Love your work! Im beginning to build my 28 tourer into a boat tail so getting to see you do a sedan is very cool. Im curious, how do you find the width of the engine in regards to clearance of the hood sides? All clear ok? I went to a 6 for fear of clearance problems with a V8 and dont get clearance with my triple carbs anyway! I may have missed it but what was your overall plan? Trying to keep an original look plus updated drive line/ brakes? Or are you modifying the body as well? Cheers, Josh
It's a fairly daunting task I will admit. Everything takes forever since I don't have a proper used piece I can just match. The biggest fear is making a mistake that then translates into problems somewhere else. But, as my brother keeps reminding me, it was a car before I took it apart and was built from garbage. So, has to be better. Overall plan is 265 V8 ,3sp w/OD ,hydraulic brakes. I want it to look fairly stock with the hood on. I am still debating the seats. I think the sofa in the car is cool, but I really hate actually driving on one. Just far too much movement and sag. I am not doing any body mods. I debated chopping the top a few inches, but finally decided I liked the idea of it seeming to just be a '28 until I cranked it. As far as clearances, the generator is the only thing that is too wide. @tb33anda3rd built a bracket for his that put the generator in a more vertical position to clear his hood. I am thinking mine will end up similar. The area around the steering box is super busy with so much stuff going on. I am using block huggers. I moved the engine 1/2" off center line towards passenger side just to keep a little more clearance. I think once the clutch arm is in it's going to be a tight squeeze in there. But, fitting is fitting as long as nothing interferes with anything else, so I am pretty happy with how it all went in when I mocked up the engine.
Those 2 little radius pieces took a surprising amount of time. They have compound curves all over them to actually fit as intended. I honestly didn't think they would be that hard looking at what I took out. The previous ones were just basically a 2X2 square with the radius. So, I had not looked at how they were actually supposed to fit until today. The old ones didn't actually fit right and had wedges behind them. That should have been a clue.
These guys were unpleasant. I have to make a small tweak in the width of the verticals. I figured it out while verifying how the regulator worked. Once again I was thrown off by what I was seeing on the old piece and missed something as more and more pieces were fit making sure it all worked. The verticals have a small taper top to bottom. I missed that taper. Easily fixed fortunately. I wouldn't want to build another set of these.These are also curved front to back. The old ones were flat and they actually split the metal in a couple of places forcing them into a shape they were never meant to be.
Nice build, impressive wood work. I would have preferred smaller 4 ( merc 4 ) mentioned earlier, with Toyota rear for easy build/fit but you doing nice job. Say that because understand u want stock look cruiser. Don’t get carried away with working on more horsepower for v8 that can kill the fun. I say that as a drag racer always working for more horsepower. How will you coat/seal wood to last? I am working on plywood floor runabout.
Thanks Mike. No pursuit of HP for me here. I have fallen into that ditch a few times myself. I am going to build the engine to produce stock HP. And, honestly will never use the available HP. It's just more entertaining for me this way. I really like old V8's. I have not decided on protectant yet. I will not go too extreme as I suspect the car will never really get wet again. I have rebuilt some old wooden boats, and it really takes surprisingly little to keep wood from rotting if you stay on top of keeping water out of it. I would suggest some sort of epoxy sealant on your plywood edges. Lots of plywood on a 1965 Trojan Seabreeze I had. The trick to keeping even marine ply from rotting quickly was an epoxy sealer that would soak into the edge really well. Entire lower hull,transom and cabin are plywood over white oak. It was a mess when I bought it. So much work. Broke me of a lifetime of wanting a wooden cabin cruiser however. Beautiful to look at, just not worth the work to own in my mind.
Not really progress per se. I got my 56 Nomad rolling chassis today. I got a really good deal on it from another car guy I know. He is swapping to an Art Morrison chassis and an LS engine, so sold it to me for peanuts. I am going to rob the rear end, hopefully some front brake parts,( not sure if that's doable) and sell what's left. Sort of stalled out on my woodwork. All the free time recently gave me a chance to really concentrate on some projects around my property. Figured it was a fair swap. Get a bunch done and then it's not hanging over my head needing done so I can spend some more time on the car later.
I am finally getting back to work on the car after a hiatus to do a mountain of work on my property with all the free time I have had of late. I was starting to feel like a logger for a while. These are the center door posts. Tricky little guys. They have to fit super tight, but the closer they get to fitting the harder it is to test fit and then remove the metal skin without snapping it in half at the latch where it is only the face connecting the 2 halves. I sold the ' 56 frame I bought after stripping off the rear axle. Front brake assemblies are just too different to bother retrofitting. Worked out well for me. Overall made the engine,trans, and rear axle cost a couple of hundred bucks. Which is sort of a vague goal on this one,to not spend a fortune on it if possible except for corners I am unwilling to cut. Like a full rebuild on the engine. But, I think we all know how that budget build plan goes up in flames as it progresses.
Nice work there. I have a '28 that I am going to convert to Hydraulic brakes; the backplates from the 40s-50s Chevy trucks look like they will bolt straight up. Even if they don't, the spring pads on the pre 55 truck front axle have the same pitch as the '28 so the complete front axle will bolt up to the 28 front springs.
That is one plan I have ,assuming I find a Pre 55 axle. The ones I have found so far within a reasonable distance have been really rusted garbage. So, I will keep looking until I get to that stage. If I haven't found one by that point, I will just go with a disc conversion on it. It's certainly not a pressing concern at the moment, that's for sure.
Not a C-dan but my old man had a 28 phaeton as his first car. I fit in my 35 Chebby and my old man wasn't small so a 28 would be a squeeze for me with no passenger
After building a new tractor barn,painting my shop, and clearing about 3 acres of downed trees grown up in vines, I am finally back at the car some. The time change makes it dark really early around here and drives me back into the shop. So, both front doors hung and center posts mocked up. I am building front to back because I found an mistake I had made back in the spring. I trusted the old sheetmetal a bit too much and after the fact realized someone had moved a post on the sill board in the past. I am assuming trying to make the doors work better with a rickety structure. End result is I was making the car body about 1/2" too short overall. Which also explained why the rear doors hung so bad when I got it. I mistakenly thought it was due to the door sagging and sitting on the wheel arch. And, I have no doubt that played a part.
A few post's back you asked about the 265 engine oiling. When I rebuilt my 265 I took an original rear cam bearing with two holes in it for oiling and just removed (with a die grinder) the brass in between the holes to give the engine full oiling to the lifters. I used a later cam that way. If you don't do that you will need to have a machine shop grind a flat on that area of the cam for it to get any oil to the lifters. And that is only going to be part time oiling.
The Jalopy Journal
