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

I nearly cried when I saw the last couple of photos. I can't believe that such a rare vintage piece could be reduced to being burnt out of existence.

R.I.P Salmon Pink carpet.

Out of interest what prized 1970s bathroom floor covering are you going to rebuild the shonky old jalopy on this time?

That stuff won't burn. It'll have more asbestos in than a old kiln lining.

So, how significant is significant when it comes to fire damage?

Well these where the rear wheels-



Yeah.

This is the rear axle. That’s a 9” ford. The outer tubes are 3” tube with a 1/4” wall, and the inner shafts are 1.5” solid steel.


Originals on left, replacements on right-


That’s a lot of heat. The rear spring was also toast. But the rear crossmember which was a foot above the axle has no distortion. It appears the axle was sat in a significant hot spot, almost like a forge. These parts would have had to have been glowing orange to distort under their own weight. Move 2 feet away up the car to the gearbox tailshaft and the rubber seal is still unburnt and the paint is still there, albeit a bit blistered. Fires are strange things.

Luckily I have some good friends, and craigrk let me have this replacement 9” for what it owed him as he wasn’t using it.


It’s the same width, slightly later tube and casing design so not quite as ‘pretty’ as the early type I had previously, but same PCD so a suitable replacement for the original. The diff ratio was wrong but I swapped the one that came in it with someone for the one I needed.

So that was one major part sorted. This was within two weeks of the fire at the Essex swapmeet!

The rear wheels took a little more sorting. They are fairly rare 16” artillery style wheels off 1930s dodge models.I have a friend who imports from the states, he was on a buying trip to buttfucknowhere and he messaged me a 3am with some pictures and a message ‘are these the right ones’?
Turns out they were, or at least two of them were, so they were bought, shipped in one of his trucks and I collected them at the northern swapmeet in Rotherham a few months later.

Only two are 16”, the other two are 17” but may come in useful at some point. Two 16” ones are really what I needed so they helped me out nicely.

Realistically I was never going to just give up on it.
It’s taken me a while to source everything Needed, but I keep fairly good records of my builds so i have plans for everything I’ve made for it and know what every part is. The only really irreplaceable parts lost was the seats, so I’ll have to make some.

Some words about what is happening and why-

The things that got really damaged/disappeared are-
All 4 tyres and tubes
Rear wheels
Complete rear axle With custom bracketry and all brake internals.
Rear spring and shackles
Rear shocks and linkages
Propshaft
Seats (Westland gazelle helicopter seats)
Belts
Back end of ally floor panelling melted away
Steering wheel melted
Gearknob melted
Pedal assemblies were on a bench nearby and got toasted.
HT leads, dizzy and cap and dizzy ignitor unit burnt away.
Carbs And scoops and linkage were also not fitted and got melted.
Headlights were also not fitted and got burnt, but Are partially salvageable.
The finish on the period chromed factory valve covers Man not save as melting roof dropped onto them so they are discoloured.


Things that are surprisingly not damaged-
The engine. I’d only recently painted it and the inlet ports were still taped over, so no water got into the engine apart from a tiny bit though a second dipstick hole I’d not plugged, that ran straight down into the sump.

The original ‘50s edelbrock 3x2 manifold that was sat on the engine.

The gearbox. Needs a new tailshaft seal as it’s just started to melt, but that’s it. That’s a big relief as it’s a 18-month only mustang spec T-10.

The entire front suspension/brakes/wheels/etc. They have damaged and blistered paint but are largely unscathed despite the tyres burning off the wheels.

The chassis itself. The bit around the rear axle has got burnt, but not to the extent the rear axle has and it still checks out as being square and true. Unless I find anything untoward after sandblasting I’m going to go with it as is rather than replacement.

The body was also entirely untouched as it was in a container outside, bare for a few bits of trim that were on a shelf, bit they’ve sandblasted up ok.

Overall, it could have been a lot worse than it was. A lot of what I have to redo is only cosmetics- Cleaning, repainting, and repolishing. Plus throwing money at replacement parts.
The major jobs are remaking the floor panelling, making some seats, and fitting up the new rear axle and spring, so replicating the old bracketry to suit.
I will also be making a few changes for a couple of reasons. One is pendine rule changes (I want to run there and it will potentially be too fast to run without a roll hoop) and I want the chassis to be drivable without the body on, so I will be relocating the fuel tank and battery and changing the steering a little. And making it LHD just because I want to. I previously built it RHD but I generally prefer driving LHD cars these days.

Started well, then went downhill fairly quickly...

Then read stealthstylz post and nearly spat tea!


Sorry about the damage (including the salmon carpet)
But will look forward to updates

Looking forward to the build. Got to call it the Phoenix when you get it on the road 👍 (or triggers broom 😀)

I bet it was to Which? Quiff magazine. Or Practical Buddy Holly Enthusiast Weekly where for just 5 pounds a week for 273 weeks you can build a scale model of a more or less airworthy Beechcraft Bonanza.

Continuing the ‘cleaning stuff up’ theme i debracketed the new axle. It had already had the original spring pads changed to slightly different spring pads that had them also been modified, and they were very ‘MURICA!
Loads of terrible weld, and big gouge marks in the casing from previous grinder use.
The divots each side are meant to be there from what I can tell.




After smoothing I welded up the gouges and smoothed it down again, as well as stripping any paint of areas where new brackets will go and tidying up the original welds of any spatter. It’s now ready to fit.