1930 Ford Model A Coupe build up

1953 dash

I never liked the chequer plate dash all that much. I was keen to get the car registered as quick as I could so it would do in the short term. I always intended to put a later model dash from a late thirties or early forties Ford when the time was right. My plans changed after I saw a Model A coupe that had a 1953 Ford dash. I really liked the gauge cluster hump and the height of the dash would hide the brake booster.

I found a near complete dash at a swap meet for a good price in February 2016. My rough plan was to remove the chequer dash and then chop, paint and fit the 53’ dash in June 2016.

Never quite worked out that way but fast forward to early 2019 and I started.

Overall length of a standard 1953 dash is approx. 1400mm. The inside of the Model A is approx. 1000mm. There are heater and air vent controls that aren't needed for my application but I wanted to retain as much of the dash as possible to keep the fifties feel.

I made 7 cuts to dash body to get it to fit evenly inside the cab. I cut as best as I could to get it the gauge cluster centre to the steering column and the clock as close to the centre of the car as possible.

I also had to weld in to straight sections at each corner as the original shape is curved and the Model A dash header panel (where the dash meets the windscreen frame) is flat. I lost count how many times I had the dash in and out of the car during the dummy up stage.

The old set up had a lot of mis-matched additions made to it as the car progressed over the years. Extra gauges, warning lights, ignition controls and switches. With the new dash I wanted to keep everything as uniform as possible.

I like the bomber style hot rod interiors with aluminium parts riveted together. I wanted to incorporate some of that styling but did the dash on the budget. A compromise was use acorn nuts to bolt everything together. If I need to change anything it's easy to unbolt than un-rivet.

Didn't take to long to get it in primer once it was all welded up.

The steering wheel was hitting the top of the dah so the solution was to extend the steering column and put in a longer steering shaft.

All the bits were masked up, primed and painted separatley.

All the aluminuin trim was polished and clear coated.

I replaced all the previuos plastic switches with metal toggle switches.

The gauge cluster came up OK with a tear down and clean.

I thought about painting the dash the same purple as the firewall / Rims but thought that the stainless and aluminium would look better against black.

A good part of the wiring had to be modified as a lot of things were moved from one side of the dash to the other. Also gave me the opportunity to change and improve a few things that I wasn't entirely happy with the first time I wired the car up.

I had trouble laying down the 1k black. I couldn't get it to flow evenly. My fault, I couldn't get the air settings right on my spray gun. The dash has orange peel but I'm not too fussed. It is after all a hot rod so doesn't have to be perfect in my eyes.

Pretty happy how it turned out. Took 2 solid months to get it done.

Swan Hill Drags 2018...Finally got that 10 Second pass..

Four years ago was the first time I ran the coupe down the quarter. The result of that first race, a neck snapping low 14 / high 13 second passes. I broke the diff in the process (the only thing I didn't weld on the car). I was more annoyed at the average ET's than the diff breaking.

Light car, big motor. It should have been a lot faster. It was still good to have some fun after all those years away from Drag Racing..

After getting the drag racing bug again my aim was to run a 10 second pass. I didn't care if it was a 10.99. I just wanted to see a 10 flash up on the timing boards.

Fast forward five years and after

3 different types of converters later (2500 that worked well with the hydraulic cam, 4000 stall that didn't work with the solid cam set up and was a struggle with idling)
New cam (Hydraulic to solid)
Change in diff gears (3.89 to 4.33),
Two different changes in dizzy's (I broke the original and the second was supposed to be set up for my engine but was just some Chinese Junk that a reputable dizzy builder had built) ,
Two different ignition boxes (I broke the original one at Calder along with the above mentioned dizzy. The second box had severe issues when i hit the nitrous so took it back) ,
Additional race pipes,
Change in Nitrous set up(borrowed a different plate and solenoids)
Change in fuel set up (Moon tank mounted at the front of the car with better breathers than my rear mounted tank),
Change in fuel (tried PULP, Avgas and 102 race fuel)

So after all that finally jagged that 10 second pass I have been chasing in the home built hot rod. I had run close at Calder with the 11.10 pass at 125mph.

I had run 125mph a few times which was frustrating me as that mph equates to a 10 second pass.

It all happened on the 26/05/18 at the Nostalgia drags at Swan Hill Raceway. The rod didn't just dip into the 10's..It made a big dent.

10.78 @ 125.2 mph backed up by 10.65 @ 125.69 mph