Projects Jumping in the deep end - my AV8 project

The king pin retainer bolts that are in right now are the ones off the 37 axle. They came out easily.

 

Lol, all this shit is giving me a headache. Do the spring hangers need to be exactly 90 degrees perpendicular to the drive shaft? Doesn't the drive shaft need to point up a little?

If the hangers are 90 degrees to the drive shaft, how can the drive shaft/torque tube angle up enough to meet the transmission without bending something?

 

The entire assembly is angled due to the spring pocket i. The crossmember having an angle.
Same as the front.

 

That makes sense. My frame is not currently in a convenient location. I hadn't noticed that the crossmember was angled.

 

All the parts have to fit. You have to have all the parts before you start assembling, or something might not fit when done.

If you are using a torquetube, you should estimate your desired ride height and place the axle that far below the frame. Then find the desired engine and trans elevation, and mock them up in the frame. Then you can point the torquetube at the end of the trans and you will know the exact angle the spring perch needs to be. Otherwise, you are just getting "close". But many times close is good enough. It's a spring after all, so they are meant to bend around a little.

 

Out of curiosity, any reason not to use boat seats? Seems like they would be the right size for the cab of one of these things. I keep seeing vinyl seats for next to nothing... like this pair for $20. A lot of these old boat seats have a cool retro look.



I feel like these would clean up pretty nice and I could easily bring the backs down closer to the seats for a more cohesive look... and these have got to be more comfortable than the ever popular bare aluminum bomber seats.

 

Have you ever noticed when finding old Ford front or rear Axles with Springs still on them that the Shackle pins are always well worn and there is never any Bushings left in the holes? Henry made the Bushings out of Rubber not plastic like todays Hot Rod parts. The rubber is the flex factor so you don't twist and bend the Shackle plates, kinda self aligning if you will. Rubber wares out, plastic is a little better but there's a trade off.

 

On the seats, the only concern is that they don't lock back into place like an automotive bucket seat. On a panic stop, the seat back would come with you. I don't know how big of a deal that is.

 

That makes sense as to why the bushings are so relatively thick then. So I should find the right angle for sitting at rest and it will work itself out from there.

Safety is definitely cool... I would have to modify the brackets anyway to snug the back down to the seat so it would fit better in the cab, so I could just fix the back in place while I was doing that. I didn't end up getting these particular seats, I was just using them as an example. I just keep seeing boat seats with cool styling like that float by pretty cheap and got to wondering if I could use them. Hot rod seats sure are expensive.

 

Went to Harbor Freight for a wire wheel or something and somehow came home with a klaxon horn. Don't know why they even have those but now my off topic truck goes arooga.

 

Uh, didn't seat back latches start in the '70's? No worries there.

Dave

 

On top of that, it's a truck cab right? You don't have to worry about back seat passengers slamming into and folding the seat over under hard braking in traffic. I believe that was the reason they got installed to begin with.

 

Those look perfect. Might have to steal that idea.

 

I ended up with two seats out of a Trump tr 3 Or so I was told. Got them for 50 for the pair. Should fit in my pick up rather nicely.

 

Yesterday was a bit of a doozy. I told myself I wouldn’t mind having a second, more complete project to wrench on in between finding A parts... right around that time a decent little ‘62 Olds Dynamic 88 came up for $600... then $400... then $200...

I went over to check it out. Pretty clean car. Has some rot around the trunk and needs a deep clean but the interior could be saved. I threw a battery in just for grins... all the lights came right on and that old nailhead really wanted to fire up.

Only one problem... the owner died and the title evidently burned in a house fire. It was not included in the will and it is apparently unclear who actually owns the car. The widow believes it is hers, but so does the son and the sister. All 3 of them were there arguing about who owned the car when I pulled up and each was trying to sell it to me for a different price.

The son also threatened to crush it with a nearby bulldozer if the widow sold it for $200 (he wanted $200 and a shotgun ???).

Needless to say, with the title issues and behavior from the family I didn’t take the car. But it sure did kill me to leave it there, no doubt to rot.

I did stumble across an automotive machine shop on my way back, which is doing my kingpin bushings. After that I suppose all I need is wishbones and a drag link and I’ll be ready to install the front. Are stock A bones the way to go here?

 

You did the right thing walking away from that mess. I hope they file for a missing title so it doesn't get crushed. The son sounds like a real jerk wad.

 

Normally there is an executor of the estate. Unless this person died with nothing and owing nothing, there should be someone who is recognized as the one in charge. Since this car is a contentious property, they did die with something.
https://romanosumner.com/blog/estate-executors-responsibilities-texas/
Whoever is the person in charge should be able to get a duplicate title using the death certificate and the paperwork showing they are the executor.
I've heard of too many families going to all out war over assets, so I agree that you would be wise to steer clear of getting into the middle of this mess. You could find out who is on the title for the property, since that is public record, and see if that is being handled properly, but I'd only go down that road if we were talking about something more valuable than the time it's going to take. Sadly, it sounds like everything this person built up over a lifetime is going to be torn apart by the heirs' infighting.

 

There were over forty cars on the property, including a '37 Hudson Terraplane pickup (visible in the background) which was not for sale. They are fighting over absolutely everything, down to individual tools found strewn about the yard as we were walking it. The majority of the cars are pretty much bare bones, but there were some decent, complete survivors, like the Olds I looked at and her Terraplane.




I spent most of my time there shrunk away waiting for them to stop yelling at each other so I could get a word in to ask questions about the car. They weren't able to agree on who owned it by the time I got fed up. I told her (nicely) that I was still interested but not wanting to get in the middle of a feud. Hopefully they get it sorted out and she contacts me. I think this would be a fun project and has lots to offer as far as stuff to learn goes. For $200 and some time I could have an old car to putt around in and get some more wrench time under my belt as I go on it.

It was pretty gutwrenching and not just because of the sheer number of potentially doomed cars.

 

You are indeed right to get out of the middle of that family feud! As sad is it might be to loose the Olds due to the misbehavior of the family, to me loosing that Hudson would be even worse. I think that if my family behaved like this one, I will come back and haunt them. Then I have already had a will made up that says specifically who gets what. It is stored in a fire proof metal box. All that said I think my family is better than all this.

 

That Hudson was certainly the cooler machine. It was the only one nobody was fighting over - I guess the only one that she had bought herself while her husband was alive - and she was not interested in selling it.

I guess even as it sits it's easily worth a lot more than I could afford even if she did want to sell it. Hopefully it finds its way to the right person some day.

 

Save your money grasshopper. Fight off the sickness. Put that money away so when you find your Model A you have the cash stash!

 

I got the vacuum advance on the dizzy hooked up to manifold vacuum, but in troubleshooting I realized I misunderstood earlier advice about the Load-o-Matic. I suppose it is operating but not very well - there is supposed to be what I understand to be a kind of check valve to regulate the vacuum signal, which is an integral part of specific carburetors designed to be used with this distributor. Consequently, it's really hard to start and still doesn't act right at higher RPMs.

It does seem to be running better overall and smoking less at idle, so other than being harder to start I guess it's an improvement.

So that was my last attempt at letting the original distributor stay. My best bet for a me-proof drop in solution is probably just to shell out for a DUI?

 

Might as well upgrade to an LS engine as well. I mean if you are going for new technology, go all the way.

 

Sorry, my sarcasm detector is working about as well as my distributor this morning. I am just thinking that if I can’t find a period distributor, and a repo is going to be new metal anyway, I might as well go electronic. The DUI is all self contained and looks clean.

 

My advice as if it's worth something, Stop fussing with the motor. It runs and is going to be just fine though it may take a little more attention to make it a 10. Get on with the next step of building the project. Be happy with what you have for as little as you have invested. You said your on a small budget, stop spending on the little things and make moves you can physically see. That tends to keep you motivated.

 

And you might as well use an alternator cause they take less room, and you might as well use EFI cause they are more efficient, and you might as well put a MII front end on the chassis since they come with disk brakes and rack and pinion steering. See where I'm going with this?

 

there are several good options for the dist .Get in touch with Bubbas he is the master when it comes to flat head dist.

 

Find a cab.....let's get on with this!

 

I’ve been all over Texas looking! Everyone tells me they’re all gone. I’m back to tinkering with the motor just trying to make any kind of progress. One will come up eventually, but for now it’s killing me just having this thing sitting here.

 

Are you sure they all are gone or just the ones within your Budget? Maybe it's time to just sit back and save up a few more nickels. I've learned that spending more for better parts makes the work involved far less and better project in the end. You don't have to salvage Scrap Iron to build a Hot Rod.