Projects 1926 Chevy Update, advice needed.

I appreciate the vote of confidence,...… I think! lol The last thing I would do, in my mind anyway, is to "cut up" this car. I am certain that I will run into obstacles along the way. I have pondered the frame questions. The rear cross-member/motor-mount on the original 171 appears to be a substantial part of the engineering structure. I assume I will need to do something there. Probably also box in the frame where the motor mounts go. I'm not intending on hot rodding the Iron Duke. It is probably around 90 HP which will suit me just fine.

I did see a hotrod this week end, typical style, only the top engine cover remaining. It briefly crossed my mind to slide a bigger powerplant into the 26, but that vanished nearly as quickly. I just sold a fiberglass bodied dune buggy I built from scratch. I did the body work, sprayed the flake, cut and shortened the frame, built the engine. It was a bored and stroked, twin carbed beast! I don't need to go fast anymore, just look good! lol

 

Yes, it's a vote of confidence! What I meant by "cut it up", is you will have to do some cutting and welding on the frame for mounts, sounds as if you know this already, you are already doing your homework first. You have a basic plan, it will change as you go along, but take it a step at a time, ask a bunch of questions and you'll be fine I think.

 

Before buying an aftermarket front axle it would be worth looking at later Chevrolet items. If your '26 Chevy is the same as my '28 Touring, the front spring centre distance is 26 1/2". All the truck axles from the late 30's (at least) up to 1955 have the same measurement there; the 55 onward "second series" trucks have a wider chassis and so, spring base. I am going to use the Huck brakes from a 40's Chevy truck axle on my '28 axle, it looks like they are either a bolt on, or a near bolt on. But the complete pre-55 truck axle would probably bolt straight on, it's either the same or nearly the same overall width at about 57" wheel mounting face to face (difficult to measure the 28 exactly as it still has the wheels mounted on mine) If you wanted a period alternative to the wooden wheels, the steel Chevy disc wheels from the 28 car should be easy to fit; the PCD of the wheel centre is 6 on 5 1/2" the same as the Chevy Truck hubs.

 

Your rear brakes can over power the grip of the tires because of forward weight transfer. When braking a car, about 70% of braking action happens at the front brakes because the weight transfer forward pushes the front tires down on the road surface thus limiting tire slippage. On a front wheel drive car it is very easy to break loose or spin the front tires because of the rearward weight transfer that takes pressure off of the front tires. This is why front brakes are always bigger than rear brakes. Driving a car with no front brakes would be inviting disaster.

 

I took my wire wheels by the tire shop today. Two of the five were relatively straight, one was horrible, and two others were bad. My initial checking found a local place that can straighten them,but at 95 bucks each. I have two other 18 inch ones I didn't check out. I'll need to recheck them all, and make sure it is actually the whole wheel wobbling, not just the outer rim.