Thread: Model A Ratrod -- what's a good drivetrain donor car?

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Your going to love building that car. Now, you have to set up your shop with TV, refrig, stereo, A/C, heat, nice chairs,microwave, coffee pot and all the other essentials that are required, oh yeah, you'll need some tools and stuff too but, you can get those later. Seriously, when you get ready to lift the body off be sure to reinforce it on the inside. Are you planning to box this frame or sell out, oh, I mean buy a manufactured frame? You probably have a build plan by now so.....let's here it.

An S10 Two Wheel Drive PicKup Rearend Is The Perfect Width For A Model A With Fenders. Thats What I Have Under My Roadster Pickup---brian


Brian is right. I'm using one under my '39. They come in lots of different ratios and even posi-traction. They are so plentiful you can pick them up pretty cheap, and the strength is good, too. Chrome center section covers can be put on to dress them up.


Don

Hey Pete, want some pix to get the creative juices flowing??? Check out these coupes.


Don

PeterRatCoupe, as Model A hulks go yours looks surprisingly good in the rear wheel wells, bottom of the cowl and rear panel. Think it over before you go radical. I wish I had found a metal car but as Brian shows the fenders can look good so I am putting 'glass fenders on a 'glass roadster body! Assuming you got the doors with the rest of the car maybe you could use 'glass fenders and put most of the work into a mild top chop and of course my favorite idea of a green plastic insert in the roof hole. Just for comment, the Brookville A frame is exceptionally straight and is set up on a jig with laser alignment but mine came with a kickup in the rear. The kickup plus the solid rectangular tube nature of the frame has been excellent to work on up till now when I have decided to add a rear bumper to protect the 'glass fenders. What this means is some messing around with the heavy spring steel rear bumper brackets and Brian found the front brackets very hard to saw through. That is that if you decide to box the present frame you might look ahead and see where the rear bumper brackets fit INSIDE the frame channel and leave that part unboxed to use the brackets later on. I think I will solve my problem by sawing/burning off the inward bending part of the bumper brackets but you could keep the bolt-on design if you so choose and save some trouble later on if you look at the underside of a complete stock A. Well I am just rambling, but it looks like you have some nice metal there so don't cut it up too much, just a little 2" chop would be nice!
By the way, I have a '74 Maverick rear with just rebuilt pumpkin, no change in width but it does seem a tad wide with 3 1/2" offset wheels. That is to say if you use a Ford 8" rear you will need to pay attention the to the wheel offset. I may switch to another set of wheels with a 4" offset just to get outside clearance with the fenders but of course without fenders that is no problem as long as you clear the inner fender wells, but a deep channel like the gray coupe above could cause a need for planning the rear width carefully.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder