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As I stated earlier, I bought the car in April of 1998. I originally found it on the NSRA website under "Street Rods For Sale." It was located in Gig Harbor, Washington so logistically it was about the best place I could find considering the freight costs to Alaska were concerned.

I contacted the owner and set up a day to come and see it and here is what I found. A couple of weeks later and $900 poorer in freight bills, I had me a 1931 Ford Model A coupe. The body was complete with doors, fenders and running boards, hood and decklid, grilleshell and headlights, and most of the interior wood.

I removed all of the pieces and proceeded to remove the old firewall, cowling, fueltank, and removed all of the old floor paneling. I removed 90% of the paint with a D/A (That was fun not to mention dirty). I then took it to a sandblaster to have him finish off the interior. When I got it back it looked like this.

The next step was to install the new floorpans and firewall, both from Bitchin'. Floorpans fit perfect but the firewall took some doin to get matched up. Overall the body was in real good shape. Apparently it had set toward one side (passengers) for a long time because the fenderwell and front and rear quarter panels were rusted out on that side.. I replaced fenderwells on both sides and the quarterpanels on the passenger side only. I also threw the body onto the frame for the first time.

I actually built the motor before anything else so it has been sitting around since June of 1998. I fired it up on January 29, 2001 and it sounds might fine if I do say so myself. Here are the before and after pictures with the specifications.

I bought the basic frame from TCI. The front and rear suspension utilize the 4-bar with a 4" dropped front straight axle and Aldan coilover shocks on the rear. Front brakes,steering arms, and panhard bar are from Pete and Jakes. I got the rear end from a salvage yard up here. It is an 8" out of a 1975 Maverick and came with 2.83 gears. I had the rearend reworked by a couple of old time drag racers up here and the gearing is now 3.55 with 28 spline stock axles.

I then took an idea from Bitchin' and made my own set of secondary floorboards. The go in between the frame and the actual floorboards. Helps with heat/sound and also cleans up the bottom side of the car.

I got the chassis far enough along last summer that I rolled it outside one day when it was real nice.

These are just pictures of various stages in the building of the chassis, body, and engine. I will update as I progress. The chassis is all painted now and is basically rolling. I am getting ready to remove the body (for about the 5th time) to finish off running the fuel line and emergency brake cable. Also will bleed the brake system and get it up and running.

I fired the engine a few months ago. The chassis is pretty much finished now. I am currently doing bodywork and getting ready to fill the top. These pictures were taken in May of 2002. As you can see the tires and wheels are different from the rollers. Will update when the top is filled.

We started filling the top in late July. Bought a precut/trimmed top but soon found out there was more work than met the eye. The company rolled (curved) the top from back to front but did nothing as far as side to side. When we started tacking it down. it started getting a bigger and bigger bulge in the middle of it. We finally decided that it wasnt gonna work unless we took some material out so we did. Initially it scared the crap out of me because it didnt look like it was going to work like we thought but with a little heat, hammer, and a few kind words it actually came out pretty good. We also attached the eyebrow by welding and then filling with Metal to Metal in various places. Still got quite a bit to do to smooth out the top and the eyebrow though.

This last set of pictures mean a great deal to me. One of my best friends, John Lane, offered to let me store my car at his place for two months prior to us leaving for D.C. Not only did he store it but he primered it for me also. That wasnt all. The absolute best thing he did was take these pictures of my car in front of his house the morning we took it over to storage. The best part was, I didnt know he took them. I had taken a few of it sitting on the trailer just before we put it inside. On the day of my going away luncheon, he presented me with blow ups of these and had the one side shot matted and framed. It literally left me speechless for a little bit. I was totally blown away.

The car will stay in storage until next spring. Then when I retire, I will go up and get it and bring it south. Then, God willing, my brother and I will put the final touches on it. When I get to that stage I will update my web page again.

Well it is now September, 2003. We retired in May and moved everything down from Alaska. Put everything in a 40 foot van and it arrived safe and sound after about 5 weeks on the high seas. The car was fine as was everything else.

The sad part to this whole story is that my brother passed away in April. He was an insulator for over 20 years and contracted lung cancer from prolonged exposure to asbestos. I miss him terribly and will always cherish the memories of the good times we had together.