Projects Father/Son 29 RPU - first build

great thread!!

 

Interesting. I think the stock A spindles are the same as '39 and up. I used the hoop on my Lakester but had juice brakes. See you at TROG.

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Just found your thread. Great job involving your son. I failed to plant that seed early enough with my three boys.

 

Had a great Father's Day, started with a BIG breakfast, watched some hot rod shows, found The Race of Gentlemen Pismo Beach and and Midwest Fabrication on Amazon. Then braved the swamp like humidity in NJ yesterday and spent quality Father/Son time in the garage.

First up was to tap the tie rod deeper so the tie rod ends would turn all the way in to correct the massive toe out. We did both RH and LH sides using the appropriate taps, 11/16-18 RH and LH



Tie rod now turns in all the way


Then it was time to figure out how to mount the hoop steering arm onto the 36 spindle. We stripped the brakes off and it was determined to leave the spindle mounted and drill out the upper two mounting holes to 1/2"



Had to drill it out in sized steps and used plenty of cutting fluid and the real drill as the cordless was not up to the task. My son held the machinist square to make sure I drilled a straight hole and here is the end result.



There is not much "meat" left on the corner but I think with everything bolted up we will be ok. If you have a different opinion I would like to hear what you think/know.

The hoop steering arm was a little to wide so time to give it a squish. Mounted it in the BIG vise and gave the handle a few cranks.


On the second try it fit like a glove, happy dance and much celebration not shown


I then drilled out the grease shield and put my son to work cleaning up the holes with a file to get the pieces to fit nicely.




Got everything bolted back up and everything clears and the chassis now goes straight with both tires pointing straight ahead! It was hot n humid and we were both overheated, cleaned up and went to the movies to see The Mummy to cool down.




Time to order some parts and finish up the rolling chassis then onto the engine!

 

Nice work. Good to see your son helping!

 

Ok it was one of those 2 step backwards and not even 1 step forward weekends.

Ordered a bunch of parts discovered u need to change the rear mechanical brake arms from the 36 style which angle in to the model A style. Tried for about an hour to remove some model A arms I have, gonna order some new ones.

So today I figure I would rebuild the brake cross shaft.

Got it disassembled and clear up. Had to drill out the pins.



I got the repair kit with steel sleeves and new oversized busihings. One sleeve was longer than the other. Turns out one side of the cross shaft is longer too.

Got everything text fit and sleeves loctite'd one



Pin holes in the arms were egged out, welded them up and re drilled, forgot end result pics but they now fit with no slop


Got it all back together and just finished peeling over the last pin when I noticed I put one side on upside down. Rrrrrrtrrr


Once temper tantrum subsided I called it a day, time to clean up and cool down with a cold one and a dip in the inlaws pool




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I learn everything the hard way too.

 

It used to be I only made mistakes when I was just starting a task and was eager to dive in, and also toward the end of the task when I was tired and should have stopped a half-hour earlier. Then I began to realize there wasn't a sweet spot between the two, and that I was just constantly making mistakes. Oh, well.

 

Got a bunch more parts delivered during the week and it was hot this weekend and I was a little lazy on taking pics but progress was made.

Saturday was one of those learning experiences.
Started by fixing my previous mistake of putting the arm on upside down on the brake cross shaft. Once that was completed I taped it off and handed it to my "painter/helper/gopher" told him to take it easy and paint with light coats and don't soak it in paint

While he was painting I go to tackling swapping that rear brake arms over to Model A style. Not sure if I explained why previously so I'll do it here. The 36 style brakes had the brake equalizer in the center of the chassis so the rear brake levers are angled in.


Had to remove the rear "Bone" to drill out the pin holding on the brake lever. After much drilling and sweating in the hot sun I was finally able to remove the stock arm.


Now on to fitting the replacement Model A style arm. Just like everything else in this project it needed some tweaking. The arm slide on but the holes for the pin did not line up. After some filing on the bottom of the arm the holes aligned, pinned and peened.


At this point I we took a lunch break and went inside to cool down and rehydrate. Once cooled and fueled we headed back out and this is where the lack of pictures, and learning experience came in. I headed over to the other side removed the other bone and said wait a minute let me check and make sure the Model A brake lever clears the rear bones. Well it didn't couldn't even make it work.

Had to walk away for a few minutes and grab a cold one and contemplate our next step. Well I got to thinking the original brake arm is probably forged and made of good steel and I have cold bent front axles back into shape so why not this stupid little brake arm. I put it in the vise and with a Big Ass Pipe Wrench I gave it a twist and holy crap the arm was now angled straight.

I removed the Model A Arm and resintalled the original Arm, then off to the other side left the arm attached and used the same Big Ass Pipe Wrench and gave it a twist straight. Now after using all my hulk like strength to bend metal to my will I was spent and reassembled the bones, brakes, put the wheels on rolled the chassis into the garage.

 

Day 2 Sunday, hit the garage with a positive attitude and main goal was to install the brake rods.

First up install the front brake cross shafts. After messing around trying to figure out how to get them installed I figured out by taking out the king pin locking bolt, rotating the king pin the shafts slipped right in. Got my main man tightening things up.



Next up install the freshly rebuilt and painted main brake cross shaft. Only took us two tries as we mounted it backwards the first time around. Told my son this is how you learn now take it off and put it back on.



Ok now onto figuring out on how to mount the brake rods, since this is my first time installing them. I had all new parts and test fit everything together. Well the new brake clevises did not fit without a little filing. Looks like they are as cast and needed some smoothing to function properly, a little work the file and they where good to go.

One other head scratcher during the install was one brake rod seemed too long and one to short until I realized the wishbone wasnt centered, once I straightened that out it was all good.

Before


After - File, test fit, Repeat


Front rods mounted and working



Now on to the backs. Being that the rear brakes are '36 and the arms are in a different location I knew I was in for some more work, but it wasn't bad as I thought. The rods were a couple inches too long. But with plenty of thread to play with the whizzer wheel made quick work out if.





Now one thing I still need to do is to move or make a new mount for the return spring/anti rattle "thingies" for the rear that pull the brakes off.

Extremely pleased with ourselves we cleaned up and called it a day. Just waiting on rear wheel/axle bearings which hopefully should be here this week we can button up the chassis this coming weekend. Will still need to rebuild the steering column and get that mounted but we are close.

Next major piece of the puzzle will be the Banger, my son has been dying to get started on it.

 

You guys are making good progress. And spending some real quality time with your son.

 

Picked up a motor from a friend. It had run but had a bunch of blow so our goal was to get it mounted on a stand and pop the head.

First up was assembling the engine stand.



Next up was to build a bracket to mount to the stand. Got my chief mechanic removing pan bolts



We grabbed a piece of angle iron and fashioned it into a bracket to bolt to the rope of the pan rail. Some drilling and grinding and viola.




A trip to the parts store to grab some bolts.




Now to make some spacers, dug into the scrap pile and found a few pieces I could use, just part them to length




All bolted up. Now to lift onto the stand.


Engine hoist connected and unbolting engine from its cradle.



Engine on the stand so let's pull the head.


Head off someone had been in here before tops of pistons had marks from a punch and tops of pistons had heavy scrape marks. Pistons very loose in the bores, looks like more than a ring job will be needed.




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Got the video of inspecting the pistons once we got the head off posted up to you tube. Side to side movement seem excessive, slight ridge on the cylinders.

We will dig deeper this coming weekend.

 

Took some measurements of the bores this evening, well first two any. I used some cheap harbor freight telescoping gauges and a digital Veneer caliper so it may not be super precise but the readings were repeatable.

Pistons do have a 60 over marking on them but bores are coming out with .070 plus

I'm going to check the bottom end this weekend in hopes the Babbitt is good and I can just get away with a reborn. If I can I'll take it to .100 over. As they say there's no replacement for displacement, hahaha





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Great thread , thanks for the update.

 

Wow I haven't added updates in almost two years! Picked up a motor last August of '18 and dropped it in and got the steering mocked up.

While perusing Instagram one morning I found a great deal on a motor about an hour away. Fellow HAMB member swapping to a flathead. Came home with Motor and a side shift 40 trans.

She's been rebuilt .040 over, new valves and seats, adjustable lifters, aluminum cam gear and if I remember correctly an H&H cam. Motor had duals, high compression head and header on it when running.


Then I got my helper and put him to work mounting it on a stand.


First order of business was to swap over to the early front timing cover for the solid mount cross member.



Now while doing this of course I dropped sh*t down in the pan, had to pull that and everything looked great inside.


Next up, clean the deck and swap out the long head studs to the stock length to mount the head I have. Plans are for a high compression head in the future, at the time funds were limited, so stock it was.



Studs removed and deck cleaned up


Stock studs installed


Head came with plugs installed, had to use Ford spark plug wrench for authenticity



More to come.

 

While I'm replacing gaskets why not change the valve cover gasket while we are at it. It was a HOT sunny day so we borrowed the patio furniture umbrella for some shade.


Hey look at that adjustable lifters, it's a Hot Rod Banger Baby!


Time for a new head gasket. New copper gasket coated in copper coat dropped on and ready for the head. Not sure what my son is doing but that's his leg on the right.



Ok time learn a lesson on how to torque the head. Yes he likes imports too.



All buttoned up, well almost


Seemed to be a leak from the rear so we removed the flywheel and flywheel housing and cleaned things up. Forgot to take the before but the gasket around the end of the cam was indeed leaking.


And found this while cleaning up the clutch housing. Crack on each side.


Luckily I had a couple more housing laying around and picked the best out of the two. Ya she has a chunk out of the bottom but this is where the weep hole is anyway it's just better flowing now


more in the next post

 

Time to paint the motor. Since this project is no where near stock and a Hot Rod I found no need to go with the original Ford Green. Plus my local store didnt have any and whats better than a Red Hot Rod? A Red Hot Rod Engine and yes it is Ford red so all is good. Plus I hear painting your engine red adds 5HP

Getting things taped off and prepped for paint




Rattle them cans and start spraying.

Yes I am going with the Red and Black motif and I know it's over done, but I like it and it's my build so I will paint it red and black. I say this all in jest

Don't worry there will be a nice aluminum head, side cover and intake down the road to really set it off.




Cant forget about the flywheel housing.


Had to start dropping some parts on it to get the juices flowing, paint job came out pretty good, I think.



Next post mounting and shimming the flywheel housing.

 

Ok so the flywheel housing I pulled off was cracked so I am thinking it wasn't shimmed correctly flexed and cracked when tightened down.

First steps clean up the mating surfaces.



Bolt up housing to back of motor. Notice the gap between the motor block and upper bolt holes.


Picked up a digital dial indicator and took some initial measurements before tightening the upper mounts.


Now tighten upper mounts and take another reading.


I had previously ordered 4 .010 shims thinking 2 each side should be good but I was off .016. So I did what any shade tree mechanic would do, I made my own out of some roofing flashing.



With the shims, cut down piece of flashing and throttle assembly bolted down and tightened we came in on the money!


Next up lets drop this puppy between the frame rails!

 

Sept 15th 2018 the motor is going in!

Engine hoist assembled and getting ready to take engine off the stand. You can see my home made shim, maybe I'll replace it with smaller shims, maybe I'll paint it or maybe I won't do anything to it.


My helper forgot to tighten the bolts on the hoist



Up Up and Away


Set it back down on the floor so we can remove the home made mounting brackets for the engine stand.


At this point my main mechanic is steering the hoist and I'm guiding the engine home so no pics of the actual act, maybe my Wife has video, I'll see if I can find it.

Motor is in the frame! My chief mechanic is hard at work bolting the mounts together.




Car's not quite ready for TROG but this guy is!


And that's where we finished up the 2018 season.

 

Wow July 2nd and getting ready for a nice long 4th of July weekend!

Not much work so far but picked up a lightened flywheel setup for 9" V8 clutch and a 37 top loader trans that will get cleaned up and mounted via a clings adapter.

Then BIG purchases planned for 2019 stay tuned.

 

Quick update

Picked up 37 trans to run behind the Banger.

I’ll start a full rebuild thread at some point

Started with this



Lightened , balances flywheel, V8 clutch and a Clings adapter.



Bunch of cleaning and parts later and hope to have the trans back together tomorrow .



Had to mock it up in the chassis









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Love this project! My #1 son, Rich and #4 son, Tory are into early hot rods, we all have '55 F100s, for dragging home 'stuff'...
Great project here, proud of your son, and the experience he is devouring!

 

i too admire your family project.

 

Picked up a "Hot Rod" gas tank. I was out antiquing with my wife this weekend and scored this O2 tank for $40!

It was being sold as a bouy and by the looks of it was being used as one.



Still a few specks of the original yellow/mustard paint




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Transmission has been kicking my butt for the past two weeks it would rotate then lockup. Couldn’t figure it out the. Had an ah ha moment yesterday.

Transmission was acting like it was in two gears at once, as soon as I moved the sliding gear in neutral I could turn the input shaft.

I had two issues. The first being the early style synchro has a sweet spot where it just slides on the main shaft and one were it needs persuading. Must be on the sweet spot so it slides on the shaft. Issue two was the way I had the trans mounted in the vise at and able. The synchro hub would slide back and grab 2nd gear as I was testing reverse or first.

Now on to rebuild the shift tower!




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ill bet there is not much left to learn after that.

 

Got the trans all buttoned up this weekend!




Got some grade 8 hardware coming from McMaster to bolt trans to Cling’s adapter and adapter to motor.

Trans going in this coming weekend.


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