Model A Truck ...From Parts........

For sometime, we have been working on building a Model A T5 adapter.  It started with first developing a way to bolt the T5 to the original banger engine as cleanly and cost effectively as possible.  Once that was figured out, the next logical step was to develop a way to retain the original torque tube rear end.  Well, its fine to come up with these ideas on paper, but it's helpful to have a vehicle to actually test them on.

After some trading and dealings on the several internet forum boards, I ended up with a fairly complete running '31 Model A Chassis. The previous owner bought the car simply for the Coupe body and had no need for everything else.  It appeared that someone along the way started to build a driver as the brakes where switched out for '40 hydraulic units and it had 16" wires on it.  With a little bit of wiring, the engine fired right up and ran wonderfully.  Needless to say, I was pretty amazed.

Initially, the chassis was simply going to be used for mock up and never had any plans of actually putting a body on it.  But after falling into a fairly good deal on some truck body parts, plans change...

I found a local guy that had the rear section of a '30-'31 truck cab and thought that this would make a great shop truck for Vintage Metalworks.  The cab and doors originally came from a Tudor Sedan that a guy in Pittsburgh was going to make an extended cab truck out of.  Sure, all of the parts have a little rust on them, but it's nothing we can't take care of.


A little bit of interesting knowledge....I was under the impression that all Model A chassis where interchangeable.  That, however, is it not true.  there are quite a few subtle differences.  I found this out when I went to try and install the cowl/sub rail section to the chassis.  The front body mounts by the A-pillar where off.  I knew that the chassis was a '31 but had know idea when the cowl was produced.   Apparently, in September of 1930, Ford decided to to move the body mount back 2-3/8" to give more support to the A-pillar area.  As you can see in the following picture, the front mounts had to be moved.