Photos of a Very Early 1928 Chassi

[Jim Baskin III Pa.]

[eystein]

Never seen the big washers inside the frame where the shocks are mounted, nor have I seen the special clips in stead of cotter pins on the shock links.

Are the special early chassis details or are all cars supposed to have those ?

[Steve Ciccalone]

So where is this chassis? Is it Dean's car? It's obviously parked on a rug. Do the brake rods have upsets or are they smooth?

[Steve Plucker]

Originally Posted by Steve Ciccalone

So where is this chassis? Is it Dean's car? It's obviously parked on a rug. Do the brake rods have upsets or are they smooth?

Yes...it is Dean's chassis...see about the 6 or 7th photo inward...has his name on it.

Pluck

[dean from bozeman]

Yup, these are photos of A495.

Eystein asks, 'Never seen the big washers inside the frame where the shocks are mounted, nor have I seen the special clips in stead of cotter pins on the shock links.

Are the special early chassis details or are all cars supposed to have those ?

Ford was in a bit of a panic to get cars done and off the assembly line. I call A495 the odd duck because it has features that you will not see except on a very few of the very early survivors. Many of these features were upgraded immediately because there were obvious flaws (improvements).
- the "D" clips on the shocks could come off easily. (Use a cotter pin instead. The add two more holes so that 1/2 turns for adjustment are now possible.)
- the baffless oil filling tube could spit out oil. (Adding baffles condensed the gaseous oil and returned it to the reservoir. The first baffles took it towards the outside of the tube. The next generation returned the oil down the middle.)
- the little coil return spring that worked off a pin on the chassis wasn't strong enough to do a good job of returning the barkes to a neutral position. (the engineers than added upsets on the brake rods and flat springs to return the brakes to a neutral position faster and more efficiently).

The list goes on and on. That's why you will see features like these only on the real early cars. Think of what it took to install shocks with hex headed bolts and large washers versus "D" headed bolts and a lock washer and a nut. The material and time savings dictated this change.

A fun game for those of you familiar with the later A's is to look at this chassis and see what has been changed before your chassis was built and ask "Why was it changed?". Your mind might pick up on the same thought thread that the Ford engineers had. Remember at first what was paramount in importance was to produce A's. Ford was losing money every day he wasn't producing cars. Later it became more important to build in a more cost efficient manner and build a safer auto. For example, the lawsuits over the early brake system made it important to upgrade the whole system.

We all enjoy Model A's. Look at this chassis as the starting point for Model A's. How is your personal Model A designed better than this one. When you look at it in that manner, you start seeing the evolution of the Model A.

[Rowdy]

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The evolution of the A is quite amazing to see. Having had a late May- Early June commercial vehicle with quite a mix of early and mid 28 parts I have seen much of the 28 progression first hand. Having to make choices as to what was correct and what was not based on the rapid change at that point and the fact it was a commercial vehicle was quite challanging. Lots of the earlier parts were used up in the commercial vehicles, especially the brakes. Thankfully with a good stockpile of extra parts I normally had what I needed chassis wise. Rod

[Gravelroad]

Dean, Need clarification. You said Ford added 2 more holes to the shock adjuster so now 1/2 turns were possible. By adding 2 more holes (I assume 90 deg from first 2) wouldn't that give you 1/4 turn options? Just currious. Thanks, Jerry