Yes, thanks! I was moving my ground from the cross-frame to the outer rail, back and forth as I was welding up those holes and divots in the two areas. Every once in a while I'd forget to move the ground and it seemed like things didn't go quite as well as when the ground was in close proximty.
Still playing with the welder. I did some warm up on the 1/16th coupons and then decided to work on the holes in the floor of the trunk of my car yesterday afternoon. Here's the big one: Here's a look from the bottom. Not sure why they punched these holes in the floor of the trunk since this area is right over the gas-tank. They did a pretty clumsy job of hole-making: You might be able to see how rough they are in these pictures, so first thing I had to do was pound the edges straight. My lovely assistant helped me with that. She held the head of an old adz (like a flattened sledge with a dull blade on the end opposite the hammer surface - anyway, it was flat on the side and heavy, so just right!) while I pounded upward with a small tack hammer: With the metal flattened I could then cut-out/grind circular holes. You'll notice to the left of the large hole that there are two more about quarter-sized: I cut up one of my 1/16th practice coupons to make the "hole fillers". It took a while to get them "fitted" correctly. I moved my magnet to the bottom to hold them in place from when I started tack welding them: Top view of tacking them into place. Magnet is underneath holding fill-piece into place: More on this later.
On holes that large I prefer to remove the surrounding edges until a thicker less compromised surface is revealed. When you weld holes as rusted you are working with say 18 gauge original thickness that may well be as thin as 22 or even thinner gauge. Also when grinding try to grind the proud of the bead as much as possible and not the surrounding surfaces. Remember you may be grinding metal that is thinner than original due to corrosion on the surfaces not readily visible. I prefer to use a patch or filler pieces to fill large holes as opposed to just laying in globs of weld to make a surface. These methods work for me. I burned up, ground away, and in general mutilated a lot of metal learning to do better repairs. You appear to be doing well. Trail and error will lead you to what works for you.
Thanks! The surrounding metal only had slight surface rust and is in very good condition. Still not sure why someone would cob holes like that in the trunk. But it happened a long time ago, before I bought it in 1966.
Welded and grinded (ground?) I would put the trouble light under the car and shining up to identify any pin-holes of light coming through. I wanted to make sure I had a pretty continuous bead around the fill-piece. And then there were the two smaller holes. They were pretty rough: I made quarter-sized cut-outs and filler pieces for them: By the end of the day, I still had one to finish: So, I finished up the last one, ground the welds as flat as I could and then shot them with primer (also sprayed the bottom surfaces):
Well done on the repairs. The same guy must have owned a 40 coupe project I have. Same randomly hacked holes in the trunk for no apparent reasons. Shamless plug, it’s for sale here. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/40-ford-coupe-project-price-cut-3.1236797/
Oh man!! I'd love to buy that from you, but right now my garage is filled with my 40 sedan stuff scattered all over. Oh, and hear that smacking sound? That's my wife, looking over my shoulder and slapping her rolling pin into the palm of her hand.....
Scott, LOL my wife has NO idea how to use a rolling pin for ANYTHING! especially baking!! That's even after 51 years!
Gary: Thanks for asking. With my unheated garage work has slowed down a bit. I am putting a Heidt's SuperRide II front suspension under it, but since this forum doesn't like to have people talk about MII front ends and such, I haven't posted anything. I've got the front end all prepped, boxing plates welded in, and the new cross-section tacked into place. Currently I am making a fixture to make sure I get the upper control arm mounts tacked in at the correct distance apart. Once I am done tacking in the upper control arms I'll start working on the rear suspension. First I need to find a modern rearend that is compatible. I measure 59 inches brake drum faceplate to faceplate on the old one, so need to find something in that range. I haven't decided yet on parallel leaf springs or a 4 point, but in any case I have to have the rear end so I can specify the rear suspension kit. For the rearend I'll take the time to box in the rear frame and then tack everything into place. I'll bolt all the front and rear suspension components in place and then slide it under the body to make sure the axles are centered in the wheel wells. If that's good, I finish welding everything and move on to engine selection. And thanks for the offer of help. I'm sure that I'll definitely take you up on that at some point.
I put parallel leafs under my 40 and like the ride. I used a Chassis engineering kit on the rear. I worked at a Ford Dealer and copied a crossmember and built my own this was in 1978 and still have my 40.
Somebody had sent me an email expressing interest in my old front suspension, but now I can't find it. Please re-connect. Thanks
I measure my old Ford rear-end as 59 inches from brakedrum faceplate to faceplate. Does anyone have a list of compatible modern rear-ends for replacement? Which do you recommend? (I need to start hunting one down so I can move forward.) Thanks!
Maverick in my 40 coupe, had a Granada in an earlier 40, slightly wider. Maverick is perfect for me. I know there are other options but I have not used any of them.
Back in the day, Nova rear-axle assemblys were commonly used in vintage Fords. They have dimensions that are near perfect and are almost bolt-in. Probably OK for the street, but they are not robust. My 37 Ford had a Nova rear when I bought the car, but I pulled it to install a Ford nine-inch rear to hold up on the track.
I have a '75 Ford Granada 8". The spring pads measure perfect for the Chassis Engineering parallel leaf kit. Still working on it.....not installed yet. Strong enough for a mild 200hp motor as they came with V8's in the stock configuration.
Thanks for the information! But not sure that will hold together with what I am thinking about. Oh well, I gotta keep looking.
I was going through my Dad's old 35mm slide collection and found a couple of pictures of my car. This one is right after I bought it in 1966. Check out those tires! Dad wouldn't let me drive it until I rebuilt the brakes and replaced the king-pins.
Here it is almost a year later. 53 Merc flathead is out (kept overheating) and 283 PowerPack is in. Dual exhaust glas-pacs. 16 inch wheels gone. Replaced with 15 inch 1950-something Mercury rims. Punched out the rivets and reversed the centerplates and had the local machine shop align and re-rivet them. New tires.
Put a Granada 8 3/4 in a '40 Ford Pickup. Spring pads lined right up with Chassis Engineering parallel leaf spring kit Had to use a 1/4" spacer to keep 235-75 R15 tires on 8" rims from rubbing bed side Had a 260hp 350 with a built short tail shaft 350 trans Sold the truck several yrs ago Hope this helps Edit: Crap, just saw someone else earlier posted the same info, sorry for the repeat
I have a '59 9" in my '35; factory pads fit the CE spring other than I had to add a wedge to correct the pinion angle. We put a Bronco 9" in another '40; had to use new spring pads of course; but was not a big deal. Both axles were the right width; but are getting a little harder to find.
I got it from a friend, it was cheap and went in real easy. Had a pan on the back of the center section like a GM 10 bolt. Other than that do not know a lot about them. I also added 1" lowering blocks to lower the gap between wheel opening and the top of the tire
Stock '40 Ford rear I believe is 59 1/4" axle flange to axle flange. If I remember correctly this one was 58 ". Another popular one back then was a Lincoln Versailles 9" disk brake rear. It was 57 3/4" flange to flange.
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