Does anyone still use needle bearings between leaves with lots of bearing grease and a wrap on the spring pack afterward? I know it doesn't last forever, but back in the '60s that's what I did to get rid of squeaks and smooth out the ride.
Figured I'd start this post with another inspiration photo. Not to many sitting on an agressive take with no chop and this ones even green! Anyhow I got my leafs all sorted and ready to reverse today. I made a massive mess inside when I started yesterday so today I took advantage of the nice weather and the fact that most of my neighbors would be at work. I staryed cleaning up the gouges first. I used a flap when on my grinder and some other weird abrasive discs I had around but they didn't really cut the mustard so to speak. However as I grazed the end of each leaf I found some subtle indentions that I may have other wise missed so there's that. I ended up starting today by hitting the indentions with a grinding wheel with the spring in the vice. That worked much faster and then I fine tuned and got te last little bit of it out with the flap disc as it's quite a bit slower at pulling material. That done I moved rounding the ends of each leaf. I first took the grinding wheel and nocked off all four corners off the end of each spring. As long as some of those grooves I worked out were I figured the less things to grab the leaf under neath the better. The side ones I basically flattened out and the two on the tip were ground to give the end of the leaf a slightly round curve. I wouldn't say a half a circle round, more like a philbert tip on a paint brush... Or I guess like a finger nail. Anyhow I think rounded the bottom surface of the leaf getting rid of that leading edge all together. Some of them got all the way to a nearly a knife edge and others maybe a 1/16 thickness temained at the tip. I tried to make the slope as smooth as possible so I made the transition up to a half inch long. My thought is the smoother the better, and since working the grooves out of the leaves still gives you a bit of a wobbly surface is try to make up for it by really paying attention to the surface that would be sliding on it. The grinding wheel can be a little in forgiving it you catch a funny angle so I got them pretty close and then went back with the flap disc and got them all the way there. As of now the plan will be to drive the remnants of the old bushings out of the spring eyes, sand blast both packs, reverse the main leafs, trim the second leafs and then make the call on paint and assemble with Teflon slips. Seems half say paint each leaf and the others say paint the whole pack as one. In my mind I should be fine painting them one by one because if I'm running the Teflon I shouldn't have springs pushing paint off the spring under it. That make enough since? I also know that they will sit for some time on a dowel and not put together under tension so it seems painting each leaf would stave off any rust from Sitting around waiting for the chassis to be ready. With the reverse eyes I'll have to strip the pack to just the main to install it because you can't use a spreader on them. So I don't see the point of putting it all the way together only to take the pack apart to put It on the car Well other than for easier storage I guess. Wow that was a ramble Any how that's were I'm at. Making a mess
As for a gas tank, how about a 1948-52 Ford pickup tank mounted in the back like this Did it in 62 and did it now. Fits like Henry designed it. Repops available from Speedway. Love 28-29 Tudors. Built several back in the 60s but foolishly talked myself into a 30 this time. Just my opinion, but please no 32 tank on an A Warren
Thanks for the photo warren, David has his like that in his red oxide sedan I posted and you really don't lose much foot room doing it like that. I'm shying away from this option for a few reasons however. 1: really don't want the tank inside 2: with stock foot room I might be able to have someone sit in back and have my dog lay on the floor in the back 3: I'm planing to have it possible to pull the body and have a driving chassis with out pulling fuel lines or anything. There's probably more reasons but that's the jist, though it does look like it was build for this use doesn't it! Right now my current idea- which is subject to change- is a tank behind he rear axle but not sticking out past the bottom of the body and paint it flat black. I think with some polished nerf bars and the license plate mounted either on the nerf or on the body near the bottom with a Hollywood plate lamp that the tank would disappear into the back ground 90% of the time. Polished stainless vs flat black Out in the sun vs tucked under Round tank vs plate and nerfs with strong angles and definable edges Should be able to fit a spun type tank that holds 11 gallons with about 7 inches to spare width wise
Also.... Dig this! The darker green is similar to the green we are thinking. I'm still voting black fenders and the more sea foam/mint green on the wheels and striping . Also the grill shell will be painted body color. Though body colored fenders with black wheels and the lighter green on the caps and stripes is still appealing. In the end I'll probably spray paint each side of the car different and see which one looks cooler
I hear you Tim with the gastank headschratching issue. I had saddletanks on my puppy and I hated them. I did not want the tank inside, the spun tanks looked somehow strange to my eye and deuce style kits are overpriced. Anyhow I felt that the space between fenders needs to be filled so I ended up fabricating my own 10 gallon version out of stainless. At least it's homemade if nothing else Fuel by FinnishFireball posted Mar 17, 2016 at 4:51 PM
@Tim something just occurred to me, if you reverse the spring eye the divot on the main leaf is going to be on the back side and won't make any difference other than if someone gets down there and looks at it. The spun tank out back takes a specific type of car to actually be right. A performance oriented car like an early '60s street strip car almost begs for it, but a classy cruiser doesn't want it at all. At least that how I view it.
That looks pretty cool fireball! I'd thought of doing something similar actually but decided that I actualy prefer the space open. With the tall skinny tires and the heavy rake I think that space being empty makes the body not only look shorter but higher up. I think if the build were heading a different direction I'd do what you did but for now I think I'll try out this "hiding in plane sight" idea
The nice thing about fenders is they give you a good place to hang tail lights. Nice sedan @arkiehotrods I have never been one for green vehicles (bad luck) but that color combo was my dad's favorite and I always like to see one painted like that.
Thats a cool one Duncan! Dig all that rubber stuffed in the back. For an area that's so often not thought about/discussed I really think it makes a big difference in how the car feels. Got some cool ideas brewing
Actually I started to do that but ruled against it. It took up too much room to have a back seat and with my son back there didn't like the thought of the fuel right there. I was running the stock tank but now will be using the saddle tanks from Tanks. I think they are the most logical placement for tanks in an A Tudor.
I guess with the filler up high and your seat spaced forward to jump to the conclusion that the tank was back there. How's your progress going on that one?
Holy cow those wheels look bright! A friend changed the wheel color, ditched the plate and "painted" the grill shell for me real quick in Photoshop. On his lap top those wheels are a nice soft sea foam, on my phone they look day glow green! Lol thought I'd post it anyways
Yeah the filler was from when I was going to run the tank back there and the seat is as far back as you can get a seat. Thats how much room you'll have. Its moving slowly forward! Waiting on parts.
I'm glad I came across this thread as I will be picking up a 2 door sedan body either this weekend or the next. I too want full fenders. I like a green. I'm staying with the 4 cylinder banger. The really scary part, I have a beard similar to yours.
Cool! Gotta love the fenders That makes since David, I took a lot of photos of the back seat area of stock restored cars last summer so is know what to expect. I'm super excited
Cool! Gotta love the fenders That makes since David, I took a lot of photos of the back seat area of stock restored cars last summer so is know what to expect. I'm super excited
I realize I'm a little late to the spring pack party, but a safe (ish) way to take them apart is after you get the bolt out and they are all clamped, use a long piece of all thread, nut and washer on both sides, then you can unclamp and back the nut off slowly to unload the leaves. you can also do this to put them back together.
Yeah I think I mentioned in one of the first posts that that's how I had planned to do it. In the end when only the main leaf was left I still had to beat on it for five minutes to drive it out. There was no way that thing was gonna come out of the whole pack
Not a lot of room for tanks in these things. I have all the parts to make a 32 style tank out of two Triumph tanks. If I ran fenders I would run a couple small saddle tanks, maybe 7 gallons per side. The store bought ones look like you could drive cross country w/o refilling. You WILL be stopping more than that.
I still have the gas tank from my F1. It's clean (I was running it before the accident) and even has a sending unit. It's yours if you want it... and I like Boulevard Wheat.
I think I'll have to go look at a stock car/back seat and see how forward that tank would put the seat. That's nearly double capacity and with new rubber it probably wouldn't stink up your car inside
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