Early A-Body four-speed tunnel hump revisited

[MarcD]

Hi! I'm new to both Mopar and this forum, andI realize this topic has been discussed several times before but I still don't see any resolution.

I recently acquired a 1963 Dart GT, originally a 225 with a column shift three-speed, that was converted to a A833 four-speed. The basic work was done fairly well, with a slip joint driveshaft and decent alignment of the throwout arm.

The car shifts and drives fine, but the trans tunnel hump is totally crude and not serviceable, basically a "No Left Turn" road sign cut, folded and screwed down to the floor pan.

Several of this forum threads suggest either AMD or Brewer's as a source for humps. Following up on these sources, the AMD humps are only for '67 up cars, and Brewer's fiberglass humps are not available ('We lost the mold") and there appears to be no plans to resume 'production'.

My suggestion is to find a '64-'66 A body four-speed car with the carpet out and pull a fiberglass mold from the floor pan. Easy enough to make a fiberglass copies from that, or use the mold as a template for a wood buck to shape sheet alloy panels.

I'm semi-retired with time on my hands and live in the San Francisco Bay Area....I'd be happy to get started if there are any candidates in driving distance!

Any interest in discussion on this topic?

Thanks,
Marc

 

[barbee6043]

I for one believe that is great project for ya!!! really. I myself do not have a hump for you to use.
I assume there was only one supplier of the fiberglass thing?? you might check Layson's ( sponsor on here), he might have a fiverglass repo one in stock.
you will find that a lot of the manu of mopar repo parts are cottage industries in someone garage or basement... just not the volume here as ford and chevy needless to say.....
you will also find the value of the a body to be less than b and e bodies, and thus people are slower to pay big bucks for their parts....
we A body guys in general play with these cars because they are affordable, somewhat plentiful and other good reasons. the down side to this is , say we change over a car to a 4 speed, many parts a nd $$ costs. great fun shiftin gears, but far as investment goes, it will add way more value to a B or E body and not so much to the A body????
yes there is a need for that hump, but for instance way more people messing with 66 and up a bodies than the e arly ones. one reason no one gets too excited about making anything for the early A's. someone correct me if wrong!!??
I have a 63 dart gt slant auto i'm working on... welcome to the club!!!! 63's seem rather infrequent!!

 

[gregpurcell]

Years ago when I was young and broke, I did a 65 Coronet conversion to 4 speed. (Yes I know it's a B body). I cut the bottom out of an old oil pan and modified it to fit the floor around the shifter..

I realize it's not a replacement hump, but it did look pretty good and it may work better than your road sign until you can find the correct piece!

 

[barbee6043]

I can visualize a slant oil pan workin... cheap too.....

 

[MarcD]

Thanks everybody for reading this thread, and your comments are very much appreciated. This may be a bit of heresy, but while I recognize and respect the iconic value of the big Mopars, the design and style never quite did it for me....although the market value proves me in the minority!

That said, I've always thought the early A-body cars were tidy and nicely designed; I'm old enough to recall that "compact cars" like these and the Falcons, Buick/Olds/Pontiac designs and the Chevy Nova were the wave of the future, and would beat back the new European challengers....nobody saw Japan coming at that point.

So, all the better for us...lots of cars and parts to work with, and no screaming need to keep everything original if you want to personalize your ride.

I made enough progress on the tunnel hump issue to start another thread....please peruse and vote on an option.

Regards,
Marc in SF

 

[MarcD]

Oops; I accidentally posted the new thread about the tunnel hump in the "Early A-Bodies Discussion' forum, titled "Success with early A-body Tunnel Hump."

I successfully splashed an orthopedic plaster mold from a stripped-inerior '65 four speed Barracuda and pulled a usable matt-and-cloth fiberglass hump from the mold. Not pretty, but fits great and really quiets things down, even just taped in place.

Here's the pics I included in the other forum, along with musings about whether to cut out the rest of the floor pan to gain access to the shift rods and bond the new 'glass tunnel permanently, or install it with sheet metal screws and plan to pull the carpet to remove it if/when I need to service the transmission....or some combination of the two.

As you can see, whoever swapped the transmission in didn't completely cut the floorpan as the factory did and it "captures" the shift rods as is. I'm worried that the fiberglass hump won't add enough strength to the structure (compared to the welded-in factory metal hump) if I complete the cutout and permanently bond it in place.

Thanks again for the suggestions and observations...great forum!

 

[61lancer666]

:wack: I'm putting a OD 833 in my 62 Lancer GT and was lucky enough to buy a 76 Volare 225 4 speed car. I just cut out the 4 speed hump with a plasma cutter and will be using that. maybe need some mods to make a nice fit but was essentially free. These DO NOT have to be exactly from the same year or model. Mark.