Narrowed the chassis 4" from stock at the firewall to fit the A. Put factory x member back inside the frame. fully boxed the rails in 10 gauge plate. installed parallel 4 link and pan hard in rear. sleeved the frame for the hairpin mounts. Got her all square and straight, found a previous repair and some rust in the rear sections, got it all fixed now.
That's funny. I've said before when someone looked at the pics it had one horse power ha ha . Got two shortly after that.
Went round and round on power plant. Finally my budget helped decide small block. Its a 69 corvette small block, setup like a sleeper, cast head stroker ready for a cheater shot. I am further along and will post more pics, just wasn't sure if anyone would be interested. I kind of went off in my own little world with the whole 60's street race theme, some guys don't like it.
Here is a mock up with a junk 350 and the Muncie manual tranny. Got some extra bracing in the x member. Added tranny and motor mounts. Body test fit on chassis perfect. The coupe chassis pinched in was a great fit for the sedan. Cant take credit for the idea, the guy I bought the rails from said it was a common builders trick back in the 50's. I see why now!
Made some rails to tie the rear of the body back into the floor. Matched the curve in the frame. Put inner fender panels in.
Ya I fell in love with the car and didn't even have a shop yet. Funny addition, I work in the air conditioning business, so I was only able to do this at night and when the weather was horrible. Most people thought I was crazy, I just called it committed. Some people have no clue how many horrible hours are spent boxing a chassis. Because of not having a good floor, I spent more time building the mess of tube and beams holding everything in place for welding. Everything was measured and checked 50 times in between welding and moving braces around. At one point I counted 27 braces off my frame rails, looked like I was building a giant tube body, just to hold all the curves perfect. I think it came out pretty good for my first one, nice and square all around.
Looks like you are doing a great job with limited resources. Reminds me of my first build in the 60's.......The old man wouldn't let me use his garage. Pretty selfish of him but then I was sort of a messy pig too.
I was building everything under an old tree in the dirt back in the '60s except when I used the ag shop down at the high school. LOL @LuckyFord the build looks pretty good man. So is it going to stay sedan delivery or are you repairing the back and putting windows back in it?
Thanks. The blank offs in the windows were barely tacked in, so I pulled them out to just look at it for awhile. Turned out the openings themselves are in great condition so I'm going to leave them open. I am 6'4" and with the seat reclined to a good line of sight out the windshield, I may need to see out the sides for changing lanes. With the back window, I was thinking about making it the exact same size as the sides and at same height. I don't really care for the real skinny back window, and if I match the chop it will be skinny. Also, it has a ribbed corvair roof section tacked on top. That was ok for the delivery style, but not liking it now. It has no proper bracing and will have to come off either way, just not sure how I want to put it back. Maybe frame out a removable section to fill in the factory opening, set up with a rubber gasket and convertible top latches on the inside? Then it could be full roof or open depending on weather. Not sure yet.
Well luckily nothing was done permanent to yours before you got it. makes it easier to change to suit you. I am in the process of undoing some ill thought out stuff on my project and they made it to last for at least another century. LOL
Thanks. I can only say now that I really appreciate having my shop. I got by without it, but man what a difference having a good work space makes.
Here is when she moved to the new shop. She collected some dust and cobwebs for the summer, but I got the shop done and ready to start going again. Collected a bunch of parts over the summer too.
You better watch that parts collecting, it will cause you to have a completed car then what will you do with your spare time. LOL
Now we got two horse power, but you need to feed em horses, they're only half grown. One of my customers breed miniature horses for years. Once you crank that ol Chevy engine up, thatll scare em up a few sizes.
If you're tall, you've got to take all the room you can get from an "A". Nice project ( and the security horse is cool)
Hey they don't know their little, they have never seen big horses lol. I did fire my new motor off a couple weeks ago, took a few hours to find the dogs afterwards. There is nothing like the sound of a v-8 with open collectors to get re-motivated to build!
Here is my new motor, tranny rebuilt, new flywheel, new clutch. Valve covers are temporary, just wanted to hear it run
Did a mock up with the 32 chopped radiator and 34 grill. I think its going to fit pretty good. Might have to build some inner structure into the grill to mount it better. Radiator hits the factory mounts perfect. Got my eye on a nice aluminum grill insert that would fit this grill.