Hot Rods Spalding Bros Repro, for "Too Tall" Ganahl.

So cool....I am in for the ride on this one.

 

That tank is going to be one hell of a thumper!

 

While I am getting ready to set the body on, I will show what was involved in getting the rear brakes, hub-bearing carriers to fit together. Pat procured some bearing carriers and hubs (6 pin) that were used on a midget. He also bought a set of Wilson Welding brakes, and my job was to make the package fit together. It was almost impossible to find the original style parts, being that most live axles were used with disc brakes. The first hurdle was to "flatten" the backing plates, so that the bearing carriers would fit inside, along with matching the bolt pattern of the hubs.

 

Now for the modifications to the hubs. Since they were "knock offs" it required some machine work. I had to make a tool just to get the bearing housings apart. The first order of business was to machine off the threads and turn a brake drum register, and fit the parts to the reworked backing plates. Since I am not a trained machinist ( just a guy with a lathe and a couple of mills) I would have a friend of mine plug and re-drill the hubs to the 5 on 5.5" wheel pattern to complete the job.

 

Wow! I haven't had a bunch of HAMB time this week. Look what I missed. This is already fantastic, looking forward to more. Subscribed

 

Marty, why do you use a c-channel and box it ,instead of a rectengular tubing?
Odd size ?
Or will only parts of the channel get boxed?

Just curious ....

 

Micky, That is how the original car was built, check out the photos in the early posts. We are striving to make it as accurate as possible. You are correct, only certain sections will be boxed.

 

Thanks
This is what i thought

 

Nice work ,Marty! Here's a few quick scans from the late Tex Smith's Hot Rod History Book One: The Beginnings. I see the 6 carbed version had a different hood top.

 

Marty it looks great! I am subscribed too

 

Not a rod, but the first historical clone I knew of was the Doug Thompson/Jack Walker/Hirohata Merc from the early 1980's.

 

Very cool work as usual Marty and Pat!

 

Thanks Gofannon, all of the pictures/angles of the car we come up with, will surely help get this one right.

 

Here is the rest of the photos of the hub and brake rework. I had to grind some off of the carrier casting, to clear the wheel cylinder, but it all worked out. In the first shot, the ink mark on the hub snout is where is will be cut off. Next will be to get the axle stretched to the desired width.

 

More

 

I should have had Pat call LO-2656, and run over and pick one up, it would have made it a lot quicker and easier !

 

Wow, five pages in the first week! Great project and great people involved in it. I'm gonna set up my stool over here in the corner of the garage and watch, k?

 

Wow......

 

Looking forward to seeing this progress - subscribed

 

Well, it has been a week (almost to the minute) since the start of this thread, Pat and I are amazed at the interest and support of this project, with over 6,000 views, 5 pages and generous offers of assistance. I have had an almost "uncanny" sense of timing, for most of my life, and last week wasn't any different. Ever since Pat and I started this project, I have been trying to get the wheelbase length figured out. About a week and a half ago, a friend stopped by my shop with another guy named Tony Briski, who is an engineer and car builder. Tony offered to help me scale the wheelbase (with his computer), if I could come up with a true side shot of the car. Shortly after the thread started, Gofannon posted this great side shot. I sent the pic to Tony, and this arrived earlier this evening, it's pretty close to what I was thinking. Thank you all, we are going to make this fun and interesting !!!!!

 

Marty, I'm glad to be of help. It's kind of weird timing for me, too. I've been collecting pics of this car for years. I haven't been frequenting the HAMB much lately. I have just found myself out of work, and because of that I've had time to catch up on here. Yours was about the first post I saw. If it wasn't for these circumstances I would've completely missed your post, and wouldn't have had time to post all these pics up. I guess others would have come to the party, I just jumped the gun! Here's another good side shot that I don't think has been posted, found on a quick google image search. If you repop the trailer as well, it might pay to beef it up a little. Mike

 

Hi Marty

How many years did the bros race the car, and was it always this color

Sure like the orange plus it looks good on the salt too

Thanks for starting your neat thread with all the pics of each part, very cool !!!

Don

 

Hi Gofannon

That trailer looks like one of those ' flexi-flyers ' with skimpy rails , cause it ain't got no springs

Looks like the axle is hooked to the rails, sure would be tough on the car

 

Here's another shot of the trailer I'd posted earlier. I guess the flex in the trailer is the suspension.

 

Yeah it looks 101". After a while you can eyeball pretty close. Grabowski's first black version was 101 with the spring on top of the differential. When he put the newer rear end in it changed to 96. I'm sure Ivo copied the black version. He told me his T had a 101" W.B.
Keep up the posts. Fascinating.

Gary

 

I have always LOVED that car. take a look at the SM I'm building now with an X-Shift 3 speed trans. some people think it is an in/out box. I did use a ford trans [same as the original had] in my Parnelli Jones re-creation.i used Chevy parts for the torque tube drive.

 

Thanks Mike, every image helps.

 

Dennis, That X-Shifter does look the part, and I know how hard they are to find. It would also take up less valuable space, we might get lucky and find one, thanks for posting.

 

Don, I am not sure how long they ran the car, '49 &'50 ? The pictures at Pomona with the flathead (Harold White ?), were from '51 or '52. The early pictures look darker than the magazine article.