Projects Im getting Married! Project 46 ford begins!

Thanx im just plugging away at it, even if its something little eventualy it piles up into something big

lets just hope its not a big turd haha.

motor/trans i was going to snag tonight ended up falling threw so a little tiny set back there, works out alright as the commuter honda i bought a couple weeks ago let me know today that i need pads and rotors like yesterday haha.

 

ok so real update with photos and what not will hopefully come tuesday BUT for now a quick update of sorts, that bastard of a gas tank is fiiiiiiiiiinaly out of the car and it looks as though im going to have to drill ALL of the holes in the frame for this 'bolt on' rear suspension hopefully this weekend.

ill keep ya posted

 

alright so it doesnt feel like ive made any major progress but i suppose if i post a little something now itll make the next update a little less photo heavy.

jumping back to a previous post this is basicly what the valve covers looked like before i worked them over, just imagine more colors of paint and more grease haha. these two will probably end up on a wall or something somewhere.





and heres last weeks pile of parts painted up all shiney like.



and the variety of stinkin knobs i found on the dash.



so with the dash out the window garnish moldings are also out as they need removed to reach the dash bolts.



not to shabby, just a quick half hour or so of sanding and good to go!



i painted the backside/channel with eastwoods rust encapsulizer line of products and primed the front side.



a few 'soft' coats of glossy black and i think i managed no runs! at least thats what ill let myself think until i go check them out in the morning. i think im going to wax them up shiney and then buy some stainless screws to re install it. figure that the shiny screw heads should take away from any sub-par paint. that and hopefully the dash is nice enough that you dont spend to much looking at windsheild trim.

no photos because i left the camera at home but the gas tank is out!!!!

it seriously took roughly 20 hours of actualy work time to get that dang thing out.



my enemy

after dumping the little bit of hella fumey varnish gas out i did a celebration dance and went home.




lord forbid i just watch some tv or something, i figured id hunt around for some mag polish from a good decade ago and set to polishing the dash trim. im going to buy new trim for the upper bits in chrome so i thought id better get the old stuff shiney.



kinda some one done/before after shots





little comparison with the shiney black chassi bits for a better idea of what theyll look like on the dash. used a rag towel not a terry cloth or anything so they could still use a buffing but they look a good sight better then before. even if that polish looked kinda orangish haha.

its been a busy week for me at work so i making it home late i didnt feel like laying on the ground loosening up suspension bits so after dinner i started tearing into the heater core id brought home last night



i figured maybe i could make a nifty fuse box cover or maybe a neat place to hide 12 volt and ipod plug ins, maybe a small amp?



with the 3 screws out...some via a dremal... i cleaned up the shell as best i could until i found that about 50% of the skirt was rusted horridly bad and starting to actaly come apart. so i brushed it off and set it on a back shelf in the garage with other nick nacks. its still cool enough to save for something. but its just to far gone for what i want to deal with right now.



the guts are aprox. 5 gallons of trash!

so thats whats going on, ill prolly take friday night off to relax and starting saturday night ill bust ass threw my sunday monday days off trying to get the old suspension out and the new rear parallel set up in! Sadly i found that i have to drill ALL of the vaguely indicated bolt holes to mount it up so thats not to awesome. but its better than a desk job prolly get the gas tank flushed and cleaned as well, and if im feeling ambitious getting the drain plug twisted out from the tank.

oh, and i did manage to help my friend get his massive new grill put together. wouldnt want us to starve to death wrenching

 

Looking good Timm! Hope your weekend of rear-end swapping goes smooth!

 

thanx man, I'm fairly certain that i can see both sides off all the bolts that need to come out so that makes me feel better about it. Now i just have to make sure i get some nice sharp drill bits for the 20-ish holes im going to have to drill while laying under the car haha.

crossing my fingers for a monday night or tuesday update with good news

 

Alright so today was day one of swapping the rear axel and suspension.

I took some photos but they seem kinda random sitting here so prolly wont post any of them from today.

headed to the shop with the new parts, as well as stopping to buy some good drill bits, a gallon of water, some granola bars, and some brats. i mean come on, you expect me to starve to death working on this car? haha

alright so with the freshly removed gas tank out of the way i slid under the car to see what i was facing today. i dont see any way that any of this would be even remotely possible with out the tank out of the way .

any how i started off with pulling the friction shocks off the frame. they are held on by carrage bolts so there is no back on the back side to hold onto, thankfull the square hole in the frame they sit in wasnt rounded out or anything and they came out preety easy.

i chose to take them straight off at the frame because after considering removing just the dog bone connector<-- the passenger side unit already had the dog bone removed thus me considering that choice.

i ended up pulling the two bolts per side to take it right off the frame rail after realizing that with such a low arch frame and large rear spring hanger brackets they wold probably be in the way later anyways.

those came off pretty quick so i went to work on the pan hard bar, again i decided to remove the unit from the car by unbolting the bracket from the frame. i dont know that itd realy be in the way of anything later on but i figure if some ones going to buy the bar that they prolly like to have the bracket as well. that and the frame bracket bolts looked cleaner then the bolt that holds the bar to the bracket. figured go the path of least resistance.

i then moved forward of the rear and sawzalled the remanent of the exhaust out. with the clamps rusted on and so many bend it just did not want to slide out. And frankly i was tired of hitting my shin on it every time i walked by.

i then slid under the car and cut the brake flex line just ahead of the mounting point of the rear radius arms to the torque tube, i also disconected the parking brake at the clevis point. it was pretty tedious under there, and when i got it off i rolled over then line i was avoiding cutting just fell apart anyways, go figure haha.

so now all that is holding the rear suspension in is the U bolts.

until this point the car was being held up by jackstands at the axel. knowing i was getting ready to brake the rear lose i put the jack stands on the frame rails just a bit forward of were the front spring hanger mounts will go. this way the stands are still more towards the back of the car then the middle/back of the car and i dont need to re-position the stands more times then totaly necessary.

a good 9 feet of cheater bar and the u bolt nuts still werent realy into moving, about 10 minutes of blue wrench and they were STILL pretty stuborn. we have decided that superman never drove a 46 ford as the u bolts and nuts are obviously made of krptonite.

lots of fire, lots of 5 pound hammering and they popped off.

i failed to mentioned that i had stacked two 4x4's under the brake drums to take the stress off the spring, i always feel like im going to brake something having the rear axel just hanging in the breeze off the ground with a transverse spring set up. its probably un warranted but whatever.

i also put a beefy floor jack under the axel itself so i could have some more control over it coming down rather then just having it brake lose and just drop onto the ground.

with it all un bolted i it was just resting on the boards so i lifted it up with the jack and slid the boards out and let it down onto the ground.

then i went and grilled brats and felt accomplished. thats an important part of the process dont forget that part

plans for tomorrow are to drag the axel/spring/pan hard bar/torque tube out from under the car, drill 28 freaking holes, and bolt all the new stuff in minus the new 9 inch rear.

before i install that im going to put different gears, gaskets,seals,fluid, bearings, wheel studs, you know, all that stuff, as brakes and a new pads to mount it. seemed like it would make since to just leave it out and do all that on a table than to put it in and drag it back out or try to do it in the car.

hopefully ill have good news/progress tomorrow and some of the random pix today can be before pix for tomorrow?

 

i'm enjoying this......whid

 

alright, day two.



i had just left the rear assembly under the car last night so today that was first on the to do list. it was a bit of a struggle but i got it pulled back far enough for me to work under the car.

the assembly all together on wheels moves around kinda like a hand cart but with no wheels and tires on the car its a bit stuborn, you can have the rubber on with out having hte car jacked sky high if you want to roll it out.

the main thing that i ran into that if i could, would do different next time is to either remove the torque tube from the rear completely or to at least take off the bit were the speedometer cable screws into the TT.

the rear was covered in dirt and im hopefully going to sell it all together so it just seemed easier to leave it bolted together. and my speedometer sending unit was fairly seized up so it stayed and the line got cut.

the reason i note these two things is when you go to roll or push the axel back the bell of the tt and the speedo bit get caught on just about everything when you try to pull it threw the X member. i ended up crawling under the car and holding it up with my hand and sticking a scrap of lumber under it to keep it at the correct height then went back to pushing the axle back. it took a couple of times back and forth but it worked. it sounds easy, but it was a little frustrating.

aaaaaanyhow...



with it out of the way behind the car i gathered up my tools for the day.



i think thats most of it, along with some ear protection and a broom. id recommend some safety glasses or the like also.



the instructions are pretty sparse so i didnt want them floating away, i held them down with my second favorite tool.



this would be my first

any how i set to measuring up were i need to make my holes. there seem to be 28 that need drilled but the directions tell you were to put about 2 per side of them. cute right?



i measured roughly were the rear mount would land and tapped it up. i figured that sharpie on blue tape would be a whole heck of a lot easier to see then any sort of markings i could think of to show were i need to drill.



the 'instructions' give you measurements on were to place a hole on one hole of each mount. i held them up where i figured they needed to go and marked the centers of the holes the best i could. i could have done a better job looking back but im not realy sure how.... anyways...

i took favorite tool #2 and center punched were i would need to drill my holes. i made the X's on the tape fairly large so id be able to see were center was located if the tape ripped a bit. after that i went threw and drilled pilot holes for all 9 holes for the side.

spending the extra money on good bits was worth it but i still snapped two just from being at such a funny angle drilling the holes :S

i will make note that on the rear hangers i did the measuring on the outside of the rail because the channel of the rail has the open side facing the inside and the bracket uses spacers to make it work. so it was the only way i could mark directly threw the bracket.

i also pilot drilled from the outside, with the smaller bit i had room for my fat hands and even fatter drill between the fender and body/rail to get it done. however, i did drill the full size holes from the inside out as there is waaaay more room and the drill bit was to big to fit.



its a funny spot so i had to pull a 'pillow' over for me to rest my shoulders/head on so i could see what the heck i was doing.

the holes over all werent to big of a pain, i attempted taking my time and sprayed it with wd40 a few times to help the chips move out of the way. this is were i will say some saftey glasses/goggles would be a good idea. your in all sorts of funny positions with chips flying in your face doing this. i only finished the passenger side today so when i get on the other side i will most def have something more then my glasses protecting me.



so with holes drilled i bolted the brackets on. this is the front spring mount. i think 3 out of the 6 holes lined right up and the other 3 i needed to run the drill back threw the hole threw the bracket to get it all just right. i was off a teeny bit sometimes and other times about a 1/4 of the width of the bolt. again not sure how i could have gotten things lined up better when marking other then doing two holes and drilling the rest of them with the bracket on but that seems like a good way to gnar up your bracket.

and yes, i did measure, and re measure about a dozen times before drilling anything so im thining the bits just walked a bit when i was putting holes in, paired with being a titch off i was definantly off a bit.



i had previously un packed everything and figured out what bags of bolts go with what so when i got to it today i was able to sort everything out per piece pretty easy.



here is the rear spring hanger with the shackle bolted to it. i pressed the bushing in by hand and then used a 6 pound hammer and a vice to get the bolt threw it. in retrospect i should have left one side of the shackle un bolted as i ended up having to take it off to hang the spring and i dont want to take those nylon lock nuts off and back on more then once.

any how i got the rear hanger in place, put the spacers in and bolted it all up, had the middle hole not want to line up but it mostly ended up being a sequencing thing. id put the front and back bolts in and tightend them down before putting the spacer and bolt in the center hole and it misaligned it a bit.



put the front spring eye into the hanger no big deal.

they want you to bolt up your rear end next but seeing as i still need to rebuild it all it made more since to leave it out and wait till its ready to go, less moving that heavy sob for me always sounds like a good idea. ill lift it up onto a big steal welding table and start tearing into that in the next week or two.



rear hanger connected.



you can kinda see how the bracket tucks up into the frame here, you can also see that the bottom of the shackle isnt totaly bolted together. the nuts are just barely sitting on the bolts so they are not touching the nylon so when i go to put the new 9 inch in ill have brand new nuts.



i try to mix up big dollar stuff with 'free' stuff, big and little stuff, and important but cant see it and non important but is way visable when i build. i feel like it keeps some fun in the build, you dont get hit with all this $$$$ stuff back to back, you get a breather from the hard stuff while messing with easy stuff but still make progress, and when you do something little that shows it keeps the flame alive for the project.

i was walking back from watering a tree, haha, and found this old moon cap so i thought id see if it was the right size/shape that i thought it was. it fits!



washed it up a bit and im super stoked! im going to run 40 ford caps but hadnt fully pictured it in my mind yet. i looked over at that wheel/cap probably 30 times and smiled while working today haha.

over all this side took me roughly 4 hours from the time i started measuring to when i bolted up the last bit. a plus side of working out of a farm shed is few outlets, hardly even a cell connection let along a land line, no tv, no ac, no couch, no distractions. just work on the car and listen to the radio.

my back is all sorts of tight and kinked up and ive got a very busy week at work ahead of me so ill let myself recover and hit it again maybe wednesday or thursday night. then with that all done ill get the gas tank flushed, cleaned and all that things going to need. under coat the floor above the gas tank, start into rebuilding and re gearing the 9 inch that aught to take up the next week or two and then itll be time to run my dash to nebraska to get my dash painted up all shiney like

 

Oh, so random question, or thought i guess. the upper shock mounts have 2 holes per side and a tab that goes under the lip of the cross member with a hole in that also. so thats 5 holes per bracket. im going to double check the hardware but im fairly certain its nuts and bolts. the issue however is that i see no way to get to the back of the bolts to put a nut on?

i think in that situation they would have given some sort of screw instead of bolts and im certain i would have noticed that. ill look at it all again, but any have any ideas on that?

ill post a pic of the bracket in a few days when i get a chance to get back to the car and take a pic of the bracket.

 

just a quick bump because this thread has nothing to do with s-10 frame swaps or corvairs

 

Looking good, Tim! Can't wait to see it in person. I'm going to look at some parts for the 38, so I should be wedged under my Tudor soon too!

 

awesome post! You are lucky to have that girl man. I have had my wife in the shop a couple of time, she even helped us pull the body off my buddies '30 coupe!

 

Hey Tim all looks good so far man ,. Just one tip, spring eye bolts and shackle bolts - Don't tighten them right up until the weight of the '46 is on them . If you tighten these with suspension "hanging" and then sit the car down it can tear the centres in the bushes .

Rod .

 

amazing.... i like this build

 

4t6ford, thanx for the heads up. my current plan as per the vauge instructions is to bolt the front hanger up, then bolt the axle in, and then bolt up the rear hanger at the shackle.

does this seem like it should work out alright? might losen them up instill its all connected any ways now that you say that.

thanx for the heads up
timm

 

Hey Tim , my suggestion is this . Assemble it all up and just leave the shackle pins and spring eye pins/bolts just nipped in to the nylocs - in other words do them up just enough they wont fall off while you're rolling in/out of the shop etc . You shouldn't NEED to tighten them until you're ready for the first drive anyway .
When you are ready to tighten them remeber the car should be sitting at ride hieght with as close as possible to its finished weight ( seats , gas tank doors etc all fitted ) The whole reason fot this ... if you tighten them up with the suspension not loaded ( everthing just hanging ) when the weight comes on you can have the centres screw/tear away because they are a rubber bonded/steel encased bush ( imagine the outer casing moving with the spring - rotating as the leaf spring flattens or changes arc , while the centre is stationary ( spring eye mount) or moving in a different arc ( shackle ) .

hope that helps .



.

 

hmmm, yeah i vaugly get that. thanx.

 

scratching my head about shock mounts, posted it here

http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=634802

 

glad to see you working away, keep it up and it'll be done in no time at this rate

 

Thanx Ryan, im just trying to keep swinging haha.

though sometimes a swing turns into a lit torch, either way its progress right? lol

 

Tim , ( have just read your other thread about your shock mount dilema ) with your upper shock mounts , can you drill the holes from the front side of the cross member right through to the rear, then drill the rear holes large enough to put crush tubes in from the rear , then run long bolts n nuts ( with a large heavy washer on the rear side of the crossmember ? I'm suggesting this as you said you dont have a welder ?


.

 

Tim, looking good man. Let me know if there are any parts you need. If I have them , you are welcome to them. For example I have a very nice original aluminum toeboard from my coupe that I will never use. Some were steel which rusted out, mine was aluminum. John

 

Congratz! We used our 50 Plymouth in our wedding.

 

awesome photo aero3113!

and 48FordFanatic, pm me what youve got and what youd want for it

timm

 

awesome photo aero3113!

and 48FordFanatic, pm me what youve got and what youd want for it

timm

 

so got a little more work in it this afternoon and thought of you guys, i did a quick mock up to see what ride height should be after seeing some of you say that similar 'kits' have put the rear up to 4 inches ABOVE were they started out.

any how, with a 215/65/r16 which is around about 26 inches tall it looks like it should tuck at least a half inch of rubber up into the fender opening with no blocks or anything.

todays progress was limited more or less to getting the drivers side rear spring mount installed. its been a massive pain trying to get those holes just ride with out the bit walking a little or anything else. its always just a tad off resulting in a lot of little filling and messing to get the bolt in. but oh well its better then owning a donk

any how, the drivers side came with some delimas that the passenger side did not. mainly there is a panel deviding the inside of the fender. the fron thalf is were the tire is and the back the fuel filler neck. its got a few bolts that hold it in and it falls pretty much exactly were the rear most bolt needs to go. mine were preety rusted and im not to concerend about the filler neck getting dirty so i just bent it up out of the way the best i could and went to work. in the coming week i think that ill take a cut off wheel and clearance the panel so it can sorta remain intact but not be in the way of the rear spring mount.

unless were i bent it causes it to need to be totaly cut out, in which case ill just do that.

something i also noticed after checking the squarness of my brackets and frame rail that the bottom of the rail needs to be about 1/16 to an 1/8 inch narrower to allow the bracket to seat flatter against the rail. i just used a grinder and made it happen. ill probably end up going back to the other side and doing the same. i noticed that with out the frame clearanced the bracket sits just tilted enough that it makes connecting the rear shackel from spring to mount. you could probably muscle it in but im kinda leary of that causing some bind?

anyhow, tomorrow i should get the front mount knocked out and the spring hung, and hopefully ill also get the holes drilled for the shock mounts as well as cut out the old U bolts as there is not enough room to just pull them out with the body still attached.

im thinking if i cut roughly at the 90 at the top of the U bolt i can get the out with one cut per bolt. just pulling the straight side out and swiveling the 7 shaped one around and out.

hopefully with this done i can move forward with cutting a hole to get to the back of the shock mount bolts to lock those in place and then get the tank cleaner started so it can sit for a couple days while i clean and coat the rear rails and floor above the gas tank.

then being optimistic i can start in on my 9 inch. it looks to be about 3 inches narrower then the stock rear which puts the tires roughly 1.5 inches tighter then stock, but i dont see any clearance issues, if anything it will help the tires tuck up into the fender a little better.

thats it for tonight if you want pix just scroll up to last week and pretend theyre flipped

 

got the forward mount in this afternoon just got the shock mounts left, prolly save those for a day that ive got sharper drill bits. snapped a irwin from trying to get in on a funny angle yesterday and today the hardware store didnt have ANY irwin bits in stock for metal, fail, so i grabed a black and decker bit. super deluxe and all that.

that bit was so aweful that i ground the brake down on the snapped bit and used that instead, that B&D bit would have a hard time drilling cardboard

 

oh, and no leaks in the gas tank! now to clean it up

 

so after i get the shock mounts in and everything else cut or moved out of the way its on to the rear end.

any one have any links to good info on installing new bearings/gears in a 9 inch ford rear? honestly ill probably end up talking one of my freinds thats done it a million times help me with it while i more or less fetch parts and watch. but itd be good to know what im looking at.

also, on the front how do the brakes come off the spindle? it would appear that the backing plate is bolted to the spindle, and then the 'hub' that the wheel studs are mounted in is pressed onto the spindle and held on with a nut. how does this come apart? pop the nut off and pull it off?

does it need a puller? i've never done this bit before and doing a search resulted in some pretty vague info/photos. maybe i missed something though, got any advice or links?

thanx in advance
timm

 

Hi Tim. Pull the cotter pin, remove the nut and pull them off. Wait, are you talking about the original brakes?

You will probably have to back off the adjusters ( top and bottom) to get them freed up.