I almost forgot how fun boxing is, Not! Had to finish boxing the front horns. I added c notches in the frame to clear the spring, that drop front cross member was a little lower than I realized, works good now plenty of travel. Boxed completely around and inside cross member, welded it inside and out. Added front pan hard. Added vega box mount and some extra braces on it. Little bit more sanding and blending front suspension almost done.
Got my Radiator and grill mounted. P & J headlight/shock mounts. 7" Headlights. Disc brake brackets and wheel spacers to clear calibers. All the steering is bolted in now, works good but rubs headers a little at full turn. Oh, and did I mention I loooove those headlights!
Looking good so far! You've got a good stance, and a will to do it! Pick a year you'd like your car to be "from". Look at magazines from that era and dial in the " look" you're going after. Great job so far!
Once you install your King Pin lock bolt and proper castle nut you may not have a Header/Tire contact issue any more. The Wizzard
Thanks. I did blend that top weld in a little better after this pic. I put my pics as rotating screen saver, seeing it over and over makes me notice things I'm not happy with.
Thank You. I have a picture in my head but haven't found it yet. I had a HotRod Magazine Poster from 6o's (I think). It had Decades of Racing across the top and five cars in an x pattern. The center car was race style sedan in dark flat blue color with a big 5 on the door. Had aluminum wheels similar to mine. Wish I could find that picture!
Go to your photos on post #35 and look at the King Pin Boss of the Axle. Notice the hole in it running front to back. There is supposed to be a Pinch Bolt in it. That's what keeps the King Pin in place. The new pins don't come with a Factory type nut however the correct one is the actual turn stop from Ford. If you had stock Ford spindles they would have a machined spot on them that makes contact with the Stock capped nut. It's the Stock turn stop. It also keeps from having steering return issues. After market parts seem to come with built in issues most New Guys can never get sorted out. They just don't know. The Wizzard
Hay guys., I just re read what I posted. That last line could be taken a couple different ways. In NO way did I mean that as any kind of Knock. What I ment was if you weren't around before all the reproduction parts were so common you just wouldn't know what parts had changed with the reproduction pieces. I can still remember the first time I opened a new King Pin set and it didn't have the Crown Nut in it. I went ahead and installed the standard nut with the job. On the test drive and a full to stop Right hand turn that 40 Ford didn't want to come back around on it's own. I nearly Curbed the car. My Boss "the Old Guy" started looking over my shoulder and asked why I didn't put the correct nuts on the pinch bolts. I explained these were what came in the box. After digging around in the Garbage, finding the Old Nuts the problem was resolved. I've never made that mistake again. That was about 1965. Just passing along my lesson learned. The Wizzard
This build make me chuckle. Dont mean to put your working conditions down, Ice done my share of builds in gravel and desert dirt before cause thats all Ive had available and was thankful for that but with all these epoxy coating and snap together tiles for garage floors Ive got to say yours is the first build Ive seen done on grass. Just strikes me funny. Id go nuts looking for stuff I dropped in the grass. I guess you would need to keep a magnet handy. Anyway looks like you are doing a great job and thanks for sharing the photos of the progress and keep up the good work. yruhot
I am definitely a New Guy. 34 years old. I have not been lucky enough to work with or around anyone with any kind of car knowledge. Raised by single Mom, She knew how to put gas in, that's about it. Everything I think I know has been self taught. I have always just jumped in and figured it out best I could with any project. Hell, I don't even know anyone else that likes old cars, guess I was just born with it in my blood. Mom said every dam toy she bought me I took apart. Anyways, biggest reason I post is because of my lack of knowledge, I really do appreciate any and all info that you guys send my way. I was wondering why the steering had no stop point other then hitting something, small things like this are going to be hard to figure out on my own. Internet is amazing source of info but still no substitute for actually working on this type of suspension.
Thanks. I must say it did get old fast. I worked out there for about a year and a half, two full winters. The absolute worst part was the mud after it rained! I cant tell you how many times I was in that perfect awkward welding position, halfway thru a bead, then Bam my feet slide out and I'm laying face first in the mud. I put the project on hold and built a shop!
LuckyFord; That's an interesting looking stud. I have to tell you I have never seen one just like that one that I can remember. The Hex and round end looks a lot like the origonal nut, the shank and threaded end was never part of the stock anchor bolt. I will dig out some factory stock parts and post up a photo of them. Question; Where did you order them from and what are they listed as? The Wizzard
EarlyFordStore.com 1928-1948 Car & 1928-47 Pickup - King Pin Lock Bolt & Nut Sold each 2 required That is the only one that comes with a castle nut. The other style I could find is a stud with a separate stop nut.
The last photo you posted is the correct item, seperate pinch bolt and tall nut. Not the stud with castle nut and cotter key. The Wizzard
Got it. Can't thank you enough for pointing that out. You got me thinking and searching around about it, then I thought maybe I should check the box of misc that came with the chassis. I'm halfway there now! There is also shims in the box. Time to do some more research and check the entire kingpin install just to make sure.
Good find. Now just get the correct nut. F.Y.I. If you remove the King pin you'll find a notch about center of the pin. That should be in view through the anchor bolt hole in the Axle. The bolt groves make contact with the king pin in a wedge type manor and lock the king pin in place. The shims go to the top of the Axle to remove up and down movement of the spindle on the King Pin. Apply what's needed to each side. One more thing you might want to do is hand pack the bearing with chassis Grease. I also lube the bushings by hand before installing the pin in place. For a good long life lift the wheel off the ground every 1K miles and have someone turn the wheel left to right while greasing the Zerk fittings. The Wizzard
Made a little progress today. Capped the ends of the frame horns. Filled all the extra holes in top of frame.
One step forward and five steps back! Moved to the rear to put in shock mounts, started setting up to try and cycle the suspension. It's bottomed out, completely bound up at the shackles, no travel at all! I searched all the post I could find about this but I didn't find any good answers. Seems like all the previous post boiled down to worn/modified springs, or everyone debating the eye to eye measurements of the perches. There are Posies springs sold for 44" perches, but it seems they are going to be at least 4" taller then what I need. The drop springs all seem to be for the 48"-49.25" perches. Does anyone know of any other options out there?
Looks like the spring mounts are too narrow or the spring is too long (wide). Is the spring mount fully welded to the rear end or just tacked?
Just looked at the pictures and noticed it is welded already. Might be easier to have a main leaf made to fit the rear end width. The shackles should be almost a 45 degree angle.
The Jalopy Journal
