Projects "Freakin' A" 60s hot rod drag coupe

love every bit of this build..that crossmember is art!!

 

lookin good ryan

 

'58 cars with air ride used heads that I would bet were the same casting.

Look forward to seeing the "Freakin' A" at the Meltdown Drags.

 

Can't wait to see it at the "GROVE"

 

That is very possible, but I would suppose that anything is better than nothing.

 

Looks good so far!!

 

Hey man!... if I make it all the way up there for Meltdown......and I will mind you .....I call shotgun for a tour of the pits in that glorious machine of yours if she's breathing fire. DEALZ???!!

 

likein this build,bitchin car

 

That's a deal. Although, I can pretty much guarantee everybody, this thing will not be done by the MD. Just parked with the Fugitives in the pits.

 

I found some time to make the engine mounts. I wanted them to be plenty strong. I reused the frame perches from the engine mounts that were on the car. I just cut them down a little and relocated them. I also used the rubber isolators that were with the car. The catalogue engine mounts, however, were not going to cut it.

I came up with this design. It's basically a triangulated I-beam. The piece of tubing used for the end is .188 wall seamless.

I cut all the plates out and bent them according to my template. I wanted the top of the isolator about flush with the top of the frame rail and as tight to the rail as possible.







I liked the idea of making these look almost like they were cast. I burned in some solid welds and chased them out with a die grinder burr.

Here is a finished mount next the one we canned.


Right mount


Left mount

 

Wow! Those mounts are sweet. They do look cast.

 

Did you shot peen them afterwards? THey look like they have casting marks!!! Really nice engine emounts.

 

^x2!! They do look cast. Amazing

 

Thanks Jeff. I just hit them with the sand blaster in the driveway to uniform the finish and take the edge off the chatter marks from the burr. I used black blast, not silica sand. We've gotten into the habit of using the black blast because it's really aggressive... and we like to see quick results..

I think the black blast is actually slag crystals.

 

damn dude those mounts are art

 

Center crossmember, side engine mounts...Symphony in symmetry. Excellence abounds.

 

Those mounts are the cats ass!!.....good job, they look like they were casted by some old speed company from the 60's. It is almost a shame you posted them here for all of us to see, As you would have had alot of us wondering where they came from....LOL

 

X 2 on the Black blast,great stuff.You are a Craftsman,does a mans heart well to see true craftmanship.Might sound corny but America could learn from this build,Craftmanship,skill,pride in there work,working hard with a smile,ect.Good luck and health to you and family,Love this build..............YG

 

I'll second that! It's making me almost regret using a front-mount only SBC.

.. Just almost.

 

your mounts are crazy nice.

 

Wow, thank you YG. It certainly adds to my motivation and enthusiasm to see that my posts on here are appreciated. I hope my threads will help and inspire builders much like many of the talented people and projects on the HAMB have helped and inspired me.

 

I was thinking the same thing, I wouldn't mind having that to cast a plug from it... Looks Great!!

 

love the dash, love the rear fenders! does the wire bead continue thru the new fender bottoms? how did you deal with that?

 

Thanks Jeff

I don't have any pictures of it... but I blended the wire bead by continuing it with a weld bead that mimics the wire. Then I blended it so the bead tapers to nothing. With the gauge metal I used for the new lip, and with the shape of the flair... it would serve little structural purpose. It would probably just collect debris.

 

I dig those motor mounts, Great Work.

 

I run a full fendered T roadster drag car. I punched holes in the back side of the front fenders to let the air out. I can state for a fact that at 145 MPH the car is stable even though I can see the fenders start to "bow up" at about 1000 ft. I think the louvers will help.

 

I've had too many things going on lately and haven't had much time to spend on the coupe. However, I've been obsessing over the headlight placement on this car and I made a little time to fit them up. I like the fenders smoothed where the original headlight bar mounted and I'm trying to avoid punching holes back in them for any mounting.

I want the car to have street trim and drag trim. For drag racing, I will remove the headlights entirely, change the rear gear, the blower pulleys, add the 5th point to the roll bar, and attach the filled grill insert.

With this headlight mount, I can remove 4 bolts and unplug the lights from the harness and it will look like it was never built with headlights. However, I can't decide if I like the looks of it and the car will likely be in street trim most of the time. This is something I have never seen on a fendered car. When I glance at it... it looks cool, but when I study it... something about it really bothers me. Seems the higher up I put the lights, the better it looks, but I'm starting to run out of ways to raise them any higher with this design. I could see this being perfect for a fenderless car, or even a fendered roadster with a chopped windshield. But I'm thinking part of what bothers me, is the low lights clash a little with the unchopped top. It's very possible I've just stared at this too much.

I haven't made any permanent mounts into the rails yet, so I won't have anything to undo if I decide I don't like this.

I usually have a pretty good idea of how I want things to look and how to get there... but this is something I wouldn't mind getting some opinions on.

 

My dad fitted the trunk lid up with these 37 Chevy hinges. I think they look rad and work well. There are rubber strips cut to fit between the hinges and the lid. He sanded rubber strips to compensate for the bit of difference the contour of the hinge has to the lid.

 

Killer Job !