Projects building a low budget bellybutton 40 ford coupe

Put a "necker knob" on the wheel for now. Late 30s Chryslers with a 6cyl had 16 turns lock-to-lock, with an 8 it was 18 turns

 

If you can't find a longer pitman arm that will fit, you might try one of these steering quickener gearboxes like we run on our oval racing cars.

They come in 2:1:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Small-Body-21-Steering-Quickener,8280.html

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Howe-...ng-Quickener-21-3-4-Inch-36-Spline,24460.html

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Small-Body-21-Steering-Quickener,2030.html

and 1.5:1 ratios:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Howe-...g-Quickener-151-3-4-Inch-36-Spline,24447.html

The steering effort goes up, obviously, but if you're not running big wide tires and tons of caster to start with, I doubt it'd wear on you too much.

Awesome that you've got it back on the road.

 

What a great thread. Thanks for all the great tips, and photos. Drive safe.

 

Congratulations!

 

Nice work!

 

That car is so much more cool than a checkbook street rod.

-KK

 

Good tip on the ratio box Coolhand.
How do they last over time?

Thanks everyone that checks in!
It makes it more fun to do these posts!

Here's another cheapskate project from yesterday.



My kid and I had gone to the local swap meet.
On the way back,
there was this horrible screeching noise.
After thinking it was something major like an engine or tranny grenade,
it only ended up being the starter button engaging.
There were a couple reasons to justify the grenading though,
one was a missing speedometer leaving an open hole in the transmission,
and the other was driving around with no air cleaner.
Yeah yeah yeah I've got to be up front with you guys!



An air cleaner had already been in the works,
and this scare was the motivation I needed.



The pot was trimmed down to match the air filter...

and a rough base riser to keep the bowl vent unblocked.


I had originally drawn out some rectangular holes,
but the holesaw was much quicker.


Ok it does look like a saucepan,
at least it's stainless steel,
and looks not much better than the cheesy Mr Gasket version at the car parts store.

I'd like to run a PCV valve sooner or later,
but it looks like I'll go through the manifold instead of the air cleaner.
The system on the RPU's flathead works fine and is very nondescript.

Anyway thanks again for checking in!

TP

 

TP!!!! I just saw that you got her on the road!!! SWEET!!! Man...it looks great and sounds like it runs great too! Totally dig the bean pot air cleaner!!

 

I would suggest more and larger holes in that custom air cleaner. Looks restrictive.

 

Thanks for checkin in Bugsy!
I wish we had a field to go tear around in like you do!

Hey Built -
If you look at the first pic of the air cleaner in the pot,
that gap between the air cleaner and the pot,
is the same as the aluminum ring.
I thought the same thing without the holes,
as there would only be that sliver of warm air,
so the first idea was to have 2 or 3 big rectangular holes in the back section,
but the front looked too much like a saucepan!
Than I was gonna do a bunch of little holes like a colander,
but that would be too kitchenware,
and probably would have whistled like all hell.

It idles fine and drives around ok,
but I've yet to take it on the freeway.
More holes may still be added!

TP

 

Oh yeah,
I was gonna see if anyone has front passenger side bumper brackets,
please PM me!
Thanks !
TP

 

Be sure to specify Std or Dlx front bumper brackets. They are different lengths.

I think you can run Std brackets on a Dlx; it just moves the bumper closer to the grille. But if you already have one bracket, better make sure you're making a pair.

 

I've never had to replace one that wasn't killed by direct contact (IE something hit the quickener box during the wreck and broke it).

They will survive six racing seasons in a row. That's the most I've ever run a single steering quickener.

 

PM sent

 

Good job zibo. Tell everyone at the donut shop that the air cleaner is vintage NASCAR.


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

It was great reading this. Impressive work! Thanks for taking the time to post the pics and details. Cool to see the family so involved.

 

TP...I just went back through the entire thread again....Man...what a journey with this car. This is too cool! I'd sure love to bomb around the block in it!!!

 

Looks like a promising lead on the brackets.
I'd actually prefer the bumper to be tucked in,
I didn't realize there were different versions.

Thanks everyone for checking in!



If you can tell I'm a little OCD with this car now!
Last year I had ripped out the front bumper trying to pull it.
It was a lame incident that probably looked like one of those reality shows.
Now the passenger brackets are all out of wack,
that's why the hunt for some replacements.
I ended up bolting them on anyway,
and the bumper isn't too badly tilted.



A simple license plate mount was fabbed up out of scrap...
It was made square but the bumper brackets are tweaked!
With better brackets it shouldn't be angled...


The bumper really finishes it off,
as a beater anyway!
Next up is the shifter...

TP

 

Nice!!!!!

 

Ya think?

In that front view, the bumper looks OK but the car is tilted.

 

TP....anything new with the 40? You been driving the piss out of it?

 

Yea, You follow these builds,shout encouragement, give praise, get involved but in the end they get it running and just drive away and never phone home or write.

 

lol

hes been driving it.

well, and driving shit into it.

theres your update haha

 

Hey Guys!
Waited too long for an update and now they're too many pictures!
Here's the lowdown of the past couple months...

Okay one of the first things I did was clean up my best pair of lever shocks.
Such a big difference,
still bouncy but not nearly as ridiculous as without them.

Then a quick PCV valve.
There's no tranny hump and the fumes were getting to me!

So I was able to use the 40 as a work truck,
even without a shifter and a chitload of rattles and shakes.
One of the main concerns was the front suspensions pivot ball.

When I sectioned the axle,
the radius arms lengthened just enough to not be centered into the socket.
There was this clicking noise when braking,
and I realized it was the axle tapping on the front crossmember!
Yikes!

I thought of cutting the 50 year old lengthening scars and finally making it pretty,
but decided cutting the ball off was way easier.

The angle doesn't look right but it ended up centered,
and guess what,
no more clicking noise!
As usual this was finished right before sundown.

After that I drove it for about a month,
still no shifter,
lame as all heck at my laziness.
One day I was in a rush loading up the van...

Yeah I hit my own car,
and worse yet,
one of my kids was in the passenger seat,
saw and heard the whole thing.

I told him,
"ahh that'll buff out!"

Not really how I wanted to spend a Saturday but man how embarassing it is to have a self-dented car!

Again one of my typical hack jobs.
Good enough for a beater!
As usual finished up right before dark...

TP

 

I putted around the 40 for a couple weeks before I couldn't take it any longer.
Reaching down for the little AOD shift lever was getting to me.
There were great plans of a modified stock column shifter,
and then another plan for a trick shifter like in the RPU,
until I found this in my scrap pile.

I don't know what it was,
or where it came from,
but it was the perfect donor.
This saved me so much time,
and kinda matched the general patina of the car.

A simple bracket and a not so simple linkage,
and wow it was like driving a new car!
No more ducking down every time to shift!
And now I could downshift!
The AOD was kinda boring,
and the shifter really livened it up.
I really like the floor shifter placement.
Now the hump scrap that had been kicking around the garage for over a year could finally be trimmed and tacked in.
That took about a week for me to do!
Meanwhile I had lost or imagined losing countless wrenches, screwdrivers, change, etc. down the blackhole.

There were grand plans for a curved tranny hump,
but until then these quickee aluminum plates would have to do.
Yeah it's ghetto but they did the job and it is so much nicer.
They may serve as a base for the hump if I'm lucky.

Meanwhile my priorities shifted to something a bit more crucial,
getting rid of those stock dipsticks,
the last remnant of the engines 1990 heritage.

These red Morse Control balls had been jostling around for many many years waiting for the right application.

but the yellow smiley balls can also be swapped out...

So that about wraps it up.
The bummer here is I still haven't driven it on the freeway.
There is a fast thoroughfare that goes off near the house,
but no long distance highway cruises yet.
I'm just not ready to get stuck anywhere,
and for now the lack of basic gauges is my excuse,
besides chasing the leftover rattles and shakes...
I'll get on it soon enough,
I'm just happy cruising around town.
The funny thing is the roads around here are way rougher than any freeway!

The last of my nightly wrap up shots!
TP

 

Thanks for the update Z. Throw down a hefty bag and a carpet scrap on that floor and call it good.

 

zibo, don't feel to bad about hitting your own car. i to have done this. when i installed an AOD in my 64 econoline, i "parked" it after a test drive in my driveway that has a slight hill to it and did not have the shifter adjusted perfect yet and it rolled down and hit my other van parked acrossed the street. i felt very stupid, and i hit TWO of my cars. BTW, i have a 40 ford standard coupe that i'm just starting to tinker with. 302/AOD going in it. i love checking in on your project. kurt.

 

Ya know I build nice stuff for everyone else,
and am lucky to do cheesy work on our own stuff!
Heck right now I'm lucky to even have these things!

Hey Kurt I did the same thing with the Lincoln TC that this was from!
Fortunately only one car and very minor damage,
but dang what a dumbass feeling!
I really need to put a reverse/park clicker in the shifter somehow,
so it doesn't happen to this too.
One of the reasons I went with the floor version though,
as it doesn't have a tendency to bounce around.
I'll look for your 40 build,
hopefully you can learn from my mistakes!

TP

 

nice work--has the look too

 

Definitely not on your level olscrounger but good enough for an after hours project!
Hopefully it'll make it to NORCAL someday!
TP