Projects buying an ole can a beans:my 29 ford

Had a factory relieved block long ago, IIRC, it was a 59L. But I do remember for sure, it was bored to 3.375", which is .187" over.

 

@cactus1 any idea if aftermarket intakes will fit the raised deck motor ?

 

Shouldn’t be any issues as far as I know ?

 

I figured with the heads and intake not bolting to each other it should be ok bitni figured it was worth asking

 

@Tim did a photo chop of a slant chop and a aluminium hood that Ive been wanting to do. Im leaning a lil towards a hard chop.

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Also bumped those back tires up to roughly 750 height.

I dig the slant chop, I think it helps get rid of the weird stretched out proportions that happen in these cars with a heavy chop and no fenders. It also seems to make the car look a little softer/rounder.

Kinda feels closer to a 32’ sedan roof line I think

 

-editing in captions-

Well, as Austin races his baby life got in the way. Job changes, traveling for work, winter, and a baby on the way can do that.

I knew he needed to get this thing more or less yard driving by the time baby came or it as going to be a real bear to find the time and energy for a while.

I had a stroke of luck and had a little time in my schedule and some good parts come my way and decided that the best baby shower gift I could give the guy was a better trans crossmember and pedal set up.

Neither of us have been stoked on the 1x1 and 46 brakes that’s in there right now.

Anyhow This is what I came up with

It’s a 1939 two ton truck cross member.

At first we thought it was closer to the 1/2 thick frame rails but turns out it’s the same 1/4’thick as the A frame rails!

For my first quick look I threw in the cardboard template for the tube cross member we made for my sedan. I wasn’t to concerned about it being really beefy as I kept the stock center crossmember but Austin’s doesn’t have it in his so this beefy one should do great at stiffining things up

I mocked it up a few times in my car, then snuck over to his garage while he was out of town and mocked up the pedals and measured some more.

I’m using the stock big truck pedals and master. In the photo you can see the car masters are short and wide where the truck is tall and skinny. Almost looks like the later 54 ish ford masters.

They take a 3 bolt pattern like the car stuff but it’s just slightly larger. Either way you can get them new from mac’s and suspect the guts are the same as the cars should you need to rebuild

With how I planned to mount the trans to tabs I had some lee way about mounting the crossmember further forward or back in the frame. I opted to mount i in the position that let the truck pedals clear and land them passing threw the floor near stock at the intersection of the lower firewall and the forward toe board.

All in all I took 1.5 inches out of the width. I just used a porta band and removed a vertical section. I think nipped some height off before welding it together so the ends would fit inside the A frame rail.

We welded a new tab on the bottom so now it remains like stock and has a flange to bolt or rivit the member to all three sides of the frame rail C shape.

I think took the narrow sections I removed and cut them down into shelves and drilled holes for the trans to bolt to.

Originally I wanted to make it snug so you could sit the nut under and start the bolt and the side of the tab would keep it captive but I ended up with the hole to close to the edge so I tapped the hole itself.

- we are using some 3/4 inch thick industrial conveyer belting cut with a hole saw for trans pad rubber which was also accounted for.

Welded it all up, notched the big hole in the middle to clear the ears on the trans mount. Made some notches in the top to clear the torque tube clam shell bolts and it’s pretty much good to go.

Notes: the top edge does rise up like a 32 member does but looks like it just makes it even with the top of the frame rail. No big deal

Also the truck linkage landed exactly in line with the trans arm and should need a short threaded bar with some clevises to be good to go.

It also has several holes I think can be used as anchor points for some stay rods off the bell housing.

Lastly it has a wishbone ball mount under neath. Should he ever want to go to an I split wishbone this should allow a 46 style bone to clear and mount. It might be a little further back than it needs to be but lengthing it a little bit shouldn’t be an issue if he goes down that road later.

 

The last mock up I did and pushing some grease threw the pedals to get it loosened up

I’ll take some photos today if it all welded together and mocked up so you can get a better idea of what’s going on.

 

Few random shots of my high tech grinding stand and whatnot haha. If @zibo can build everything with a grinder and half a light bulb I should be ok

 

Ok took some quick photos of some of the stuff I already talked about. Figure for as much work as it was to do this it would be a great option for guys that have been priced out of the f truck set ups.

Still needs a file taken to it and cleaned up but for now it matches my currently filthy work bench

 

@cactus1 thought you’d dig this idea

 

Good idea and a nice gift as well! Looks beefy AF! How low does it hang below the car?

 

I’ll measure tonight when I get a chance but it’s pretty close to how far my tube one does by the time I added the wishbone ball socket in the right place.

Looks like a bigger drop that it is, things / hair under 30 inches wide at the widest post so it makes it look really tall. I’d guess 3 1/2 inches below the bottom of the frame.

 

Also we figured some day that 21’stud could be replaced with a Y block and with this we’d have no reason to beef anything up.

Also he’s got his trans mounted quote s bit higher than I do so it’s possible if someone wee to go this route that you wouldnt have to make the small notches at the top as the trans would sit lower.

I did consider filling the hole and using a 32 style rear mount but using what we have has kinda been the name of the game with this one.

 

It’s about 4 inches dead center from under the trans

 

Not that far off dimension wise from the cross peice of a 32 K member. Here’s a photo of one in an A frame with some rear legs added

 

Great shower gift @Tim!

 

I thought so lol. Gonna drop it off tonight.

 

Well we laid it in the car the other day and seems it should fit just great!

Planing on rounding up a heater for his igloo garage and maybe picking up @porknbeaner since he is, contrary to the news, still on this side of the dirt and getting after it Sunday morning.

Figure get up early and wail on it and we should have it in place before church starts

Think it’ll take more time getting the old stuff out and wiggling around the tight garage than getting the new one in. We’ll keep you all posted

 

Yep I am looking forward to it as well. And is there a news that the pork and bean is not with us anymore? LOL

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Cuz I can confirm that I just talked to him yesterday

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Lol once a month some one starts a thread asking if he’s dead.

 

I heard he was in rehab. No wait the asylum, yea that's it. Locked in with the crazy people. But he's not crazy, well maybe he is. The Doc is having trouble diagnosing. Guess you got to be at least half as smart as the patient.

Anyway not to hijack the thread but not willing to start another thread, he has been tinkering about an hour a week. Nothing to write home about. I do know that He is about ready to weld some spring hangers on an old rear end but that is probably fodder for another day. Ahhhhhhhh so much to do and so little time. Anyone got an aging relative they need warehoused?

Edit: sorry to get side racked, this setup is tits. I understand it is getting screwed in this weekend. Can't wait to see it.

 

Got after it this morning, some of the old 1x1 needed some good ol’ Beaner persuasion to come out but it seems like a clear shot to put the new crossmemeber in now.

 

Only stumbling block I can see now is a maybe. The person who had the nail head in it cut the old stock crossmember out but the ends are still rivited into the rails. I didn’t realize that and thought we could put the crossmember in the rails further back and then slide it forward to position. With those in place there’s not so much room to do that.

Anyhow here are my photos

Sorry those are a little out of order. I had to head home so Beaner went for tools and taller jack stands. I just got word that they had pulled the rear and torque tube so progress is being made. Hopefully that rear swings right back into place. I know he fought with in the first time.

 

Got it using my patented method

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Shes in!!!!!!!! First pic is how I get those pesky springs back in.

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We had to trim those out as well. It all went pretty smooth. And man does it look alot cooler and work alot better then my place holder.

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Can’t wait to see the pedals and clutch in. Big steps!

 

Glad you got the rivets out. Those folks at the Ford factory really knew how to install rivets. I've ground the heads and punched out quite a few of them. Seems like every one is harder to get out than the previous one.