Projects Father/Son 29 RPU - first build

Well it's been awhile since my last update so it's about time.

Cleaned up and painted a few items, wishbone, front axle, spindles and rear bones.









Then a few weeks ago after much research I added a Hobart Handler 140 mig and auto darkening mask to the tool box.



So today on the hottest most humid day I decided it was time to weld.

The rear cross member was cracked. I am a beginner welder but an excellent grinder





After some grinding and dremelling out the cracks. I also drilled the end of the cracks but don't have a pic.





Prepped the underside as well





Time to weld, I know it's not the best looking bead but I got better the more I did





Grind, weld, repeat and it looks pretty good.



Took a break for lunch and did get much else done. Too damn hot.

Next up need to straighten or replace front frame horns and weld in the front cross member.


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Got some more work done this weekend. Tackled the center cross member.

Here's what we started with.


and after a few hours worth of work

I started a new thread pertaining just to the frame rehab. You can find all the steps over here http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/model-a-frame-rehab.941917/

I will continue to post before and after pics on this thread and continue with the progress of the entire build.

 

Frame horns straightened, motor mounted to help place and square up replacement cross member. Got it clamped in nice and tight. Need to add a couple tack welds to hold everything in place. Then motor comes back out for final welding.


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Nice job guys! Keep up the good work! See you on the beach in 2015!

 

Well the Frame is 95% completed!!!!! I say 95% because I found another area that need some addressing while painting. So I will go back replace a small area and touch up.

Check out my Frame Rehab thread for all the steps it took to get to this point.

So for now here is the frame in all it's glory!

 

While waiting for paint to dry I figured I would work on one of the many small jobs that are part of this build.

For the front suspension we will be running an aftermarket reverse eye spring. This one came with rubber bushings and the stock style shackles won't work with them.

So after popping out the rubber bushings I test fit the stock metal bushings and the result was too loose.



So armed with my 1950's Craftsman/Atlas 618 lathe and some scrap round stock I got to work. First by centering the piece.


Then I found a drill bit just undersized so I could ream out to final size and started making metal chips.



Once all the way thru I parted it to length and ended up with this.



Using a bushing driver I installed into the spring eye and it's a tight fit. 1 down 1 to go.

 

Old equipment to the rescue! Cool man. Looks good.

 

Man what a weekend, beautiful weather and made some good progress not as much as I wanted but that's how it always seems to go.

The plan for the front suspension is to drop the drop the front end and keep the mechanical brakes. SO I went about collecting the parts that I needed. Model A wishbone, 34 front axle, 34 perch pins and reverse eye front spring and bolt it all together, sounded easy enough. Well at this point I think I have had to repair, refurbish, modify and even make a few parts to get everything together.

First the Model A Wishbone, after cleaning it up and painting last summer I discovered it was bent. No biggie, put it in the press and gave it a few pumps and good as new.





Now the ball end was just plain wore out.



So short of finding a new wishbone and since I spent the time straightening I would give it a go trying to weld it up. Weld, Grind repeat and though not perfect, and I plan on running the rubber ball on it, I am pleased with my work, 1st time trying this and looks way better than it was

 

Now that the wishbone was complete move on the the 34 axle, though in good shape it had some home made shock mounts welded on and since I am running friction shocks or original style shocks I didn't need them.



After a little grinding of the weld beads and a few whacks with the BFH old brackets were off


Little grinding and wire wheeling all cleaned up.


Then I put my painter to work priming

 

Now on to the spring and a little internet magic of stepping back in time as I admit the following happened a month or so ago.

Being this was an aftermarket spring the sping eyes were larger than stock and came with rubber bushings. Wanting to run the stock style shackles I ditched the bushings and tried my hand at making my own. I then discovered the rear spring bushings had the correct OD but the length was too long. No worries just parted them to lenght on the lathe.



Two bushings ready to install


After installing and running a reamer thru the bushings to clean up any burs from cutting the stock shackles fit nice



While I was on a roll I discovered that the Reproduction 34 perch pins have seem to use a different size busing as well. Again armed with rear spring bushings I had to turn them down a thou or two, lost my notes or I would be more specific, test fit the perch pin and it's just about right, needs a little persuasion with a bushing driver.



Parted to length and installed.

 

Now test fiting the wishbone to the axle I discovered the 34 axle is about 1/4" shorter in height than the A axle.



A little search on the HAMB and I find I can buy some spacers from McMaster but I have a lathe and a pile of round stock. I'm gonna make my own, only took 3 to make 3 good ones

 

On to the spindles to install new bushings and grease fittings.

First thing first is to knock out the old bushings, hey where's my bushing driver? Cant find it so again armed with my trusty lathe and a piece of round stock I made my own.







While I was whittling metal into a useful tool, I figured now would be a good time as any to put my helper to work with the engine brush kit and clean out all the bores and grease passages on the spindle in prep for new bushings and grease fittings.



Armed with my bushing driver , we installed new bushings and new grease fittings



Being a budding 12 year old car designer I figured it's time to learn how to ream a king pin bushing Well when I opened up my king pin reamer I found my king pin bushing driver, oh well it was more fun to make my own.



The old man was wearing him out and he looks like he is about to fall asleep so I let him call it a day to retire to the cool basement and XBox to play a game of Halo

 

Laying out the parts to get assembled.



One area I forgot to document was all the work that had to go into the spring.

The center bolt that came with the spring had a round head and as we all know the A cross member has a square hole to locate the spring. Unfortunately it was as easy as to just use a stock replacement bolt. The replacement bolt was bigger in diameter. So after reading up on how to drill spring steel, use slow speed, plenty of pressure and constant flood of oil I only burnt up 1 bit.

Once the center bolt was in trimmed to length and peened over. The spring clamp brackets were stock replacements and too long, cut them down and re drilled them. everything bolted up nice and painted the spring.

I can see the end of the tunnel at this point and have visions of the front end once again supporting the chassis.
With a little help from my wife, my big ass Dewalt clamp set up to push and a few choice words we persuaded the wishbone, axle, spacers and perch pins to fall into place.



Made a few nicks and gouges in the paint so off to the back yard paint booth for a little touch up work and it's starting to look like something.

Now for a little game, whats wrong with this picture



While the paint is drying I figure its time to hang the spring from the cross member. It's at this point I realize I am missing the bottom plate that holds the spring in. A little rummaging around I find it, and after cleaning and painting I get to work.



Now at this point I would like to say and now the completed goal of the weekend. At this point I discover the spring pack is too short by 1 leaf and can not be tightened anymore. Well at this point I am thinking I love working this project but I hate working on this project. I am just too impatient but yet find the whole process teaches me patience.

So after a lap or two around the house with a frosty cold one I do what anyone of us in this predicament would do. That's right post a want ad on the HAMB for a single spring leaf and withing less than 24 hours HAMB to the rescue.

Hope to get it hung this coming weekend and start prepping the banjo rear for a full rebuild.

 

Finally got the front axle assembly back in. 34 front axle, 34 perch pins, reverse eye spring and model A wishbone.

Being that the eyes on the spring are reversed the spring spreader wont work. So what to do.

I bolted up one shackle then put a 2x4 under the spring eye on the other side. Then I used two ratcheting tie straps and a racheting clamp and kept tightening until the shackle slid in.

Tomorrow we start tear down of the banjo rear.

 

Started the Banjo rebuild, dedicated a thread to it

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/model-a-banjo-rebuild-first-one.981464/

I have it all tore down and I am in the inspect and clean phase.

 

Quick update.

After the rear sitting apart during the winter I finished it up a few weeks ago. Well almost done, the hard parts are finished anyway.



Over the July 4th weekend I needed to clean the garage/workshop which desperately needed it. My son and I got after the rear spring in preparation of mounting the rear.

We took a 10 leaf A spring, removed 3 leaves and reversed the main leaf. Still need to clean it up a bit, trim the second spring and chamfer the edges.

I made a tech doc here
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...-a-model-a-rear-spring.1025063/#post-11597682




I have also changed the title of the thread to Father/Son 29 RPU build to better reflect the direction we are headed. Saving our pennies and nickels for Hershey this year in hopes of scoring the body.

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Made some good progress this weekend, got the rear hung back in the chassis.

Rear bones bolted on, rear painted, helper cleaning out the bushing holes



Hard at work bolting in the rebuilt "Hot Rodded" rear spring


Working smarter not harder using a furniture dolly to get the rear in place and drop frame down instead of lift rear up.



Now we work harder and smarter since reversing the eyes on the main leaf negates using the spring spreader. Using a couple blocks of wood, grease, ratchet strap, clamp and some stern language to persuade the rear into position.


Viola!


After getting the rear mounted and spring spread we discovered the spring was loose in the cross member, we removed a couple leaves. It's an easy fix just need to get the spring pads designed for a 7 leaf spring instead of the 10 leaf that I have.

 

Love the thread! It's great to see your son involved. He's learning more than just how to put a car together. Keep us posted. Tim

 

What Tim said, you are lucky to have a son who's interested in hot rods, lucky man!!

 

Thanks guys, he's into imports but I am slowly converting him

 

Started working on fitting Wide Five brakes this weekend. I will be running Wide Five mechanical brakes to be different.

I originally had planned on using the A Spindles but I could not get them to fit the 35 drums so I decided to keep the 35 spindles knowing I will need to modify the steering arms.

I started with the right side spindle. Since the 35 Ford used a cross steer the steering arm has a second mounting point that will not be used I cut it off.

Before


After taking a cut off wheel to it


A little grinding and work with the belt sander


Then it was time to mock it up on the axle. After mixing and matching parts I ended up with Model A King Pins and Model A brake actuators which are not pictured. For the mock up I used the bushing that were already in the spindles, I'll have to order a new set.

 

I Have wide 5 stuff I will take pictures tomorrow. Send me a conversation on the Hamb

 

Made some progress, she is almost a rolling chassis!
Put some feelers out a month ago for wide five stuff and had tons of responses found what I needed locally.

Had to order some odds n ends and finally had some time this weekend to get to work.

Bolting up the 36 Wide Five brakes to the 36 spindles mounted on a 34 axle.


These came off a running car and where good to go.

Then I slid on the drum


Bolted on the other side and viola front end is done, well almost still need a tie rod and bolt on steering arm


Now onto the backs, again using a set of restored brake assemblies I started test fitting.

Loaded backing plates bolted up with new mounting hardware., just had to sand of the paint from the inner circumference to fit onto the Model A rear.


Now on to test fitting the Model A rear radius rod, and it hits the brake lever and shaft.



Hmm what to do, get grinding that's what!


Grind, Test fir, Grind Test Fit, and Repeat., Yes this the the left side, right side pics didn't come out



Now during all this test fitting I discovered a couple of my new reproduction mounting bolts were not fitting. The shoulders on the non fitting bolts measure .497 were as the ones that fit were .495 so I took .002 off the non fittings bolts and made them fit. They just don't make them like they used to. Next time I'll just spend the time repairing the threads on the originals.




Taking off .002


Fits like it should have in the first place.

Got both sides bolted up, drums cleaned up and cleaned up some old bearing to test fit the drums.



Next bolted on some roller using lug nuts from my 90 mustang 5.0 from back in the day, gotta love that the lug nuts didn't change! Ran out of daylight and pushed it in for the day. Need to get two more wheels for the rear!



Made a list of parts needed next, new wheel bearings front and rear, seals, grease fittings, need to replace a wheel stud and get 20 new lug nuts, tie rod and ends and a bolt on steering arm.

Might have to invest in a space heater for the garage to keep the momentum going thru the winter!

 

Made a trip up to Saugerties NYthis morning and picked up 6 wide five wheels, she's a roller again!






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Scrounged up a 36? Style tie rod off the 'bay and want to run above the wishbone. After some contemplation time with a cold beverage and some discovery on the HAMB I will need to ream the steering arms and most likely have to heat and bend them up a little.


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Great thread!!
My 9 year old and I are about to embark on a similar adventure

 

Finally broke down and bought a taper reamer to ream steering arms to move tie rod above wishbone in hopes of not having to bend steering arms

Armed with my trusty cordless drill and some tapping fluid I got to work. Oh and I measured length of taper on the tie rod end and marked the reamer with some tape as not to go too deep. Cut some, clear chips, test fit and cut some more








Assembled tie rod and checked clearance



Now lock to lock, uh oh



After some head scratching I remembered I had to make up some spacers to take up the space between the 36 axle and wishbone and they where mounted on the top of the axle.



Figured if I moved them from top of the axle to the bottom of the axle it just may work so my helper and I tore into the front end and took it all apart.



Here's the offending spacer on the floor



Spacer now moved below the axle



My main man, helper, gopher, and muscle


As we we where getting ready to bolt the axle back in the crank handle bracket basically just fell apart. Cheap repo garbage.


Luckily I had acquired an original along the way, just had to dig thru all my bins of parts before I found it.

Put my helper to work



Once the axle was back in and tie rod installed we tested lock to lock and bingo room to spare !









Now I just need to shorten the tie rod a bit and figure out how to mount hoop steering arm



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Now I just need to shorten the tie rod a bit and figure out how to mount hoop steering arm




Hoop replaces two upper bolts that bolt the backing plate to the spindle.

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Probably have some mechanical brake interference.

 

Guess I should have elaborated a bit. On the 36 spindle the spacing and size for the holes that the steering arm would bolt to are closer together and smaller in diameter than say on a 37-48. Found a thread where someone welded some 1/4" square bar stock to the edges, welded up the holes and redrilled. Picked up some 1/4" bar stock so thinking of this route but still investigating others.

As for interference I think I am good, but will double check