Waiting on a warm dry day to sandblast, so I have been fooling with little things. I really wanted stainless tailgate hinges and nobody makes any. So I made my own. Haven't quite got them finished yet but I am getting somewhere. It has been an adventure!
The shocks are so-cal shorties as are the upper F1 style mounts. The lower mounts will be welded onto the axle. I wanted to use some of the existing frame holes and the original perch pins. I think the perch pin lower mounts look dumb.
Built a couple of cowl vent ratchets out of stainless. One for me and one for a friend who is replacing the vent on a badly street rodder 34.
Assembled and temp install! It steers super easy even with the fat 7.00-15 front tires. It will be easier with 5.00-16 once I get them mounted up.
And I finally got the rear springs reverse eyed and the spring bolts done and drilled for grease. Lots of work but doesn't look like much. I hope yo get them hung on the axle and bolted back in this week.
Any more details on the grease zercs on the perch bolts would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to do the same on my PU
I am running parallel leafs in the rear. They are front springs out of a 48 F100. I split the packs down, reversed the main springs to reverse eye the springs and kept four leafs per side. The mounts are fabricated and as the springs use a brass bushing instead of a rubber one I need to make the pins greaseable. I made new pins from grade 8 fine thread bolts and turned the heads round with a flat for the anti rotation flat. I drilled a #3 hole half way through and then a 1/8th hole in from one side. I tapped them for 1/4 28nf for fittings. Easy to do, just time consuming. But way cheaper then new F1 pins that wouldn't fit anyway.
Crappy side profile shot! Needs a lowering block or Z in the frame. And the axle needs to go back about 1/2" but I am slowly making progress.
Looks like the rear axle needs to come forward. To center up the wheel with the fender line on the bed. Keep plugging at it's a good build to watch!
No it needs to go back a half an inch. And the rear of the truck needs to go down at least 2" I am deciding weather to pie cut or straight drop the frame.
Ya I spent some more time measuring this afternoon and it needs 2" down. My plan is to cut the frame straight through where the leaf spring mounts are, drop it down then bolt and weld the spring hangers on as a fishplate.
Picking away at small things and gathering parts. I added a bunch of cool little bits on a trip inland last week and got my rear tires finally. Got the wheels painted tonight and hope to have tires mounted by the end of the week. But I am coaching track and field tuesday and thursday and need to change sparkplugs in my truck so that might be a touch optimistic.
After months of work and saving money I finally got my tires and rims on the truck, and I hate them. The fronts 5.00-16 are too small and tread is stupid looking and they are to narrow for even a 4" wheel. I like the 7.00-16 rears though.
You might try 6.00-16's on the front. I like the combination of 6.00's and 7.00's. That will give you a good rubber rake without being out of proportion. It's easy to get front tires which are too small and rear ones which are too big. Then they just look silly.
Need to borrow an axe? I agree with you. I thought about smaller fronts, but glad I went with the 6.00X16's. They just look right.
I guess the moral of the story is look at old magazines and see what they ran as opposed to the "New traditional" which screams Rake!
Still picking away at the truck. But coaching junior track takes up a lot of my free time. Got the doors blasted and ready for patches. And the rear spring hangers notched in and tacked up. It now sits as it should and lines up pretty nice. I am going to ditch the 5.00-16's for a pair of 6.00-16's.
The Jalopy Journal
