Projects 28 RPU "problem child" build thread "first try at a hotrod"

Going to reuse the front shocks over.. Seem to be in good working order and it looks as if someone has been into them before or at least put new oil in them.



Someone had went through a lot of the mechanical parts on this truck..

And a genius that will remain nameless welded nuts to the inside of the frame for the shocks when boxing the frame and they were off a little bit and had to be moved away from each other to be able to use allen head bolts.

Drilled the holes out to 15/16 and made some bungs to weld in on the lathe. Had to oval the holes a bit to get the bungs in the right spot



Welded them both in and bolted the shock on..





A little trick I figured out while doing this was I had a hard time getting the tap started so I put a deburring bit in my cordless drill and used it to chamfer the hole to get the tap started.. Made a nice taper and turned it slow in the drill so I didn't take a lot out..



Figured maybe someone might find it useful.

Onto the other side.

 

Nice tip on the deburring bit.
I just use "offset bolts"-lol-when faced with holes/nuts that are a little off.

Why two cut's in split bone?
Earl

 

I had to mill the holes in the shocks oval a little bit to even get the Allen heads to clear the shock body. Luckily only had to do one side. Passenger side fit after elongating the holes in the shock

Just to spread the bend out a little but so it wasn't so much bend in one spot.

 

Few things going this week..

Cut the old perches apart to reuse the ball part. Tacked them on top of the new adjustable perches. Attached the arms and tubes.



Next was getting the clutch and flywheel in.. Borrowed an engine hoist from a buddy and lifted the motor out..

Heard horror stories of the bells busting off if you hang them that way.... So I made up a set of mounts to use the exhaust ports. Made up an extra one to put on the other side and welded up a support post for it. Works out pretty good





Pulled the pan installed flywheel and clutch and bolted the trans to it. New slave cyl is supposed to be here Friday so I can make a mount for it and hope to see if it works this weekend.

Curious to see how hard the pedal push is going to be.



That is all for the past few days

 

That is a slick way of holding the flattie!
Whens time for firing motor? Are you doing body work on F1 in background.
Earl

 

Thanks. Not sure on fire time.. Going to get the cutch working first and try to get a radiator and grill shell attached also..

Not doing body work to it.. It's just the way it's painted. Faux worn out paint.. It was an old fire truck can so the guy did that to keep from repainting the whole truck

On another note I picked up the spring form the shop today and it's not even close to working.. Way to short now.. Thinking of going spring behind or trailing arm setup...

Tired of messing with the spring on top of the axle and going through all the hassle to stretch it every time..

Anyone have any good pictures for reference

 

Rear kick can be seen starting post #52. He moved crossmember back 7 3/8" and used T spring.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/model-a-pickup-my-first-build-thread.511327/page-2

 

Thanks!! Quite a bit of info in that thread.

 

Was able to get a few things knocked out over the weekend..

Received a slave from speedway and worked up a mount for it to bolt to two factory tabs on the s10 t5.... Can't see it from the front but welded and tapped two tabs on the back of the plate and had to mill a slot for a tab to pass through the plate so it would sit flat..



Then the pressure plate was hitting the bell so after 6 times if removing it I finally took enough out for it to clear..



Put it back in and hope to run a temp line to try it out see what the pedal feel is going to be...

 

great build, I like your solutions/custom pieces a lot........

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152396343342096

might have to click on the picture to get it to play.

here is a short video of the clutch pedal at least working.. milled a bit off of it to get the pedal over and the rod to line up straighter. also moved the brake pedal over also. next step will be to brace the mounting shaft back to the cross member...

88 jeep Cherokee master cyl and a speeway slave cyl. the line i ran for them is temporary also.. will be a flexible line. tempted to try the 62 chevy slave that i bought to see how it changes the pedal push

 

Have been meaning to don't his for a while but just been messing with other things on the truck...

Waiting on some spring hangers so I made a brace for the clutch and brake shaft. Still have to drill the crossmember and the top part of the plate but should do the trick



Moving the spring behind the axle can't get it to work right and clear on top of the axle.. going to try to get some metal tomorrow to start stepping the frame.. I am going to do it a little different so hope to have that posted up soon..



Setting a goal to have it done for Bonneville this year.

 

Love this build.

 

Thanks! Glad you like it so far!

 

Started to do a little half step in The back of the frame to move the spring behind the axle..

Figured I would carry it out a little farther to add a few bed mounts that were never there before to help support the bed..

Started bed off and read axle rolled
Out


No turning back now


Using 1.5"x3" heavy walled tubing

Only doing about half step.. Don't really need the clearance and this sets it up 1.5" above the frame so I can use 1/4" rubber and it's the right height for the bed mounts and just remove the wood that Brookville uses.

Also used the cut off pieces to make the angles for the top and bottom.


Beveled the tube pretty big and tigged it all together.. Jumped around to try to keep it from moving.


That's all for tonight will probably set the bed back on tomorrow and make a rear crossmember to tie the sides together and make up some
Bed mounts.

 

Little update today.. Been working on a different idea for a steering wheel.. Wanted something different then a banjo or 40 wheel.. So here is what came to mind..

I worked with a local Amish casting company and had the stock wheel cast in aluminum.. Here is the results a little clean up work and should be good.. Going to do a brush finish I think. Polished would be to streetrod ish I think.. Going to weld up an aluminum shifter also see how that goes..

 

You are doing a fantastic job. I would love to have skills like that. Congrats

 

Really like your build up (and the roller "wheels"). The steering wheel is a cool idea. I would not polish it -not because of looking too street rod-due to reflection from sun while driving or sitting.
When I moved spring behind on a 30 closed cab (in 70's) with full fenders I didn't step the frame at all. With 235x75x15 just had enough room to clear tires with some weight in bed.
Keep up with the great work your doing!

Earl

 

Thanks for the kind words!!.. I'm probably still on the side of messing more stuff up then I have fixed so far haha.. Good way to learn i suppose..

Everyone laughs about the wheels but to be honest they work great I'm surprised how well they hold the weight of the motor and whole truck without flexing...

I didn't really think about the glare off the wheel if polished but that's a good point! Going flat clear it or have a satin finish powder coated on it.

Thanks for the info on the non step clearing.. I should have plenty of axle clearance then..

 

Another warning on that wheel, it's going to burn the hell out of your hands in the sun. I would wrap the rim in leather personally, or keep a pair of gloves under the seat.

I'm jealous of it either way, looks slick!

 

Well I shouldn't call this an update.. Going backwards this weekend... Was hoping to have it just sitting on its own weight by the end of the weekend.. Was measuring for the rear spring and put the rear fenders on to try to get everything lined up.....

Stuff wasn't coming out right and noticed the rear was sitting farther out on the passenger side.. I had cut the back part of the cross member sides to put in a new crossmember across the back.. Got tired of crawling under it and not exactly sure what was off so back to basically bare frame to get everything back in line.. Think it's coming from just tacking the front cross member and not having other braces while building..

Seems to be about 3/8 out of square so get it back in square the other crossmember made welded in and get basically a rolling chassis put together and fully welded.. Then set the body back on..

Looked like a complete truck at about 2pm 6hrs later this is where it's at




Sometimes This thing makes me put my head on the bench

 

Ah yes-Learning experience! We all have them!
Earl

 

Haha yes this is teaching me things I didn't know I was going to learn haha.

Did manage to get the other crossmember made and fully welded it and the front one... Seems to be A LOT stiffer now! Hope to get a lot done tomorrow..

Thanks for following along OFT!

 

Beautiful work on this. Subscribed!!! I like the original A front shocks. are you going to run knee action shocks on the rear also?

 

Depends on what I can find but I would like to.. And thanks for subscribing! Hope to keep working steady on it..

Got the frame back in line and made up a rear/middle crossmember and welded them in solid so the frame wouldn't move as much I hope while building


Going to tack the spring mounts on tonight and get moving on that.


Used a piece of angle iron to put the mounts on at the distance I wanted them to be at.. Seems to make it a lot easier to keep them there then..


Leveled up, plum, square, and clamped to the housing.. Should be close enough for this thing.

Passenger side tire still seems to be running in a bit but hoping welding that side a little hotter to pull it back.. But the Coker tires sway back and forth more then a flag pole in a hurricane so I'm sure it will be fine.

 

Was able to get a little bit more done over this weekend..

Put together a few scrap pieces to clamp onto a piece of conduit so I could get the wheelbase set fairly close by myself since I can't stretch my arms that far.


Found a piece of square tube cut it down and chucked it in the mill to recess the plate in it for the leaf spring.


Didn't have the right size plate so had to cut and weld two pieces together.


Next on the line for today was to get the bars I made awhile back moved in closer to the middle of the crossmember. Kinda sucks cutting into something that ya thought was finished and took the time to weld and sand down.. But it needed to be done


Ratchet strap to hold it in while I tacked it


Still have to cut the tab off the back and rework that for the mount on the axle but this is what it should look like for the most part




Also after seeing some on Instagram I made up a set of small wooden boxes to set the truck on.. Should have made these a long time ago, sure make it nice and hold it where ya want it.. This is how it is sitting now.. Hope to get it setting back on its own weight by Christmas..

 

figured out a name for this thing by now "problem child" seems fitting

It's sitting on its own weight but need to have the spring fixed.. Going to take the spring to a local shop and have it narrowed or have it remade..

It's 38" eye to eye with the mounts at 42.5 but seems a bit soft and sinks to much.... Probably going to shorten it to 36.5 to get the shakers up where they need to be then add leafs or spacer on top to get ride height..


Shackles pointing down to far


Like the look but needs more clearance I think to be driven a lot..

In the process of making front mound for the bars to the cross member..

 

What rear spring is it; does not look like a model A or T.
Like the looks where it sits now but agree wouldn't make for practical driving (throwing in couple cases of egg's and cream cans).
Earl

 

I switched over to a 42-48ish front spring for the rear.

 

Was able to get one more thing buttoned up today/tonight.. Made up two rear bars to help support the bottom bars..

Used ends of of some old rods that I had and welded them to a new piece of pipe..


Cut and smashed a piece of pipe to fit around the bars


Drilled and welded a tab on that pipe and welded the pipe to the lower bar


Not 100% sure/satisfied with the rear mount yet but will do for now. Also pie cut the back of the bar to for the piece of 1/4" plate in and pinched it in so it had some taper to it.


Bent some plate up to cap the front bar mounts.


And that's about it for tonight. Going to work on supporting the leaf spring brackets tomorrow.