a front fitting kit which consists of 2 bearing spacers and two backing plate spacer rings. You can see how these are mounted to the hub.
Take care with the backing plate spacers as they are cast iron piston rings and will break easily if forced.

Another good juice brakes article

Model A Ford Sport Coupe Interior Trim Refurbishment Part 2 – Rumble Seat Area

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Once the trims had been cut to fit the next task is to refit them and the rumble seat. There were a few areas that needed painting and an arch bolt to be ground off as it was too long and was fouling the trim

The rumble seat floor mat was the first item to refit once it was given a bit of a clean up with trim cleaner.

Next up were the side trims, these were also given the clean up treatment

Right hand side trim on the way in

Trims and rumble seat now reinstalled

 

 

Model A Ford Sport Coupe Interior Trim Refurbishment Part 1 – Rumble Seat Area

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The Coupe has had a previous interior restoration that wasn’t of the highest quality, and in fact it has the wrong trim kit fitted, this is evidenced in a number of areas.

The side trims in the rumble seat area whilst fitting well in this area do not fit into the passenger space correctly. So the rumble seat and trims were removed.

Once removed there were a number of bolts that were too long and were interfering with the trims.

Once the trims were out of the car the glue was removed from the vinyl to allow the pieces to make them fit correctly to be identified and cut to size.

The cut edges of the trim were cleaned up with sandpaper and the vinyl was attached to the new trim edges. Yes the clamping was a little agricultural but it did the trick.

It’s odd that the wrong kit was fitted as it’s a genuine LeBaron Bonney item, may it was from a clearance sale? 🙂

Stay tuned for the next instalment!

 

 

Visit to John’s

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Took a little pre-Christmas visit to my friend John’s and took a look at the progress on his roadster rebuild and the latest parts he has for sale.

The rolling chassis is just about done and the body is underway, next decision is whether to go Patina/Hot Rod or a restoration? Watch this space!

Parts wise there are a good number of engines and gearboxes available both Model A & B

Family heirloom 1931 Ford totaled by distracted driver in Corolla – Nicholas Maronese @driving.ca

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No one likes to see heartbreaking things like this, luckily no one was hurt

At-fault motorist who destroyed Model A attempted to flee but was caught by police

Even worse was the fact that the father and son involved had only recently completed the restoration of the vehicle.

Read Nicholas’s article here

 

A few little jobs on the Sport Coupe

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Still lot’s of little jobs to do on the Model A, the other day a couple of things got done.

Left hand door had a top cap screw and D Nut missing which meant the door capping lifted at one end.

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New D nut and screw and job done, tad rusty at the top of the door but so would you be if you were 89 years old!

Next were the hood bumpers and catch rubbers

 

How much is my Model “A” Ford worth? – by Grant MacLaren

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How much is my Model “A” Ford worth?

This is a question that is often asked in forums, at club meetings and just about everywhere where Model A owner gather either physically or virtually!

Grant McLaren’s article gives some good advice and pointers to help answer this burning question, read on here

Under the A!

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After painting under the bonnet/hood I took a look at the underside.

I must admit I’ve been putting this task off because it’s not the most pleasant.

I’ve added a few old pictures from a few years back to show the difference!

Painting the underside
Painting the underside
Painting the underside
Painting the underside
Painting the underside
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Looks a bit better now, but will need a few more coats as it’s sucking up the paint.

 

Back to the Future (well kinda :)) Part 1

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After the breakdown on the way to Wheels Day 2017 and some diagnosis the Pertronix module was the culprit (well the symptom anyway :))

Removing the Pertronix
Removing the Pertronix
Removing the Pertronix

This is the second module failure, so it’s back to points which as least can be fixed on the road. I’ve gone for the “modern points” setup by Nu-Rex, “modern” is pretty amusing as the new plate contains the 1957 onward Ford V8 points as opposed to the original 1929 setup.

Before I began I set the timing to TDC via the timing pin as per usual on the Model A I then started to remove the Pertronix system

During removal I found that the lower distributor plate had been deleted, a bit annoying as I’d ordered the upper plate from O’Neills. Luckily John Cochran had a used item I could use (thanks John :))

I’d also ordered the recommended longer pigtail for the lower plate, this is recommended to alleviate the stress on the original which is a little short and often fails due to fatigue. So after desoldering and drilling the old pigtail was removed. Then it was a matter of a little cleaning and soldering to get the new item fitted. As my car has no pop out ignition switch I further modified the plate to securely fix the hot cable to the plate by drilling the dimple which was designed to contact the original pop out switch.

Modifying the baseplate
Modifying the baseplate
Modifying the baseplate
Modifying the baseplate
Modifying the baseplate
Modifying the baseplate
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Once all the modifications were completed I installed the plate into the distributor.

Lower plate installed

The pigtail was connected to the points contact ensuring that the connector was not able to accidentally ground to the distributor housing.

Also checked that the timing advance lever was in the fully retarded setting at this point

Next the upper plate was installed taking care to wrap the pigtail around the cam spring whilst making sure not to pinch the cable.

The upper plate will only install one way into the tabs and groove and should turn freely.

Nu-Rex Modern Points Upper Plate Installed

See the next episode for rewiring, points adjustment, timing and hopefully an engine start.