“No, that’s not for sale.” We’ve all heard it before, the car sitting in the field every time you drive by and when you talk to the owner they tell you it’s not for sale. That was the story when a buddy called Scott Mills and told him of a Model A sedan and a pickup in a yard a couple of cities away.
Scott Mills’ Model A Sedan
Mills and the Model A owner became friends, to the point where the car owner would make his late model car purchases from Mills’ main job as Sales Manager at Quality Motors in Independence, KS. They would keep in touch and from time to time the owner would tease Mills asking if he was ready to purchase the Model A yet then letting him down by not selling the car.
“He wanted you to have first shot at the car,” it wasn’t the sentence that Mills wanted to hear. Unfortunately the world had lost another car guy. Mills purchased both the pickup and the sedan and promptly sat on the sedan for a few years while ideas of hot rod glory rolled around in his head. He had to have the right recipe to make this a great hot rod.
There are so many factors that come into play when building a cool ride. Stance, chop, drivetrain, paint, all of them come together to make a good car into a great car. When I first saw Scott Mills’ 28 Model A Sedan, it was the paint that drew my attention.
The paint combo caught my eye because of it’s unique layout and custom color. Mills custom mixed PPG paint for the project. Painting the body lines PPG Jet Black was the perfect offset for the custom grey/green body color. Mills applied the paint himself. In addition to the job at Quality Motors and owner of Quality Paint & Body, Mills also owns his own hot rod shop called Scott’s Rod & Custom.
Mills put a lot of effort into the sedan’s body before that custom mixed paint was sprayed. Channeling the body 4” down over the custom built Hot Shoe frame was the perfect amount. While it could have gone deeper Mills wanted to be sure to have room for a back seat for the kids. The top was chopped 4” as well before having Stitches Fine Upholstery cover the original style soft top with a modern textured vinyl. The same vinyl was used to cover the visor for a unique look that I dig. To finish the body mods a fuel filler was frenched into the driver side rear panel. Many Model A builds swap the grill for a 32 shell, a great look but this car shows that you don’t have to do that. 3” was taken out of the stock grill shell, giving it just the right height. A pair of Dietz style headlights round out the front end look.
Behind the chopped stock grill a 355 4 bolt engine takes center stage. Jack’s Engine & Machine in Erie, KS was called on to build the engine which is balanced and features 0.30 over forged pistons, MSD HEI distributor, polished Edelbrock tunnel ram intake and custom Jet Hot coated headers built by Mills. A turbo 350 trans with a B&M shift kit backs up the stout engine. In the rear a 9” Ford rear end is packed with a Curry center section, 3.50 posi gear and Strange axles.
The Hot Shoe frame features a Pete & Jakes all chrome, 4” dropped & drilled Super Bell Axle, hair pins & uni-steer cross steer rack in the front with disc brakes. The rear suspension is a triangulated 4-bar with polished coil-overs. Wheelsmith steel smoothie wheels with Firestone tires all around give the car the right look. The fronts are 5” wide with 6.70×15 wide whites and spider caps, the rears are 10” wide with 10.00×15 cheater slick wide whites and more spider caps.
Inside the stock dash was replaced with a 32 Ford dash, under that is a Flaming River chrome tilt column topped with a Con2R two tone black & white wheel. The Eddie Barrett bomber style front seats, custom made rear seat and custom door & side panels were all covered with black tuck & roll embellished with pinstriped stitching by Stitches Fine Upholstery.
All of that came together to create a killer hot rod that draws attention everywhere it goes. Scott is working on a few other projects at the hot rod shop including a 50 Merc that should be a bit more comfortable for long drives with the family. Stay tuned!
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