I love the underside pic Larry...We'll get some nice paint on that thing for sure. Gary..me and Eli Horst did the chassis on your roadster...although I think the rear chrome shocks I got from Koz.
I had no idea you were running an early Ford behind your SBC. What rear gears do you plan on running? My A has a '57 283 with a '39 Ford, closed driveshaft and banjo rear too.. I just gotta put them all together on the frame after I finish it. iPhone - TJJ app
On this one I'm running 3.78 in the rear. I've been experimenting with several combinations over about the last 8 cars I've used this setup in. I find that obviously, rear tire size is bruatally important. In my blue roadster, http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=395623&highlight=koz I used 3.54 with 30.00" tires (L-78 Coker) and it ran nice at 65 on the interstates but was a mite anemic out of the hole. This car is using 7.50-16 Firestones, 31.20", and should be the best of both worlds. No sidestepping the clutch, but set up right, it's my favorite combination ever and just feels like a real hot rod. My next car will use a Rodsville quickie which I couldn't fit under this one so the best of both worlds. With the deeper gears I'll get a tad less milage but with a 283 it's not bad anyway. The last run to Wildwood, 156 mi., each way, mostly Turnpike and Parkway, in my yellow '27 I pulled a solid 26 mpg with 3.78 and 7.00-16 keeping my foot out of the trips'. My burgandy roadster ran the '39 trans with a Speedway open drive conversion and an 8" Ford posi with L-78 Cokers and 3.25 in the rear and it was way too tall. I'll let you know how this one feels when I get it out this spring. Hopefully I nailed it! You have a build thread on yours?
Great build it is looking great. I really like the frame work and steering set up. The hand shaped pitman arm and drag link are great. I however do have a question, how did you attach your steering shaft extension to the box?
I'll do my best to explain.... The snout on my box has the lower bolt flange removed and is turned to 1.72" slip fit the inside of a 2.50 x .250 wall DOM sleeve that is welded into the superstructure under the dash. I them turned the old Dodge pitman arm slined end to press fit the inside of a piece of 1.75 x 1.25 wall DOM, 2" long and welded the slug in. The outside of this piece needed to be just barely dressed with some emerycloth to slip through the body sleeve. I then fabbed the stub which is 2.25 to the pitman arm section and 3.625 overall to fit into this sleeve. The inside of the stub is threaded to fit the sector shaft of the steering box and essentually acts as the "nut" to hold the splinded sleeve onto the steering box just like the factory. Then I put the assembly together and indexed it so my pitman arm would be centered in the Mopar stroke using Ford kingpin shims. I was going to tap and pin the sleeves together using .375 countersunk allen bolts but elected to just weld the sleeve together. If I ever need to rebuild the box I can just cut it with a cutoff wheel and reweld. If this makes any sense your a better man than me. Some pics.... Let me know if your not confused by now.
Some time spent today finishing up the K member and boxing the front crossmember. Since I lost about half the end of the stock crossmember to clear the spring which uses a SoCal lower reversed leave with the rest stock '32 leaves, I wanted to strenghten the front end. I rearched the '32 leaves with a large hammer and some blocks. With the stock A crossmember reworked and slid back in the frame the front is right with the world. Bear in mind the frame is upside down in these pics..... The boxing of the crossmember only caused me to lose 1/8" in depth. This gives me a super stiff Doane Spencer style front end and is actually too low so I'm using a 1" spring spacer to get me to scrub line. The bump in the boxing plate is the DOM I welded into the crossmember to give me radiator hose clearance. Now that's low! I fabbing some mounts to take the '40 Houdaille rear shocks and a couple of tabs to hold the exhast and brake hoses and then its getting flipped over and the master cylinder and fuel tank brackets. A little cleaning up and it's ready for paint.
Yes sir. It's in my signature. I plan on running Firestone 7.00's in the back with 3.54 gears. I'd been thinking about the 3.78's.. Still up in the air. I'll just make the decision when I get close to rebuilding the Banjo. You're a chassis builder.. Perfect. I could use some input on the rear frame build-up. I just finished one side of the Z but will do the other tomorrow. I mainly need some input on the suspension aspect regarding the wishbone and torque tube. iPhone - TJJ app
TexasSpeed, Checked out your build thread. Very impressive! Give a call with anything I might be able to help you with.
Thanks! It's my first ground-up build so I'm learning by the heaps. Our builds are eerily similar but you work faster. I think yours is better looking too. I have a '48 Merc rear that I need to look at tomorrow and I plan on using late '40's Ford split 'bones for the front too which I need to separate from the axle. I'm keeping the frame horns and using tube shocks on F100 shock mounts though. We'll have to meet up one day and compare the similarities and differences in our sport coupes. iPhone - TJJ app
I'd like to make LSR next year. Might be a good time to meet up! The rear under mine is '48 Merc as well. I cut the torque tube 22 3/4" if that helps, and used the rear bones "as is". When I whacked the tube I put my new clip to hold the bones centered on the tube and used the rear 'bones to hold the cut square until it was welded up. The chop was about 4" from the rear flange so I cleared the bearing inside and I used some angle iron to hold everything straight. I've done a bunch like this with no problems. I like the look of the later front 'bones with the step in them too.
Oh man. That means I need to finish my car within just over a year! That'll be a huge challenge for me. Certainly one I don't mind taking on. We shall see. iPhone - TJJ app
Thank you after seeing the pictures it all made sense. Too bad because it got my wheels turning on how to make my mopar steering a little better looking.
(first photo)Damn, that is one hell of a z'd frame haha jk Thanks, "Skrach" My Vintage Blog: www.VividlyVintage.com My 55 Chrysler Worklog: www.Pop's55.com
Some pics of the frame just about finished up. You can see the frame Z didn't end up needing to be that deep! I Z'd the frame with the long sweep in the rear to clear the '48 Merc 'bones with the car this low. I have it in red bonding primer at the moment. I want to give it a day to shrink and then I'll hit it with a couple coats of high build and the DA and some 320. Under the drivers side you can set the bell cranks that operate the brake and mechanical clutch for the '39 box. The pedals are old Ansen style with a much better operating system. The origionals used 5/16" for the arms and I went to 3/8" which is much stiffer along with 1/4" for the bracketry as opposed to the 3/16" on the Ansens. I was fortunate to borrow HomemadeHardtop57s' origionals as a guide. The rods that actuate the bellcranks are in tension so bending is not an issue. I other words until the last rod, which is stock Mustang, enters the master cylinder, everything pulls instead of pushing. If you have a panic stop you won't bend a rod causing you to lose brakes or clutch. I'm getting my drivetrain together and ready to paint so that I finally have a "roller".
Koz, is the wood frame for the top from macs or did ya make it yourself?? Im driving 8 hours north tomorrow morning to pick up a sports coupe body for my build. Yours is coming out awsome, cant wait to see it finished, thx for posting, cheers!!-YB
The top frame is just 4/4 Maple that is band sawn to shape and screwed and glued with marine epoxy. I made a cardboard mock up to get the roof looks to suit and then made my templates for the roof. You are more than welcome to drop by, (or anybody else for that matter), and make templates if you want to copy it. It's really simple to do. There's some better pics of the one we made for HomemadeHardtops sport coupe, http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=464364&highlight=sport+coupe+for+the+wife This thread might give you a bit more insight. By the way, just noticed your in Cali. Might be a bit of a drive. I'd mail you my templates but I already gave them to another guy.
I'm curious as to where exactly the "sort of" title comes from. Because from here, there is no "sort of" about it. You're knocking this thing out like I'd like to do with mine!
Daddio211, The car started out as a Tudor I bought from 37Gasser on here last January. When I stripped the body apart it became apparent there was going to be more work than it was worth to salvage the back of the body. When I brought it home the car had been at least partially, scavenged for panels and some of the window frames etc. were missing. I saved the cowl, which was decent along with the doors, which were welded to the jambs with a stick welder. The rest of the body was just fabbed from 18ga. As such it's not really a sporty. In fact, it's not really even a Model A, with the '27 inspired tail. Actually, I'm not sure what it is but it's cool. nwbhotrod, What's an Impala hardtop have to do with sport coupes?
Having a good day I took it upon myself to rebuild the '48 Merc rear. I used the factory gears and replaced the bearings, races and seals. At some point in it's life somebody left the rear stand up outside without a can over the driveshaft and pitted the ring and pinion on a few teeth. The gears are so nice I think they deserve a chance to run again but the rest of the internals was pretty much screwed up. It's nice now and is super tight, probably one of the best I've ever had. Go figuire! I then finished up the trans. This unit is pieced together out of the parts bin but I selected my very finest 70 year old parts for the build and is nice and tight as well. After I fitted everything back in the chassis with new gaskets rubbers and seals and primed everything in bonding primer. I'm going to use the brakes this season as they are and over the winter I want to convert them to either Lincolns or put Buick self energizing guts in them with the finned drums. There in pretty good shape so I don't think one season will be a lot to ask. If I can get up at a reasonable hour tomorrow I want to square up the front end and get the front all put together. I waiting on some of my brake stuff to come so i can run my lines and stuff and shoot the whole mess in Eastwood Boulevard Black. While I'm waiting I'll finish up my motor and get it ready to go in.
Everything is back together and I just need to finish up the brakes. Contrary to my earlier statement I don't think I can run them "as is". They need to be rebuilt or replaced now. Decisions, decisions. I added a perch for the hand brake lever beside the drivers side tunnel and welded tabs for a bunch of stuff like grounding lugs and the like. I have to finish up the master cylinder and lines along with making the actuating rods for the clutch and brakes. I'll post pics when I get the trapeze nder the floor done. It's probably the coolist thing on the whole car. Taking tomorrow off to hit the Rolling Bones shop party. See you there.
Well, we ran into a snag and didn't make the 'Bones party so I spent two days tying up loose ends. The rods are all made up for the clutch and brake, super smooth and tight. These are all bronze bushed, reamed to fit the .625 shafting and set with grease fittings and bronze thrust washers. The operate smooth as silk. I also finished up all the loose ends under the body and have it ready for paint tomorrow. As soon as the brake lines and fuel lines go on the chassis is ready for paint as well. If I get it all painted tomorrow I'll web the frame and put the body back on for good. I started on the intake as I need to get that ready to go so I can set up my throttle which is all mechanical as well.
Good day in the shop. I finished up the underside of the body and painted both the underside and chassis in Eastwood Boulevard Black. Doesn't look too bad. Almost none of the frame shows so I don't have to worry about rubbing it out, I'll just wipe it down in the morning and put my body webbing on. I picked up a mint factory rebuilt generator from Vince76 on here and it arrived today. Perfect, Thanks Vincent! It's still in the box. Almost a shame to use it but I'll save the box it came in from GM. This will get put to good use on this. While the paint was setting up I assembled my bottom end and put the cam in with a Cloyes double roller chain. I snagged a new pickup to fit the Melling high volume pump I'm using but it's the wrong size so I couldn't button up the pan. I'll pick another up in my next run. Oh well, back to work.
Looking great! How did the Eastwood stuff lay out? Any difficulties with it? How rough is the orange peel? iPhone - TJJ app
TexasSpeed, I use the Eastwood urethanes for a lot of stuff. I acts very much like UTech 200 series. Lays out nice, is almost too glossy but blocks out nicely for the first few days. After that it's real hard! I'm shooting the rest of the car in the same stuff so if you keep watching you can see what it looks like blocked and rubbed out. Can't beat the price!
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