Projects Dodge This - 1939 Dodge Southeast Gasser Build

Any more progress?

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Rob - Happy Veterans Day ! I always make a point to take vacation on Nov 11th - sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't This time it did. So I went to hang out with one of my favorite VETs - Joe Varbles. I got these cool Chevy spring bushings from Speedway on closeout for like $7 each. They have a steel sleeve and a big hunk of aluminum that just screamed body mounts. Needed a lathe to cut these down to the size of the stock bushing. (I tried skipping the bushing all together and the doors would'nt close. ). Joe has a lathe and the weather was perfect so ran over to his shop.

He has a rare 3 jaw chuck it works absolutely perfect






Tim was kind enough to make some steel spacers for the rear engine mounts. The front mounts are going to be major sturdy. The plan is to box the frame some under this plate and it should be strong enough.


Added some gussets to the frame here before the body goes on for the last time.


Mounted the steering box - its reverse corvair.




Hope to take this to the roll cage guy soon. Tudor has a pipe bender but not sure about learning cage building right now

 

MAN THIS PROJECT IS WAY COOL IN PERSON

 

Looking better all the time. Good thinking on the solid body bushings.

 

DOM what about the 3 jaw chuck ?

 

Thanks, Happy Verterans Day back! Next time I roll out to Florida I am going to definetly stop by and check out your set up bud. The 39 is just killer!

 

Tony, if you want to check the accuracy of a 3 jaw chuck, the way t o do it is by chucking a piece of stock and turn down the end protruding from the chuck till its a fresh cut all the way around.
Then turn the piece around, chuck the section you just turned, leaving a small amount of what has been turned already slightly protruding, just far enough out that when you now turn the end that was previously chucked to the same diameter as the first section turned , they can meet. If when the 2nd cut to the same diameter as the first section turned meets they match instead of seeing an eccentric, then its an accurate chuck. But I'll bet you a 6 pack there'll be an eccentric meeting, not concentric.
I really tried to ignore the 3 jaw crack, cause I've been calling Joe to ask him a question or 2 about my other toploader trans!, so far, either he knows it's me calling, and won't answer , I've maybe got an incorrect number, or he don't stay near his phone

 

What would be killer is a bench seat with the cut out for the shifter once you get that far along. And at your pace that won't be long brother Not sure how strict they are on the cage, so that may be out of the question

On a side note I did procure a kitchen pass for SIM this past weekend @ RWYB Thanks to Josh, Brad, Hope, Chuck, Dave, Ed, Amber, Shaun, Carl & Deb. Thanks guys you rock Tony you were missed but I completely understand the need to obtain as much 1st hand knowledge as possible from the SEG, because you sure don't want to have to go back to the drawing board or be stuck running T-N-T like Gene F

 

Well Dirty I can tell you he was busy yesterday. He showed me the on / off switch and put in the aluminum cutting bit and I ran the lathe after that - first time for me . It only got stuck once and spit the piece out of the chuck. Joe is getting his shop ready for that freeze that's coming.

 

This weekend was diet weekend. First some finish welding here and there to bolt the body down for the LAST time. So far so good. Talked to the cage guy and he penciled me in for early December.

Next on the list - go on a diet -

The front floor was a bit rusty in places .... wonder what it weighs


20 LBS ! Gone


So now the back floor is doomed ! The plan is to cut that out after the cage is done. Should be 40 lbs!




The deck lid was running around and trying to hide from the cutting wheel - no luck !

50 lbs with innards



And 25lbs without



Then the brackets had no place to hide - 10 lbs gone

 

55 lbs gone - its really not gone - gone - its in the ditch behind my house. Just sayin.

Man this is fun . These doors are shaking in the hinges. No telling what the wheel has in store for these

 

Giver hell. ..bitch needs to go on a diet!

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Thanks again for the great b.s. session when I was there...love ur shop n the car is looking great!

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Great build, thanks for sharing.
Could you please explain to me too why the top bar on the ladder bar needs to be bent. I can't figure it out.

 

Thanks Tom! Good bench racing session we had. Lots of good things to ponder. Stop in when you are passing through next time - you can sleep in the room with the freeze dried cat

TwinH - the bar is a triangle, so if you make the triangle longer then the mounting points spread apart and the bolts won't fit in the holes. I have seen brackets with a ton of holes guess that is one other way to fix the issue.

 

Looks awesome T - Looks like that dent in the trunk is no more

 

Now your talking! Remember, every 100lbs. is a tenth +/- of ET! I gotta go back to work on the '56 now, your start'n to make me nervous!

 

Hopefully Bean Dip is only on temporary ban. If you don't get banned at least once you're a wuss

 

Haha spoken from experience - now BANNED FOR LIFE - that's manning up.

I can thanks Ric for all the steel cutting - he said something like 'enough mild steel to build a battleship' somewhere on a thread - can't find it now. Every time I walked by the car I kept hearing BATTLESHIP. That started a hog out session on the motor mounts and it just kept sliding down hill

 

Chop it up! But leave something to hold that sheet metal on. You don't want it flying down the track on your first pass. Good talking with you at the SEG race the other weekend.

 

Hey I saw that you broke down coming back from Greer? What happened? Did you need a tow or what?

 

My rear center section decided to break up with it's other half about 108 miles from home. AAA covered my 100 miles of the roll back ride back that night!

 

Post #276. That car looks sooo right dude, you absolutely nailed it. Everything about it is on point. You (and the southeast gassers, i.e. Pale Rider) have restored my faith that there are still MEN out there who build axle cars. Brutal power, three pedals, and no stupid ass modern crap that people somehow think was used back in the 60'...

Yeah, lets put a beam axle in this 67 chevelle 4-door and put a 350/350/(open)9-inch in it, with some retarded name on the door and post a build thread on the HAMB....


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OK, I see. Thanks for your reply.
I was just wondering that with this bent design the uniball and threaded extension will be subjected to other than linear forces. When you dump the clutch the rear axle will try to stretch the upper bar and since there is a bend it will try to straighten it out. I don't know if this is something to worry about but thought to mention it.

Jukka

 

Good point TwinH! Me and Tom were discussing the exact same thing when he was here. The cars that are using round tube for this bar with the bend are probably not as stressed as this square tube in that spot. Tom was suggesting adding 1 more upright to add support to that spot.

 

Just curious are you using the guy I told you about for the cage?

 

I actually talked to the guy off exit 15 on the 400. He has been building cages forever and is 10 minutes from me.

 

Looking good I will have to get by and see you some day

 

Cool post pic when it's done, I need to get two cages myself.

 

A spare cage ? Man you are planning on running hard.