Re: Wanted: advice

Posted by Jack Richard on March 08, 1998 at 20:50:58

In Reply to: Wanted: advice
posted by carla on March 08, 1998 at 19:32:04

Carla-
As you may have heard, the value of free advice is sometimes suspect, but here's my 2 cents worth: Your "new" Model A is one of the best for touring and has much more steel than earlier Fordors.If there is any way to preserve it in it's "original" condition, I would encourage you to do so.Ford restorers consider an original car to have about 50% of its original upholstery and 50% of its original paint.Of course, if the interior is totally trashed, then you have no choice but to do new upholstery, and if there is total rust on all the exterior, then you need to do a full restoration and repaint, but if you have a car that is presentable as it is, then I would encourage you to repaint and replace only the upholstery which is unusable.Not only will this keep your car much more authentic than a full restoration, it will be easier and cheaper too!I would encourage you to keep the original size Fore wheels and tires - nothing keeps a Model A from looking like a Model A than smaller wheels and fatter tires.The original wheels and tires are plenty strong and durable for long-distance, comfortable and safe touring, and they just look so much more correct than the later wheels.The original mechanical brake system works extremely well if the restorer takes the time to restore all the parts which have worn over the years, and remove all unnecessary play or "slop" in the linkages.New cast iron drums can be fitted, and with proper linings and adjustment, your car will stop extemely well without all the expense, modifications and new set of problems converting the car to hydraulic brakes will cause.If you were building a car from scratch, perhaps conversions like hydraulic brakes and counterweighted crank would make sense, but why tear down an engine which you say runs fine, or throw away a perfectly good brake system!I do agree with you regarding the value of original parts.If you can find good original used parts and restore them (or restore the parts you already have on your car) you will be far better off than replacing worn original parts with new poorly made or ill-fitting reproduction parts.There are some good reproduction parts, but they are seldom as good as a well-restored original.New-old-stock parts are around, but you have to be prepared to spend a lot of time locating them and be prepared to pay top dollar when you do.Probably the most common mistake I have seen people do when restoring an A is to be in too much of a hurry - take your time and don't do something just because it is the fastest way to get the job done.Hopefully you are the type of person who is patient enough to learn how to do much of the work yourself, and learn how you want the work done by others, and what others to use to help you. Good luck in your restoration!

: back in the '60's i ran an a model ford for some years as an everyday-use vehicle then foolishly sold it, thinking i would find a nicer one later. well, quite a few years later i finally got one, which, with a little fixing should be a medium nice ford. the one i got is a 31 s/w 160b, which was stored away back during the war with 53k miles on it. it was preserved through the years with no rust and only minor dings.
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: it will need a bit of work, though, and i would like to get the advice of some of the knowledgable old timers before doing anything to a well-preserved original car.
: i'm thinking about this one as a safe, reliable, gentle-use roadworthy car, not a freeway commute warrior, but not a display-only show car.
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: my thought is to dissect the body off the chassis, set the body aside carefully, recon the chassis, and fit hyd. brakes, 16" tires on kelsey-hayes wheel rims, and redo the engine(it runs well now) with a counter-weighted crank, maybe a higher compression head, etc. then reassemble it otherwise as it is now.
: do i have any realistic chance of finding new-old-stock real ford parts for the chassis and steering, and what are fair market values for real ford parts now??
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: i am really paranoid about the idea of third-world metallurgy in stressed or safety-related pieces. my father had, many years ago, a machine business, and i got to listen to stories told by some of his friends and workers, some of whom had worked for old man ford and his metallurgist mr wills, so, as you might understand, i have confidence in the real ford vanadium-flavoured steels (and the ford chrome-carbon steels too, for that matter).
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: anyway, i would be really very grateful for any ideas, advice, leads, etc. its really wonderful to see the experts give so freely of their time and energy to share the minutae of the mechanism and its folklore
: thank you

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