1931 Ford Model A
Added 6/19/2007
All right, the '31 is a hoot to drive and draws a crowd wherever I go with her. I need to do some things to her to make her "mine" and not a car that I bought from somebody else.
First things first, the car had to be made safe to drive. I took a risk driving her 180 miles from Oklahoma City since I knew absolutely nothing about the car and how it was built, but the trip home was uneventful. I did notice that the car wandered in the lane and took both hands on the wheel to keep her between the white lines. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the steering rack was worn out and all of the frontend components (ball joints) were dry as a bone and any rubber boots that were left were disintegrating. I did a little shopping on E-Bay and came up with a set of rebuilt upper and lower A arms (remember, this is a Mustang II frontend) and a new polished steering rack. I upgraded the stock shocks and springs to a set of adjustable coilover shocks and springs that I found on-line. While I had everything taken apart, I also replaced the brake calipers and pads and flushed the rusty old looking brake fluid out. I spent an afternoon in the garage and had all the old components off and the new ones bolted on in short order. I greased up the new tie rod ends and ball joints, and wagged a frontend alignment on the little coupe using a borrowed a toe adjustment tool and a bubble level. Next I had to find a local garage that could do a computerized frontend alignment on my car so it would have a proper adjustment on all my new parts (few shops would even try since it has a staggered suspension). While it was in for the alignment, I had them change the tranny and rearend fluids for good measure.
Now that the car steers and stops well, it was time to do a little customizing to make the car reflect my idea of a hotrod and upgrade the performance to boot. The 302 in this car is bone stock from a '69 Mustang. From the factory, this engine puts out 210HP. The first upgrade was to remove the factory manifold and 2 barrel carburetor and install an Edelbrock Performer 289 manifold and brand new Edelbrock Thunder Series 650CFM 4 barrel carburetor. The previous owner threw in the manifold with the purchase of the car, so I just had it ceramic coated and located a carb that would fit it.
Oh, I have to mention how EASY it is to work on a fenderless/hoodless car. This thing is a blast to tinker on and drive, what great therapy for an aging air traffic controller.
This is a good shot of the 302 Ford with factory manifold and 2 barrel carb -
sans choke. Also note the factory cast iron exhaust manifold (the next
part to be upgraded).
Note that this car has been upgraded with a firewall mounted dual circuit master
cylinder to feed the front disk, rear drum brakes.
You can see in this shot that the steering linkage blocks any type of
aftermarket header installation.
Check out my cool Maltese cross mirrors that I added too!
I took lots of shots for reference before I started removing parts
Another reference shot
You can see in this shot that the distributor was upgraded from points and
condenser to a Pertronix brand electronic ignition
I've got all the mating surfaces scraped clean now and I'm ready to install new
gaskets. No sludge here, I'm a happy camper!
This is my fellow air traffic controller crew member, Dave "Goat Bag" Schuerhoff.
Our whole crew has "Bag" nicknames, but that's another story.
By the way, my nickname is "No Bag" thanks to a really stupid comment made by a
really stupid supervisor.
I asked Dave to help out on the performance upgrade because he's really into
Mustangs and has owned and modified several over the years.
The new gaskets are installed and waiting for the pretty new manifold to be
dropped on it.
Important note here, DON'T GET IN A HURRY to install your manifold (I
did).
I didn't let the RTV dry on the front and rear cork gaskets, so they moved when
I set the manifold on them, and I had a BIG oil leak.
I took everything apart again, bought a new set of gaskets, glued the corks down
with RTV and let them dry overnight.
Now I have a leak free manifold installation (but I'm real good at removal and
installation).
You get a good shot of the front cork gasket here (below the green rag).
After the gasket sealer dries good sticking the cork to the short block,
just add another gooey layer of RTV on the top so it seals really well on the
bottom of the manifold.
I sprayed the intake gaskets with a thick coat of copper gasket sealer and it
seems to be holding real well too.
There is the Performer 289 manifold with it's new ceramic coating (hot rod bling)
The factory 2 barrel didn't have a choke, so it ran real bad until things warmed
up.
I made sure to get my new 4 barrel with the electric choke option.
The carb is primed, and Dave stands ready to put out any unexpected fires.
You can also see my flathead Ford V8 on the engine stand to the left of Dave.
Everything is all buttoned back up, and now we move to:
The House of Hotrods and my next upgrades