1928 FORD MODEL A SEDAN- belly pan.

Brilliant work!! Awesome to see it coming together

cheers man, I'm pretty happy with how the frames turned out, its exactly what I had envisioned.
ive already considered your floor idea to get more space in there, but by the time theres the gearbox, propshaft, and K-member in there, theres pretty much no room between the rails to sit down into anyway. I may be able to kinda have a 'scollop' down into the floor a couple of inches deep (depending on K-member placement) to form the base of the seat, but thats about it.
I actually find a legs straight seating position more comfortable as long as I have thigh support, as i've had knee trouble in the past from my bmx and mountain bike days. I wasn't able to drive my split bus very far at a time because the bent knees driving position gave me a lot of grief.
so far though I have built this car around me, even though I'm 6'4", I do fit!

another update.....

i got a little more done on saturday, first i sorted out getting the troublesome rear body X-member in at the right height. its pretty critical as its all that holds the back of the body up(at the moment), and if its not held at the right height the door gaps sag and the doors wont shut. but after a bit of messing about, i have this-




then, i did a bit of mock-up work on it to check the locations and clearances of the major components. i slid the rear axle in, and the rear wheels and tyres on. they sit pretty much exactly where i wanted with it set up at ride height.


then, i chucked a spare engine block in between the rails to see how the motor will sit, more or less. this bit wasnt too precise as the final motor isnt decided on yet, but as they're all about the same size it give me an approximation of ground clearance and the space i have for the rad.




sunday saw a trip to the car boot, to see my guy there who specialises in second had engineering tools. i get all my taps/dies/drill bits/etc. off him, and he furnished me with a brand new, very good quality 13mm drill bit for the princely sum of a quid. this enabled me to drill out the seized in remains of the spring perch bolts i had to cut off to get the front end apart. a lot of drilling later they were out, and i could file up the holes in the beam and reassemble the front suspension with the new shackles, batwings and perch bolts.
here it is, ready to be fitted-

Dude, you put the Fab into fabrication

quality project mate, love it ;D

nearly always the way with pickups though isn't it, you can barely chop or channel them, unless youre an amputee, or dwarfism runs in the family
even coupes are like it to some extent, hence me choosing a sedan. plus, sedans look better
my driving position is straight-legged so i sit far back, but the line of sight is in the centre of the windscreen so i shouldn't have to stoop/hunch to see out. to get it right though, the driving position involves a fairly long steering column as i almost sit in the back seat!!

Yea got some pics but cant seem to post em ?.....My Pickup is chopped 4inches n also channeled 4 inches, n still have headroom......

How do you source such things as the Beam axle? How much does that kinda thing cost?

welll, as you know, i deliberately bought a more or less complete car to cut down the amount of parts sourcing i had to do. but, the bits are available from dukesville, originals, pop browns etc.- at a price..... if you're gunna build one, buy a big job lot of bits from the states,and ship em in yourself from speedway, TCI, etc. even if/when you get clobbered by tax, its a lot cheaper!

some original parts are available, some cheap some expensive. truck brakes like ive used are loads cheaper than '40 car ones, same with spindles, and the work/look just as good. youll easy loose £250 in a set of '40 brakes, and £150 for splindles and arms, whereas i paid £100 for my complete truck front beam, brakes, spindles, etc. with new wheel cyls, shoes and bearings!

stock undropped model A beams without any ancillary parts are cheap- usually about £30-40, but set up conventionally means a high car, if you use one you need to go spring-behind. a 4" dropped one like the Vintage Chassis Works one i have is about £200.
stock model A wishbones are cheap, but are useless for anything other than a T-modified, they're too short. long ones such as '38-'40 ford fetch a couple of hundred in good nick, just cos they're 6" longer.
some prices of other parts-
if you go for batwings and hairpins instead fo wishbones, which a lot of people do cos long ones are cheap and they're new so don't need refurbing-
batwings £55
hairpins £90ish

new kingpins £35
spring perches £30
shackles £17
new reverse eye spring £100 or so.
£40 for a repro front X-member
36-40 spindles £150ish
new trackrods ends or heims £17 each
steering arm £20

basically, don't expect any change from £1000 to put together a decent front end, unless you get some serious autojumble bargains. thats a plain mild steel setup, if youre into your bling and want chrome or stainless, double or even triple that price.