1930 Ford Model A Coupe - Slammed

Visit his website and you'll find he works on all sorts of old cars, and if you ever needed something chopped, channeled, or laid on the ground then Jason is your man. From relatively "easy" Model A chops to near-impossible round roofs, such as a '49 Mercury or a '37 Nash Lafayette coupe (that he not only chopped but made into a three window) it seems no job is too tough for Jason. So when he found an old Model A coupe rusting away in an old shed in Tennessee, he wasn't scared and thought it would be a good project car.

With a rough, beaten up body, one of the first things Jason did was replace much of the lower sheetmetal on the car, and hammer out the remaining dents. Since Jason's specialty is laying his hot rods down on the ground, he decided to build a custom chassis for this Model A. It uses 2x6-inch tubing for the front 'rails and the rest was done with 2x4 tubing. Jason then Z'd the frame 6 inches under the cowl and 12 inches in front of the rearend, allowing for just a 1-inch channel, though it fools a lot of people in thinking it was channeled several inches. The car sits extremely low but, even with a 6-inch chop, Jason says it provides a lot of headroom.

The rest of the suspension pieces include a '40 Ford front axle and brakes hung from a Posies spring with split wishbones. Out back a '69 Camaro 10-bolt Posi was used with a triangulated four-link setup. A great-looking drivetrain is another one of his trademarks, and he didn't disappoint with this one either: It's a low-mileage '57 Olds 371 with an adapter to bolt up a Borg Warner four-speed. The internals of the engine were left alone (except for a Schneider racing cam) and an Edelbrock four-deuce intake with four Stromberg 97s that feed the beast.

Jason also tackled the upholstery duties with this ride and even made his own split-bench seat (the base is separated by the driveshaft tunnel) before covering it with a pleated red material (the same used on the door panels). The dash came from a '32 Ford and was filled with five Stewart Warner gauges. An oversized shifter, topped with a small skull, was custom made from a '46 Chevy truck shift handle. Most folks can't identify the steering wheel bolted to the custom column, but unless they've spent time on a boat, they wouldn't recognize the 15-inch, four-spoke, stainless steel item.

Though Jason builds cars for customers he has also built a few for himself, but they always seem to get sold and go down the road. When he got this one done, however, he decided to keep it for a while and he says he enjoys driving it around (he says it has tons of torque but still gets 18 miles to the gallon), and we can't blame him one bit!

Facts & Figures
Jason Graham
Portland, Tennessee
1930 Model A Ford coupe