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Two Time Tudor

Two Time Tudor
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Tony Long first saw his Model A Tudor sedan in 2002 when his father, Kelly Long, bought the car from a Canadian owner to sell at his HO Enterprise Auto Sales dealership in Birnhamwood, Wis.  Little did he know that the car would be a "two timer" on the collector car lot and that he would get the chance to buy it the second time around.

Kelly sold the car quickly, but not before Tony fell head over heels in lvoe with the bright yellow Ford.  "I told my dad that the car was my all-out favorite of the hot rods he had owned over the years," Tony Long recalls.  "And I told him that if he ever had the opportunity to buy that Model A again, he should keep in mind that I would like to be the car's next owner."

In the Spring of 2005, the man that bought the car decided it did not have the reliability he wanted in a hot ord.  "It was not reliable enough for him and he thought it would not make a good driver, so he traded the car back to my father."

It just so happened that Tony was in the market fora car at that time.  In fact, he was just about ready to order a 2005 Mustang GT when he discovered that the Model A was available again.  This time, he was not going to pass up the opportunity to buy the car.  "I bought the car before it was even offered for sale again," he explained.  "When I got the car, it still had a California title that was originally issued in 1964."

As Tony was to discover, the Canadian enthusiast's about the car's operational integrity were not totally unfounded.  On his very first long trip in the Ford, Tony made it to his destination, but just barely.

"It was the first weekend I owned the car and I drove it to the sprintime car show in Tomahawk, Wis.," Tony remembers/  "The 70-mile trip turned out to be a good shakedown cruise, because the car broke down just as I was pulling into town with it.  I spent the whole day running around trying to find an ignition coil."

By the time Long got the car running again, he had totally missed the show.  By the time he returned home, he had noticed a few other problems.  "I checked the small-block Chevy V-8 in the car and found it very low on compression," Long noted.  "The timing chain was also worn."  Long noticed that the engine was a very early small block with a road draft tube.

"It was a very early 265-cid Chevy V-8 and it was very tired," Tony said.  "I replaced the old engine with newer 350cid small block V-8 and stuck with the four-barrel carburetor.  Three weeks later, Tony went to the GoodGuys show in Milwaukee.  He entered the Model A in a special "Young Guys" class for owners who were under 25 years old.

After the engine swap, the car ran great, but like many car guys, Tony felt the Ford was still missing something.  He spent two years looking for the right hardware to finish the car and found it at the annual Iola Old Car Show.  "That was in 2007," he recalls.  "My good friend Roger Schmutzler was there and he had a triple deuce intake manifold fora small-block Chevy V-8," Tony explained.  "It even had rebuilt Stromberg 97 carburetors and Cal Custom Valve covers."

Ford Model A Tudor Rod Specs

Engine                       Chevrolet V-8

Displacement           350 cu. in.

Carburetor                 (3) Stromberg 97s

Intake:                        Offenhauser

Dress-up:                   Cal Custom valve covers

Camshaft:                  Eldelbrock Performer RPM

Exhausts:                  Smoothed and chromed ram horn style

Radiator:                    Walker

Transmission:           Turbo Hydra-Matic 350

Interior                        Stock Model A seats with pleats

Gauges:                     Stock Fuel gauge

Stewart Warner Speedometer

Stewart Warner – Amp, Oil presure and Temp

Body                           All-steel Tudor body with 5-inch chop                            

Paint:                          40 + year-old Yellow lacquer

Chassis:                    Boxed Model A frame

Front Suspension:   Dropped Axle

Rear Suspension:   QA1 coil overs

Rear Axle:                 8-inch Ford

Brakes:                       Front disc, rear drum