Building a body from near scratch

M

matt167

New member
I started a project a couple years ago that never went anywhere past buying some old parts and an original later model A frame ( pretty clean and straight ). I ended up abandoning it to storage and just bought a '51 Plymouth to tool around in.


I have the frame, and enough parts from a parted out 60's hotrod to build a rolling chassis. The hangup was always the cost of a body here in the northeast. I refuse to cut up an original car. I'd end up just driving it if it came to that.. FWIW the Plymouth was less than the cost of a Spirit industries body, as a running driving car with decent interior and paint


If I start with a cowl, I seem to find cowl's in the $300 range for stuff pretty decent. What can I assemble using reproduction steel on the inexpensive? I was thinking sub rails for whatever year cowl I get, and body length I decide. Ultimately I dislike T buckets, But I can see some kind of a shortened Phaeton using the seat back sheet metal which is re popped for like $300, a couple door skins and sliding it all together into an A bucket.. But how or what can I really do? Ultimately a Tudor sedan is really what I'd like as I'd like an adjustable seat, but that would probably come to the economy where a whole car is cheaper and then I might as well drive an original, because I'll take it either way and be happy. Other than I know original Tudor seats do not adjust.




I built a cab just out of high school which I still have. But I knew less than I do now about welding or getting things square so without lots of work it inst usable
 
Hello, what model is your 51 Plymouth? I had a 52 Plymouth Cranbrook ,used it as a second car in summer time.My wife even liked it!!
 
Hello again, there is a Model A around here that someone built a boat tail speedster out of wood, I think it only has the original steel cowl the rest is varnished wood with brass screws holding it together quite impressive,sorry I don’t have a picture.
 
It's a Cambridge 4dr. Factory stock exept I put a 6V alternator on it. Just a nice cool old car, nothing fancy




I found a cowl/ most of what has not rotten off of a Model A near my house. He said it's pretty rotten on the bottom of the cowl, and to my Untrained to model A eye looks '28-'29 Fordor which I don't know if it would ultimately be worth using
 
Martin Parry was a company who made "aftermarket" bodies for the Model A (& Model T before that) The bodies tend to be built on a Model A chassis with hood, firewall, fenders, skirts & running boards. The rest was MP. Check out their many body styles (mostly Commercial) at http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/m/martin_parry/martin_parry.htm. Further down the page is Model A versions.

There were other coachbuilders competing with MP. They all had similar products starting at a similar start. Check back here because others will probably provide other names and/or pix.

Ford WOULD sell a "commercial chassis" to those who had specific body requirements.

Neil Wilson at his most excellent AA pages discusses the "frame up" options for the AA. Doubtless the cars were similar. https://aafords.com

Joe K
 
build a huckster.
or a truck like in my avitar. i built that from scratch, you just need the cowel to start.
 
Are you familiar with the H.A.M.B. forum? It is part of the Jalopy Journal. You are doing great to start here at Ford Barn, but at HAMB you will find lots of folks with hobbies like making hot rod bodies out of never-before-together parts. If you look in their parts for sale you might get some inspiration, especially since you know how to weld.

The back portion of a phaeton as part of a speedster body sounds like it could look pretty good...

Somebody somewhere has a salvageable Tudor Sedan body for cheap that has lost most or all of its chassis. You just have to find it.

Welcome to the forum!
 
Speedster is the way to go. I've seen some that use a 40s hood for the rear deck. Some early cars used fabric for bodies like early aircraft.
You'll enjoy driving a Model A speedster. Taking a lot of weight off really wakes them up.
 
Without giving too much away, four seater fabric body sports look great.
Like 1930 Bentley's, and are realatively easy to build, and are light. Add some Winfield bits and you are laughing.
Here in Oz, the Ford factory built some fabric bodied fordor sedans.
 
Brookville roadster makes individual parts and complete bodies.
They have a free cataloge that shows all the body parts they have.
 

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I've looked at Brookville. I would absolutely piece something together with their stuff and an original cowl, and I would actually like to, but figure the costs. $700 per door, $400 sub rails and everything adds up. I'm struggling because 45 mph may have never looked so good since potentially an A needing some TLC can be had for the same cost as a Brookville body
 
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