Technical 1932 Pickup Rebuild Thread UPDATED 1/11/16

This is shaping up to be great

 

I love these survivor stories keep up the good work. and if you let dad drive it with the small block he will never give it back. your writing and photo journal skills let us old geesers follow along like we were there thanx again Tom

 

Happy to see that truck of yours get to come out and play, Dennis, and I really like the plan. I remember the Bruces shop truck changing how I looked at early 'pups when it was first posted here...hard to think of a better one to be inspired by for your particular scenario and I have no doubt you'll knock it out of the park.

Great story, too. It's funny reading about your disagreements with your Dad. My Dad brought me up in his always-busy one-man body and paint shop. He did teach me more than he (or I!) will ever realize, but I never could get him to come anywhere near even talking about hot rods or customs other than to try (obviously failing miserably lol) to discourage me, until my current project. You got it easy, brother! Hehe. Although he did recently give me a stack of old paint chip books, and last night I realized they go back to '41 and that he'd given me the factory chips for my '46 which I was pretty stoked to see.

Anyway, sub'd. Looking forward to following along. Later bud!

 

Like that mag/dis sharp lookin !

 

Dennis, I'm going to enjoy following this one.

Mart.

 

Great to see you reply to my thread, Chris and glad you like my project. I was wondering about you the other day because I haven't seen anything out of you on FB or the TRaK forum for a while. Hope all is well and that you're making good progress on your sedan!

 

It's nice to see a non- hate thread of the sbc on the hamb every once in a while!

 

Great project and in a very tasteful direction. Looking good so far and I'll be following along!

Malcolm

 

This week has been really good.

Got my 4 Kelsey wheels with tires sold to an Australian HAMBer.

Got my old Magnum dropped axle/spindle/tierod/Ford brake assembly sold.

On Monday I received this beautiful pair of Guide 904J headlights that I purchased off of Ebay the week before. Not one dent or ding in the buckets and just the right amount of patina in the original black paint that will perfectly match the rest of the truck! And, according to what I've read, the brass ID tags make them pre-War. Had to step-up but so glad to have them. Just need to stay on the lookout for some original Guide 12v sealed beams.
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Today on my lunch break I went to our Powder Coater and picked up the freshly painted 18" wires. If you are in the area, David at Azusa Refinishing (Azusa, California) does beautiful work. They also paint wires the right way. They bead-blast them then put them in the oven in bare metal. Doing this cooks all the crap out that gets lodged down where the spokes meet the hub and/or rim. The hub is also two stamping swedged together and crap gets built up in the seam. They then re-blast them to get all the cooked-out crap off, then powder coat and bake them. The result is a super smooth finish. Ever see wire wheels with grit and crap trapped in the paint? Now you know why. If you are ever getting wires coated, insist on this process. The first time we had them paint wires I told him to use this process and he thought I was crazy. When I picked them up he was a believer.

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I also received these original '32 V8 front engine mount brackets from our good friend and customer, Geoff Skene from Wyoming. He was out in California a couple of weeks ago and asked me how I was going to mount the front of the SBC. I told him I was going to get some Bob Drake repro '32 mounts and modify them like 100's of guys back in the old days. He offered up that he had a set of originals and would make me a great deal on them. As it turns out, Geoff was in need of some original '32-'34 spring perches for a dropped axle assembly that we are building him and I had a set that I'm selling since I'm gonna use longer aftermarket perches with tube shocks. Geoff was kind enough to make me a straight-up trade, perches for mounts. SCORE! They have some small reliefs ground in which is necessary for fan belt clearance on 24-stud flatheads. Nothing our big, blue Miller box can't fix.

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Here's a picture I swiped from a HAMB thread showing the mounts in action on a small block. With a little tweaking where they bolt to the block, the damn things bolt up and line right up on the motor mount pads on an original front cross member. I think there's some truth to the story that the SBC was designed to be easily fit into old Ford hot rods.

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Today was another good day.

Got my original '32 axle boxed up and on the UPS truck. Should be back in a couple of weeks with a fresh 2.5" drop courtesy of Greg Haynes.

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I also traded my original accessory B locking spare wheel hub cap to my dad for a nice double detent shifter tower with large 91A fork and swan neck stick. The stick needs a little massaging but nothing I can't handle.

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There is no truth to that story about the SBC......Looks great! Tell your Dad hi for me.....

 

I dunno, it really is almost too easy to put a small block in a '32 Ford...

What's up, Mike!

 

Really nice truck, and love what you're cookin' up. Proceed ... by all means ... please.

 

I agree....there are too many coincidences. Maybe not for hot rodding, but potentially to make the sbc easy to retrofit into existing industrial or marine applications......and then it just happened to benefit us! I'm getting ready to do the same in my 5w.

 

Dennis and Cory---It's only been going on since 1954.
I'm as much of a SBC hoe as anyone, but they do become sameol', sameol' after a while.
When somebody does come up with something different, that's when people take notice.
Look'n forward to both of your projects.
Doug

 

I'm sure that is a big reason, along with how they perform and have always been reasonably inexpensive to get performance out of, why so many people choose to use the SBC when doing an engine swap.

 

Dennis, while you're young your father knows the Deuce/SBC motor mount story. I have done several over the years and they work great. Here is the latest from my friend Dave who is building a sedan with the flathead but can switch to the SBC without any problem. Note he raised the crossmember 1 1/2".

 

Dennis. My dad will be so disappointed. He loved your truck full fendered.

I feel honored that my truck has been an inspiration to you and others.

Keep up the good work.

Let me know if you want a few inches added to the width of your rear wheels.

-Danny

 

Dennis. Here is one we did like your truck.

 

Tell your Dad I'm sorry!

I've loved your green truck since the second I saw it. I was super stoked to finally see it in person at last years LA Roadster Show. I took a bunch of pictures. Hoped to finally meet you but it didn't work out. (I know years ago you were at our shop but for whatever reason I wasn't there that day.) After looking at your truck I took my son in to see the train museum. Right as we were leaving the trains from a distance I saw you get in and drive away. I followed and found your truck again over by the horse track but you weren't around. I did get to have a really nice talk with your Mom and Dad. Your Dad propositioned me for my truck but then I told him the story of how my Dad gave it to me as a baby and he realized there was no way, hahaha.

I would love to have you widen a pair of wheels for me and may have you do that down the road a bit but for now it's not in the budget. I see quite a few guys getting away with the big tires on the narrow stock wheels so I figure it will work okay for now. Interestingly, in Coker's catalog they list the 7.00-18 Firestones for 3.5" wheel width.

 

I would love to have you widen a pair of wheels for me and may have you do that down the road a bit but for now it's not in the budget. I see quite a few guys getting away with the big tires on the narrow stock wheels so I figure it will work okay for now. Interestingly, in Coker's catalog they list the 7.00-18 Firestones for 3.5" wheel width.[/QUOTE]

Yea. They will work, but they look a little weird.

 

If I may suggest...instead of putting repro Lincoln backing plates on this cool truck...instead, send your Ford backing plates to Bass and let him convert them to Lincoln brakes...same money...better looking backing plates...my humble opinion.

 

Sweet truck

 

We are dealers for MT so I get the new brakes at cost. I'm also a weirdo and prefer the look of the Lincoln stamping's to the Ford's. One of the things I love about the MT reproduction plates is that they are available with the smaller center hole and smaller bolt pattern so that they can go onto early spindles without the need for an adapter ring. Nice and clean.

I have a ton of respect for Bass and always enjoy his projects. I have held a pair of his converted brakes in my hands and they seem to be nicely done.

 

Late last week I received a big box from Speedway. Some of what it contained was the Zip water pump riser kit and the new 235 Chevy water pump to go with it. I went ahead and got the engine mounted up on a stand, pulled the long water pump and pulleys off, mocked up the Zip riser and pump on put on some mock up pulleys that a friend gave me. (I bought new single groove crank and water pump pulleys from Speedway but didn't want to scratch them so I'll use these double groove pulleys for mock up.) The Zip rise seems nicely made and I really like that it handles mounting the alternator, too. I also mocked up the original '32 V8 front mounts.

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At this point I am strongly considering keeping the triple Rochester setup because it's bitchin'. If I do this one issue I will have to overcome is that the typical 45 degree water outlet interferes with the pump riser. Zip recommends using a vertical outlet but that won't work because of the front carburetor. It looks like I will need to fabricate my own outlet if I'm going to keep this setup.

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Here's a close up of the '32 V8 engine mount on the Chevy block. The upper threaded boss in the block is just below the original upper hole in the mount. A little re-working and I'll be in business.

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When I put the engine on the stand the adapter bell housing and flywheel had to come off. I thought this was a good time to address the clutch since the engine did not come with one. As it turns out, the flywheel is a standard 168-tooth Chevy part. It had no alternate bolt pattern drilled into it, just the stock equal-spaced 6 mounting holes. It had definitely been running with an early Ford trans, though. Thanks to a couple of older HAMB threads I was able to find out that 1949 and 1950 Mercury's (only) used a 10" Borg & Beck (3-finger) clutch and the pressure plate has the identical mounting pattern as the Chevy flywheel making it a bolt-on. A trip to the Early Ford Store in San Dimas proved successful at acquiring the correct pressure plate and disc. Hard part figured out, now I just need to have the flywheel shaved and balanced with the new pressure plate.

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Hard to see through the plastic bag but there's a new GM 17" 4-blade fan in there.

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New extended spring perches and lower shock mounts. Speedway has excellent prices and they look to be nice parts.

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Lastly, I received the covered front tube shocks from SoCal Speed Shop.

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All for now.

 

Nice project. Thanks for posting.

 

Well it's been 12 hours need more pic's! Nice parts ! Roger

 

Hey Dennis. That pic above with the '32 motor mounts on the sbc is mine. I have those mounts out in the shop. They have really simple adaptor plates that fit behind the '32 mounts and bolt on to the sbc with countersunk bolts and position the '32 mounts exactly where they need to be without altering the original mounts. Jason Smith at Hot Rod Garage made them for his roadster. As soon as my camera batteries recharge, I'll go out and take some pics for ya.

 

Dennis--
You might consider the thermostat housing used on the Barry Grant six shooter setup along with a short riser/spacer like on my roadster. Not sure if they used the standard bolt spacing though. I like this housing because it doesn't have that "billet" look.
It appears their carb. float housings are larger so this may (look) like it would not work, you may have to get one to verify clearance on your setup.
The last photo is an adapter I made to orient the thermostat housing on my Carryall engine. Two 3/8" alum. plates, shaped and welded on inside.
My apologies regarding the modern looking stuff in these photos, just some suggestions to help, may save you from making a housing from scratch.
I like the traditional direction of your build, but I gotta say; I just can't warm up to that big late model GM alternator up there.

 

Try these two FOUR SEASONS numbers.