I'm going to give this build thread thing a try. Started collecting parts about 15 years ago. Bought a nice stock Model A body and sold it. I was given a 3W body for work done for a couple friends but it was glass and I really wanted a steel one. I sold it last year and was going to buy a Brookville 3W. Just before I did I stumbled across a complete original one that had been started in the 70's but never finished. The frame was boxed with a tube X member installed. Everything else was P&J stuff. The body was stripped and primered. That's as far as it got and sat for 40 yrs. The guy's son had it and needed to sell it. So I made a deal and a friend drove to Arizona to pick it up. No rust, just a little beat up. It's going to be a wicked 60's styled hot rod. The engine will be a BBC with Enderle stack injection. The 396 came out in '65 so that's the period it is being built around.
The chassis with the car was not going to work for I wanted to do. It was 4 bar and the x-member too low so it was sold. A frame that was ordered from Blackboard Hot Rods several years ago will be used. It was ordered without any front or rear cross members so I could do what I want with the suspension. He does very nice work. I have the fixtures and have built a few from scratch but for what he charges its not worth what I save after considering the materials. First thing was to establish ride height. I want it to be as low as practical.
Before I went any further i needed a rearend. I had a good aluminum Halibrand 301 center section I had bought years ago so I started with that. QTE Bruce on here started reproducing the plates to adapt early Ford trumpets to the Champ rear so I bought a pair. I also found a NOS Franklin lower shaft, used Gold Trac differential, NOS Halibrand front bearing retainer and NOS Richmond 4.10 ring and pinion. There are several threads on what has to be done to use the plates on the HAMB so I won't go through everything. I'll just highlight a few problems I ran into. The Gold Trac looked good after I got it apart. I narrowed the housings in my lathe. When test fitting everything I found that the trumpets wouldn't fully seat against the adapter plates. I think these are 1939. The ribs on the backsides were hitting on plates. To keep as much material as possible, I marked the ribs up. Then trumpets were set on the plates and rotated to see where they were contacting each other. I notched them then remarked them and did it again until they no longer hit. There was still a small gap, about .010, when trying to put them together so I marked the plate and sat the trumpet on it and rotated it. Found the lip on the trumpet was hitting in the radius of the plate counter bore. I ground a little off the lip and everything was fine. The ring gear OD was big enough that it hit the pinion support bearing boss in the case. The case was set up on the mill, center was found and a radius 1/32 bigger than the ring gear cut with a boring head. The Richmond quickchange used separate cup and cone bearings spaced apart on the pinion. I assume for more side support than the single double cup bearing used on most other quickchanges. Since I already bought the standard Halibrand double cup bearing, I adapted it to the pinion. The Richmond pinion's threads for the nut to retain the bearings don't go as far down the shaft because the double stack is much taller. I had bought a standard locking retainer nut for the pinion. I bore out some of the threads so it would screw on as far as it would have on a regular pinion. Then a spacer was made so it was hitting the pinion bearing when the nut was in that position. I didnt have a pinion bearing retainer plate so I made one with the right depth. Thanks to Bruce for giving me all of the bearing numbers. The housing was bare when I bought it so I didn't have old ones to get numbers from. The rest of the rearend is the same as setting up any other quickchange.
If there was a "super like" button, I would hit it with a hammer. But until then, you just get a "like". Fantastic setup...
One of the first things I bought 15 years ago was an Enderle Injection manifold. I'd rather not have any electronics on the car but to use it reliably on the street I'll have to convert it to EFI. I'm going to try to hide it the best I can. That and a TKO600 5 speed will be the only modern things on the car. First thing was to mount the injectors in the manifold. It was set up on the mill and the bosses for the original ones were milled away. To keep the injectors as low as possible, pockets were milled as deep as possible for adapters. The original 1/8 pipe holes were opened up to 7/16-20 for adapters to screw into. A 1/4-20 drilled and tapped hole was put between each pair of injectors for a hold down bracket. The holes were stripped in the water bosses. They were counter bored then retapped. All of the bolt holes were spotfaced to get rid of the damage from using lock washers
Impressive ! We are all thankful that you are no longer a lurker. Neat car. You obviously have great ability. Will be watching with interest. Thanks for posting.
Stainless adapters were made that the injectors would fit in. The barrel valve is two pieces. A new top half was made and 2 ports for supply and return fuel were made to feed the bottom half. The arm that originally controlled the barrel valve now hooks to a shaft in the same place that goes through the block to the throttle position sensor on the other side. An arm to control both butterfly shafts is mounted to the top of it. A lot of crap in a little space. I'll reuse the bottom half that the rubber hoses go to for the injectors. Other than the sensor it looks like the old one. Caps with tapped holes were made to go on top of the injectors for the rubber lines to screw into. Hold down brackeys and spacers are bolted onto the holes put in earlier between the injectors hold everything in. The same rubber hose Enderle uses, crimp fittings and sleeves were used to make hoses to feed the injectors. When everything is assembled, it looks close to original. To get a vaccum signal and control idle, holes will be drilled and tapped from under neath into the throttle bores and connected to a reservoir attached to the bottom of the manifold later on.
As I said before, boxed rails and an x-member from Black Board Hot Rods was the start of the chassis. The ladder bars are made from 36 wishbones. The Halibrand Indy Roadster wheels being used only have 2-1/2 backspace. To keep the tires tucked in I have to use a narrow Posies 44" Model A spring with tapered leafs. Even then the shackles are very close to the backing plates. Because of this the spring hangers on the wishbones couldn't be used. I cut them off and boxed them so it doesnt look like something is missing on the ends. After that I drilled holes in the webs. Sleeves were made for urethane bushings and welded to the fronts. To add a tube on top for strength I added tabs that tie everything together in the front. Clevises were welded to the front of the bars and threaded buugs for clevises in the back. The backs don't have to be threaded because the wishbone mount solid. I just thought it looked better. Brackets and tabs were added between the bar and bone for more strength. The cross member in the x-member the frame came with had to removed and a new one added further forward for the ladder bars to mount to. Brackets for the rearend were made out of 3/8. The frame was c-notched 2-1/2 deep and reinforcement plates added above them. If I box the rails they are put inside the rails before the boxing plates are added. An original Model A crossmember was used with threaded sleeves added to mount the spring. Pete and Jakes spring hangers were cut and offset an inch to keep the rearend as narrow as possible. Two narrow gussets were added to each bracket for strength. A single wide one would have hit the frame during suspension travel.
I love what you're doing on the injection. I have a nos small port Hilborn manifold that I would love to do the same thing to. What injectors are you using? From here did you get the injector adaptors , and are they available to me?
You are an excellent craftsman! This is a very cool project! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The injectors are Corvette LS7. They should support up to 550-600 HP. I made the adapters for them. The injectors and hose were the only things that were bought. Adapters are available to screw into the 1/8 NPT threads the manifolds have. I just went through a bunch of extra work to hide them the best that I could.
The Jalopy Journal
