Thanks guys, I'm saying I'm taking a few days off to recoup but I havnt got to work tomorrow so maybe after work.... Haha. Anyhow thanks for the baby congratulations, we are super excited. I'm figuring on the lack of time and that's why I've been pushing it on this model A to get it all mocked up by a certain time. I think I'll have more ambition to steal away for a few minutes or at least keep the embers burning for it if when I walk by doing laundry it actualy looks like a car and not piles of parts on every shelf. Right now the plan is to continue getting the motor and trans mocked up for mount templates. I think the front cross member is going to need the back vertical wall nipped down, we'll see soon enough. I'm also thinking that I may drill and tap a hole for a grease zerk in the wishbone ball cap. A stock model A just leaks oil on it and the post war cars have a rubber around the ball. Figure it couldn't hurt? Thoughts?
Alright getting closer. Sat the front wheels up on some blocks to clear the axle and messed with placement some more. Took off a bunch of un necessary accessories and the side draft carb as well. It's really fitting well so far. It's sitting roughly with the oil pan flange even with the top of the frame rails. Should clear the un cut front cross memeber and with a little trimming it should clear the stock firewall as well. You can see here where it needs trimmed. From ready every 153 into an A thread I could find I recall someone saying they cut the top center tab off the adapter and it let them clear everything with out cutting the firewall. The motor doesn't have a hole in that position so if I cut it off it's not compromising anything. Other than that not much new today other than spraying Kroil on things. Just a lot of sit and stare today. I did notice that it seems like the stock A torque tube is going to be about two inches too short in the position everyone seems to land these in but until I get the transmission bolted up its hard to say. Need to get the U joints off the trans and off the torque tube and we'll get it all bolted together and find out.
Alright I was waiting till I made some more progress to update but I think I'm waiting on some parts for a moment so I'll just get caught up to where I am now. I pulled the motor out and took the adapter off to trim the top tab that's unused away to clear the fire wall. Seemed like I needed the motor to go back and down a little and that's something I see in almost every A running one of these motors so I figured I'd go ahead and get it done with. While it was off I pulled the splined coupler and plate off the flywheel so I can bolt the trans on for now and man handled it all together. Threads in the adapter seem a little sloppy but I think I just have to short of bolts in. My thought is soft threads in the first bit of the hole would let you align everything easier so I just went with it. Pushed it back in between the rails and bolted the power unit legs back on Slid a board under eight both legs and placed a jack stand under each leg. I thin used wood shims to get everything just right. I drew a mark on the crank pulley to mark center since the motor isn't symmetrical. Heck the valve covers not even in the middle. I then drew a mark on the cross member to line up with. So with it centered I leveled it side to side and front to back using the carb base pad of the manifold. The trans is blocked and shims in place under the body so I can get to the rear mounts with out ducking around to much. Anyhow after about 12 hours of messing with it I've got it where I want it. I used some common since and every single photo I could find of a 153 in an A or A chassis and it's really like it grew there. Even the upper radiator hose lines up! I threw the rad on to check for clearance and I've got plenty of room for the fab but my lower radiator hose will need some tricks to clear and get it to the other side of the car but nothing that isn't some normal hot rod stuff. At this point I'd been frustrated for a couple days and with it looking like a car for the first time I was over the moon and made my wife come take a picture of me with it. Weather my beard had been shoved up in my face all afternoon and I looked like a grease monkey or not! Then I got to work making templates for the motor mounts. The legs made it nice and easy to get to everything but the holes but a little trial and error and I got them figured out Basically the frame side of the mounts will be the same side to side and follow the inside of the frame rail C with the bottom edge extending out for the rubber biscuit to sit on with some gussets on the sides. So like a 1/4 inch thick sleeve on the inside. I located them using an existing shock mount hole in the frame rail side. Originally I wanted to use both holes but the forward hole is to far forward to make a whole lot of since. So it'll get one for now and later when I see where everything else bolts on I'll either drill some more holes or have them welded on. For now I like them bolted on so if they need moved later in the mock up I can do so with out a huge headache. Pretty tight in there! The motor side of the mount will mount off the two bolts on each side that the legs currently hold onto and will be built simular to the ends of a hurst mount. I choose to mount them off the bottom of the rail instead of the top because I wanted more room for gussets and I kinda figured between hood sides, hood shelves, splash aprons and fenders something is probably going to want some extra room there. The trans mount will be similar to this one I found online but with a mount for the front wishbone. Should have some tacked together motor mounts in the next little while to try on. Hopefully my math was right and my friends helping me don't get driven up the wall by me and I'll have it sitting solid soon I'll keep you all posted. Plan right now is mount the drivetrain and all suspension points. Pile the rest of the body on and then I think I'm going to mess with the front and rear springs some more. The back needs to come down a few inches even with a couple hundred pounds added. And the front should be about 2-3 lower as well. Got some loose plans for that stuff but it will be something for me to spend an afternoon on and not obsess over in every extra minute before work. I could use a breather and I've got a nursery to get painted...of course we all know how that goes lol. I'll be up at 4 am rebuilding spring packs because I can't sleep. I'll probably throw a sheet of plywood on the floor so I can clear some shelves and put the seats inside the car so I can make motor noises as well. Needs some sub rail work but I think @porknbeaner has just enough left in his sedan that when it gets channeled and new ones madeni should be able to patch mine. Oh! And as far as I can tell the stock A torque tube should reach. I've got a yoke seized on the shaft right now but eyeballing it it seems right. If not I'll stretch it, I really like where that motors sitting right now and I'd rather do torque tube work than dick with pushing the motor into the firewall. Anyhow there's your update Getting ready to head to Witchita this weekend to Mcphail's Kustom kulture Christmas party and sell some paintings and see some friends Stop by and support some rad artists and buy some cool hot rod stuff if your within driving distance!
Oh! And it looks like that big fan and my crank pulley should clear the front crossmember no problem but I'm going to trim it a little in the center. Partially to put my mind at ease thinking about rubber mounts squishing but mostly because it would be tight to put a belt on it and after changing countless belts on my 63 corvair years ago roadside where you need to work the belt onto the pulley little by little I'll take every little bit of room I can squeeze out of it.
Love the little Banger Tim! I must have missed where you found it? A guy in town here has a mercruiser powered 27 roadster with A fenders
Movin right along. All I can show for my latest efforts is a broke motorcycle and a shop in total disarray. At least one of us is making Raytown proud.
Haha, I promise to slow way down soon. The last few things require me taking parts of your car apart so even though it'll be cold my progress will be your progress as well Heck this spring it becomes a garage ornimant for who knows how long so that'll give you time to pass me
Mcphail's party was a blast, tons of great artists and cool cars. No good photos inside the show as it was mega crowded but here are some of the $20 prints I had/have for sale Came home and cleaned shop a bit. Buddies coming over Monday to do some welding and get my motor mounts all set up so I'm taking a week "off" to catch up on some house work. But I couldn't resist throwing a rear fender on it I'm digging it. Rear will come down probably 2, maybe two and a half with full weight on the springs based off how far it dropped when I sat on the crossmember. Might trim the tie bolt and dump a bunch of weight in it to see... Anyhow did that and started measuring for the trans crossmember/ wishbone support. Not sure why those are sideways and upside down but I guess you get the jist. Really looking forward to dropping the nose some more and putting all the sheet metal on. Probably do that stand and stare at it for an hour thing lol. Car guy hypnotized haha. Anyhow that's where I am for right now. Need to pull a front spring from a different car to get this nose down and reverse it some time in there but it's on the list after more important things so I'm not scheduling it quite yet
Some process shots. Gave my buddy the cardboard templates that took forever to get just right and he cut them out of 1/4 plate and bent them up for me. Tomorrow evening we will mock them up, tack the multi piece sections together. Then pull them off and weld solid. With so many axis' he said he felt better tacking things together with it mocked up so he got it right the first time. He welds stuff together for a living so I'll take his advice on this one. Anyhow here are some photos for now
Alright progress my buddy Ryan came by with some power tools and my motor mounts and we got to work mocking them up and getting them welded up Here you can see the frame side mount bolted into the the drivers side. Had some miscommunication and he only fabbed one of these so we just used the same one for both sides and he's making the second one tonight. I didn't order any rubber biscuits for the mounts yet but speedways website has a crap ton of weird specs on products now so a quick search and chop chop! We have metal stand ins. We bolted the plate to the motor and after it was trimmed and fit snug we clamped the horizontal section to the metal biscuit and scribed a line on the plate bolted to the motor. Removed and cut it lined up pretty dead on and it got tacked together Did the same song and dance on the passenger side. Was a little quicker as this side has less in the way and my cardboard templates were less way off than the drivers side. Pulled both sides, trimmed the drivers side a little to clear the belt and stick welded them together. Because that's traditional right? Right Anyhow I'll clean them up a touch so I don't cut myself on them or anything and when I get the second frame mount they'll get bolted up and we can move forward to the trans cross member. And that's where we are, probably cutting it close to the New Years dead line but I think we'll make it
Was just revisiting Blackout's sedan build looking at how he did his drip rails and thought I'd link to it here so I can find it later. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/cant-wipe-the-smile-from-my-face.1012994/page-3 He bend up a channel and shaped it and then plug welded it from the inside using the factory slots that are present. Seems easy enough. I'm curious of the water getting in behind the channel and rusting like those chrome fender trim pieces you see on 80's pickups but maybe the tight fit and paint over it would block that out? Just thinking out loud, how have you guys done rails on yours?
I don't know about the drip rails but I do know that I replaced the Speedway biscuits in my truck because they failed before I even got it on the road FYI.
Yikes :S where did you get the ones you ended up using? Last set I got came with the mount I bought. I suppose Cory and RJ's carrys the good ones?
Ditto forget the Speedy ones they are junk. Only use Chassis Eng ones. As for the drip rails....get a tube of paintable seam sealer . It works like a charm Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I had thought about seam sealer but wondered if it was paintable, I've never messed with it previously. Thanks for the idea
Chassis engineering has very nice motor mount biscuits Sent from my SM-N900P using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The chassis engineering ones are what I have used in the past and appear to be what Cory sells. I'll just use the metal mock up spacers until I can get down to Adrian and get some from him.
Alright so I got the added piece we needed and bolted the motor down. I just used my steel spacers instead of ordering some rubber for now. That done I did what anyone would do and stuck a bunch of the body back on. Then I got all my measuring done for the trans cross member and wishbone mount and moved the car over in the shop about 20 inches and got a good deep clean in. .... and then I started putting the rest of the tin on and made what I don't have out of cardboard to give er a look I bumped into the car when I was trying to see if it could go back further and the spring settled into the cross member further - no plate on the bottom side of the U bolts right now because the ones I have are wrong and I haven't permanently borrowed the ones off beaners car yet anyhow! It dropped a couple inches and the car sitting perfect! Front tires have about 3 inches before they hit where I'd assume a fender brace will be and the back is a few inches from the fender lip, the car couldnt be more gutted than it is now so I'm sure it'll come down with the added weight but I'm digging it! There about 4 inches of rake from the back of the running board to the front. Really dig how the shop feels with it looking more and more like an actual car now Should have the trans cross member in a few days or so and then I think I'll build a stand in plywood floor and a cardboard steering wheel so I can sit the front seats in and make motor noises. Haha.
Thanks man it's coming along. Looking forward to being able to step on the running boards and sit down in it. Just need running board... and a floor lol
Baby/Life is getting in the way of me doing a proper update but in short the motor and trans are bolted down. The wishbone ball is not mounted yet, I ran out of time so it will be addressed this summer when I tear it apart in my driveway for some subrails and other welding. I got the running board and front fender irons on and clamped on a borrowed front splash guard under the grill. Cut a piece of wood for a stand in running board and found some rear fender brackets but havnt got them in yet. Oh and stuck some splash aprons on it. Drivers side is pretty thin in places but it works for now. Cut up some wood for a janky temp floor and stuck the seats inside so I could sit down finally! Felt cool! Anyhow list right now is bolt on the back fender irons and fenders and maybe mess with some foam for the seats so I can sit a little easier. That's about it. April and the baby are coming fast and I've got plenty to get done. Pictures! Hmm maybe I'll stick on two hub caps. I mean ifs it's gonna sit there for a while it may as well have caps right? Until later...
Hey isn't the Mrs. the one who's post to be grinning behind that wheel? Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I played out the scenario of trying to get my very pregnant wife into the car in my head and then realized I like sleeping in doors. Lol
Couple random pix Mock up for the trans cross member, the 90's sit on the bottom edge of the frame rails. Made it out of steel and made some rubber cushions for the trans to sit on. The wishbone ball will be located off the bottom of this and I'll get a decent photo when I do that. And this is just an inspiration photo for the intake, I'll be trying to get a good runner length and attempt a fairly common plenum so it should be easier to get the dual carbs in tune. Still not 100% what I'll end up using for carbs.
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