Progress worth showing

Working on my 1929 Tudor. Been in my wife's family since day 1...

Starting pic in my avatar. Stripped it down to frame Labor day weekend. Blasted and painted the frame and front suspension, rear suspension, rebuilt the brakes, had the wheels powder coated and assembled the roller this weekend.

Engine is at Schwalms...probably another 3-4 months lead time. I've already rebuilt the trans/torque tube.

Not too bad for progress for 6 weeks (wife and I have logged ~220 man hours so far) :D

working the on the body now....

will be vagabond/rock moss green when done. Hoping to have it out by memorial day :eek:
 

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Make sure to check if the frame is sagged any. It looks good in the pictures. Some guys forget to do this. Now is the time to do it. Looks like your having fun. Frank
 
Make sure to check if the frame is sagged any. It looks good in the pictures. Some guys forget to do this. Now is the time to do it. Looks like your having fun. Frank

My corner measurements prior to disassembly were pretty close (1/2" IIRC) and I didn't see any evidence of sag....but good call...will double check. Did have a busted front spring that I found afterwards.
 
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Looks great. Am working on the frame of my '31 DD. initial measurements put it out by 1/2" on the diagonal front to back but dead on back to about the spare tire holder. Looking down the rails, I could see that the frame was pushed to the right (pass side) by about an inch or so, so I pulled it back from that point and now all diagonal measurements are dead on. Checking for sag I found about 3/32" sag right at the motor mounts (as expected) and brought that up to level. I wasn't too concerned about that little bit of sag but didn't take much to take it out so. The side to side bend was a must to straighten out though of course.
 
I laid a piece of 1" chromemoly tube down the length of the chassis....pretty darn straight with a max gap of 1/16" at the most. Not even worth messing with IMHO. Body panels were straight when I disassembled too
 
Woohoo...significant progress to show.

Ora (schwalms) finished the engine WAAAAYYYY ahead of schedule. Mated it up to the transmission I freshened up and got it in the chassis today

HUGE change from this picture I took Sept 5 :D
 

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I laid a piece of 1" chromemoly tube down the length of the chassis....pretty darn straight with a max gap of 1/16" at the most. Not even worth messing with IMHO. Body panels were straight when I disassembled too

1/16 is to much. You will find the other side might be ok. That will cause a twist which will mess up your hood fit. Now you are going to have compound angles. Remember as the cowl rises the top of the cowl is going to be off more than 1/16.
Most Model A,s have frame sag, I see it all the time when looking at Model A's. Most of the time it shows up as a uneven gap at the back of the hood on the driver side.
 
Did you mean that your corner to corner measurements have only a 1/2" difference? That's quite a bit. Mine was about a 1/8" and I was worried. If this is the case, I would go back and check it again from slightly different points. With a broken front spring and a 1/2" error, out of square, it sounds like the car took a hit at some time in the past. This seeming small error can play havoc with you steering.
Terry
 
Did you mean that your corner to corner measurements have only a 1/2" difference? That's quite a bit. Mine was about a 1/8" and I was worried. If this is the case, I would go back and check it again from slightly different points. With a broken front spring and a 1/2" error, out of square, it sounds like the car took a hit at some time in the past. This seeming small error can play havoc with you steering.
Terry

No...ground to frame height at each corner varied 1/2" . Easily attributed to the busted spring and seized/busted shocks I found. Spring appears to be more of issue with rough roads...several leaves cracked at the center bolt. Frame area directly above the spring was cracked too....I cut that area out and TIG welded in some fresh metal.
 
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1/16 is to much. You will find the other side might be ok. That will cause a twist which will mess up your hood fit. Now you are going to have compound angles. Remember as the cowl rises the top of the cowl is going to be off more than 1/16.
Most Model A,s have frame sag, I see it all the time when looking at Model A's. Most of the time it shows up as a uneven gap at the back of the hood on the driver side.

that was only an eyeball guesstimate...it's probably much less than 1/16....
 
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