FINTAN'S PROJECT A

All the latest news on Fintan's project A can be found here. The latest news is at the top. Click here to see the first news. Click here to go back to the main Projects page.

INTRODUCTION

The pile of bits that I have at the moment has taken two years to accumulate. Not bad some people might say, the problem is my pile of bits is very small and progress is very slow. Not a problem though every hour spent building is an hour closer to the finished car.I originally wanted an A coupe body to base the car around, the two reasons this didnt happen though is 1. availability 2. price. as I didnt want a glass body I would either have to hunt high and low for a coupe body or go a different route. On a Monday morning paul came into work and told me he had been around a friends house and in the garage was a 31A sedan body that was for sale for £500. Problem was it was badly damaged all down the offside and it looked like it had been dropped on its roof off a bridge. My rose coloured spectacles were on fine form and the body was dragged back to the workshop. The car when finished will be based upon...Hell who knows !

Front end - Fintan
The front end set up for my sedan will follow the traditional route of dropped I beam, reversed eye spring, longer perches with lower shock mounts etc. When it came to brakes I wasn't sure what type to go for. As the car will be fully fendered and running a small block I thought it would be the sensible choice to go for disc's upfront. Because i want to build my sedan to suit my budget i wanted something plain and simple, I had my original 32 spindles machined to accept Ford Granada wheelbearings and Then got a pair of Ford hubs and discs. I fabricated a pair of caliper carriers from 3/8" mild steel bored the centre on a faceplateand welded the bushes on to accept the caliper. someone gave me a drawing of some brackets they had made with the measurements to save me a bit of work, but they only used two of the bolts on the spindle. I didnt think this would be strong enough so I utilliesed all four bolts on spindle body.

"31" Sedan Body - Fintan
As already mentioned in the intro the body was in a pretty bad shape. the o/s is severley damaged, leaving the beautifull swage lines a mangled mess. the o/s roof panels are also badly crushed, I bought some replacement panels for the roof from smith and jones in the states. both doors are in pretty good shape, the cowl lower sections are both rotted out and the rear fender tubs are also shot, it is also covered in the mandatory bullet holes. What do you want for £500 quid !!!. The body was carted off to the blasters were Pauls brother Chet gave it a good clean up, it was then straight in the paint booth and shot with a coat of epoxy primer. thats how it's now been left until chassis is finished so that i can start straightening and aligning all panels.