Projects Modified Lakester Build (THUNDERCASKET)

So, I was working towards mounting the passenger seat and I decided I really did not want to make another base like I did for the driver seat. So I pulled out all my bits & bobs that I had from before and started playing with them again. I had a eureka moment this time and realized I could eliminate the risers I had made, drop down another inch, AND give the seat more adjustment.



The first seat frame setup I made put me up close to 4" and the second one (currently in the car) has me up 3" with no tilt adjustment other than a wood block. This new setup can go down to around 2" up to 3" as I have it set here for some tilt.



All I had to do was trim the mounting plates, install rivnuts, mount them to the sliders, attach the seat brackets I had, and make up some plates to mount them to the subframe. So, with this setup, I have an inch of adjustment up, down and some tilt.



The holes in these mounting plates were bigger than on the seat brackets so I put 1/4-20 threaded inserts in.


Once I drill the brackets, I will bolt the seat in. I can drill additional holes in the seat for even more front to back adjustment if I want to. I have it set up so I can have a narrower footprint where it meets the car too. Once I get it IN the car (and actually fully bolted together) I will get a better idea how I want it set up.



This is what I used (because I had it already):
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Universal-Bucket-Seat-Slider-Tracks,7103.html
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Universal-Seat-Mount-Plates,7104.html
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Adjustable-Seat-Riser,57393.html

 

Very nice!

 

I'll be studying this more. Thanks!

 

Thanks! My advice if you want to replicate this a little cheaper is to make the "Adjustable Seat Risers" out of angle iron yourself if you want to save money vs time but they work out to a little over $20/seat so it isn't a lot of savings. The seat mount plates are cheap and already designed for these sliders so I really think they are worth it.

 

Rapid-fire updates for the last few weeks of chipping away at things here.

I mostly finished the passenger seat base and slider. It does let me get overall a bit lower and at a more comfortable angle. I will eventually implement this design for the driver seat but that will happen after I get it running and driving.





Got it in the car and started mocking up my parking brake placement. I will need to figure out how to make that work.



A lot of my time these past few weeks was spent erecting 'the hut' and giving it some creature comforts like a floor, soft sides, and an insulated ceiling sto work on the 170 SLANT POWERED 27 T SHORTENED TOURING, "BASURATI" project and starting to finally clean up my driveway now that my shoulder is getting a little stronger. It is actually surprisingly comfortable in there.

 

Next big do, I finally got the missing set screws from Eastwood to make my radius die set useful. I did OK with the smallest one on this backing and mounting plate I made for the dash which I will weld to it. This will give me a good, secure way to attach the dash without sacrificing being able to take it off the car AND it looks pretty cool too IMO. A bit of foam tape on the back will seal it up nice.



And I finally got both of the rear shock arms that I made out of old cut off Ford steering arms tacked in place on the rear bones.

 

Lots of good progress.

 

Took a holiday break from projects but got back at it New Year's Day. Did a lot of cleanup work in the driveway with @justa170 and got my transmission put in the car with the mockup block as well as some planning/measuring work on the Basura-T.

Now the car is sitting weird. I had the engine in it fully loaded before and it sat at a 1 degree or so rake. Now with just the empty block in there the car is sitting flat and I can't quite figure out why but I think it has something to do with the rear pinion angle having no control whatsoever and there being some weight missing from the front with the block being bare like that. The transmission is complete so I figure with the body that there is more weight bias to the back of the car presently that will correct with the loaded engine, radiator, and nose back in front.

Well, with a jack under the rear, I got things about lined up enough to get a measurement for my torque tube. Looks like I need about 48.5" or so if I understand the process correctly. I will get a cleaner measurement before i do anything.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ening-a-ford-closed-drive-torque-tube.961582/




Happy New Year!

 

The car is still apart and I still have not gotten the old bushings out of the rear end. I bought a tool but it's really for more modern applications and doesn't have cups or pushers the right size to move a 3/4" x 2-1/4" bushing. SO I will be making a tool out of some tubing, washers, and a grade 5 or 8 bolt with a rounded off head. Wish me luck; this is the thing I hate worse than pulling a stuck hub.

Everybody up here seems to be too busy to make me a shortened torque tube, so yesterday I bought an Evolution chop saw. I'm pretty excited to have something to make good precision cuts with without a lot of fuss and fire. I figure it will about pay for itself with just this first job but I bet making frame kicks and crossmembers is going to get a lot easier too and I need to do some of that on the AAV8 when I get back to that.

https://store.evolutionpowertools.com/collections/evolution-chop-saws/products/evosaw380

 

What bushings are you trying to get out of the rear end? You mean the bearing races? If so just weld a bolt across the race and knock them out.

 

Nope, thanks though. I mean the OE Ford spring shackle bushings.

 

That is a cool tip though! I think you should remove those now just because you know how.

 

I’ve got two 3/8 ratchet extensions that are smashed together that I use to hammer those out.

the two short extensions let you 1: get it nice and seated/ centered and 2 gives you length to let you hammer it all the way threw.

I put the spring or hanger on a 2x4 and smack the tool with a heavy hammer. Typically even a stubborn one will come out in less than 6 blows.

sometimes I forget I have it that’s how I know which bushings were being stubborn lol

I’ll take a photo this afternoon

 

Oh I get what you mean now with the shackle hole bushings. Depends on how good you are with a torch. I took mine out by slitting each side of the bushing with the torch and not touching the bore. Gotta be careful though with that method. A press or some grade 8 threaded rod might be safer. Get a piece of fine thread stuff. It'll work better. Some of those bushings are crazy tight. Putting the new ones in is a lot easier.

 

Thanks for sharing your solutions guys, I do appreciate it. But unfortunately, my body cannot really handle heavy hammering at this point due to my shoulders, and my hands lock up if I use an air hammer too much or much at all really (I don't even have a real compressor anymore). So I need some sort of screw-based style tool.

I ordered a variety of grade 8 hardware. The only full-thread bolt I could get at the time was only Grade 5 so I hope the Grade 8 stuff has enough thread on it to travel 2.25" but I am not too hopeful. Regardless, plan is to tack a Grade 8 washer on to the top of a piece of tubing, put a dab of grease on it, put another washer on top of that, round the head of a bolt to size and stick that through the shackle bushing, put the cup over the other end and tighten a nut down until the bolt head pushes the bushing into the cup.

 

I used this https://www.mcmaster.com/3314N733 for putting my new bushings in if you end up needing more threads.

 

I hammered one out but the other would not budge before my shoulder quit. The tool I assembled did not really work because I ended up with more friction at the nut nd less at the head so the whole works ended up just spinning around. I found a large center punch in my pile, flipped it around and put a socket over the head. While that felt substantial, I did not get anywhere with the driver side bushing. I really need to get this done SO I can re-assemble to measure for my Torque Tube because I have the new Evolution saw now and have decided to shorten a torque tube myself.

 

Did you try the torch method or don't you feel comfortable doing that?

 

Do you have an air hammer? Just heating and cooling something like that can make a world of difference in breaking it loose.

 

If I couldn’t drive it out I’d take a hack saw and take it apart so I could put the blade threw the bushing and then attach it so I can easily cut a slit into the wall of the bushing.

then take your chisel or sacrificial screw driver of choice and catch a corner and hammer it. It takes a while but once it curls in enough it should drop.

not my preferred way to do it but sounds like your running out of options

 

I did hit it with the MAPP torch but I got no movement. I only have a small pancake compressor at this point so my air hammer does not get much grunt. My dominant shoulder is still not really healed, so even running a hack through there is going to be pretty rough let alone sustained hammering. I am pretty screwed at the moment so I am going to have to rely on @justa170 to take on some of the grunt work on this thing for me. I am glad I have help around the shop these days!

I had some photo memories from 2 years ago pop up recently and I realized that I need to cut myself a little slack on this car. Sure, I started it like 9 years ago, but I've torn it apart and started over like 4 or 5 times instead of finishing it. In reality, THIS car has been built over the last 3 years once I decided the last version was not up to my expectations.

April 2019:

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ld-thundercasket.751582/page-21#post-13048840

Nowish:

 

I am decades into my '26 Chevy, with no beginning in sight.
You are doing a good job. At my friend's estate sale where I spent the weekend the little HF press you need is sitting out behind the shop. I wish I could tele-port it to you.

 

I just weld a bead around the race, as the weld cools it and the race shrink and race will almost fall out.

 

That is not what I am trying to do here. I am trying to remove the old Ford spring shackle bushing.

 

Can you turn that around in a way to get it in a can or bucket? If so try soaking it for a day in citric acid & water. If can loosen the rust between the pieces it may help. Easy & cheap, You can get food grade citric acid at the grocery store.

 

That is an interesting idea. I would need to pick a timeframe where it will be mostly above freezing in the shop. It usually stays above 30 this time of year at least. I could take the rear rods off and turn the arms down. I need to do that anyway to correct the driver side shock arm and finish weld the other one I made.

 

Simplest way to remove those bushings is to take a sawzall blade and trim its height down so it fits into the bushing(I use a cutting wheel on a grinder and basically cut it in half the long way). Slice 2 relief cuts through the bushing only. Take a punch and smash the pieces out. I've done this countless times.

 

Yaknow, I thought about that for a hot minute but chickened out or wore myself out or something and forgot about it. I really wasn't sure it would be a good idea or not so I an VERY GLAD to know that it's a viable plan. I have a few sawzalls but mainly I use the little Milwaukee hackzall most of the time. These things have always been the bane of my old Ford parts experience.

 

Just another thought on the bushings. Do they even need to be replaced? Often they are egg shaped and worn clear through. Ive had the eyes on the rear axle worn almost through before. But ive also had them, particularly on the late axles, be fine. The axle I just put together for my current project I left the original bushings. Shackles fit snug so I used them. Fuck it there's enough to do on these cars sometimes you have to enjoy a freebie.

 

Yeah, unfortunately they are both worn AND seized up in the perch. I had the car sitting with them so long that I forgot they needed to be replaced. The shackles I pulled out looked like they got a little tweaked sitting in there so I got replacements and tossed them in the mock-up/yard art bin.

There sure is way more than enough to do on these cars for sure! These "little things" really gum up the works too. That is part of the reason we are using a lot of new catalog parts on the Basurati build, essentially buying back time with extra money so we can focus on the broad strokes and fun parts of designing and building a hot rod. My buddy @justa170 is benefitting from 9 years worth of mistakes and unused cool ideas