It was more than the handsome styling and strength of the Deuce frame that made it a perennially favorite platform for A-V8 hot rods. For one, the Deuce's K-member takes all the guesswork out of locating the drivetrain. A Flathead drops into the stock motor mounts, clears the radiator without a problem, and the transmission plugs right into the stock K-member. From there, a closed driveshaft mates the rearend with the transmission, without any modifications. Fit the body and chassis and you're off and running with a hot rod Model A. The stock K-member also retains provisions for the clutch and brake pedals, and even the shifter.
But for today's hot rodders, it's not as simple as cruising the local junkyards for a Deuce chassis, or even '32 components; those resources dried out nearly a half-century ago, and what's available today is often mangled or modified beyond usable state. Due to a lot of Deuce-framed hot rods having substantially altered or non-existent K-members, plugging in all the original drivetrain components can prove to be more work than dropping in more contemporary items. The recent surge in popularity of Flathead power has caused the availability of stock Deuce chassis components to further decline as prices steadily rise.
Here's the three-piece, Deuce-style K-member for the Model A frame. Patterned off an original '32 Ford K-member, it simplifies the Flathead V-8 conversion in a four-cylinder Model A chassis and facilitates an un-split wishbone.
Given the scarcity of original components, the most sensible option would be to develop a replacement for the stock Ford K-member that retained all the original characteristics, such as mounting the trans, wishbones, and pedal assembly. Vern Tardel and his Parts & Repair shop is no stranger to the scarcity of the early Ford components. As one of the leaders in the traditional hot rod movement for years now, Vern's seen the ebb and flow of the availability of the early Ford components and has managed to adjust his business accordingly. The current scarcity and quality of Deuce components led Vern to develop a reproduction K-member that retains the stock dimensions. This allowed him to continue to build hot rods with an aftermarket chassis while retaining all the stock proportions with regards to the drivetrain components. While the chassis components were all new, an original Flathead and Ford three-speed trans could be bolted in along with a stock closed driveshaft and banjo rearend with a fitment identical to the Ford engineers' original intent. This also allowed the stock pedal components to bolt right up, maintaining the stock interior proportions as well.
The K-member is drilled for early Ford transmission and driveline components and also accepts an original Deuce pedal assembly.
This new Deuce K-member design was such a success that Vern soon began questioning its use in a stock Model A chassis. In the past, a typical A-V8 was basically a Model A body on a Deuce chassis with a Flathead V-8 replacing the Model A four-banger. But by modifying the reproduction Deuce K-member to fit the Model A's chassis, dropping V-8 running gear in a Model A could be just as easy as its '32 counterpart. With this in mind, Vern took the design of his Deuce K-member and applied it to the Model A chassis, retaining all the stock characteristics of the original. What resulted is a K-member trimmed to fit the narrower 'rails of the Model A, with all the provisions for the V-8 drivetrain. Using the new Model A K-member, the engine and trans are bolted to the K-member using a stock trans mount and the engine is placed between the Model A firewall and stock radiator. New motor mounts are buzzed in and the K-member is either bolted, welded, or riveted in place. Since the Model A K-member is designed to mimic its Deuce counterpart, the stock '32 pedal assembly can also be installed, yet due to the scarcity of those '32 parts, a number of aftermarket pedal assemblies, as well as later original pedal assemblies (such as the '39-40 Ford units) could be substituted and bolted in just as easily.
While the addition of the Deucestyle K-member makes dropping in a Flathead V-8 drivetrain a breeze, it does require some modifications to the original chassis, many of which are done as typical upgrades on most A-V8 builds. For instance, the original fourcylinder motor mounts interfere with the Flathead motor, and must subsequently be removed. The mechanical brake hardware, such as the cross-shaft and linkage, must also be removed, a common practice in the A-V8 where the entire brake system is upgraded from the rather archaic mechanical style to the more contemporary hydraulic design. All in all, the offending components that need to be removed to fit the Tardel aftermarket K-member are often the first modifications made when upgrading a Model A in the first place.
The bolt-in nature of the Tardel K-member makes installing a Flathead in a Model A chassis about as easy as it can get. By bolting in the K-member and motor mounts, the whole upgrade can be done with a hand drill and a few wrenches in a day. Installing a full tilt boogie Flathead in a Model A could be the difference between a stock 40hp four-banger and a 260-plus-horsepower V-8. A true, bolt-in 200hp increase if ever there was one!
