[Ranchero50]

Why so many upgrades? Because these cars were only state of the art for four years. Due to how fast the automotive world was developing they needed some help to stay competitive as daily drivers. Look at the differences between the A and B engines. Ford bumped the HP 25% in '32 by bumping the compression, adding air flow and changing the oiling strategy. Obviously the A wasn't "perfect" regardless of what some forum personalities keep moaning. As said above, get your car running before tearing it apart so you know what you want to keep and what you want to change. There's no right or wrong answer to how you build your car as long as you achieve your goals and enjoy the car enough to actually use it and not let it collect dust.