1928 Ford Model A Sedan- Drag it til the wheels fall off…

Nice job on your E brake Dez.

Well thought out, planned and built.

Stuff like that doesnt happen by accident...

And I only had to do it twice 😂

Well played sir, well played. They look absolutely spot on.

Yeah, I can’t recall any other lamp that offers the same solution. Odd when you think about it really.

Next I had a big ‘finishing bits’ session. This mostly involves welding on brackets I’d already made.

First, the front prop loop and braces were glued on. This will also be the framework for the actual tunnel panel.



Next I removed the body for access. I did it in quite a stupid way by myself with no lifting gear to see if it would work. Surprisingly it sort of did.



Rear brake plumbing was my consideration. I welded up the old breather/hose mount hole as it was in an unusable place become of its proximity to bracketry.


So I moved it to here.


Hole was drilled and tapped and swarf cleaned out as much as possible with a magnet on a stick. Axle isn’t fully sealed yet so will be blown out properly before final build.


I also welded on the shock mount links whilst I was back there.


I’ve committed to the cage location too so welded that on fully.




And i got rid of a load of previous floor panel mounting holes that are now redundant.


Then I stuck these on. They’re the major floor braces that tie everything and support the whole weight of the seats and therefore my , so I made them very long so they weld up to the box section crossmember, tying everything together.


They sort of mirror the prop loop ones so it’ll look reet fanceh once all this lot is black and there’s an ally tunnel behind them.


This tab was also added for the other end of the rear brake flexi.


And that’s the other end bolted up to the hole i drilled, with the hollow bolt that’s also the axle breather.

All brake components are now mounted so I could make up the brake lines now.

I’m nearly done for brackets. I’ve got to Weld on the battery tray and fusebox mount, the seat mount tabs, and add a earthing boss, but otherwise I think that’s the chassis ready for sandblasting and paint, after a bit of grinding up.

It always makes me laugh when I see this thing without the body on though.
When I describe this thing as a v8 powered gokart, I really mean it. The engine, box, rear axle, wheels and tyres is over 50% of the vehicle weight. The rest is the bare minimum to tie those bits together and make it work, with the bare minimum of bodywork chucked over the top of that. And it’s now drivable without the body…

Well, you might remember a few pages back their was talk of getting it running.

The final part I needed was a 5/8”x5/16” fuel banjo, I eventually got one on the second go after the first seller lying out their ar$e about sending it, then giving a false tracking number.
So once that was here I finished the fuel line from the pump up to the carb, and gave it a go.

Well, it did start.

It also then set on fire.
It was absolutely spewing fuel out of the ‘rebuilt’ carb, which went all over the top of the engine then ignited. Once the flames were about 4ft tall with no signs of abating I tried smothering it with a Blanket which also set on fire, then the fuel can set on fire so I booted it out the door and set the mrs. Ornamental Bush on fire too, which went down well 🙄
I ended up having to drench it with a hose, which filled most of the engine with water, but was preferable to using a fire extinguisher which does even more damage.
Once I’d then taken the plugs out and spun it over to get most of the water out, then I got it to fire in short bursts by pouring fuel down the carb to dry it properly. I was properly curse word off with it though so it was left for a while til I could face going back to find the problem.

When I revisited it, First I cleaned the carb up as it was now covered in soot.


Although an apart from a couple of slightly melted HT lead boots and a melted vac hose, the motor itself was no worse for wear.


I had bought this as I knew I’d be taking the carb apart. Another knob head seller who can’t answer questions but posts things out quickly. It seems that’s what ‘customer service’ means these days.


I started pulling the carb apart. It didn’t look like it had ever been apart. Yes it has been ultrasonically cleaned, but certainly not rebuilt! I spent a lot of time scraping old gaskets off.


These screws bolt through the float bowls. Lovely.


At least I got a second use out of these clutch head bits I bought ages ago for one job though.


Lots and lots of cleaning.


This was what I determined to be the cause of the worst leak. That RHS of the bowl should be straight, not obviously bowed as it is. they do this if you massively over-tighten them.
They can be fixed but it’s fairly high stakes, you have to clamp them in the vice to bend it straight. Luckily this one didnt crack.


It’s fair to say I have a utter distain for holley 4 barrel carbs. They are an exercise in poor design for various reasons. I mean it shouldn’t take a genius to figure out what vertically split float bowls are a stupid idea. They leak at will, and you can’t drain them without pouring fuel all over.
The bolts that retain them also pass through the bowls and have one rubbish little fibre washer per bolt, which also want to leak. They then make it sit in a recess too, so it’s very hard to get the surface good and clean/flat when scraping off old gaskets.

(This pic also shows the new banjo Union I forgot to take a specific pic of).


The banjo Union into the carb is also another bit of rubbish design though, the sealing surface on it is too small.
The metal pipe down the side of the carb goes between the two float bowls and only has an o-ring sealing it at each end, which is also a terrible idea.
But, quite a while later, I have this.


It’s clean and probably doesn’t leak. Well, it did still leak but I redid a few bits and eventually got it fuel tight.
I definitely wish I’d bought an edelbrock instead though. The modern edelbrock carbs are license built Carter AFB made by weber. they’re a superior carb in all respects. Mostly because the float bowls are actually bowls.

The gasket set was odd. The gaskets in it are pretty nice quality, but even though it was specifically listed as for vac-sec holleys it has no vac diaphragm included, so that didn’t get replaced. It also didn’t have the proper self centering power valve gasket which made fitting that fiddly.

Anyway, carb on and hooked back up, and after cranking things down ever tighter to stop them leaking, and a bit of messing with the timing, I have this-



Far, far more of a ball ache than it should ever have been, but again it’s something somebody else did that’s let me down. Seems to be a reoccurring theme…

The stupid thing is this is only a temporary setup, which is why I don’t want to buy another carb.
I keep a 4bbl manifold and carb sitting round as It’s generally easier to set engines up and get them running nicely on a single carb before fitting a multi-carb setup.
Although it does now seem to run quite well, it’s been quite a uphill battle.

It will happen.
Once it’s all working to my satisfaction. I’m not going to make it drivable without the body and not do it, am I? 😆

I'm not a fan of Holley's either.

For all the reasons you mentioned, and I think that the whole idea of a powervalve is just a clumsy bandaid.

And also the crossover tube to connect the floatbowls on a single feed...

I do like that, on a vacuum secondary, you can dial in the rate at which they open with different springs.

But thats about it....


They have gotten really expensive too.


I have no desire to spend a lot of time learning how to coax the most out of another completely different type of carb ( like the Edelbrock/Carter, or the early Strombergs), so I find myself going back to Webers, most of the time...