Hot Rod Coupe: 1931 Ford Model A
The Ford Model A coupes came in several different varieties, such as the Business Model, a roadster, and even a cool Sport Coupe. Ford had first used the A name in the early 1900s, but reintroduced these new models in 1927 and produced them through 1931. With 4 different colors available, they helped to curtail Henry’s earlier mindset of you can have any color you want, as long as it’s black. These cars have been one of the longstanding favorites among rodders, regardless of whatever color or style they began life as, and this 1931 Ford Model A Sport Coupe might be a good car to snatch if you possess some dollying skills and happen to have a spare motor lying around your garage. It’s located in Modesto, Illinois, and can be found for sale here on eBay, with the bidding currently having reached $8,100.
By this time you’ve probably noticed the engine compartment is the proverbial “blank slate”, as the car has no motor or transmission present, or a hood for that matter. There’s also no word as to why it’s gone or even what power plant was previously installed in the car, so it will be in the next owner’s future to decide what’s going to fill the void between the grille and firewall. A 9-inch Ford rear end is already in place outback, along with Pete and Jakes ladder bars plus coil-over shocks, and in the front are Speedway Buick brake drums. The steering and front-end components also appear to all be in decent condition, so hopefully, once a motor and tranny of your choice are dropped into the ’31, maybe it won’t be all that long until you’re ready to cruise.
The seller says that someone has added a chopped hard top to the car, so obviously this wasn’t done on the current owner’s watch, and he also doesn’t specify how long the Model A has been under his ownership. The roof is still in need of some hammering and dolly work to complete the transformation, but the rest of the remaining body looks reasonably straight and solid already.
Nothing is specifically mentioned about the inside other than it has a ’40 Ford steering wheel, and while structurally it appears pretty good in there, just the gaping hole where the transmission is absent creates an aesthetic void that’s sort of hard to get past. The door panels are MIA and the seat needs reupholstering, but attention to the fabrics and replacing the missing gauge would probably result in a driver-quality interior without too many headaches. What are your thoughts on this 1931 Ford Model A Sport Coupe? What would you drop under the hood if you had it?
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Comments
Not a Sport Coupe, just a hacked up A Bone that’s way over priced
Agree on being over priced. It would take @30k if not more. I would put a chevy big block probably a stroked out 454 with a worked over turbo 400.
I have a 1963 chevy 409 bored .70 over with a comp cam and twin edelbrock 600’s.
I just restored a 1934 Ford pickem up truck, spent over $30k on it and it was not that bad.
Can’t take it anywhere without people taking pictures and asking questions.
Not enough parts for the price.
It might have been a sport coupe at one time, but that is not accurate now ,because the sport coupe top has been cut off and this botched chopped top from another car has been put in its place. It is not that it was a bad idea, it is about the execution. Not the best, for that reason, this car is way over priced.
If you take a close look at the e-bay pictures you will see the top was very nicely modified including replacing the fabric top with a nicely curved piece of sheet metal. I think it’s a nice piece but as I stated before, a bit too much money for what you don’t get.
I actually like the overall appearance of the chop and stance of this project. A blank slate to be sure. If all is well with what has been done, I’d be hard pressed to go high end on this one. Too nice to be a rat-rod although that would be an option worth considering. That being said, this may be a little high priced when considering shipping, driveline, interior and everything else needed to put this safely on the road.
The chop job is really severe… The seller claims to have a clear title, but in many states there are laws that constrict how much windshield vision must be kept, worth checking out if street licensing is a must – in California (at least in 1957) that limit was the length of a dollar bill at the center of the windshield – this cut may be more than that. Also, looking at the shot of the steering and the front cross member, there seems to be a lots of serious moving parts in extremely close proximity (plus a bit of ‘eagle-crap’ welding as my welding instructor used to tell me). Headlight mounting/shock mountings might also suffer after a few bumpy drive-abouts. Just sayin’ – there are some pricey pieces used around this project.
The top of this car looks like the one the yellow one in American Grafittii, only not as nicely finished. One thing this car does have in it’s favor is that it has very little rust that I can see in the pictures. As far as the welding goes, I would be very hesitant to trust any frame fabrication unless I knew who did it. It’s near $9K now so my guess is that it will bid up to more than the $10K price asked for the black original A model coupe in this edition of Barn-Finds. I know which one I’d rather have.
Gone- says it sold for 9100. Good luck to the new owner!
Cheers
GPC
Put a built 53 Merc flathead, 39 Ford top shifter trans in it and drive the wheels off it
After you fix the bubblegum welding
A fool and his money are soon parted, a very wise old saying. The prices they are asking for junk and prices some are paying is ridiculous. Refuse to pay high prices on some of this junk and prices will improve. No Motor or trans.= no sale.