1931 Ford Model A
Added 6/19/2007
Kewl, now the car drives and stops straight, chirps the tires (with the new carb and manifold), now it's time to enlist some professional help for the next hotrod bling project. I'm in hotrod heaven. I have 3 outstanding hotrod shops all within 7 miles of my house. I visited all 3 and settled on the House of Hotrods to tackle the next project on the '31. If you've heard of Boyd Coddington and seen some of his shops work, the House of Hotrods comes real close to emulating what the craftsmen at Boyd's shop can do. The House of Hotrods does everything; custom interiors, custom paint, custom body work and what I was after - custom fabricating. I bought and returned 3 different sets of aftermarket headers designed to fit the 302 Ford. I tried block huggers and over-the-frame style headers. The 302 fits so snugly and low inside the '31 frame rails, I just couldn't find anything that fit, plus my steering linkage got in the way of every set of headers. Everybody had great return policies, but I still had to fork out $50 each time to ship the headers back for a refund. It was time to bite the bullet and pay for a set of custom headers that would be fabricated to fit my car.
I visited with the House of Hotrods for over a month discussing my options. I finally left them my car and a 50% deposit, and they proceeded to order parts. It turns out that my steering column (unknown GM vintage) was worn out and wobbly too. Since the steering linkage would have to be reworked anyways to get a set of headers installed, I decided to have the House of Hotrods replace the steering column too with an IDIDIT brand column and linkage. Of course one thing led to another, and when the House of Hotrods pulled my old column out, they discovered the wiring in my car was a rats nest waiting to spark a fire. I'm all about not becoming a rolling fireball, so I also sprung for the installation of a new Painless (brand) wiring harness to be installed in conjunction with the headers and steering column.
Below are some pics I took today of the '31 being reborn in my image of a cool hotrod:
A heavily tattooed welder, nicknamed "Rings" (for all the hardware bling stuck
in his body), is my $65/hour fabricator/welder.
"Rings" is a genius with a welder and I'm happy to have him wrenching on my
hotrod. Look at these cool pipes he is fabricating for my car.
Notice how he routed the rear cylinder's pipe all the way to the front of the
header cluster!
When they are all completed, they'll go to a local shop for ceramic coating.
Another shot of the new steering linkage going in (it'll snake through the new
headers). Check out those headers now that the welds have been ground
smooth.
Rings told me that it's going to be a "bitch" to change my sparkplugs when he's
done. Good thing I just installed a new set of plugs!
Check out the cool new cast aluminum air cleaner I found on E-Bay. Flames
are the theme of my '31.
This is the right side headers as they go together. Here you can see them
just tack welded together to check for fit.
This looks SO much better than the factory cast iron manifolds that were there
before.
One more shot of my newly revised engine bay.
This is a Plymouth truck that is being built right next door to my '31.
Rings built these headers too. He doesn't like straight lines!
Nice looking Chevy going together in the fabrication shop. That's a BIG
block Chevy being installed.
House of Hotrods did NOT build this Rat Rod. They are just doing some work
for the owner.
It is another Model A coupe though, just like mine!
This Model A coupe is being constructed from the ground up by the House of
Hotrods. This will be a serious big bucks street rod.
A nice picture of the CLEAN shops at the House of Hotrods. This row of
buildings is on 5 acres.
They have more business than they have space so they are expanding on another
adjacent 5 acres.
This is the showroom at the House of Hotrods, I'll let the pictures speak for
themselves.
