Car Talk: The Model A
Last time we talked cars we left off with "More on the »28 Model A later."
This was a classic. Well, typically, it was a fairly complete Model A Tudor, if you ignore the lack of a roof and lack of any remains of the seats or upholstery. I loved it.
The head was off the engine, so the cylinders had some rust. But what is some rust to a thirteen year old, excited about another old car. We had to tow it about 15 miles over some rough gravel roads. Back to the tow chain and my cousins 50 Ford. Fortunately, if you slammed the brake pedal with both feet and really stood on them, the old mechanical brakes would drag a little. Also, one could always leave the transmission in gear, hold the clutch down and, if closing in on the back of the 50 Ford, let the clutch out. The engine turned over and some rust was scrapped off the cylinders during the tow home. And, because I was sitting on a five gallon pail, sometimes it was a little hard to steer, brake and not fall over.
We sanded the cylinders with 400 grit paper until they looked pretty good and put the head on. We had to re-time the distributor and put a new coil on it to get spark. Then with an old battery that showed a little charge and gas in the tank we pulled it around the yard.
Nothing! Not a pop or sputter. Obviously this was going to take more work. An “old guy” (probably 50 at the time) who worked at the local John Deere dealership collected Model As. He offered me $50 for the Tudor. Wow, $40 profit. I took it.
Well, this mechanic came out, cleaned the carburetor and started the old A right up. He drove off happy as could be, and I was thinking about the next project car. (We really didn’t call them projects back in ‘58.)
My cousin had this 31 Model Pickup at the time. Only partially there, no fenders and the box cut off. The back part of the box, which had been cut off, was long gone, but just maybe this was exactly what I needed to build a hot rod.
More on it later.