All I wanted to do was flip the axle!

Yep, doing it right now. Our off-topic Saturn got a minor hit. A door repaint has turned into a completely disassembled car that will probably need trailering to the paint booth.

 

In six weekends I would have maybe made it to number 4 if I was lucky.
You've done well.

 

Me too, Buzznut...me too.

 

what!?!?!

 

Well, apparently my math was way friggin off... Not only do I have to leave the 2 leafs out of the front AND use the 3" drop axle but I also have to now purchase and install a reverse eye front spring.

 

Dude, that was the story of my entire build.

 

Hey man, though ive never tried it, if your frame is only a little off. Ive heard you can tie it to the floor or use a jack and chain or jack stands and wieghts, to straighten it out. It does take aome time though and lots of thinking and adjusting and measureing. Oh and im not like you at all, i dont have to paint everything.

 

"But first" syndrome, I'm only gonna do this "but first" I'll do that.

 

I was looking for a car to just cruise and came upon a '65 Biscayne. The car had been garaged kept but was well used. I bought it just thinking I could cruise it. It had been lower 2" by the previous owner. It had a 283 and 3 speed. The previous owner had installed a floor shift that was pretty long and cool looking.

I drove the car to a local cruise and discovered that the rear wiring harness was messed up. The back up lights were coming on instead of the brake lights. I bought a new wiring harness and that was that, or so I thought. I decided to re-paint the dash to get rid of some chips. Since the windshield had to come out, I decided to re-seal it. Since the front windshield was done, I decided to re-seal the rear window. Since the dash is apart, I installed new gauges into the dash instead of underneath.

Now she was done, or so I thought. One day, looking at the engine bay, I thought, I could fit a BBC in there, but I'll need a 4 speed too. I built a 454 with heads, cam, manifold and dual quads. I backed it with a 4 speed. The car had 3:08 gears so was sluggish off the line. Hmmmmm, a 6 speed would be nice. I installed a Richmond 6 speed but now the rear gears were too high. I quick change to a 3:42 was perfect.

God, the drive train is so nice, I got to do something with the interior. The previous owner had kids. Beside the head liner was shot. After a complete new interior plus a switch to buckets seats, I thought I was done.

Now the interior was so nice, I figured, might as well refurbish the exterior. I had a shop fix the rust behind the wheelwells, color match the paint and color sand and buff the whole thing. Crap, now the bumpers need new chrome. Rechrome the bumpers but one window has a scratch. Have a glass made.

Its never ending..............

 

Isnt this hobby fun? That is the very reason I dont like doing engine swaps. I can NEVER just swap a motor. You might as well paint the engine bay, chrome misc parts new fuel lines etc etc etc.

 

7 months ago we put a quick front end swap in my unibody. then swapped the rear and notched the frame. added power steering. powered master cylinder. rebuilt the heads, switched over to hei ignition....... I might be driving it this weekend

 

All of my projects seem to go like that !

Like they say..... "Do it right the first time".

Nothing wrong with that. It's better to do it once and done,

than to be ripping something apart, 2 or 3 times.

A lot of the guys I know are imagonna guys.

I'm a gonna do this, or I'm a gonna do that,

and never get anything done.

 

yeah, i open that can of worms everytime i start on anything.was planning on going down hwy 66 this fall in a 67 impala.car wasnt that bad.didnt hold good oil pressure and needed some bodywork and paint.nothing we couldnt get done by sept.WRONG.i now have bought a fresh build 283 from a machine shop i deal with, have a good running 307 on the floor that just needs new bearings.have the whole front clip tore apart for sandblasting and priming.now the frame and all the sterring looks bad so got clean and paint. got order new rear qrts. to fix a spot on each side.got the inside stripped out and gotta take out the glass to paint the dash.when is september anyway?

 

Uh ya got a skip loader? We had an OT pickup that had hit something that didn't move once it was hupmed in the middle and out of square. We tied it to a tree and gave it a tug then proped it up on something solid and bounced the skip loader on it a few times. It ook nearly all the hump out of it and we got it square to withing factory specs that way. it still took 8 hours of steady pulling on a fram machine before we got it right, but I'l bet we saved 4 hours or so that would have cost us another 4 hours or so on the frame machine.

If you can find a way to tie it down solid to the ground you can remt a simplex jack and twist the frame a little at a time going back to neutral and measureing every little bit to get the dropped corner up.

When my buddy and I still had the body shop (prior to his death) we installed eye bolts in the shop floor for just that reason. We had a deal with the local frame shop to rent a bay when we needed to but we discovered that we could do a lot in the shop if it wasn't major. Eye bolts and a simplex jack is a wonderful low buck frame machine.

 

yep,
just spent 3 days installing a stereo in my truck.




don't ask...........

 

I stopped putting an end date out there because I never met them. Then I just got done one day and drive the piss out mine.

But now the brakes are F-ed up so I'll fix them in due time.

 

I think this is clinically known as 'well, while I am in there-itis"....

 

Pics please!

 

Somebody gave me a running car as an engine donor. The plan was to swap with my knocking one over the weekend and drive it to work on Monday. Pulled it, decided to wash it... decided to paint it, decided before that to just do the gaskets, decided to switch intakes, pulled the heads to look, thought about doing rings and bearings... two years later it was bored, balanced, and blueprinted, and the heads were ported and polished, and I added a lumpy cam and matching springs, and I had to save for a long time for the right headers, turning down a free set, which required a new exhaust system.... I had to buy a daily driver and after two years the tires were shot... Of course then I pulled the trans for a rebuild.. then needed to get a stronger rear axle, which came with a parts car... which needed the drive shaft modified...


It needs the new hood painted, and could use some weather stripping, but I don't even want to start on that path... I hope it rots to the ground while I'm driving it.

 

Yep, that too.

 

What you describe gave me five inches in the front. I took another leaf out (the three shortest) for six inches total in the front. It rides just "ok", but I put up with it because it looks perfect.

Keep at it! You're doing the right thing and when you're done it'll be worth it!!

 

Sounds just like how my axle flip went. It might have taken me a little longer. I had a slight twist also. I jacked it up at the end of the frame on the low side. Then me and about three buddys stood on the high side and jumped up and down on it till twisted back to equal hight. Worked out pretty good. The trials and tribulations of fixing up old cars....

 

So this really isn't a " might as well " or a " while I'm at it" type evolution of a project, its " how the hell do I make the rest match now- Oh crap" project. Seems like a whole lot of unnecessary, unwanted, unpleasant, unplanned expense.

Fix what's wrong, your calculation = rear too low. Do that and get back on the road with gas money in your pocket.

 

No, the whole rear end project is a "while I'm at it" scenario. the front axle is a "I was gonna do it anyway" situation. You see, I was going to do it anyway, but if the rear had really only been 4 1/2" drop I could have gotten away with driving it around pretty much level...since it's a LOT lower I need to do it before I can drive it around.

But I agree...I need to get it on the road.

 

Was going to do a quick and dirty paint job on my 60 T Bird last September, started sanding with a DA, found out it had been painted with enamal sometime, stripped it with DA. Removing front bumper noticed the bushings in the front end were failing, rebuilt front supension and steering, might as well do the brakes too. Thought about pulling the motor to paint under the hood, friend gave me an old 390, rebuilt it, updated the factory air with modern compressor. Pulled the doors to paint the jambs, had all new flat glass cut, installed it with new felt and rubber, replaced the windshield while I was at it, painted in the trunk while I was at it. Just painted the top last week, dripped sweat on the last coat of clear, color sanded it, then 3000 wet on the DA, hope to shoot the lower body in the next week or so. Another small job got way out of hand, chose 2010 Ford Kona Blue, has pearl and metallic in it, $150 a quart for the base coat, so much for quick and dirty.

 

Yes, but after 5 years and $100,000 bucks... We step back, look at it, "ITS DONE" then I put it up for sale. I then go into a trance about what I will build next, lose sleep, read millions of magizines and do it all over again...But each time is different... I know exactly what I want..

 

This is why I just avoid pulling some things apart on my truck. It'll either end up costing me money I don't have or just leaving me pissed off. Sometimes both.

 

I think I'm OCD and can't leave things alone. If I can see it and get a wrench or screwdriver on it, I'm taking it off or apart...it's a DISEASE!!!

 

haha, thats perfect. someone is gonna steal this for their signature.

 

umm, me too... this is the result of a whiney transmission...

year and a half later and i'm almost ready to put the cab back on the frame... almost.