It was now time to mount the axels and take it to the ground. First i have to remove the old bushings from the rear spring. I made myself a tool to remove the bushings from the model-A rearspring. The inner dia was betwin 9/16 and 5/8 so i take a 5/8 bolt to start with. I grind down the threads until it slides in the bushing. And to make sure it wont go in and widen the bushing i weld around where at the threads end. Then grind down the weld to just smaller dia then the bushings outer dia. Then it was time to assembly the frontspring and i needed something to widen it. I could use my pipebender to do that but if i had be any smart i would remove the hairpins first. I allso put a small bit of woodblock to keep that side allready mounted straight when i did the other side. Now i could for the first time take down the frame to the ground and see how it looks. It still missing some mountinbrackets and some other modifications but it now mostley done. I put in the engine and put on the body to see if i was close to my vision.
Maybe it need some more rake but i need the right tires and the car finnished to do the final tweaking on the suspension. This was just a very rough and quick testfit to see if i was close to where i wanted.
Very nice! Hemi in a Model T Hmm, Hmm, Hmm That's like peas &carrots! That takes a lot of time & talent. Nice build, I'll keep watching.thanks
You can put some blocks under the rear tires to simulate the final diameter you want. I did that on my T, and it worked out pretty good. Love your fabrication and the fact that you're not using many off the shelf items. A truly unique build!
I have owned old Dodges with Hemis since they where considered as boatanchors. This one was a left over i didn't had a car for. Restored but not used for 20 year. Thank for the tips on the wheels. I did not really put any time on the rake and rideheight. It was how body, axels and engine related to eachother that was importend to me. I still have to drop my frontend and mount the spindels before i can start to tweak the suspension. It is a bit of timeconsuming to build it like this but this far the result is what i wanted. The economi is a factor to. Its not a budgetbuild but i dont want to throw in unlimited amount of money in it either. And in my vision i try to make the frame like a skilfull youngster could have make it with a free acsess to a junkyard, torch and a stickwelder. Do i hit the target? I guess there is as many opinions about that as allways here on Hamb.
The latest pics was from this spring and show what take me 2 winters to do. I hade a lot of other things to do so the rod was untuched for a couple of mounths. But i hade one thing i must do during the summer. And thats is to take away the rust from the body. Thats was a job i dont looked forward to but must be done. And i hade to do it during the summer becouse it is a messy work i dont want to do in the garage. I first tested with a anglegrinder with a flapdisc with some scotchbrite kind of flaps. But it not worked very well. It just take the surface and not take away as much as i wanted. So i switch to a wirebrush in grinder that i know will work. But it shakes like h¤¤l and you get full of steelwires sticking out from your body. Never do it without a faceshield. A lot better but not good enugh. I have read a lot of using phosfor acid and decided to try that. Its not a miraclestuff that erease the rust and leave a protected surface but it works. But if you cant dip stuff in it over a period of time it still a lot of work. There is a good thread here on Hamb how to use it. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/phosphoric-acid-a-pictoral.263091/ I got a can with 85% concentration so i needed to take it down a bit. Somewhere betwin 10-30% will work good. I used around 25% with good result. Before messing with acid take a time to think about your saftey. You need a faceshield, protecting glooves and water handy. And remember AAA. (Always Add Acid) Otherwise it can splutter around when you mix it. In swedish. SIV. (Syra I vatten.) In that concentration i used it sting a bit if you get it in a sore. But i dont recomend to work with it without at least glooves and faceshield anyway. I used a spoonge to wet the surface and it went all black in the first try. Then i take another spoonge with water and wipe off the surface. The surface went white after that and i take the anglegrinder with the wirebrush to clean it. Then i wet the surface again with acid and keep it wet for about a half our before i start to work. When i read about it it seems to be a combination of acid and wirebrush was the way to work. A handheld one works good but i used my polishingmachine with a wirebrush. The anglegrinder rotate to fast and left the surface dry. The polisher have a adjustible speed and after some tweaking the acid wet the brushed area again when you move along. So my workingorder was this. Wet the aria with acid. First time 30min then about 10min before brushing. Brush it. Then wet it again. Repeat until you think its finnished. I realised that its now way i can use this method on the inside of the body. So i have to take my blaster to do that. A work i really hate but it must be done. To save some blastingmedia i used a carpet so i could collect and reuse some of it. I then used some acid to protect the blasted surface and was wery happy to be finnish with this. This tooke me about 60-80 hours of work and problaby just as much on internet to read about it.
Thanks all. This was a job i hade to do and in the end it was worth the effort. But during the work those rat things seemed to be a alternative. I really liked to watch my rustfree body in bare metal. But its no way i want to redo the work so it got some color. The only reason it got white was becouse i hade a can of that. So i wipe it off with a cloth and thinner. Then one layer of etchprimer. Then one layer with epoxieground. And then some white to keep the moisture away from the sheetmetal. I allso moved things around in the garage to get some space to work with the body.
Hey, your body looks pretty good. I see you have doors & subrails for it too. Good job. Enjoying the build!
Now we really getting close where the build is today. Then the updates going to be smaller and not so often. The body is in good shape for its year but have its issues to deal with. But more on that in comming updates. I think i got all parts for the body except glass and doorhinges now. I really like buildthreads myself and this is a payback to those that allready have one on their build. And here in Sweden we have to go thru a rather complicated process to get scratshbuilt cars streetlegal. So i got a thread on a swedish forum running to so the techinspector can see my build in advanced before the inspection. My plan was to start in the back and fit the trunklid and make those pices that was missing. And the repair the rust where neccesary. One of the issues was that the right rearfender hanged loose and needed to get back where it should be. I used some threaded bars to adjust it. After some tweaking i got it decent.
What a great idea to have another thread for the Tech Inspection. Most impressed by what you have achieved in you garage, very cool. JW
Anders, great job so far. I really like your rear cross member, looks like a good solution for you. I'm subscribed and following along.
With this update we have come to where the build is today. Happy that i hade sort out the rear i was on my way to fix the rear subframe and missing sheetmetal. Then when i pass the body i see that the B-post on passanger side looks to have wrong angle at the top. No big deal i think and started to adjust it until i thingk it looks good. But when i checked with the doors it was not good at all. It was rather lousy fit. After alot of thinking and mesureing i could start over again. I had to drag the A-post over to passanger side to get the front window sqare. And then drag the B-posts over to the driver side to get the doors to fit to the body. I now got the same lenght from top of left post to the bottom at the right post as the opposite measureing. I could then weld in some "x" to keep the doorposts where i want them until i mount the body to the frame. When i was bending the body i heard a "clonc" noise in the back. Well i guess i have to readjust the rear again.
A very small update. I have struggled alot with the body lately and it have been hard to get it right. But when i find out that the right rearquarter sagging things start to shaping up. Tired of measuring i hope i have it right now and started to make the first sheetmetal. I started with the pice thats go under the decklid. As a optimist i started to make it in one pice. Will see if i can do it. Metalshaping is not my speciality.
I have a feeling your going to do just fine in making your panels. I always remind folks that Henry Ford's stuff was far from perfect 80 years ago..... so don't sweat it. I wish you the best, God Bless Glenn
I have spent some more time on my sheetmetal and its shaping upp better then i think would. I started to shrink the upper edge to match the lid. Then some passes in the englishwheel to to get a curve all way down. Then i bend the short sides and shrinked the edges until it follow the bodyline. Then i took a bit of cardboard and traced the line . Cut the pice out and use it to get the other sid same. Now things start to shaping up nice. Need some minor tweaking but not much. Then i have to make up my mind if i want to sink in a licenceplate or not.
Your build is very impressive and Your "T" is will be Sweet when finished. Thanks for sharing........... Jeff
Great Job !! A true Hot Rod builder for sure..That English Wheel sure gets the job done. subscribed...I like it!
Thanks all for your kind responses. Its realy appreciated. This will not be a big update couse i dont have done any big stuff. But i have finnished the rear sheetmetal. The cardboard i cut out to trace the edges show me that it got flat in the middle. My English wheel is to small to do this. So i hade to take the hammer and do it the old fashion way. I put up a pice of wood with a small "u" cutout in the wisegrip. Took the rubberhammer and hammered out the basic form. Then it was a lot of hammering with a dolly to make the surface flat again.
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