Adam (bull on the hamb) bought a 30 roadster out of cali from another hamber and got it home a few weeks ago and there was a few things he wanted changed and some bugs that needed to be worked out, well i got most of it done, there was alot more than we thought, but that usual on a fresh car. The car handled and drove very poor, the brakes were spongy and it wandered all over the road and the drums pulsated badly etc etc, so i dug in, found alot of little things that needed attention that basically all added up into a scary ride. First it has wide 5 adaptors on the rear and the wheel bolts for the wide five pattern pushed against the rear drum tweaking them out of round, so i re-turned the drums in the rear, and ground a bit more on the culpret bolts, also the center of the adaptors needed a chamfer cause of the flair of the brake drum where it centers on the axle, so that took care of alot of the pulsating, i still have to turn the front drums but were waiting on a trade deal to put steelies all the way around getting rid of the dumb adaptors and changing the looks a bit. Also i figured out why the brakes were spongy, the master cylinder mount was a bit skimpy which in turn moved when the brakes were pressed, scary, the brakes wereny spongy, just the master cylinder mount, so i made some major improvemnts on the master mount and now the brake are solid as a rock, i cant stress to anyone how importand the master mount engineering is, there is a ton of force and leverage on that thing and the last thing you want to underbuild is that! there also was a problem with the front, it has a posies super low spring (or whatever brand spring) and as you know they are flat, causing the frame to sit on the spring, also there were no shocks in the front, so i pulled the front end apart added 2 leaves back to the spring and put a 1/2 inch block on top of the spring also as the tie rod was getting awful close to the vibration dampner (actually when me and adam sat in it it rubbed) then i also bolted on some pete and jakes lower shock mounts and short shockes and welded one some upper shock mount and used a set of headlight mounts that attatch to the shock mounts, that took care of alot of the front end, i also notched the frame a bit just to make sure they spring wont hit it anymore. then the steering problem, we werent sure of the make of the steering box but it was like 9 turns lock to lock, unbareable, it was like you were drunk driving around corners you couldnt turn the wheel fast enought to make a nice turn, so i looked at it and noticed a gm casting number on the pitman arm and figured out that the splines were the same as a gm chevelle/nove manual box, so i talked to a buddy and he had a pitman arm from one so i nabbed that and reformed it a bit and re did the taper to match the early ford tie rod, the pitman arm was about 3" longer and it made the differnce of the work, now its like 5 turns lock to lock and very managable. then the seat was a bit to cramped for Adam, and WAY to cramped for me, so i was able to move it back about 4" more and gained a ton of room, now im ok compfortable and Adam fits perfect, i still need to do a little bit of work to finish mounting it but its basically done. Ive also been working out some rattles on the car making it a shit pot quieter. I also finished up a few little peices on the floor like he one tunned peice and the hole around the pedal, i also tweaked the pedals around a bit for more comfort and reworked the gas pedal to get full throttle instead of 1/3 throttle. thats basically it in a nutshell, the car still needs some carb work (q-jets suck!) but other than that its moving around great now. JEFF
Ooh, I just got goose bumps and popped a stiffy at the exact same time. Is that okay? No? I knew I should have kept that to myself.
When I was down there Friday night it drove like a new car compared to the last time I drove it. I can't wait for miles of smiles. Jeff has been a godsend on this project (and my A Tudor http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=371150). He's a madman on a mission fixing the car's ailments and I can't thank him enough for helping me turn a good car into a great (and safe) car!
Heading down tonight to (hopefully) drive it home! So what do you think . . . 40 Ford steelies or 35 Ford wires with the same tires that are on it now? I dig the wide 5's but not the adapters required to run them in the rear -- not to mention, the steelies brought the track width in by 2 inches on each side in the rear.
Neat roadster, I need to get me one of those some day. I'm smiling and nodding at the work you had to do. Seems every car I've ever bought had stuff done to it by a P.O. and I wonder what the heck they were thinking. Some was silly stuff, but some like the steering box mount or a "fabricated" steering arm on a T bucket scared the CRAP out of me. Can't be too careful when getting a new project to make sure everything is correct and safe!
Try something like this on the rears to hide the adapters. I love those wheels, it'd be a shame to not run them. http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b394/scootermcrad/1931 Ford Build/DSC04615.jpg http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b394/scootermcrad/1931%20Ford%20Build/DSC04616.jpg http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b394/scootermcrad/1931%20Ford%20Build/DSC00280.jpg
the hubcaps do a great job hiding the adaptors, the problem is the track width is way to wide for the car with the adaptos so if you added another 1/4 its be even worse, bascially it could be done but the rear end would need to be narrowed and thats not on the list of things to do at the moment. jeff
I like the look of the wide 5's without caps too, but the adapters are only part of the problem. The adapter is only about 3/8" - 1/2" wide. Adding the cut down drum face to hide the adapter would also push the wheels out a bit more. The 9" rear used is actually a bit wide for this car, but I refuse to put a new rear in it or have this one narrowed -- it's just not in the cards -- period. Jeff and I test fit a 40 Ford steelie on the rear and it narrowed the track width by 2 inches on each side with more backspace and by eliminating the adapter, making the look from the rear much more appealing. Here's a couple pics from the rear with the wide 5's -- a bit too wide in my opinion.
Put the steelies on it, way to much space between body and wheels with the wide 5's IMHO. I am doing a '31 sedan right now and collecting parts for a roadster, will keep track of both your threads. I like the car, looks good on the stock frame. Speaking of sedans any update to yours?
I was with Adam the night we dropped it off at Titus's place. It was amazing how fast Jeff able to work out the vast majority of the bugs in this car. It's great to have a local expert help out when called upon ! I love the new look of the seat back 4 inches. I can now drive the car as well
Yeah go with the steelies out back. One of my pet peeves is when the wheels stick too far out from the body. I like them nice and tucked in not that it matters. I also like the look of mixed and matched wheels. Like Steelies up front and spokes out back or in your case steelies out back and wide fives up front. Just looks like it's straight out of The Birth Of Hot Rodding book.
You most certainly can. You're the one who made me a roadster guy with your RPU last summer, so of course you need to get some seat time in my roadster now too!
I agree, seeing it from the back, they are out there. Maybe you could paint some steelies two tone to trick the eye a little. Matching the front wheels.
I've got a set of 4 40 Ford steelies that will be taking residence on the car as soon as I get them blasted and painted. Drove the car home from Titus' shop Tuesday night. It's MUCH improved. I still have some steering and handling issues to sort out, but the car is well on its way. Currently the car is a bit unpredictable over bumps. The spring rate seems way too soft in the rear and the shocks don't seem to be dampening at all. I may upgrade the inexpensive coilovers to a set of adjustable units. My theory is that when I hit bumps or mash the gas, the rearend squats down, which unloads the front making the steering unpredictable. The body roll also seems to play a part in the squirrely steering. I think a stiffer spring rate and adjustable dampening on the rear coilovers could help dial things in. Perhaps a steering dampener is needed as well? Any thoughts? I still need to get rid of the Quadrajunk carb as well. I've got a rebuilt Holley in the garage ready to take its place. I'm hoping that will solve the lack of power, but I'm not anxious to throw more power into the mix with sketchy handling.
I just found out that the steering box is possibly a 55-57 Chevy truck. The steering seems very "darty." There also doesn't seem to be any center position to the box to hold it straight. To answer a couple questions . . . yes everything is tight, 1/8" toe-in, 6 degrees of caster. I have a steering damper on order from Pete & Jakes.
Steering damper installed over the weekend . . . drove the car to Titus' shop Saturday morning two handed and white knuckled over bumps . . . drove it home 1 handed and a big smile on my face the whole way. Grease zerks added everywhere and got it all greased up. There was not one zerk on the whole car -- unless you count the one that was broken off in the tie rod end anyway! We also built a cover to go over the crossmember in the trunk. Pics to come soon, its a great piece! Thanks again Jeff! Yesterday I got rid of the Quadrajunk carb and installed a rebuilt 600 cfm Holley I had in the garage from one of my other A's that will be getting a new Demon Six Shooter set-up. I used a Mr. Gasket adapter to install the carb on the stock GM cast iron manifold. Fired right up and revs awesome now. Doesn't sputter, leak and fall on its face like the POS that was on there before. Still have to get the throttle linkage hooked up tonight, change out the fouled plugs and take her for a rip. Can't wait! I had installed stiffer springs on the coilovers as the car bottomed out on bumps and the body roll was terrible. The springs I started with were thought to be 180lb springs. I installed what were thought to be 225lb springs and also figured out that the shocks were adjustable dampening with 3 different settings. I set them to what felt like the stiffest setting for dampening -- very difficult to tell with these inexpensive coilovers -- and added a half inch of ride height. The car still bottomed out on big bumps and body roll was still far too much -- especially with 2 people in the car. Yesterday I installed Pete & Jakes 300lb springs and added another half inch of ride height. Hopefully this cures the bottoming out and roll issues without making the ride too harsh, otherwise I'll be unloading these coilovers and stepping up to some nicer units.
More bugs worked out . . . It was still falling on its face at more than half throttle. I discovered that it didn't have a ballast resistor between the ignition and coil. This had fried the coil. I added a ballast resistor, a new coil, new plus and she runs like a raped ape! The car seriously has triple the power it had before -- at least that's what my butt dyno tells me. With the 300lb springs in the rear the body roll is gone and the rearend doesn't hit the crossmember. A little stiff, and I may switch to a slightly lower spring rate, but i can live with it for now. With the driveability issues taken care of I put a bunch of miles on the car this weekend. Only problem was, every time I shut the car off it would puke rusty brown water out of the overflow. Opening the radiator cap revealed some nasty Mississippi muddy mess in the radiator. I flushed it out and took it for a cruise about 30 miles from home. It put me on the side of the road 3 times with overheating problems and more rusty nastiness from the radiator. I got it home and discovered a stuck thermostat. I flushed out the block and added a new 195 degree thermostat. I let it idle in the garage for a half hour last night and the temp didn't get above 205 and it didn't puke any more rusty water out of the overflow. I'll put a few more miles on it before flushing the system one more time and refilling it with coolant and perhaps some Water Wetter and rust inhibitor. Another issue that's plagued me is a lack of pedal feel for the clutch. I adjusted the clutch rod and thought I had things working reasonably well. After a an hour of driving I couldn't get the car in gear. I discovered that the jam nut was backing itself off on the clutch rod. A couple nylon lock nuts and that problem was solved as well. Getting closer and closer to having the bugs worked out. Definitely looking forward to miles of smiles and making the car my own once I get these issues resolved!
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