Prayers for your battle with the dreaded cancer, I am a 2 time cancer survivor so know a bit about your struggles. Subscribed to follow along on the build of a tall T which I would love to have myself.
It's a new can. Last one lasted me years and years. I'm not going to live much longer with the cancer so it's not going to waste! If it was thin it didn't want to scribe well. Eyes aren't what they used to be. SPark
Praying for you man, I am a cancer survivor myself and can sure relate to a lot of what you are going through. Love your T coupe, one of my favorites! Best to you in everything and fight this with everything you got!
Been feeling a bit rough the last few days, none of the doctors seem too excited about it so I guess I must not be dying. Has kept me from working on projects for the last couple weeks. Work in short bursts. Not enough energy to work very long, still not sleeping and now I don't want to eat. I did get the spindles roughed out. This is my method of converting original 1937-41 Ford "round back: spindles to Wide 5 spindles. Coleman Racing Products still makes a screw on adaptor for an Impala spindle so I bought a couple of them as the basis for all of this. First step was to re-cut the internal threads on the spindle adaptors to screw onto he Ford spindles That part was easy. Next was threading the actual Ford spindles an inch and a half further down the spindle pin. That took a little more work, Ford used good steel. Cut hard all the way. Once those were cut I took the Coleman spindle snouts to a local Amish machine shop (Yoder Machine for those doubting that the Amish will make race car/street rod parts). They turned the ID of the seal area of the Coleman snout to fit over the ID if the inner bearing surface of the Ford spindle then chamfered the cut to clear the radius at the inner bearing shoulder. They did a really nice job and I got them back on the day they promised I would. With the snouts modified, I could finish the work I needed to do. In one small area, the inside of the Coleman snout hit the taper on the Ford spindle pin between the inner and outer bearing. Only needed to remove a small amount of material for about 1/4" of length. Then it all screwed together as planned! Once it all screwed together, I could do the final modification to get the snouts on. Had to trim 1.25" off the end of each Ford spindle so the tip of the spindle snout matched the end of the threaded area on the inside of the adaptor. When it all goes together for the final time, I will MIG weld the end of the spindle pin to the inside of the adaptor (picture of the inside of the spindle snout shows the area to weld, not much room to work but the welder tip fits all the way and I can see past it). After the inside is welded it goes to a friend's shop to be TIG welded where the adaptor hits the Ford spindle. Had to remove one boss from the steering arm on the right spindle since I'm using traditional steering off the LF spindle. '37-48 Ford spindles were all designed for cross steering and have 2 bosses on the right spindle steering arm. I only need one for the tie rod so off it comes! Quick trip thru my bead blasting cabinet and they are ready for mock-up. Got the Wide-5 hubs all cleaned up. All the holes are cleaned or repaired with Heli-coils, found a set of 4 bolt vintage steel front dust covers and a set of Howe steel rear drive plates. All new stuff. Keeping it looking vintage. Ordered the new spring over front suspension kit. 46" wide Super Bell 4" dropped I-beam axle, Curtis style radius rods, reversed eye front spring, batwings, front shock mounts, etc. Now I have everything to set the front end back in the chassis and start working with ride heights. Only pics of the front end parts are how it arrived. The shipping company dropped it on the porch and literally RAN back to his truck. Before I could get to the door he had driven off. The box that was torn open in the pics was full of small nuts, brackets and bolts. Amazed that everything was there. I couldn't believe it. Will keep plugging along. Sometimes it's an hour, sometimes it's 10 minutes. Gotta take what it gives me! SPark
Very nice start, never seen a body that solid. Going to make a sweet build. Prayers your way, keep fighting!
Lots of medical issues, drug reactions, almost hung it all up I couple times. The big hung it up, not just the car. Check out the comments on POST #80 on the following thread. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/my-32-5-window-project.1104121/page-3#post-12763819 Thanks, SPark
Spent a couple hours this morning moving the "T" project from my friend's shop to mine. All that's left at his shop is the 2 bare body shells, everything else in in my shop now! If I'm going to get anything done between bouts of illness I need to have it closer to home where I can work on it whenever I want. Side effects can hit fast. I had keys to his place but don't know how long I will feel good each time so want to stay pretty close to home these days, plus I always left a tool or something I my shop I needed after I got out there and never felt right digging thru his tools even though he kept telling me it was fine. Habits. Few pics of parts we brought home today and the front suspension mocked up. Everything isn't perfect but it's in one place and I can get some more ideas about the rear suspension now! Also a pic of my wooden front tires for mockup. Cheap to do and sets ride height for rake. SPark
Raised the rear of the frame over the quick change. Sitting at 100" wheelbase and ready to start on rear mounts. Slow but steady gains. Time to clean the shop! SPark
The Dirt Trak "T" is now a roller! Everything tacked in place. Ready to bring the body home and get some more work done with it. Back tires will be 14" wide diamond tread on 10" wheels. That works out to a 2.5" backspace and still having 1-3/4" clearance between inside edge of tire and radius rod. Will give me a little tuck of the tire inside the body. New wheel tubs in store. SPark
Prayers for all I come in contact with in any way, shape or form......Wow and DoubleWow on your work so far & love the 'photo-bombing Unibody'
Just keep the faith, cancer can be over come with family and prayer. 2 time survivor myself 4 surgeries, 2 different chemo treatments, Stem cell transplant then 18 radiation teatments, in remission for almost 6 months chekc up in November. Just don't give up fight back! Your coupe is going to be awsome! nice work so far, I saw a set of those HRE hubs on a '39 deluxe Ford coupe here in Delaware I believe they were aluminum but not sure very different look with the wide Five wheels, good luck!
Got the AC tank boiled out last week. Should clear everything just fine. Now to figure out how to mount it! SPark
Did you pick up that tank in Kahoka? Looks like an AC tank and there used to be a fella in Kahoka with a fairly big collection of tractors. Just wondered. I’m from Richland, been through Bloomfield many times on the way to visit my grandparents in Kirksville. Walt Outsiders CC
Tank came from a tractor salvage yard south of Drakesville, IA. Teubel Salvage. Gave a whopping $10 for it. SPark
This is an awesome build! If you have anything left after combining the 2 to make one good one let me know! I want to bring mine back to a coupe from a “depression” truck Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Great progress thru hard times...Proud of ya! Lots of clever machine work on those running gear parts... Tank mounting, consider a pair of nice steel 'cradle' brackets, with springs inside thinwall rubber hoses over the top. (like the old Moon tanks) Love the style...Tall T with race chassis! Prayers from here...
Radiator shell showed up so I got a better idea of where the body will sit. Moves the body back on the wheelbase about 6"+/- from the stock location. Doing some bracing work on the brown body. Once that is braced up it will go on the chassis and the gray one will come off. Sub rails on the brown body are about 75-90% gone. I want to channel the front of the body about 2-1/2" and kook it neutral at the axle centerline. Makes more sense to me to cut that rusted sub rail and toe board area away and channel that body than it does to hack up the really nice sub rail and toe boards in the gray body. About the only parts of the brown sub system to keep will be the 3 big crossmembers and they happen to be missing on the gray body. Once again, what one body has the other is missing. Day 24 on the new drugs and things seem to be almost normal. Some minor side effects but nothing we can't handle. Kind of good to feel almost normal again. SPark
I mean this as a compliment, please take it that way, you are one tough sob, getting more done on a car than most do healthy, most would crawl into the corner and wait it out. I admire you, having stared at death twice myself, I know the mental trip it caused me, getting out into my shop was hard, sometimes I just stared, other times I sat and wrote letters to myself in the privacy and silence, then days later I would read the crap I wrote not believing the frame of mind I was in. I consider myself to be a tough bastard, but sometimes you doubt yourself and want to give in. I didn't, charged on and it got better. Go man go, you do good work, keep it up. LeRoy.
Time to get the other body on the frame! Braced the door openings (making sure the doors fit) and put spreaders in so it will keep it's shape. Cut out all the original rotted sub-rails and what was left of the toe boards. Also cut most of the firewall out. All ready to sit on the frame now. Last picture is how rotted everything was. Saved the 3 main crossmembers for the other (gray) coupe body, they have been cut out of it. SPark
Swapped bodies today. Right now it's channeled about 2" at the firewall and nothing at the rear axle. Want to bring the rear down another inch or so and the firewall area down another 1/2" or so. Couple small bolts holding the hood to the grille shell and cowl. Now to figure out body mounts and start some rust repairs! Good idea of how it will sit and look. SPark
Mans it's hard to keep a strong MAN down. With your health problems and what 3 great looking builds going on at the same time LOL.
Just posted this car for sale. Cancer treatments have been a bit rough and ended up in the hospital again after Christmas. Blood pressure got out of control and they kept piling on the BP meds. It finally spiked one night and put me in AFIB. Then my blood pressure went the other way and bottomed out. Crashed pretty hard and spent about a week in the hospital. When your BP is 60/40 and they can't find a pulse, it's bad. Got that straightened out, BP under control and started the cancer drugs at a lower dose than before. We're back on track.....I think. I haven't been in the garage for 2 months, haven't touched the car. With the AFIB I had no air and so stamina. The cancer drugs got me to where I had no appetite and couldn't drink anything so I dehydrated. It was ugly. Still want to get my '32 driving but that may be beyond my means if this pattern stays in effect. Got my heart reset last week so AFIB is over with, meds are back under control and trying to move forward. Actually made it to the garage today to look at things. My poor shop cat broke her leg (double compound fracture) while I was in such bad shape so we basically rode the recliner together for a couple months. She has her cast off and started going outside again this week. Tonight we both made the trip to the garage. Her limping and me badly out of shape. We're quite the pair. She's back to mousing, I better get back to work on my '32. Thanks for the support on this thread and the sharing of info and ideas. It needs a good home to finish it and have some fun!
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