Most of you have probably seen at least a picture of my Model A. I bought the body from an eBay seller about 7-8 years ago. After an overnight trip to Minnesota, it was back home and the build had begun. The original plan was to build the car and then take the body back off the frame to do that body work.
Well, that never happened. I drove the car for 6-7 years with the nice patina that was created after the car sat in a barn somewhere for many years. I think it sat in a barn somewhere due to the original chicken wire and other roof material that was there and that most of the wood frame was intact.
One friend told me that I said I would never paint it, but I don’t quite remember saying that, but who knows. Another friend has been encouraging me to paint it for that past couple of years. I finally decided that the 2014/15 winter was the time to get it done.
We got started in mid-November by lifting the body just a bit to get the rubber pads between the body and the frame that I had never installed. This went much better than I thought it would. I had bad images in my head of the body moving just enough that I wouldn’t be able to get the bolt holes lined back up. So, we loosened each one and removed one at a time while lifting it just a bit with the floor jack.
Once that task was done, I thought, wonder what this car looks like under that rust, so Jim asked me if I had a DA sander. Got it out, put a sanding disc on it and started in. Then got the grinder out with a wire wheel and really got started. By the time we got done, we had about 3/4 of the car sanded. I was really surprised how good the metal was under all that rust. Even found a lot of the remnants of the original Ford Maroon paint.
So the sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sand…(well, you get the idea), went on for several more months and in early March we finally got to shoot the paint. I had decided quite a while ago, if I ever painted this car, I was going to try and keep some originality to it. For one thing, the top is not chopped, and I knew the original color was Ford Maroon. And, that was the color that I was going to keep. It also had Vermillion pinstripes on it. Evidence of both these colors have been found on the car. The color of the pinstripes will be different. When that time comes, I am going with Wimbledon White pinstripes, still a Ford color.
Now that all of this is done, it’s time to drive the wheels of this thing this year. I put more miles on it last year that I had in previous years, and this year is going to be even more. Going to try and hit some car shows that I haven’t been to before, along with a couple of large weekend shows, out of state. I don’t think that people that know this car are going to recognize it, and I am looking forward to seeing peoples reactions.
I have to thank a couple of people for their help on this project. The first person, has become a really good friend over the past couple of years. We travel to a lot of car shows together. Jim was probably the most instrumental in get this project done this year. Without him, this car would not have turned out as good as it did. I hope he knows much I appreciate all the help with this project and the knowledge that he has shared with me during the past 5 months. I have enjoyed working with him, just about every Saturday since we got started on it and look forward to the trips we will be making around the state to local car shows, not to mention the the all weekend car shows that we are planning to go to.
The other person that I need to thank, is my partner in crime, Josh. Josh and I take on some projects that most of you see. From some of the photography, the videos, and the graphics that are on this website. He will also come over to lend an extra set of hands when I need it, to taking out, and putting back in the windows and hanging the gas tank.
And, I probably should thank my wife! She puts up with a lot… from me being out in the shop all day on Saturdays, to spending a lot of the evenings out there, to being gone just about every weekend through the summer.
Now, I need to get my camera bag ready for the season and batteries charged up for next weekend, so… That’s about it for this update on the old hot rod… Looking forward to seeing a bunch of friends this year and hanging out talking/looking at cars!