Hey you should get hold of Rod ( 4t6ford ) , he works sometimes at AJAYS Ford V8 parts in Waihi New Zealand. I am pretty sure there are some heads there.
Hey Nick , great to hear from you . Have been right through your thread here , Great work so far ! Will check for a head/heads for you on Monday , and have PM'd you info on the axle we talked about . 97 , thanks for putting Nick in touch ! Rod . .
Man i'm really hopeless at updating my build thread.. Heres some new photos from the last few weeks! Got my trans mount all done, and engine and box in.. And then i did a chassis height rear step with fishplates and box section gussets inside and out, and top and bottom. This really took a hell of a lot longer than i had anticipated.. Frame finally out of the jig.. and ready to go back together! Back together, and added a little notch at the front of the model a center crossmember for torque tube clearance.. Then i got the body back on and the rear subrails trimmed for the frame step.. that wasn't the most fun i can say that much.. But throwing the body back on was super motivational! Shifter height was lookin goooooood. As was a different perspective.. Then after a number of weeks negotiating and playing cat and mouse with a local fella, i finally parted with some cash and my old reproduction aluminium windscreen posts for another original screen frame, and these amazing windscreen posts. Definitely needed to lose some height there.. So about an hour later this happened.. Was starting to look a little more "hot rod".. Ended up dragging up this '48 mercury rear end into the shed. And found out the brakes were in amazing condition.. Also got my front and rear springs reversed in the meantime. Also ended up finding a pair of 21 stud aluminium center water outlet heads in AMAZING condition.. from 4t6ford above. Have already acid washed one of the heads, and it looks brand new. Really happy with these! So i got sick of looking at my Guide 682-C headlights sitting in a box, and decided to chop up my '32 headlight bar to mount them. Headlight positioning looks good to me! This is basically where i'm at at the moment. Got the other post chopped, and metal finished.. did some metal finishing on the screen frame where i'd chopped it ages ago. I also have started on mocking up my '42 truck pedals (what i believe are known as "f1" pedals..) and am almost finished up with a bolt on spring over setup for the merc diff which i will maybe do a tech article on later once i know it works. Just waiting on some spacers to be machined up for it and it'll be under the car.
Some quick pedal placement mock ups.. And heres a snap of the rear end with the spring on top. I realized that the shock mounts on the front to hide the tube shocks wasn't going to work with the radius rods after i realized i forgot to take them into consideration. So i've put the shock mounts back on the rear.. and waiting on spacers. But you get the jist of it. So thats where i'm up to at the moment.
Bit of an update.. I started building a boot lid frame. I have since gotten the shits of it and not done anything more on it.. Its just an angle iron frame, with a Model A handle and a '37 latch. I also restored my fog light.. Also got the rear end under the car and got the back rolling.. and painted the door so it was all the same colour. The green door was getting on my nervses a little. Heres one of the headlight bar, fog light and number plate mounts all mocked up. Some of my steering mock ups.. I will need to heat and bend the shifter across a few inches.. won't go into 2nd or 3rd at the moment. I then bought an old folding bench seat and narrowed it by 250mm or so. I had to do it three times until I got the width right. Really got annoying by the third time. Haven't yet mounted it in the car but have it sitting in place. I also have borrowed a roof from a mates roadster. Will copy it but change it a little to suit my car as his is chopped about the same but done a bit differently. After waiting about 6 weeks i finally got my Model A axle back from the fella who dropped it 3.5 inches. I reckon it came out reeeeaaaaaal nice! Had to throw it under for a looksie.. Got both of my spindles in bare metal and primed yesterday.. One with the spindles on last night. Annoyingly due to our bullshit rules we have here.. I had to pay someone else to tig weld the bungs into my wishbones to have them properly split.. but in doing so they came with an engineering certificate so I guess its okay. I still hated paying for this. We have to use those "rod ends" i think they are called as well. We aren't allowed to use tie rod ends. Being a '36 wishbone with a Model A axle i had to cut 1/4" out of the inside of the wishbone yolk.. after cutting it and about 10 goes at trial fitting it.. and shaving a fly shit more and more off the inside it eventually fitted. In the process of tapping the bung end to get it to fit the axle its kinked the first thread of the bung.. so now i have to tap it to clean it out. Since i don't have the tap for that size.. i'm hoping a mate has one otherwise i'll take it down to the guys that did the welding of the bung and have them run a tap through it. Still annoying.. In saying that.. i got it into bare metal and threw some primer on it. Looks so much nicer than the rust and dirt i've been used to looking at. Still have the other one to do tomorrow. And finally here is where i am at with the front end. Will be mounting the wishbones to the side of the frame rails so once i've got them fitted to the axle with the spring on and bolted up i'll have to work out the caster angle and where to locate the holes for the bolts. I have a piece of bar stock here that i will be able to machine a 5/8th hole through it and will cut it the width of the rails so it acts as a sleeve / crush tube to go through the chassis. Thats next on the agenda after getting the other wishbone trimmed down to fit the axle and cleaned up.
So i typed up a big post and then lost power and my computer turned off.. so i'm going to do a brief post with all the pics but less text i guess. The cliff notes is that my front end is all buttoned up, i built wishbone mounts and used my 1938 lathe i bought recently to make the crush tubes.. which was really rewarding for me since i haven't used a lathe in years.. i also recessed a coin into my '39 Mercury shift knob.. and thats about the gist. I also bought a '46 - '48 rear end last week for $50 and sold it for $350.. while keeping the torque tube and driveshaft for spares, as well as the brakes and shock mounts. I will be selling the shock mounts as well. Good way to make some extra cash flipping parts especially now that i'm a uni student.. Anyway, heres all the pics!! Heres one of the lathe.. it does have a tail stock i just hadn't put it back on in this pic.. I still may cap these wishbone mounts when i pull the chassis down for final welding.. not sure yet. May not need to they should be more than stout enough as is. I made them a diamond shape to match the original frame brackets that are left for the cowl mount and hood latches, i plan to put three rivets in them to make it appear like it is sorta factory / always been there. Heres where i'm up to at the moment. Next steps are to get the front steering so will be setting up the steering box, and either heating and bending the original steering arms or cutting them off and using a bolt on. I'd rather use the originals though.. And heres one without a hood on.. i think it suits it with the hood on personally looks like its missing something like this. One of my mock up engine.. I have an Edelbrock Super Dual manifold on its way soon from NZ along with two matched '94s to go onto my 21 stud engine when that eventually gets rebuilt and dropped in place of this one. But at least this one looks for the most part like what the 21 is.. same aluminium heads and all. I'm quite happy with firewall clearance and it appears i have reasonable clearance between the front and the radiator.. fits quite nice in here.
Heres one other i found. I narrowed a '41 ford steering box mount to fit my Model A's chassis.. but after dropping a steering box on it and sitting it in the chassis the steering box angle doesn't seem right. I don't know whether the pitman arm is supposed to be horizontal or on a just about 45 degree angle like it is currently.. Will have to ask some local rodders for help on that one. At least this came out nice i guess..
Hey Steve! Not too much lately.. being a uni student and having no money has its downfalls.. but i did manage to get the steering box mounted a while ago, i also picked up an original hood and have it fitted which looks really cool. Other than that.. i don't think i've gotten anything done because i haven't had any money to spend on it. I did purchase some shocks though for the front and rear.. so i guess i should get around to fitting them. However, it's been so hot over my uni break that i haven't been too enthusiastic about working on it..
The Jalopy Journal
