thats where the cowl was cut to do the radical chop ...........the tear would be typical from impact on the heat affected zone of the weld very sad to read about the demise of this great little car , glad the lad is reasonably OK ........and maybe rebuild Steve in Oz
Henry Ford used the same basic setup on 15 MILLION Model T rear axles. Forged perch, rounded inner edge and a rounded chamfered hole. Bob
While looking at the crack in the cowl don't overlook the important part, the door posts look fine. Fairly sure the chop wasn't just a cut and butt weld, the inner structure was rebuilt, then the outer skin went on. Bob
It is good to hear that you are ok Ben. So sad to hear about the ride. You surely had a few angels ridin with ya that day.
Holy sh*t, this is giving me shivers.... I´m glad you walked away in one piece.You built it once, I´m sure you can do it again... it´s a shame to see this car mangled up like this, but it surely did it´s best to save your life.
Glad to hear you are alright and survived the wreck pretty much unharmed...............repair the chassis and order another Brookville body for flop to chop, the pale rider will ride again!! .................Also for everyone else questioning the suspension design that Doane Spencer created (and the Rolling Bones adopted). I would not be afraid of it since the Rolling Bones run it on every car they build with 10,000 of thousands of miles has certainly proved it is a sound design,My concern is looking at the perch pin and the fact Ben mentioned it had multiple cracks ( cast?) then sheared would indicate was a cast repro not a forged original which may have made a difference with the load on it.
@31Vicky with a hemi posted a photo which made me scratch my head. I'd never seen a non-tapered spring perch before. So I reverse googled the image and ran into the article about this "not to be afraid of" awesome front end. Not so awesome in my opinion.
I would like to hear from the owner Ben. I want to make it clear I realize nobody likes an "I told you so", but I agree with others. That radius or taper is critical. The perch pin in the photo looks like a forging to me. Even a forged part will shear off, if enough force is applied at a single point. That taper is on there for a reason. Don't remove it. Hindsight says to taper the bung to match. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Doane spencer influenced MUCH and inspired MUCH. Sure it's running a suicide front end. All low slung spring behind suicide front ends are NOT created equal. The pics aren't the best and there is a lot going on there. But look at what you can see. Not to many guys copy it. Z in the front gets ride height lower and uses stock curved crossmember. 1- That makes sure the spring doesn't ever bottom out on a flat crossmember. 2. Makes room for the tie rod 3. Gives room to mount/move/hide the shocks inboard with short arms that work. 4. It gives a bump up for the motor mount pedestal so they aren't on break away towers. These are obviously not split wish bones with a bolt thru them- but hairpins on batwings. There is plenty enough real estate to build a dead perch on the drivers side and a big gusseted Spring perch or shackle mount on the passenger side.
Yeah, that's one of the first things I noticed. Looks kinda rotten to me or maybe it's a clean sheer with a little filler making it look worse than it is.
This Hotrod was in a catastrophic accident. Weakest links are going to give. That is a given. This was a suspension anomaly that caused mayhem and should be the main focus. We watched this build in detail and this workmanship was built to stand normal operating conditions I have no question about it. As eluded the structure actually aided in the preservation of life and owes knowone any apologies.
Yesterday, when I saw Ben's pictures on face book, My thoughts went to all the topics that have been discussed on this thread so far. I'm glad to see people thinking about this & what the cause & effect's are. Hopefully something will be learned from this so there won't be a repeat situation. I'm really glad Ben is OK. I have my own thoughts on this, & will be interested in the forensic conclusion / out come on this.
No , machining there to 90% will create stress risers and cracking , should have a radius, but, probably a market here for matching tapered bungs so the part fits like original (and no cheap casting's)
The world will never run out of junk Model A wishbones, why not cut off the ends of the yokes and turn them down to use the factory tapers and install them in the split bones with good factory perches? Cutting a slot and welding in a flag like some race car axles isn't a bad idea either. Bob
Is there a good reason one couldn't forgo the talk about tapers and such and just weld up the taper area to equal the bushing diameter shown, drill a hole through the wishbone and weld the larger diameter perch in from both sides. (Won't work so well on cast parts) That perch should never have to be removed, right?
If you weld the perch in how do you know it is in the same plane as the spring? Caster is determined by the split wishbone placement, lots of things to think about before welding it together, think I'd go with a adjustable perch some Loctite and a nut. Bob
Just for consideration and discussion. Ben's car uses a cross steer setup. If a drag link, or better a cowl steer design were used the car would drop and slide with much less steering direction change as the axle shifted sideways. Also...T bucket suicide front ends use a bolt on spring hanger that appears far less robust than a factory style perch bolt. They have a machined flat for mounting. Thoughts on those???
I'm fairly clueless about the front end bits-- but perhaps someone should dare Jim Sibley to straighten that body out. Tell him "this can't be fixed" and then stand back. Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
I am flattered, but after reading the build post I am more than confident that Ben can put this car back together to as good or better condition.
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