I've had a few requests for a post on my Model A, so here it is.
I found a 1930 Model A Tudor that a local guy had given up on. He was bored with it and made me a great deal because he wanted to see it turned into something. I set out to build a family hauler that would serve duty as a daily driver but still have all the fun a hot rod should have. The thought of a car with a gas sucking V8 being used everyday wasn’t going to work for me. I’m interested in alternative fuels, so a diesel was a natural choice.
I located a well used bread truck for sale with a Cummins 4BT diesel. After a very noisy 5 hour drive home in it, I got to work pulling the drive train. The Cummins is a tall engine, but surprisingly I was able to fit it under the stock Model A hood.
The chassis is the stock A rails, fully boxed and stepped in the rear. I made my own 2 link rear trailing arms out of some small I-beams and kept the transverse buggy springs front and rear. A 4 inch dropped CE axle and disk brakes all around buttoned up the chassis.
The heart of the drive train is the 4BT engine with a few tweaks to the injection pump. A 5 speed M5R2 transmission and a 9” from a ’59 Ranchero runs 2.72 gears. Surprisingly, those tall gears and the overdrive trans put the Cummins right in its sweet spot for great acceleration and mileage.
I chopped the roof 4 inches and grafted a ’32 Ford gas tank on the rear. The whole car is steel and after some help with the final body work, I painted the car with Custom Shop paint.
I found a stainless bezel from an old farm gas pump that reads “Gas Boy” and I thought with the diesel power it would be ironic to use that for the dash. I filled the dash with a random collection of gauges and my wonderful wife fitted the switches with some rare Motor Agate.
On to the show and tell.
This car is SO cool. Im not usually a fan of full fender cars but the unique drivetrain has got me hooked. Also the fact that its still a manual trans and not an automatic. I wish they would have stated what the MPG is on the open road. If I had a car like this I would seriously think about investing in a set up to produce my own "Bio" diesel.
ReplyDeleteRobert, I get 30 mpg on the open road. Thanks for the kind words.
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