Technical ~~~ peaking & polishing a 32 axle ~~~

Since the channel between the flanges on the original Ford axles ends in a nice rectangular end at the spindle boss rather than the tapered round end todays aftermarket axle have no one should think it is a new axle.

 

There's no doubt that this axle is beautiful.
The craftsman ship is beyond outstanding.

I just experience nervousness about removing all the good metal to bring the depth of the pits to the surface and sanded out.

 

I worked on the ends today, thought I might have to do some filling but all went smoothly...pun intended The first three pics and second three respectivly, are before and afters.

 

Hot rod jewelry.

 

To do the king pin ends I used tapered rolls, straight rolls, flap discs and scotch brite pads, followed by fingers and emery cloth. To do the recess I took a piece of cold bar the right width and tall enough to grip the emery cloth at each end. I contoured the ends and sides to fit. I used two grits of paper, the coarse is too wide and it works great to get the flat and side smoothed, followed by the finer grit.


As for the questions about the web thickness, I used an outside caliper and checked several areas of the stock and polished axle. I used a veneer caliper to check the outside and inside of the outside caliper, before and after removal from the axles and came up with the following measurements. After polishing, the recess was 55-65 thousandths thinner depending on area measured. Factory thickness is 200-215 thick. I also used the caliper to measure the wishbone mount, you can see how much under 2" it is, chrome will take up some, but a shim will be needed. All holes will get a kiss with the chamfer bit as well.

In addition, a stock 32 axle weighs 23.2 lbs. the polished is 22 lbs. even. I still have some minor detailing to do, but the weight should not be any less. This is the last post on the polish/tech, the final post will be the completed axle.

 

holy crap that's beautiful!!

 

Harv, how many hours.......don't lie!

 

Joe, I kept track at first, but 45 min. here and 1/12 hr. here I dont have an accurate count. My best guess with time left to finish will be 15 hrs. give or take a half hour. I work on it in between other work in the shop, I hope to have it done in a few days....thanks for the comments guys

 

Nice. Harv. If mine would have been that banged and gouged up, I'd have done something similar but the only damage I could find with mine was stretched numbers/letters from dropping it. I drilled mine and had it jet-hot coated as it was too rough [and too expensive] to chrome.

 

I wouldn't be able to run that axle. I'd frame it and hang it on a wall instead.

Nice work Harv!

 

Harv, thats amazing ! it looks exactly like mine...LOL..........

 

Wow! Amazing work!

 

You are the master of detail on axles. Please wrap carefully and send it to the Henry Ford Museum for display.

 

Great work once again. Same great eye to detail as all the work you have done for me.

 

Here is the final product, I have done all I can on my end, the final work will be done by the chromer. This was a massive amount of work, I hope it will be all that the owner expects, and lives a long life under the front of a bitchen traditional hotrod...ORIGINAL parts rule!

I would like to thank all here who take the time to take pics and document their builds/tech threads. Doing a thread like this is alot of work, setting up the parts and or pieces during the process, taking clear pics, going through them and picking the best ones and adding the text. The HAMB is about sharing, and if this thread answered questions someone may have had, inspired someone to try it for themselves, or just made for a good read, than it was all worth it...thanks for all the comments guys

peaked 1932 heavy ford i-beam axle

 

Good read and inspired. I've got a victim hanging on my wall! Thanks for showing the way

 

Incredible.....a true piece of art. Awesome job, Harv.

 

wow, too nice to chrome

 

I just keep coming back to look. That is an amazing job! Thanks for taking the time to document the process.

Neal

 

Inpeckable hand eye work - just think of doing it all with hand files

 

mucho perfecto

 

Cool!

 

wow that looks great

 

Thanks guys, I have a couple more tech. threads in the works, maybe in the next month or so.

 

Great job Harv!

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I have another little project, I thought I would just add it here instead of starting a new thread.

A HAMBer asked if I was interested in giving his early Chrysler axle the special treatment, as always the answer was yes. The axle is in good shape for it's age, but it has alot of pitting. It seems that all the parts shipped to me by other members have this type of pitting making the polishing/detailing job that much more difficult....enough complaining, time to get down to business.

Here are the first pics, as you can see I have my work cut out for me. I am useing a new type flap wheel that is exspensive, but man does it cut. I ran the first passes up against the forgings, the flap wheel has a nice square edge and does a great job. I polished around the tube in this direction untill I was about 3 inches away from the ends and then started polishing lengthwise on the tube so I wouldn't buzz into the forgings and make a gouge that would be difficult to repair. There is a small peg on the ends in between the rivets, more on this later.

Pics coming in the next post.

 

...

 

holy smokes, who makes that flapper disk, Harv?

 

Show me more Harv. This little flapper does the job.

 

Is that a ceramic disc Harv? I've just started using ceramic sanding discs and 3m ceramic Rolok discs, man do they cut through the metal and they last about 3 times as long.


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