A MODEL A FORD REBUILD
A 1928 MODEL A FORD LEATHER BACK
BEING REBUILT FROM THE FRAME UP
The car is owned by Tom Sawyer from
Hixson, Tennessee, U.S.A and the work was
done by a shop in  Maryland



 
 
 
I have three 28 leatherbacks and one 29 two door sedan.  Only the one is restored at this time. 
I have one leatherback in process. I am having the chassis and undercarriage parts professionally powder coated, this time instead of spray painting.  I will try to e-mail you some pictures of my
finished car while it was in process. 
 
 

I also have some interesting pictures of my Ford radiator cosine emblem restoration being fired in the furnace and buffed before chroming.  Haywood Enamels of Australia did the work for me at $175.00 per emblem.  I have several and they are beautiful!  The 28 emblem has a lip around the edge and is different than the 29 and 30, which are the
same.  Of course the 31 is unique also.

Each component was restored to original without any detail left off.  All
the metal including shocks, etc. came on this particular car, not parts from
another car.  Matching motor and frame number.  I am the second titled owner
of the car.  It had 26,000 original miles on it when I purchased it several
years ago in 2002.  The wood framing was replaced during the restoration.
The motor does have a counterbalanced crank and adjustable valves, which is
an update for these type restorations and an update flat tube radiator
instead of the round tube radiator, which was prone to overheating.  The car
was built in August of 28.  In November of 28, Ford started putting a single
disk clutch in his Fords, since the multi-disk clutch with a very heavy
flywheel was installed in the earlier Ford cars had some design problems.  I
used the November type of single disk clutch and a lightened flywheel in my
car, since I did not want to have any problems with the multi-disk clutch
latter on and have to change it out.  I have just changed the car over to
the new cast iron brake drums that pass the judging standards and also make
the car safer on the road.  It was restored with the original steel brake
drums, since the car only had 26,000 miles on it and they were not worn, but
the original Henry Ford steel brake drums commonly fade when riding the
brake in the mountainous areas of the country.


 

Before


 1928 Model A Ford Leather back ready for restoration
 
 The front interior show just how much work will be needed
 
 The interior of the doors is not much better
 
 And the exterior is not much better
 
 
 
 A couple more pictures of the interior of the doors .....
 
  .....and the rear seat
A better look at the seats both front and rear
It's surprising what you will find when you start taking things apart
Starting to do some cleaning and getting ready to disassemble the car

 
 Some of the wood framing being replaced
 
 The frame cleaned, blasted and painted
 
 Some parts hanging to dry after being rebuilt
 
 More parts
 
 
 
 We are now starting to put things back together
 
 The main body is on the frame
 
 Starting to put the roof together
 
 The roof before the covering
 
 Applying the leather covering....
 
 .... by first cutting it to fit the body
 
 Now the paint process starts first with the primer
 
 The leather is well covered to prevent paint from getting on it
 
 Leaving the paint booth after the final body painting
 
 The body will be stored here until final assembly
 
 Now the engine rebuild is started
 
 
 
 
 
 And the rebuilt engine is installed in the car....
 
 ... along with that beatiful radiator and cover
It's just about ready for a test run
The fenders and now installed
 Along with the rear bumpers
 
 We are just about ready to install the wheels and tires
 
 The completed interior
 
 The dash looks like it did in 1928
 
 The rear seats also look like new 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And the final product
 
 
 
 OK Let's go for a drive
 
 The copper Ford radiator emblems were fired in a furnace to remove the old
blue cosine.  Cosine is an enamel type of paint [chips] that has to be
heated in a furnace to melt.  The emblems were cleaned and fired again in
the furnace with new blue cosine, ground or buffed down smooth, and chrome
plated. Epoxy was applied to hold the round flange to the emblem, so that it
would fit in place in the radiator shell.
 
 
 Ford radiator cosine emblem restoration
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
The Model T Ford
The Model A Ford

 
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