Projects An Amateur Chops a Brookville Coupe & More

Excellent build!

 

Thanks

 

Looks way better, if you got it hard anodized it would also end up about the same colour as the other piece.

 

The column, steering wheel and spacer will be painted the same color as the car body. The column is stainless steel, if I were to leave it that way I would have made the spacer from stainless steel also to match.

 

Here is a small detail mod I made to the firewall support brackets. I always thought that the brackets looked to big, especially with a flat firewall. Since I will be running without a hood I decided to cut off a little bit to make them look a little sleeker.

I didn't want to leave the edge unfinished, and since the original piece had a rolled edge on it I decided to add something similar. I milled a slot in a piece of 5/16" rod to fit over the edge.

I silver soldered the rod to the support. This really gave the pieces a nice finished edge. I think the supports look a lot better and stylish with the flat firewall.

 

I know this won't be considered traditional, but I really wanted to have A/C in the car. There are no install kits that I know of for a 49 Olds in a deuce coupe, so it's all home brew fabricating to make it happen.
I thought of different ways to mount the A/C compressor, but the best way I found was to build off of the two head bolts above the number 2 cylinder.
Here is a mockup made from 1/4" hardboard.

Here are the real parts cut out and set in place.

Something didn't look right to me, the part looked like it was missing something. I added gussets and a fill piece between them.
The part looks more finished and stronger now.

I cut out a notch for the spark plug wire and beveled the end to make it look better.


This turned out to be a very sturdy mount. I thought I would have to add more bracing but it's good the way it is.
I made sure the compressor pulley lined up with the front pulley groove on the water pump and crank.

Next I'll be installing the evap unit under the dash and running the A/C lines.

 

Great looking work, be proud of it.

 

Thanks Carl, I'm happy with the way this project worked out so far.

 

Even though there is nothing under the dash right now, there isn't much room for an A/C evap unit.
I needed the smallest unit I could find and got this one from Southern Air.

Here is where I plan on putting it.

I want to mount the unit as close to the firewall as I can, so I used these hose fittings to keep it as compact as possible.

There isn't much under the dash to mount the evap to, so I made this bracket to mount to a body bracket on the passenger side and the cowl vent structure.
Here is how it attaches to the evap unit.

This gets the evap unit as high up under the dash as possible, and leaves enough room to route the flex hoses out of the vent outlets.
Also the unit is hidden out of sight behind the dash panel.

 

Will you be installing wipers above the AC unit?

 

Not sure if I'll be using wipers, but I thought they go above the windshield on a 32 Ford Coupe.

 

Yes they are mounted above on Fords for a few years .....

 

Wow. Incredible work on the chop.

I was thinking from the first post on, isn't the Internet incredible for raising our standards/abilities/craftsmanship?

Really great car, truly.

 

Thanks Brent

 

Nice work on hiding the A/C unit.

 

I'm using an alternator that looks like the generator that was originally used with the Olds motor. I mounted it on the Edelbrock manifold with the bracket that came with the original intake manifold. I thought that the alternator sat to high compared to the A/C compressor, or to close to the carbs depending on where it was swung.

I modified the original bracket to move the alternator down and towards the driver side.
I made these small tabs to bolt to the manifold and welded them to the bracket.

This puts the alternator in a better spot. It looks more even with the compressor and gives me more room to fit the carbs and linkage without looking crowded.

 

have you put a belt(s) on to check alignment? My Edelbrock 3x2 intake did not line up with the same set up. Unit had to come forward and up to be in alignment. FWIW.

 

You're right, the alternator bracket I used doesn't work with the Edelbrock manifold, the alternator won't be square with the motor pulleys unless you make an adjustment.
If you look at the photo of the tabs I made you can see that one of them is longer than the other. The longer one goes on the front mounting point on the manifold and puts the alternator in line with the motor centerline. Tony at Ross Racing said he thinks the Edelbrock intake was made to work with a bracket for cars that came with power steering.
I did use a spare belt to check alignment of the compressor and the alternator.

 

I figured you had this dialed in but had to mention it just in case.

 

4eyes are better than two any day and 20 20 hindsight is not really that good when you are fabricating. Everything is looking gooooooooood!

 

I'm doing this on my own, so I'm gonna miss something eventually. I don't mind if someone calls out something I missed.
Thanks for looking out for me guys.

 

I plan on using a turn buckle on the A/C compressor to adjust the belt tension. The compressor has mounting lugs that I can use for the upper turn buckle rod end, but I needed something to bolt the lower rod ends to.
The engine breather tube was in a good position to use as a mounting point, so I made a clamp to go on it to bolt the rod end to.
I used 304 stainless for the clamp so that I can polish it to look like chrome.
Boring the hole to fit over the breather tube.

Slot milled for rod end, and a pinch bolt.

Here is the finished part.

Clamped on the breather tube with rod ends in place. I'll make the turn buckle piece with right and left hand threads after I find the correct length belt. The belt in the photo is just a mockup, I need a longer one.

 

Here is a mystery part I made, let's see if anybody can guess where this part goes and what it's for.
I started with a 1/4" plate of 304 stainless steel mounted on a rotary table on the mill.

I used the rotary table to cut out a crescent shape in the part.

I like holes in my parts, so I drilled a few.


I cut another slot on the outside of the part to get closer to freeing it up from the plate.

Here it is cut out from the plate. This is as far as I can go with the mill, the rest will be done by hand machining with a belt sander and files.

The finished part, I welded a lug onto the side.

Let's see if anyone can figure out what this part will be used for. No prizes for correct answers.

 

a new generator bracket?

 

Brake caliper bracket?

 

That's right you got it.
I'll be using a turn buckle on the generator to adjust belt tension same as the A/C compressor. There is a threaded bolt hole at the top of the water pump housing that I can use for the lower rod mount, but no place convenient for the upper rod end on the generator. The top lug on the generator was to high and would have placed the turn buckle at a bad angle. This bracket gives me a place to bolt the upper rod end and kinda looks cool.

 

Good looking bracketry!

 

Thanks, it will look real nice after it's polished. I like making stuff like this out of stainless steel, after you polish them they look like chrome and is way cheaper.

 

LOL...amatuer , my ass. Way to go guy. What a shop!!!!

 

I needed to mount the receiver-drier for the A/C system in order to finalize the hose routing. I couldn't use the mounting bracket that came with the drier, so I made another one out of aluminum. It will be located on the inside of the frame rail just in front of the oil filter housing.

Here are photos of the way I routed the hoses.

I used bulkhead fittings to go through the firewall.

On the inside.

I had to do something to hide the hoses in the interior. I made a box out of aluminum sheet to cover up the hoses.

I welded some angle pieces to the firewall and glued magnets to the box cover. This was an easy way to attach the box cover to the firewall without having to use fasteners. The cover will eventually be covered with whatever upholstery I end up using.