The owner of the Model A coupe I’m working on only wanted me to only go as far as to put it in primer. His son owns a local body shop and is going to paint the car there. I certainly don’t want whoever does the reassembly to have any problems and I asked the owner to bring me the new rear fenders so I could make sure they’ll bolt up smoothly after all the paint work is done. No nicks in the new paint is always a good policy!

I first noticed a problem when I started fitting the fenders so I could align the rust patch panels. Some of the bolt slots in the fender were over half an inch off vertically and many were off horizontally as well. After enlarging the bolt slots several times I finally got the fenders to fit but given that it’s fairly easy to see into the fender well once the car is finished, I needed to somehow patch any original misplaced slots that weren’t used as well as the extended holes that I created. My solution was to tack weld washers where the bolt studs are supposed to come through the fender and patch the openings I cut. Doing the work to make the fenders fit well, look decent inside, and test fitting them several times is like buying an insurance policy against scratching the paint work. It’s like making a smart move and buying auto insurance from Aviva at http://www.aviva.co.uk/car/.

Here at Versatile Industries we build cars for people to drive and have fun with. We help do it yourself-ers build cars that look good and are functional. To that end, the washers that do show inside the wheel house/wheel well may not qualify for a ‘first-in-show’ ribbon but they will line up the fender for the final assembly easily and they will help hold the fender in place for a good long time. My next article will cover repairing the rust on the driver’s door and showing the left rear fender mounted. After that it’s nothing but filling, sanding, and priming. Thanks for reading -Kevin

So one of the neat things about setting up this blog site is that I get to see the search strings that lead people here. One of the strings that I’ve seen for two months now is a question about what the measurements of the deck lid on a Ford Model A are. The answer to that question is something I would like to know too.

The 29 Coupe I’m working on has a rumble seat not a trunk but I’m assuming the lid is supposed to be the same size with either one. I seriously doubt each and every lid originally installed on any style (coupe, sedan, roadster, two door, four door) Model A is the the same size anyway. They certainly wouldn’t have been able to measure the jam gaps and find them all the same or roll a ball bearing along them evenly – if anyone remembers that old commercial. On the coupe I’ll bet I have over 15 hours adjusting and aligning the rumble seat lid. Of course all the braces, drip rails, and hinges were completely disconnected except when I would clamp them in place for a temporary check on the lid alignment. Rumble seat lids are notoriously difficult to align and I certainly got a lesson in how many different moveable parts there are.

During those 15 hours I measured the lid several times. I measured the front, back, sides, and diagonally. Not only was there really nothing symmetrical about it (within a half inch anyway), the side radiuses were not the same either. I also talked with a few older enthusiasts who said the lids never fit well from the factory. The best most owners could hope for was that the lid didn’t hit or rub when it was opened and shut. They simply didn’t have the technology to produce the exact same panel each and every time. Even in these modern times stamping dies wear down and shells (the structural reinforcement portion of the part) don’t always mate to skins (the outer panel on the part) in the way theory might suggest so I can’t really answer the question of what the lid measurements are. I’m not sure anyone could.

Here is what I do know though. I know the measurements of the trunk opening on the coupe I’m working on: Across the front it measures 36 3/4 inches, across the back (bottom) is 35 3/4 inches, and both sides measure 31 inches from front to back along the radius atop the quarter panels.

I hope this info helps whomever searched “measurements of model a deck lid” and came across my little piece of the internet. I think it’s mostly important that the lid be functional and pleasing to look at. To any one who’s interested, I’m always happy to answer questions to the best of my experience and ability. Please don’t hesitate to ask at versatile-industries@live.com.

Thanks for reading, -Kevin Swango

It’s Thursday today and last Monday I picked up the coupe from the chemical dipper. Unfortunately they were unable to give the car body an acid bath they had to sandblast instead. There is still wood bracing that the owner would like undisturbed and the chemicals would make the wood the consistency of wet cardboard I was told by the owners of the stripping business – Redi Strip here in Indianapolis. The doors were dipped though, and at this writing I am waiting on them to finish stipping the cowl section.

I have however, epoxy coated (e-coated) the underneath side of the body, mounted the frame to the rotisserie, and set the body on the frame. I’m excited to button the body to the frame and start aligning the doors and rumble seat but without the cowl braces welded in and that section attached, I’m afraid any alignment work would be a waste of time. In the mean-time I’m going to e-coat the doors inside and out and weld some patch panels in the bottom of them to repair some rust.

I’ll keep you all informed of the progress. Thanks for reading.  -Kevin

This is a Model A Special Coupe – or I’ve heard it called a business coupe. If you will notice, the right rear quarter panel is quite rusty. Actually the left quarter panel is too as well as the trunk floor and rear sub-frame rails. I was hired to replace the frame rails, floor pans, wheel houses, and rear body panels. After I’m done welding, it will go to the stripper and come back to me for the bodywork. Working on a Model A is almost like working on a toy car except for using a mig welder instead of glue.

The first step was to square up the body by replacing the sub frame rails. Without doing that, there’s is no way to be sure the wheel house panels or rear body panel is properly aligned. Luckily there was enough left of the floor pans to maintain the cross member placement and allow me to just slip the new rail in without much measurement or hassle. In the second and third pictures, you can see clearly the level of deterioration in the rear rails by looking at the left one. The final picture shows the new right rail simply fitted into place. As I am writing this, all the welding is done and the car has just been delivered to the stripper for chemical dipping.

Thanks for reading. -Kevin