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Hello all, new to the forum! hello everyone, my name is Nick and I am 20 years old. I am pretty sure I have a model A. I am not 100% sure on everything, but although my age says my technical knowledge is low, my mechanical knowledge is quite high. I have been working on my own cars/motorcycles since I was 14 so my knowledge is up there. Well, here are some pictures of my new ride!
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...0/IMG_0350.jpg http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...0/IMG_0351.jpg http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...0/IMG_0354.jpg http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...0/IMG_0355.jpg http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...0/IMG_0353.jpg |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! WOW! what a nice Coupe!
find your local Model A club, get thick skinned and learn to ignore the grumps, naysayers and nitpickers therein. look fo a mentor in the club who will help you along the way. in SF area you should get together with Marco Tahtaras & his circle. they will be good people to know. |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! 1 Attachment(s)
Glad to see some youth are getting involved again in the hobbie. You are about the same age as my oldest duaghter. I bought my first A when I was 13. Never will regret it. Rod
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Yes it is an "A". Nice car with some "special" parts! Don't sell or trade anything until you find its value! Good Luck, Jim
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Yes that is an A, I agree with Jim, don't sell anything off of it. If you want to make it more yours, keep what you take off and store it away. It is only original once. Nice accessory gauge panel!
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! I dont understand what is so special? Could any of you point in my direction what is not standard on this? If I cannot put a lot of money or effort into this build(i'm still in college), I will either let it sit in my garage or sell it to an enthusiast. I'm going to dive into it tomorrow and see what I find. I'd like to clean out the carb, put some oil in the pistons, and see if she'll fire up!
knowing how projects are, I doubt it will be that easy haha! |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! "If I cannot put a lot of money or effort into this build(i'm still in college), I will either let it sit in my garage or sell it to an enthusiast. "
First of all, what do you want to do with it? I'll narrow it down to three broad areas. 1) Restoration - to bring back to original look, parts etc. 2) Mild Modification - To bring back to almost original look, some or all of the following; add non original accessories, change to juice brakes, different engine configurations such as ignition, voltage etc. 3) Rod - change out the engine for non stock like a v8 or pinto engine, remove body parts, chop & channel etc. Like I said there are BROAD interpitations. Tell us what you want to do and we will guide you to get the car you want. |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Quote:
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! It looks to be in good condition, possibly a 1960's restoration of sorts based on what I can see (likely just the paint is that new). Curios as to how many miles the Odometer has on it. Let us know what you need for basic parts and guidance to help you get it on the road safely. I difinately would not change mush as far as appearance. although floorboards would be nice. There is a site on the net that has plans for cutting new floorboards. I can not remembber the sites address, but I am sure someone has it saved. Rod
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! the car has 31k or 51k on the clock, i'll be back out there working on it in a minute, but I'll for sure let you all know what I need! I have no idea what I don't need or what is there yet; are there any sites for online PDF files for a manual?
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! If it were mine I would get it running and make sure the brakes are in xlnt working order and drive the heck out of it. Don't worry to much about the way the paint or body look, as we love them in every condition, heck take it to a car show and park next to a high dollar street rod and see which cars gets the most looks and comments. I am betting it will be your car that will be the hit of the show.
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Another option would be to clean it up thoroughly, drive it, then determine what you want to do.
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Here is a link to help you get started. Also check out the links page on the site and a whole new world of info is out there. This site has instuctions on operation including starting and Marco's A barnyard has info on timing and some other good tech info. Rod
http://www.jmodela.com/ |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! I started restoring my truck when I was 20 and still in college. I started with two body panels and with a LOT of help, had a restored truck in a year and a week. I'm 28 now and have put 6,000 miles on it.
Make friends with Model A'ers that can help you find parts and answer your questions. Ignore the people who talk down to you because you're a kid. It looks like you have a great start to a Model A there. Get it running, make sure it is safe to drive and DRIVE IT. -Tim |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! firefirefire90, feel better now? We are here to help!
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Neat car!!
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! that thing is so cool! Personally I would get it running and drive the wheels off of it! It looks too nice to mess with, but not nice enough not worry about driving it to the store for groceries.
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Thank you all for the kind words and not acting how I expected. On all of the BMW forums I regularly visit, the new members are rarely welcomed with open arms. What my friend and I have done is completely disassemble the carb, patrol lines, oil, and checked everything over. We have run into a snag, the keys we have to unlock the car/rumble seat, do not turn in the ignition switch. Is there anyway around this, or is a lock smith necessary?
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! haha we decided that was our option, and that's what we're doing!!!
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! okay.. hotwiring it wont work.. we're attaching both leads that go to the ignition switch together while running a fresh battery to the cable leads.. any tips on hot wiring?
well hot wiring was a bust so we put the battery leads to the starter and it turned the engine over, but it did not turn over the fan. The fan just sort of hung out and is really stiff. I am guessing I am going to have to take the head off and see what I have to work with? |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! When I had my mustang it was rolling project, I parked next to a beautiful Mach 1 and got more looks and comments than it did. Trust me, just get out there and drive her and you will get more looks and comments than you know what to do with. Plus, she is a blast to drive!
Mike |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Take care not to do any damage to the dash panel! If you have the original ignition cable hot wiring the car will not be an easy task without removing the cable. This was an early theft proof device Ford installed in all Model A's. Great car, have fun with it. Bob
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Nice car, slow down just a little. The fan only turns by the fan belt and the bet may just be too stiff. For the moment just remove the belt but loosening the generator pivot bolt and pushing the generator against the block. I suspect the water pump will turn by hand and may need to be lubed. DO NOT be in a hurry to pull the head!
The ignition switch is a replacement type so removing the four screws holding the instrument panel in place and tilting it back will give you access to the two wires which the switch connects to close the circuit. There is no anti-theft circuit in replacement switches. |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! BTW, my best guess is the car was built around April 1930. The instrument panel is an accessory replacement, "aristocrat" I think they were called. I don't know if it's old or a later copy. I'm also betting the original colors of the car were Chicle Drab and Copra Drab on the body. Nice toy!
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Oh yeah and basically apparently the car used to be red. Is that one of the two colours you stated?
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! If it is AN ORIGINAL type "Pop Out" ignition, I do not believe you can "Hot Wire" it.
If it is a repop, hot wiring is a piece of cake. I believe the "Pop Out" original is shorted to ground when the key is out, but hoprfully others will assist on that. Are you near Pleasanton, CA ? |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! I have no idea what the difference is, haha. Close as in a 30-45 minute car ride!
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! If you have the original pop out swich, the dist will be shorted to ground. do you know if its positic=ve ground or negitive ground, 6 or 12 volts?
You will have to open up the dist. remove the upper plate and place some kind of insulator between the wire from the armored cable and the lower plate. Then you will need to run a wire from the lower plate to the hot. See hot, ground question above. |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! 1 Attachment(s)
Nice 'ol 30 std coupe. I notice the battery is 6 volt, and the cable running to the starter is red, indicating positive. It should be negative to the starter and positive to the ground. It looks like the original ignition/distributor cable is there too. As Marco mentioned, with that dash you should be able to hot wire across the switch. That is indeed a generator. If its frozen up, they sometimes can be loosened on the bench with a little foolin' around. If you cannot get enough slack in the belt to get it off the pulley, you can remove the retainer nut on the generator pulley and remove the pulley, thereby facilitating belt removal. I agree, do not be so eager to pull the head. Wait until its certain its absolutely necessary. As long as that's been on there, the job could turn out very badly. You have an original Zenith carburetor, a replacement four blade fan and no ahooga horn. The speedometer is the early 30 oval type. It looks like it was Chicle and Copra color to me too. If it worked, I attached a photo of a chicle and copra drab 160-C sedan so you can see the colors
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Quote:
2). I'll try that with the generator! It looks like rebuilt ones can be quite expensive so i'll try and get it to work!! 3). Yep, the carb said "ZENITH II." I cleaned out all the gunk and made my own gasket out of gasket material so hopefully it should work well! 4). I see the colour, funny.. this car must have gone about 4 colour changes. At one point, it was the colour you said, then it was lime green, then it must have been red, then it must have been changed to black. http://forum.e46fanatics.com/images/smilies/rofl.gif |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Looks like you have an early '30 standard coupe. I would guess it originally had a trunk, and has been converted to a rumble seat. The dash panel is aftermarket. All the original dash contained was the ignition switch, an ammeter, the gas gage, and the speedometer. Late '30 cars had a round speedo.
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Posotive ground on an A. All electricity needs is a path from one post to the other. The gen is polorized that way so all should be better when it is switched back right. If you get the gen unseized you may have to flash the field to get it to charge after having it hooked up backwards. Be sure the cable from the neg post to the starter is insulated, but likely that is obvious. Rod
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Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Quote:
once again thank you for being patient, I feel like i'm learning what makes up a car's mechanics all over again! |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! "flash the field to get it to charge"
On the top of the generator is a cut out. It keeps the voltage from going back into the generator when the car is off. Take a peice of wire and jumper aross the switch for a second or 2. |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Negative to the starter. I do not know if you will find this link useful, but it should be simular to your endevor. Mike explains flashing the field pretty well in his post, really not much to it. Headed to bed here, good luck. Rod
http://idisk.mac.com/forever4/Public...pingbeauty.htm |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! originally, neg goes to starter switch. Do you really have a solenoid? that's not original. Someone could have re-wired the car with a solenoid starter. A lot can happen in 80 years. They will run when wired backwards, but they will not run well unless someone wired the coil for neg ground too.
original wiring is as follows: Neg batt cable to starter post. yellow wire from starter post to rt (pass) side terminal box post and up to the ammeter neg post. yellow wire w/blk tracer from ammeter pos post to terminal box left ( drivers) post short black wire from terminal Left post to coil neg terminal red wire from coil pos terminal to ign switch " coil " terminal wire cased in metal cable from switch "dist" terminal to distributor. yellow /blk wire from generator cutout to terminal box, left (drivers side) terminal. |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! Here is how the car was originally wired. It should help you find what is original and what is not.
http://www.webjunk.com/modela/wp-con...amcolor2sm.jpg |
Re: Hello all, new to the forum! thank you thank you thank you thank you for this wiring diagram! This is soo necessary!!
By the way, is there any place to buy new wiring harnesses for this car? I read in that link(thank you Rowdy!) that the OP made one for 16 dollars but I would love to buy one ready made if I could already. |
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