Projects Im getting Married! Project 46 ford begins!

Go man go!

 

You're getting on a roll here.. Keep the momentum going!

 

I feel more like its going to roll over me haha. I also managed to swap out the old trans and engine dipsticks and measure for shift linkage and driveshaft.

I've only got Saturday night from 6 ish till Monday night at 6 ish to work on the car as its currently 55 miles from where I'm currently living so I get off work sat at 6 and haul ass north for a couple days of thrashing. It'd be nice to have it home so I can just pick at it but it is what it is.

On a motor trans note I think if the car ever gets upgraded in this department down the road, thinking nastier motor and a 6 speed, or if I was ever to try this swap again I'd pull the x member out and fabricate a straight cross member and run some reverse hanging pedals under the dash. Had I known it was going to be this super tight and require that much "trimming" I probably would have gone with a manual trans just for the space/size deferance.

Oh well, keep on truckin right?

 

Looks awesome and congratulations! This was a long, romantic post! You're lucky to have them both!

 

There used to be a plate available from different suppliers to replace the cut out section on front crossmember for chevy fuel pump clearance. I guess it was a common modification. It was bent at 90 degrees to fill the void from the cut-out.

 

yeah that's believable, we had talked about cutting the section out flipping it over and welding it back in.

however, it feels like you could get away with doing that for only clearance when its actually in the car and it would be a nightmare to get the motor in with the pump attached or the pump off with it in the car unless you made quite a sizable hole in the cross member and that just feels to sketchy for me at that point.

oh well, paint the block off black and pretend its not there

 

Nice build. Making great progress. I am going in 7 years now with mine, but I am still stalled out... Life just happened these past few years...

 

Yeah that defenintly happens, it'll sure be slick when it hits the road though! Your not to far off

 

Looking good!

 

Alright its time for the Tuesday update. Didn't get as much done as Id have liked but i got pretty close. Sunday night we got 45-60 mph winds and 6 plus inches of rain, it looks just short of a tornado hit us. Massive trees down everywhere.

But after picking up our yard and helping out some friends it was back to the shop for a few hours monday, I only had till 5 but I feel I made a dent.



I swapped out the old valve covers and gaskets, got the carb put back on and threw on the air cleaner to keep gunk out for the moment.

The intake manifold is suuuuper dirty. like 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick gunk in spots.



I'd say with bolts like this all the oil on the motor makes alot more since now haha. I used the remaining ones to hold the new covers down but I think instead of buying a new set of the T handled bolts I'm going to swap over to some allan headed bolts.

I cant see that you could reasonably get a socket in there and the tall T jobs are just ugly. my only concern would be rounding out the allan hole and then your just fucked on getting it out, but i dont think youd really want those bolts that super cranked down in the first place, so ill just try to find the ones with the deepest holes in them and go for it.

I found when I was bolting the carb back on that the threads in the drivers side back hole are fairly stripped out in the manifold so itll have to come back off later to get re tapped, i kinda saw that one coming though.

Im also hunting for a diagram of were all the hoses and what not attach to the carb. I wasn't there when they pulled the carb off the motor when we pulled it so i dont have a photo to refer to. Its a 4 barrel QuadraJet so i can't imagine it should be to hard to find some referance.

looks like a fuel inlet on the front, a pcv valve intake spot below that, and two small vacum ports on the front? just don't know were the vacuum lines go. I'd assume one goes to the distributor I'm just lost on the other one? the truck i pulled the motor from had power steering and a/c so maybe it went to one of those??

*edit: fuel on front, pcv on bottom front center? one vacuum to dist one to trans. the random vacuum port on the back side of the manifold went to the brake booster so i can plug that. just got a call from the previous owner of the motor and thats what he said. that sound right?
Post me a link to info or photos if you've gottem

Other then that I got my brake pedal in. I know, this doesn't sound like a big accomplishment but by the time it was bolted in it took a good 6 hours.

I used a pedal/mc from speed way marked as for 41-48 fords to mount in the stock location on the x member.

Its built pretty sturdy but it was about as far from bolt on as I could have imagined, the only thing that "lined up" were the 4 holes that were drilled in the new part that line up with the original 4 holes in the X member. And truthfully the rest of the unit may have lined up better if I had to drill my own holes.

Any how this is how it went to put it in, the condensed version.

1: i drilled out the rivets that hold in the brace above the mc that run from the X to the frame rail. there is one on the top of the x and one on the outer side of the frame rail.



its upside down and backwards but this is what it looks like, having done a little mock up i found that it was going to be a little tight so i figured while it was out id run a grinder across it a few times to gain me a little breathing room.

2: I had to mock this up and mark it, cut it, mock it up, mark it, cut it quite a few times.
because of the length of the bracket it needed trimmed in the same spot the X member did to clear the trans pan flange area. I went back and forth alot because i wanted to avoid cutting more then I had to. i suppose if you felt ballsy it could be done faster.

I also had to trim it to clear the heads of the bolts that hold on the C.E. trans mount/split wishbone bone mount.

3: on the frame rail side it lines up to use the stock hole to have the brake lever cross over but was the arm doesn't seem to be removable i had to trim down the flare on the hole to let the arm actually reach threw. Also I need to trim the back side of that hole to let the pivot point clear as well.

4: On the transmission i ended up having to cut off the 'ear' that is a lift point to clear the arm.

5: you can now bolt it on, however the bolts supplied with the kit dont actualy fit in the holes in the bracket. cute right?

the bolt package was labeled something like 35 and up brake pedal so maybe at some point they changed vendors for the brackets but didnt change the bolts? who knows.

either way i got it bolted in and then bolted that top brace back in were it used to be riveted in.

currently it looks like the brake pedal lands were the stock gas pedal was and the arm/lever seems to hit the lower firewall instead of being totaly in the toe board like stock. It looks like itd need about a 1/2 inch sqaure notch takin out. however it also looks like travel of the arm will possibly not be big enough before it hits the bellhousing so before i go hacking into the firewall i'll test that out. if its not going to clear i suppose I'll heat and bend the arm out of the way to clear the bellhousing

this is realy were a mock up transmission would come in realy handy because half of the time you need to trans there to know were to trim and whats going to fit, and the other half its in your way to actualy install it easy.

I honestly think that this product was designed by some one that had measurements of the holes it bolts to, the generaly spot were the stock arm hole is, and the angle of the X member and thats it. Very poorly thought out as far as instilation and clearance goes.

For being a brake pedal set up advertised for this car and for automatic transmissions it sure doesnt fit like it is.

oh well, its in. fuck it. I'm thinking about driving up thursday night and getting the m/c bench bled, mounted onto the pedal bracket and run the valves and brake lines....but i also might just pack an extra red bull and get up a couple hours earlier next weekend

that being said I talked to the welder and my wishbones are welded up and ready to go! So next weekends plans are to get the brake lines/mc/ valves etc all mounted up, the fuel pump and filter mounted, fuel line holes drilled~ depending on how things work out maybe run fuel lines~ pull the spring perchs back into alignment and put the new spring on and then roll it all back into the car and bolt it down.

then roll it outside! it will be the first time ill get to see the new front and rear suspension set up with the motor and transmission in and etc. granted interior, gas tank, interior, battery and wiring will add a couple hundred pounds itll show my more or less were itll be sitting!

so theres the tuesday update hopefully ill be more productive next weekend and be able tog et more then planed done. gotta get this thing rumblin!

 

oh, and you cant really see in the pix but the giant HEI dist clears the stock firewall by at least a half inch

 

Don't you know the "T" in T-handle bolts stand for traditional?

Coming along good, buddy!

 

Bah haha, more like terrible. Or... Uhhh travolta 70's disco style? Haha.

At this point I can firmly say that in the future I'm going to just invest my money in tools and make my own brackets and etc. it'd cost about the same, be less frustrating, and you end up with new tools you can use on the next bit.

Lesson learned. Bolt on means "bolt on"

 

Or.. "turn-on." Just a thought.

X2. The only issue for me is I need a ton more room if I'm going to get anymore equipment.

 

Hey man I was having the same dilema with my valve cover bolts, couldn't think of anything better looking than allen head bolts but didn't want them to strip out...I went through that on the timing chain cover. What I've been using is stainless steel button cap alen head bolts. They are nice and strong, and look nice. If you wanted to you could polish them out. You can see a couple bolts in the pics below if you look close!



I got a bag of 20 of them at Fastenal for under 5 bucks, and I've been using them every where! I'm going back to stock up tomorrow!

Oh yeah and keep up the good work!

 

Are you getting more strength because of the material or because of the shape of the head? It looks sharp I'm just curious what the advantages are for the way you went.

 

Also since ya gotta bag of em' what size/length etc. did you use? Figure if I know the size I can swing by fastenall and grab some for myself on the way to the car saturday.

Thanx in advance

 

I think its the stainless material that makes it stronger, and less likely to strip because the alen opening is actually smaller, I used 3/4" or 1", I'll try to measure when I'm home. My wire looms made them a close fit so I'm wanting to say I used a 3/4".

 

Cool, what's the diameter? I don't have anything with my to take into the store and match as the car is so far away at the moment

 

AHH...Sorry, its a standard 1/4 20 thread!

 

cool thanx

 

got our room booked for KKOA in Salina, now id REALLY better get on it haha.

 

update time. i title this update "blah" thats pretty much how i feel about it.



after a little dancing around with UPS showing up at bad times i got my toe panel and random bits from MAC's. they were easy to work with and everything showed up on time. no real complaints other then this floor is not nearly as nice as there catalogs want to make it look. oh well, its better then my roached out one. itll work.

No photo but I also got my shift linkage from Limeworks and it also showed up when it was supposed to, however it does look nice and im very much happy with it



i got into town saturday night and swung by my weldors place and picked up my front end with freshly welded in threaded tubes. Thats about as happy as I was going to feel this flamboyantly hot weekend however.



cleaned it all up and hit it with some black rust converter stuff and under the car it went...



got it bolted in place and crawled out from under the car.......ummm. that doesn't quite right. in fact it looks very very not right.

Everything I've bought from this company has had very very few instructions, just a couple measurements and a few words. And though it slightly feels like your going at it blind it all lines up perfect and no complaints for the most part.

the instructions on the split were pretty straight forward with just one or two measurements. Its a simple procedure so i figured i was good to go just following them. I guess i should have known better and done more mocking up after i had marked everything were the instructions seem to be telling you to cut. But its still pretty bullshit, so anyone thinking about using the C.E. wishbone split kit go ahead, its a nice set up. but be aware the instructions need alot of work.

lol imagine that, hot rod parts having the worst 1 paragraph of instructions ever. how has it become par for the course that having no instructions would be better then the b.s. they stick in the boxes?

anyways, i clamped the spring in, rolled it all under the car, mocked it up and measured it a few extra times and cut another 4 1/2 ish inches off each side ~dont recall the exact measurement right now~ muscled it all back into the truck and back to be welded up.

grumble grumble. indeed.

on the upside i did manage to get the mc installed, proportioning valve, brake light switch and one of the residual valves along with most of the brake lines bent and installed.



is it weird that i actually really enjoyed bending this stuff up? tell you what i didn't enjoy, trying to bend the fuel lines. kinked those bastards at every turn. I'm going to pick up some smaller diameter bits and give it another go. hopefully itll be more like the brakes lines lol.

when the brake lines are all run i'll mess with bending the brake pedal to clear whatever its going to need to clear as i'll know the arc of operation at that point.



a random old front spring vs new front spring shot. the old front spring has a cracked leaf on the very top, and as slanted as the car was sitting id imagine a strong bachelor lean when put under load.

the new spring is a posies' reverse eye super slider. seems like it aught to do the job. i did however notice when i had it all mocked up this afternoon that i had ended up with 2" center to center shackles and the stock ones are 3" any clue if these 2 inchers will work or am i going to need the 3's? I'd assume i'll need the 3"s? any input on what you all are running?

on the note of front ends I'd like to note that youd be ahead of the game to put in your new U bolts for the spring before dropping your motor in.



thankfully I started with this before it was to warm and i still had patience and i just used my hand and a little pry bar to get them in. They are also from MAC's and the ends of the bolts seem to be just a hair to close together compared to what i pulled off but there supposedly the right ones. they'll work, just a note for consideration.

So thats what got done, feels like i got no where other then a lot of bruises from hanging over the front of the car but oh well, it's something.

 

The duntov cam sounds real nice with 1.75" straight dual pipes to the back... look up JeffreyJames build on the Wizard and he has a video of it running... sounds like a nice crisp cackle... Has an old vintage sound to it.

 

hmmm, ill do that. maybe itll lighten my mood lol

 

My 283 needed .500" long bolts on the timing cover, rocker covers, oil pan....

 

Hey Tim, Great progress on your build ! On your front spring I did the same one. and like you scratched my head when they didn't quite match up. I bought my posies spring from speedway but they failed to tell me you need the new posies shackle too. Posies was nice enough to cut a buck or two off it and ship it right away.

 

OMA_Turk how long are the shackles center to center? it looks like the eyes are the same distance as the old ones so I'd guess 3"

would you mind measuring them when you get a chance?

 

ok just measured them, from center to center they are 2 3/8 length.. here is a pic

 

awesome thank you. ill probably just make some that way i actually get what i actually want haha.