A by the sea

As already pointed out, a properly restored A runs great. As for lighting options, there is only one real option. The bulbs made Australia. They make Halogen bulbs that fit the original sockets and use only marginally more current. They are built with the filament in the correct place. They are available in 6V. Halogen bulbs. With your electrical system you need to check that you have good proper clean connections at all point. You also need to be aware that the path from the frame ground to the engine is through the drive line and stuff like rubber spring shackles can cause you grief.

Some Ford wood was covered with a flat black wood preservative. I am not fully sure of the wood that would be coated with the preservative. None of the top wood is visible so do not worry. Use a modern polyurethane wood paint to coat the wood. So Cubel's actually delivered. I gave up waiting. The wood they did send was not usable anyway. I suggest that you make sure the wood will actually work. If you find a problem, good luck. I gave up calling every month after 6 months. The guy was real nice to talk to on the phone.

I am looking to set up to powder coat at home. I am doing a Model A and my primary reason is to do my 19" wheels. I have some incentive to make up a oven large enough to do brake rods and such. I am leaning towards a Caswell gun. I would like to hear opinions from people as it is between Caswell and Eastwood (not the EW pro gun). If anyone is powder coating near Atlantic City NJ I would be interested in talking to you. Thanks, Kevin

I have 8 spotlights and a bunch of parts for sale. These fit various cars and all need plating and other work. The one with the mirror is a Guide light which I believe is for GM products and is in decent shape. I would like $150 for all the parts. I would prefer pick up, but will consider shipping if can not find a pick up buyer. I live in Northfield,NJ very close to Atlantic City, NJ just off exit 36 of the Garden State Parkway. Thanks, Kevin

Basic trouble shooting. First inspect the points. Make sure they are clean and have a reasonable gap. Next check for spark. Turn on the ignition and use a screw driver to check how far the spark goes. Since it starts and dies I would make it spark a bunch. If the spark goes away then you suspect the condenser or coil. Do you have a modern condenser or some old thing that has been laying around? Or do you have and older new condenser- some newer ones had the tab soldered and they broke off. Get a new condenser if you are not sure as they are cheap and should last a long time. If you have good spart then off to checking the carb. Undo the bolt (assuming an original carb) and check the float bowl for junk. Notice the level of fuel, is it reasonable? Do you have fuel flow? Make sure your filters are clean too. The original filters catch most of the bad stuff if they are put together right. If it dont run it is because it does not have spark or fuel. Unless sometin really bad happened inside the engine. My guess you have an ignition problem.

I think you should keep in mind that a worn distributer and other parts would make the car hard to keep running right. If there is no way to keep the timing consistent or if the plate moves allowing for changing point gaps between cylinders then your car will run erratic. Before you look into adding a gizmo you should first be sure the car is properly rebuilt. Poor reproduction distributer cams and loose plates cause all kinds of grief with the A engine. The point gap keeps floating around and you do not get consistent spark. Dont matter how good you are at setting the timing while you drive. If the parts are loose timing keeps changing on its own you have no hope.

Which brand paint does your local dealer sell? There are Inter Mix (aka IM numbers) numbers available for the paints. Most paint places have a modern equivalent in modern tints. Here are the IM number (the number in the PPG column): http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/goldcoastmodela/techtips/Paintcodes.html Do you have the Paint Handbook available from the national clubs? That book has all the correct paint chip colors. You just need to be careful and view the chips with a neutral frame around the chips. The white surround will make the colors look dark. Are you also aware that true copra and chicle drab are really tan colors and they have no green in them? If your local dealer says he can not mix the paint call up the manufacturer of his paint and talk to one of their reps. They may have an equivalent mix and the dealer may not understand that the mixes are available. I did this with my local dealer. Keep in mind that the cheaper paints are more likely to need more coats to get proper coverage. On the other hand, guys have been successfully using Valspar and House of color for quite some time.

Not to disappoint, but to make a safe driving car you have to expect to spend some serious money. To build a Vicky can get even more expensive if he needs some slant window specific parts. If you can not afford the price of a wood kit how is he going to afford the $1000 to make the brakes safe or are you just planning on slapping it together and hope you do not get into an accident or stuck along side the road. Have you looked in to the cost of paint. You will have over $500 in just the top coat paints with the cheap stuff. Then you have the cost of undercoats. I think you might be wise to get a catalog out and add up what it would cost to put together a safe to drive car. There are way too many "restored" cars that are just unsafe at any speed, we do not need another. If he can not put at least $8000 into his project I doubt he can even do it on the cheap. A more realistic number is closer to $15000 for most guys. I have access to $50,000 in special tools so I can keep my costs down to $20,000 to do a full proper restoration on a cabriolet to drive- not a points car. I could do it a lot cheaper, but I am trying to do this car a bit nicer from the details point of view. I think I could return the chassis to factory specs and make the paint and interior nice for $8000 in parts and the car would be safe to drive 55 mph all day. Like I tell everyone. The catalogs are free. Sit down and calculate how much it would cost to do the restoration. Then add in a pretty big fudge factor as there are many things you do not realize you need till you need them. Then look at your wallet.

I think you will want to look at my website to find what all the parts look like. Rumble Seats

There were no real plans made that you can get from Ford. The wood you see out there today are carefully made from good originals. Plus you have to be real good to be able to make the wood from patterns. You are really stuck either finding someone with a good set of wood to copy. From what I have seen that does not happen too often. Overall it is wise investment in time and money to get a set of wood. If you do not have the budget to buy the wood then you are going to have troubles. It should cost at least $8000 to do some kind of restoration. If you are properly restoring the car to drive like new (not a high point show car) then you best expect to spend $15,000 or more. This assumes you are doing all the work yourself and you already have the tooling.

Why not fix the mechanicals properly. Cheaper and safer. It is more work to switch over to hydraulics. To make the juice brake system work you have to do the same things you do to a mechanical system. If you return the mechanicals to original specifications (actually buy some new parts, repros stuff is very good now) you may be surprised on how well they stop. Keep in mind that either system needs to have the shoes fitted to the drums and the shoes centered properly. Failure to center and fit shoes will cause less than 100% braking with either system! When you are done you get the same braking ability. With the juice brakes you now have a system they MUST be maintained or it fails. With mechanicals they are pretty much set and forget. Juice brakes must be driven regularly to stay fit. If the car is exposed to gross daily temp changes the juice brakes tend to muck up. The temp changes move the fluid past the seals and then dust turns into crud. Regular operation seems to be the only way to keep the cylinders functioning. BTW, I speak from the experience of keeping a 39 Ford safe to drive. I did not drive the car enough and every few years I was doing rear wheel cylinders.

Ford did paint the firewall black on black cars To be correct the the firewall would be lower body color and since it was not polished out. The firewall and areas like the door jambs would have a dull or satin look to it. Obviously a fact only important if you are going to real judging.

I am a little further along on the learning steps. One thing I needed to learn was to sand out the previous sand scratch. You have too look at the scratches you have and guess what grit paper will let you take them out. Once you have gotten to the base of the scratches you go to the next grit paper until you get up in to 600 to 1000 range. One trick is to sand in one direction for one grit. Then sand in another direction for the next grit. You can tell when you are through the previous grit when you only see scratch in the current direction. You can speed up scratch removal with a DA that has the pad locked to spin like a grinder. This will cut quicker and then you can change grit. An expander wheel will also speed up the stages. Good luck.

I am looking for the late 31 style coupe/cabriolet seat springs. These are the ones used with the ratchet handle seat adjuster. They are not hard to identify and you can see pictures and dimensions on the seat spring web page I have online. I will be at Hershey for the week. Thanks. Seat Spring Pictures and Dimensions

Not to sound pessimistic, but start with your bank account. What are the cars worth when done? Look up how much to it will cost you to restore the car. Kind of silly to spend $20,000 on a car you can sell for $12,000. Are you going to restore the car or just make it look nice? How far are you really going to go. Are you going to properly restore the drive line so the car is good to go for another lifetime? It is rare to do a mediocre restoration for less than $8000. It is much more common to spend $12,000 and up. Even more if you start farming out work. Then there is the time involved do not forget to add that value. A lot of common cars you can find restorations on nice rust free bodies for much less than the cost of restoring what you have. Things to keep in mind.

Start with the judging standards. The judging standards will give you an idea of how well restored a car is which is an indicator of the quality of work. There is no good one book on the Model A. They all have their flaws and many are just too old. Today we have a better selection of reproduction parts and we have a clearer picture of what the model A was originally. I like to point people towards books that explain what the Model A was designed to do when it was built. It stands to reason that a properly restored car should drive like new. I would point you to: 'Know Your Model A Ford by Murrey Fahnstock. Pay attention to the accuracy of balance and construction used on this cheap production vehicle. The recently reprinted dealer service letters. Pay particular attention to where the dealer is instructed to show the customer how the Model A will run 60 MPH, how well the brakes stop, and tells the dealer to not baby the car. Then the owners manual to learn how you are supposed to drive the car. As opposed to how others may tell you to drive the car. When reading the 'shop manuals' bear in mind you also need to know lots of other technical details that seem to be left out. The Schlid manual is a bit better and has better pictures. Just about all the books have errors in them, so do not take what they say as 100% correct. You really need to keep your eyes open pull all the information together. When buying a restored car keep in mind most look pretty, but are not always safe to drive. As I stated above, a properly restored to factory car will comfortably run 60+ MPH and stop as well as the little tires can stop the car. Quick indicators of problems are a lack of working shocks, the front brake levers not at 15* forward, the front axle should be about 50% below the front splash apron. Next show you are at look at those attributes and you might be surprised at how few pass the above test. Then there is the issue of reproduction parts. Some cars are built with many reproduction parts and have poor fit and function. In the end you are forking out a lot of money. You had best do your research before buying. I have met many people who paid top dollar for a professionally restored car and forked out another few thousand to make the car sort of drivable.

You did not mention which car with which you are having problems. A condenser is made of two layers of very thing aluminum separated by a treated paper. The chemicals used to treat the papers today are much better than what was used many years ago. A condenser will go bad just sitting on a shelf. A quality modern condenser should last a very long time. The Model A Ford has a modern condenser that does not fail easy. Coils are a different story. The Ford V8 coils are made of a bakelight case. Someone figured out that moisture incursion is the fail point. If you alternate a vacuum with nitrogen you can make a reliable coil again. The fail point vary between coils. I believe one cause is the subtle movement of the primary wires that cause the insulation wear off. I am not sure and I would guess it varies between coils. We learn long ago that you should use a coil/ condenser tester before using the parts. The testers are easy to find on Ebay and I pick them up for under $5 at garage sales and flea markets. You have to be sure and let the coils warm up good because that is when they start failing.

I am not familiar with your type of car, but if it is tracking the ruts in the road I would be quick to suspect worn steering. I know with the 65-71 mustangs they will track something horrible with worn out upper control arms. They also will pull when braking as the weight shift changes the alignment. The problem gets much worse when you put on radials. A friend went into a spin with his 69 convertible when he had to brake fast at 90 MPH. The next weekend I put $500 in parts on the car. If you put on a bunch of new parts then it tracks where you point the wheel. I had bias plys on a mustang for a few weeks. I drove it once in the rain and put new radials on it the next day.

Doing a restoration requires hundreds of hours of time and a lot of money to do right. I would like to point out the following comments are for restoring a car correctly to be safe to drive. Add significant more cost to make a high points show car. First you have to understand what a Model A was when it came off the line in 1931. This also applies to a 1932. Keep in mind what I have written up on my website my go against popular thought, please be ready to open your mind. What a Model A would be when new. Now the money part. If you have a 1932 car than you have a much more valuable car, but the following applies. Consider this, if you have a 32 Ford coupe than you should be able to trade the car for a nicely finished Model A. A 1931 coupe is a very common car. Restored cars can be bought for $8000 to $15,000. Frequently a restored car actually needs mechanical work to drive like new, but coupes can be found that are ready to drive in the above price range. A 32 Coupe can get into the $50,000 range real quick. To do all the work yourself, with exception to plating, you will likely spend at least $15,000 to get to a car that drives like it came off the factory line. If you need to buy tools and you need to pay people to do work for you than that price quickly jumps. It can be time consuming to properly rebuild the car. You can figure several years of work if you are a busy person. It is very common for people to start tearing apart a car and then never get back to it. The family sells the car when the guy dies. So how do I know about costs. Well it is easy, I am in the middle of a restoration. But it is not hard to figure out. Get some catalogs and do some math. Then add a lot for what you forgot. My Car. If you talk to someone that says it can be done cheaper ask some questions. If he did his car right he will tell you his brakes work great and he cruises 55 MPH all day long with a factory drive line. Most guys will tell you the brakes kind of work and the top speed is 45. If the car is close to drivable you might be better off leaving it together and doing basic repairs to make the car safe to drive. Drive the car and take the time to have fun and get to know more about the car. Wait a year or two and then start a restoration. Be sure to join the two national clubs and a local club. Buy books and read a lot, keep in mind there are errors in almost all the publications. There is a ton of free info on the web. The two active A forums are fordbarn.com and ahooga.com. If you search the archives of both boards you are likely to find the answers to most all of your questions. If you have a 1932 Ford then I would recommend you consider selling the car. They are VERY desirable and costly to properly rebuild. The kind of cash they are bringing today will get you a nice Model A or slightly later Ford that is already restored. There are two types of 32 Ford coupes, the 3 window and the 5 window. If you have a 3 window coupe than you have a big dollar car. Either way you are in a different league from the Model A when it comes to value.

What you are asking is kind of odd. The year range does not make since because the technologies change radically in that time frame. What is it that you made? What is it made out of? Legally you have to contact your states DMV title unit and you will need to get a special title. If you lived in NJ, then you have built a new car and it will be titled as a current year car (2007). The emissions are based on the year of manufacture of the engine being used. You will be expected to produce receipts of the parts used and show you paid tax on it all. The vehicle will have to pass a safety inspection. What is probably the illegal way to title the car would be to find a used title that best matches the drive line year and manufacturer. Bear in mind that an insurance company could deny claims if the car is not legally registered. If you lied to get a title than the car is not legally titled and therefore not legally registered. The lower cost original titles are for less desirable cars. Look for a common Plymouth or such. A 32 Ford title can get pricey.

Late 31 SEAT SPRINGS Wanted. I am looking for a seat spring set for the late 31 coupe. See the link for full details of what the springs look like as they are easy to identify. Click me for Seat spring pictures and measurements I am looking for originals because the repros will sit me up higher and I am already too tall. Thanks, Kevin

The fuel economy of an antique car is directly related to the care put into the restoration. Most people just slap together their Model A's cause they believe they were just cheap cars to begin with. The truth is the A was a carefully engineered car that was built with a higher degree of precision than most people can imagine. Running comfortably at 60 MPH with a stock Model A takes a properly rebuilt chassis. Bear in mind that Ford balanced the crank and flywheel, matched the rods +-1 gram and matched the pistons. He also held tolerances to .001 and .002". Too many people try to make a better A and never look into how the car was manufactured. So today most have no clue of what the Model A how the Model A could drive when it was new. When my brother has let other A owners drive his car they walk away wondering how they can make their car drive so well. Keep in mind that you can also improve the performance of the engine quickly by adding in a modern design head. You get a HP boost and a burn efficiency boost giving you more fuel mileage. Assuming that you have the rest of the engine brought back to its original precision. To think you can get a well rebuilt A for $5000 is a bit ridiculous. Today market puts cars that need total restorations but move at between $4000 and $8000. These are cars that need full chassis rebuilds to be safe to drive. You will drop a couple of thousand dollars into brakes, shocks and other drive line parts to make it safe to move at speeds above 30 MPH. Then you need to drop a few more thousand to bring the engine back to reliable and in tolerance. For $8000 to $15000 you can find older restorations that generally need to have the brakes and other mechanical parts replaced to be safe to drive. If you are looking for better value high mileage car than look for an older rust free Mercedes diesel. I am talking early 80s to mid 90's. The 300D and 300SD get 25 to 30 MPG and are full sized luxury cars. They offer good brakes and a modern body that will fully protect you in an accident, just wear your seat belt and you will walk away from most accidents. If you go a bit newer into the 90's you will find a smaller body Mercedes diesel that get 40 to 50 MPG. All these cars are cheap to keep and are good for 500,000 to 1,000,000 miles. My 300sd has 318,000 miles and still has the original starter and alternator, the AC compressor just gave in. I paid $3000 about 12 years ago and today I can get $1500 to $2000 for it. Lower mileage 300SDs from the early 80's are currently selling for as much as $8000. Look on ebay to the rust free areas for good deals on rust free bodies. These diesels can be run on vegetable oil which is about $1 a gallon cheaper if you have a supply local to you. My brother works on these cars for a living. He has found they fix for the same amount as modern cars and you 2 to 3 times the mileage between repairs so there is much more value in the car overall.

My brothers coupe that is Ford factory with exception to a B cam and B ignition cam gets about 23 MPG. This mileage was figured from a trip from NJ to WI in 1986. My father was in a motor home so we were able to cross check mileage and speed. We were running 60+ mph for extended periods of time during this trip.

The mysteries of oil, a quick overview. This has been a tough topic for years. In the most recent Model A News there is an article on the differences of oils. They did not say which is best, but they pointed out the differences. The proper thing to ask is what additives are in the oil. Some oils, like many single weights oils, are none detergent and may lack any additives. Additives will prevent the formation of nasty chemicals, help keep oil on the wear surfaces, and other positive benefits. Detergents are to keep microscopic dirt in suspension and are pretty important even in cars with filters. Multi weight oils are good because they are thin for starting and thicken as they warm. An engine that gets used a little and then put away for a while will tend to build up moisture. The moisture will combine with sulfur by products that end up in the oil. Then you get sulfuric acid that will eat at your engine. Oils designed for diesel engines (compression ignition) will have more additives to combat acid build up and other bad chemicals. While there is no research to properly prove which oil works best in an old engine. It is pretty obvious that you want additives that will prevent bad chemical build up. You generally want to have multi weight oils and you want detergents. For most antique cars, you just need to pick a quality oil and change it at a reasonable period and you should be fine.

Humm rebuilt, that could mean a lot. What did they rebuild. I have seen rebuilt trannies with pitted bearings. That tranny was supposedly rebuilt by a professional shop. As with any mechanical parts it is buy beware. Trannies are fairly easy to rebuild with a limited selection of tools. You do need to check some dimensions. What is the diameter of the pilot bearing surface? That is frequently worn and will cause shifting problems. Look at the slider shaft and move the gears around. Is there a step on the spline shaft from where the gears slide? How are the teeth? Are the faces pitted? Are the leading edges of the teeth worn from being jambed into gear? Ideally you would take all the parts our and mic them for size. You can spend a lot of money and just buy stuff done or you can take some time and look up the relevant specs and do the work yourself. Most of what you need to know can be found in the archives of fordbarn or Ahooga for free. Additional info can be found in various books such as Schlids shop manual and the technical book series from each club. For $800 you can buy all the books and tools and rebuild a couple of trannies yourself. Good luck.