Grandpa's Mini Model A

[Rat_Rods_Forever]

Grandpa's Mini Model A

Story goes,
After Grandpa was done building Sherman tanks for the War, his kids wanted a model A for a hot rod, he could not afford much! As his kids (my mom, aunt and uncle) were 8,9, 11, One day he got the idea to build a mini A. That's the short story.

This was to be passed down to my uncle and then to me. In its day this was fast, my grandpa built the entire A, using many of his home made parts and ingenuity. He came up with a fun go cart for his kids.

It is now in my hands, needs to be fully restored, I plan to redo the hole car and update as necessary.

the motor is a Clifford 3 horse, this is the 2nd motor, and its junk! I plan on using a 5+ horse motor, .

it does have a full windshield and chrome nerf bar bumpers, not in the photos.
This is how my uncle gave it to me.

It needs work, but I hope my grandpa is looking down on me and is happy for it to be running once again

 

[Mr.Gussett]

Sweet!

Very Cool!
There is a hand -me-down that everyone would want!
Hope you get it back to Granpa's specs![ Have fun with it and he will be proud!

 

[1coatbetty]

Your Grandpa was a wiz! That thing is awsome.

 

[Rat_Rods_Forever]

Thanks Guys, this weekend I am trying to track down a 5 horse or bigger side shaft motor for it, my plan is to make it run and drive and then do the paint and body work, I like the look of the rust and paint, It at one time had a wood bed and tail lights, I need to go through the 2 boxes of parts and look at whats there and get a idea of what i need to finish it.

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[Got Rust?]

I like it, grandpa did good, the wood and taillights sound like a good idea. be a nice unit around the farm, or property if you have it. gardening if ya don't.

 

[BigIrish]

Too cool! The hood looks really well made. How does the power transfer to the rear wheels work? Harbor Freight has cheap motors for about $100 that will get you rolling.

FYI - that iron pipe exhaust that is attached to the old motor probably robbed quite a bit of power from it. The inner diameter of the pipe is much smaller than a regular thin-walled tubing muffler. It is very restrictive and really bogs it down. I found that out the hard way after making an "improved" exhaust system for a log splitter as a kid

Really looking forward to more pics of this!!

 

[oliver bros garage]

That would be very cool to have!! Congrates!!!!!

 

[rainman]

Rat Rods I don't know if you intend to stick with an old engine or not but H/F sells a new side shaft 5 horse for about $100.00.

 

[Rat_Rods_Forever]

ended up having my dad pick up a honda 5.5 horse motor at the swap meet today for 85 and runs great, so looks like i will be going down to pick it up in a week or two. [cl

Looking forward to getting the motor back up here and making it run!

from the looks of it, I want to run the gas tank like the original on the A, and hope to be able to run a better air filter and exhaust

 

[CORPO]

cool little project.. if you change ur mind on the motor, and want to go older.. .. i have two old school engines sitting in my garage taking up space.... ones probably from the 40's and ones from the 50's would be my guess... not sure on the HP... think the little briggs might only be 3 hp.. the other one is bigger..

good luck sure ur grandpa would be happy your fixin it up

 

[caddyhack]

Wow that thing looks great.. i saw you title that said mini but looking at the pics i didnt put 2 and 2 together because it looked so good and very perportinate i thought it was a real truck untill i saw the steering wheel in the center and then the motor.. take a pic of you in the truck so we can get a better idea on the size of it.. and if i were you i would repair, refurbish, rechrome as many parts as possible. It will cost more to have the parts repaired and re chromed but it will be alot cooler to have all the origional parts that your grandpa had buy with his hard earned money.. just a thought but it depends on how much cash you have and want to spend. If you do get new parts like headlights etc. I would still keep all those OG parts incase you ever get the money to restore it all OG

 

[Neverdone]

That looks awesome!!! If that motor you picked up the HF motors are a great deal. I picked up a 6.5HP from them on sale for $100. The cool thing about the HF motors is that they are a clone of the Honda GX200. Everyone thinks they are a chinese motor but they are not, parts are readily available and you can hop them up too!! Good luck with your project.

 

[Rat_Rods_Forever]

cool little project.. if you change ur mind on the motor, and want to go older.. .. i have two old school engines sitting in my garage taking up space.... ones probably from the 40's and ones from the 50's would be my guess... not sure on the HP... think the little briggs might only be 3 hp.. the other one is bigger..

good luck sure ur grandpa would be happy your fixin it up

If you have some photos of the motor that would be great, I would not mind having a older motor for this for a back up plan, I got the honda motor form dad today and will put it in for now, but plans for down the road is a full resto and would love to have a correct motor for it.

Merry Xmas every one!

 

[Rat_Rods_Forever]

got some time to rip out the old motor and see if the honda will fit [[

hope to clean up the under the hood before motor is in for good. [cl

will post more soon! [P

 

[clamor]

[cl
[P

 

[Rat_Rods_Forever]

got some more time to work on the Hot rod, Its picking up and have a motor that works, now just need some por 15 for the frame and clutch and fix the brakes and off driving. [cl

 

[38fordtruck]

now thats neat lots of clever enginering went into that