Month: November 2011

Over the last three weeks I did a bunch of things:

1. I cleaned up the garage and put away the painting tent.
2. I bead-blasted, painted, and installed the hood latches. I used epoxy paint from a spray can, which for smaller jobs is 100x easier than using a spray gun.
3. I bead-blasted and painted the body bolts, the same way I did the latches. Almost all of the original bolts and nuts were OK. I replaced just a couple.
4. I cut a few new body shims from a sturdy piece of 1/8″ neoprene rubber.
5. I figured out the right amount of shims for each body bolt, and got the body bolted to the frame. The goal was to make sure the doors were evenly aligned with their openings, and I had to add and remove shims from certain spots, loosening and tightening the bolts each time, until everything was lined up. Now the body is permanently attached to the frame.
6. I got some nicely-made trim strips for the running boards, in zinc like the originals. I attached them to the running boards, and I used contact cement to attach the rubber mats to the running boards. Finally, I bolted the nice-looking running boards to the body.
7. I bought a new wiring harness that gives the car turn signals.  It has a nice retro-style turn signal switch that attaches to the steering column, and it uses the existing cowl lights and brake lights as turn signals (and emergency flashers) without affecting their normal function.  All the wiring is correct original cloth-covered style, and the entire setup looks just like an aftermarket accessory from when the car was made.  The only thing I have to do to actually use it is to temporarily install the right rear fender, so there will be a place to attach the right taillight. (The Model A was built with only a left taillight, but a second taillight and turn signals will make it a lot safer to drive in modern traffic.)

I’m essentially done with all the work I planned to do over the summer (just a few weeks before winter…) I might temporarily bolt on my best front fenders, so that I can drive the car around without it looking too strange.  But once we start getting snow (and road salt!) I’ll be done messing with it for the winter.

I painted the hood pieces, and a day later I masked off and painted the black strip on each side.  Then I installed the rubber bumpers and leather corner protector on each side.  Finally I assembled all the pieces with stainless steel hinge rods, and put the hood on the car.  There was a suspenseful moment when I realized that the hinge on one side was bent out of alignment.  I had never noticed before, since the individual pieces each looked fine, and the problem was only visible when they were mated up to each other.  Fortunately I was able to bend everything back to the correct shape without affecting the nice new paint.  The hood lines up really nicely with the body and radiator shell, which tells me that the frame is straight and square.  I won’t have to spend too much time messing with shimming the body to get everything lined up.

The next step is to put away all the painting stuff and tidy up the garage a bit.  Then I will re-paint and install the hood latches and finish working on the running boards.  The rubber matting and trim strips need to be installed on them.  After that I can get the body permanently bolted to the frame.