1928 Ford Model A Sedan- Drag it til the wheels fall off…

[Dez]

Sept 9, 2023 8:29:36 GMT braaap said:

Sept 8, 2023 20:12:34 GMT Dez said:

Without the aim of insulting anyone, to label this car as a ratrod shows a lack of education. Rats are deliberately made worse for shock value. Nailing on tat, stripping of paint so stuff rusts, etc. trying to outdo each other on the ‘extreme mods’ front.

I'm certainly one of those You did not want to insult - and You did not.

Yes, I'm certainly lacking education, that's why I started that hotrod term thread a while ago.

I agree that ratting or ratrodding is some sort of provocation to the polishers and rivet counters.

And it's getting absurd when some frenchman (who probably thinks he's soooo creative) makes a business out of it by doing only ratrod style cars, porkers, a lambo, several others.

So it became a fashion thing. Just like tattoos or torn jeans legs from factory.


It wasn't my aim to insult You either. But without knwoing Your aims with that car it now, in this very state, looks like all these ratrods that have been shown here a lot over the years, no matter if fashion followers or just outlaws.

And most people in Your area probably never have heard of that ratrod thing. To them You are just a bloke with a terrible loud (?) and surely unsafe and highly illegal car.

As said, no insultation, no criticism, Your car, Your rules and all that. I still enjoy Your threads since I'm massively impressed by Your knowledge, skills and work ethos.

You ask the questions so seek to educate yourself, that’s the difference.

I get a lot of people ‘telling me all about my car’ if you know what i mean. They’ve seen one on the telly (usually on some godawful ‘murican sh1tshow full of sh1tty attitudes) that they think looks similar so think that they know about them, and talk like they’re coming from a point of authority whist simultaneously getting everything wrong. I had a guy ‘tell’ me it was a Chevy engine the other week even though it’s got ford stamped into it in 2” high chrome letters 🤣
I would rather talk to someone who freely admits they don’t know but asks and wants to learn. It references back to the point above, a lot of ‘car guys’ seem to think you have to pretend to know everything our you’re inferior or something.

[crockpot]

Mate of mine had a 390fe powered 32 Ford many years ago except it couldn't have been because the expert who appeared when we were out said they didn't make engines that big, it was a Rover.

[melle]

Sept 9, 2023 18:48:25 GMT Dez said:

I get a lot of people ‘telling me all about my car’ if you know what i mean.

Rodsplainers?

[homersimpson]

Sept 9, 2023 18:48:25 GMT Dez said:

I get a lot of people ‘telling me all about my car’ if you know what i mean.

I can tell you it looks awesome

[Rob]

hey Dez, love the thread and the car. ive wanted to build omething like this for years, but here in oz, suicude sprung front ends, and a few other things are very illegal. i wish we had the uk's laws for these builds. and then we have to have an engineer sign off on the car, even though I'm a mechanic and fabricator with 25 years experience....

enjoy it, it looks phenomenal.

rob

[legend]

does look awesome, enjoy the fame, it's well deserved

[Dez]

Sept 11, 2023 1:19:02 GMT Rob said:

hey Dez, love the thread and the car. ive wanted to build omething like this for years, but here in oz, suicude sprung front ends, and a few other things are very illegal. i wish we had the uk's laws for these builds. and then we have to have an engineer sign off on the car, even though I'm a mechanic and fabricator with 25 years experience....

enjoy it, it looks phenomenal.

rob

People b1tch and moan about our laws, but tbh I don’t think they’re too bad. There are some very stupid ones, but also some glaring emissions that anyone who knows about cars can’t quite believe. Overall, they’re not too restrictive as long as you buy clever and build clever, and I’m happy with that.

[Dez]

More small refinements.
First I remembered to renew my VHRA membership. I do bang on about it but they hands down do the best member freebies. Every year it’s some cool little thing.
I don’t actually need this years as I’ve had one of those plug gappers on my keys since I was a teenager so it’ll stay mounted to the card, which is nice as it preserves the artwork.


Speaking of plugs, I’ve been chasing a misfire. I noticed the leads weeent great, they where just a set I had lying round, and everything else was all used/what came with the motor too. So after a rockauto order of plugs, leads, rotor, cap, points, condensor and the little earth strap in the dizzy, along with some carb adjustments, I’ve 95% eliminated it. I still get a slight stumble on changeover as I put the throttle in, but I think that’s down to carb setup now. The primary nozzle is the smallest they do and I reckon it needs a size or two up.


It’s all a bit fiddly as the dizzy is pretty tight to the firewall.


The fuel pump was also changed as it had a slight weep from the join. I thought this was a newish one but it’s dated 1977 so maybe not 🤣


So that’s all fresh before I start messing round with the carb as the final stage of tuning.


It’s getting better and better to drive. It really lays the power down now, the rear tyres are getting scrubbed in nicely 😬
I’ve got various other leaks to sort yet, namely the rad and the rear main.
I swapped the fanbelt to one an inch shorter as once it had stretched in the one I’d got was just a fraction too long, it seems to charge better now.

New job should be sort out some additional instrumentation really.

[jamesd1972]

Nice fuel line and clamps. Had to stop watching one of the shouty USA speed / resto shop things when they used a jubilee on a fuel line as it made my teeth itch so much !
Details matter.
James

[Dez]

Sept 14, 2023 21:37:08 GMT jamesd1972 said:

Nice fuel line and clamps. Had to stop watching one of the shouty USA speed / resto shop things when they used a jubilee on a fuel line as it made my teeth itch so much !
Details matter.
James

I’m pretty picky about such things tbh. After building so many cars you stop trying to cut corners on things like that as you end up forever chasing leaks, or spending just as much money doing it twice.


All hardlines are done in kunifer no matter what. All flexible fuel hose is codan only bought from one reputable source. Yes it’s expensive per metre but it’s cheaper than having a fire, or the labour to redo it after a year or two. I’ve been working on a car recently that has codan hose dated 2001 that’s in perfect condition. The non-brand-name hose next to it in identical conditions is heavily perished.
Only proper band clamps below 20mm, especially fuel line. I actually prefer the double wire ones but they’re hard to get these days so I use this style instead . Or crimps if space is tight. Mikalor T-bar type clamps on anything boost related. Tbh I’ll only use a jubilee if the hose stub land is too short to allow the width of a Mikalor style (like on the rad hose in the pic you’ve quoted)
The quality of modern jubilee style worm drive clips is terrible too, most of them break if using a proper hex head clipdriver rather than a screwdriver. By the time you’ve bought proper brand name ones that don’t break you can buy T-bar ones for the same money which can be done up way tighter.

[zeberdee]

Who do you get your fuel hose from ?

I use car builder solutions at the mo & looking for other options .

Amazing build by the way , was interesting looking around it at the gathering & hearing all the ‘expert’ opinions on it .

[Dez]

Volksbits I think they’re called? They’re the only place I could find that was a verified codan dealer when I first started using them. There’s so much fake stuff around you’ve got to be real careful.

I order from CBS regularly but don’t really trust them. Some of what they sell is sh1te, a lot of it overpriced, and I won’t buy something as critical as fuel hose from a supplier who won’t tell you want brand it is or it’s rating.

It also really annoys me they still stock various other types of non-ethanol proof hose and advertise it on the same catalogue page. It’s useless (unless you’re using it for diesel) and downright dangerous. If they were truly reputable they wouldn’t be selling it and would explain why.

[Dez]

Y-block Ford v8s are from a time before static timing figures and timing lights were really a thing.
There is no book quoted timing figure and a lot of them don’t even have tdc marked on the damper, let alone timing marks. Those that do can’t really be trusted as the rubber in between the damper section it’s stamped on and the actual pulley is known for slipping and giving false readings. the recommended method of setting the timing is by vacuum.
This actually makes a lot of sense as it considers the vagaries of handbuilt engines with differing component choices, and the variable fuel quality of 1950s America. To do this you hook up a vac gauge to the carb and temporarily block off the dizzy vac advance. Doing this each time I want to tune is a bit of a kerfuffle so I decided to add a permanent gauge for tuning rather than have it as a temporary plug-in. Then all I have to do is nip the vac advance line over and I can tune away.
Obviously it had to be a cool one, and I managed to pick up this little REDeX ‘car care robot’ that has its own little chrome pod and bracket, with a nice thick bevelled glass. I rebent the bracket and it tucks away nicely under the back of the filter now. It was connected into the carb vac port and that’s about it.














Gotta go for a drive then, right?


Yeah, that’s it scraping a bit, that road is a bit rough 😬😆

[jimi]

sounds like it was ticking over, what speed? 25/30? Must sound great when you wind it up

[kevins]

looking great, on the fuel parts side Glencoe are pretty good they only stock the cohline fuel hose which I have been using for years now with no issues.

[colnerov]

Gates are another, but the trick is to get the hose from a reputable source who will stand behind it. It's easy to fake the printing on cheap hose.

Colin

[Dez]

Sept 20, 2023 22:40:50 GMT jimi said:

sounds like it was ticking over, what speed? 25/30? Must sound great when you wind it up

That was 30-35ish. About 1000 rpm 😂 it’s geared very tall but has so much torque it doesn’t care.

I need to do a proper vid of flooring it really. It goes some.

[Dez]

Sept 21, 2023 8:25:42 GMT colnerov said:

Gates are another, but the trick is to get the hose from a reputable source who will stand behind it. It's easy to fake the printing on cheap hose.

Colin

Be careful with gates. Afaik they don’t make/sell a R9 rated hose. If they do, nowhere stocks it and the one they try to sell you is R6 or R7. They then get uppity when you tell them it’s not good enough! I went to two separate suppliers on their word that they sold ‘ethanol proof’ hose, but what they gave me was not what they presented it as. There’s little point buying R6 or R7, as although it will last longer than cheap stuff, it isn’t ‘ethanol proof’ it will still deteriorate.

[akku]

I got "proper stuff" - I forget the brand but its not cheap. A mate works in a hose specialist. The days of 15p a yard fuel hose are well and truely gone....

[jimi]

Sept 21, 2023 9:29:04 GMT Dez said:

That was 30-35ish. About 1000 rpm 😂 it’s geared very tall but has so much torque it doesn’t care.

Sept 21, 2023 9:29:04 GMT Dez said:

I need to do a proper vid of flooring it really. It goes some.

Yes please 👍