Neat! Looks like fun. I went no fenders and chopped on my Sedan but will go with fenders and no chop on the coupe I'm building. Like them both ways. Your vision is spot on, I like it.
Somehow I missed your thread. Looks like you're making good, steady progress. Keep at it buddy. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You go Tim, build her that damn car already! I laughed out loud for real when you mentioned the mess collecting in the garage. I would claim before the kids that mine never got like it is now. Well except during a 11th hour cram session. You especially can't afford to let it get out of control or you might get lost in there. I always think building in my home garage speaks volumes of my Hot Rod street cred. Then I see you one bay guys, that's dedication. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks guys. To be fair and honest the garage is bigger but unless I kick my wife's daily out of the garage this is the only spot I've got to work. And, well, you may be braver than I but I'm not trying to kick a pregnant woman out of her parking spot! So I did what anyone would do, I tore down a wall and pulled the water heater out and had a tankless unit put on a different wall. Walla! I can stick a car next to my work bench I've worked in far worse conditions and @Rocky has been building cool stuff in an itty bitty garage since before I could drive so I'm happy with the space allotted.... happy with the bruises on my shins from running into spindles not so much...
Alright so an unexpected update While I was waiting for a furniture delivery he called and said he'd be late.... hmmm might as well head to the garage I took my front spring apart, sat the main under the perches instead of above it and rebuilt it. The shackle angles aren't exactly equal in this photo but it's close. I tossed the frame on top and gave it a look. This illustrates my new issue. With just the weight of the frame the shackles are pretty close to 45deg. now a model A doesn't weigh much and the motor I'm using might weight even less than the stock one but this isn't going to work. Those shackles are going to bottom way to early. My thoughts. 1: with no weight I don't know that they need to be perfectly horizontal but they should be closer to flat than to 45 2: I built my front spring pack following @Ron Brown post on dropping his model A. His looks pretty spot on so I'm thinking my issue is basically lack of arch. When I took apart the original pack I noted it was from a AA and thus had extra leaves that seemed to be duplicates of existing leaves. So a stock spring pack has 10 leaves and mine had 13. Counting from the top down I had doubles of spring 2,3 and 4 more or less. I believe when I picked which of the duplicates to keep I probably grabbed the ones with less arch in them to get it low. So my plan right now is to look over the leafs I removed and ether A: replace an existing 2,3,4 leaf with the higher arch one i removed. Or B: add a leaf bringing it one leaf closer to a stock pack. Both options trying to put some arch back in the pack. I think if I can get the pack to narrow about an inch or so my schackles would be just right. 3: my last though my was, well with it at 45 deg the front is basically at rough ride height with out the motor or trans or anything in it... So I threw a fender on it of course! It doesn't have a brace under it just clamped to the frame and blocked up under the running board end and a little on top of the tire but it seems pretty close to 2 1/2 inches from the crown of the tire to the fender. Maybe a little more but figure it will have a fender brace right there we are probably really close to where it should be. So what now? Get all the hardware sorted so I can bolt the springs in with all steel and remove the wood. Block the wishbone up for 7 deg caster. Block the frame rails up so it won't let the shackles go past 45 deg thus holding ideal ride ride height and rake. Make sure it's all centered and drop the motor and trans in place for mocking up mounts! Ideally the spring would have had more off weight arch and I would sit the motor down to compress the spring but I've only got a window of time with my friend who will fabricate my drivetrain mounts so I'll make this work for now. If I have time I will go ahead and mess with the front spring before putting the body on for a big mock up for basically storage but if it doesn't happen it won't be to hard to roll the front end out from under the car and mess with it and it's not going to ruin anything if it sits with the shackles bottomed out for a while. Any how there we are. Thanks for the input on the tie rod shortening. Feel free to suggest spring ideas or whatever else you guys think of, it takes a village
Regarding the tie rod...I would tell you that I also used a later model ford tie rod on my Chevy that I shortened, slugged, and tig wedged back together and have put about 6-7,000 miles on but someone will chime in and say you can't weld steering components so I won't tell you that...
I used it as a motivator to put the wheels and tires on haha. Also realized yesterday that the car should be light enough to sit on the cheap harbor freight dollies and use them to move the car around. Once it's got the fenders on it I'll use them to shove it into position so I can still get to all my stuff while it hibernates.
@cactus1 when you cut it down did you notice a difference in ID from where the original threads were cut and the un tapped section?
It's been several years so I can't say for sure? I want to say it was a 3/8" slug that I used but I'm old?
I ran across someone shortening one the other day but hell if I can remember anything else about the post lol. Feel like he drilled it to 11/16 before taping it. I think it's going to be one of those things where I cut it apart and find out. Until then I think I'll make a wood tie rod so I don't have to play rouge shopping cart every time I want to roll it a little back and forth lol
Thanks man How's the coupe treating you? Thought I might try to stop by the next time we are driving down to Little Rock and see ya
The coupe is good. I drive it to work now and then. I need to get some baffles in the exhaust. Let me know. We'll see if we can meet up. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I put some steel wool in the the ends. It works surprisingly well, but I have a more elegant solution for another thread. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Haha thanks man. If I have energy then next two days are about to take all off it! Stay tuned And maybe say a prayer lol
Thanks for the prayers we made it home in one piece! Now for the big day tomorrow! I'll try to take photos so I can remember everything to post, but I'll leave you with this teaser!
I've tapped my drag link but to be honest I wouldn't do it again. I had access to lathe that's the only reason I tapped it. I didn't have to drill it. Just shoved the tap in. I would cut it, slug it, and weld it. Sent from my SM-N900P using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The big day! Started the morning off with some glamour shots across town. Feeling pretty stoked That taken care of I went to fetch the Beaner We then set about getting the path cleared to the car. It's being built in the far back reaches of my garage, I've got a better parking spot for it when it's finished but for now this is where it'll sit, and possibly winter in the future. Anyhow some utilities moved, some shelving removed we had a path and we pushed the trailer over into position. I'm curious how many people behind us on the way home thought this was a whole car and not a body on a tiny trailer? Everything sorted we ate some pizza and waited for some friends to show up. I can move the trailer with the body on it with one hand but I knew better than to try and lift it even with Bens help A rail road mechanic, a Beaner and one huge pipe fitter later it's on the frame! See above posted video I've had these stray old 2x4s laying along the wall for a few months and couldn't figure out what to do with them and it seemed like a waist to toss them. Well stepping over then for half a year paid off when they were the perfect length to stick threw the windows with a man on each end! Had they Been longer they wouldn't have fit down the path, shorter and we couldn't grab them! No photos for obvious reasons but we lifted it off the trailer into the garage and set the spare tire on a small dolly and the cowl feet on two other small dollies. We rolled it back in front of the frame pretty easy with four people guiding it and then Austin and I grabbed a corner and a spare tire and heaved it onto the frame while Ben and Ryan took care of the front. Did need to use the board again as you can see in the video briefly. Thankfully it fit threw the roof! And even with nearly no sub frame it didn't seem to flex much at all and sitting on the frame the drivers door opens and closes just like it did on the other frame we took it off
Breaking this into several posts as I'm in a waiting room and don't know how much time I've got to spend... Man I was stoked on this photo! Thing feels like a monster truck with my low ceiling but after looking at my inspiration photo file it looks like the back is pretty spot on and the front can come down just a couple inches. I think we've got that sorted and I'll go over it more in the coming days. After cleaning up some antifreeze I finally freed my motor from its power unit stand and after some wrenching got the old power take off bellhousing off as well. That sumbitch has got to weight over 100 pounds easy. Roughly twice what the transmission weights, I might find a scale to stick under it before this is all done. Anyhow I went to stick on my speedgems adapter and found the starter nose gets in the way. It might fit once the bellhousing is on but it needed to come off for it to bolt up. Got it across the garage and went to mate the trans and found that I need a pilot bushing adapter to put it together, for mock up I think I'll just pull the flywheel and move forward. Should probably double check that I've got the right bolts to pull this all together first anyhow. But that's what a 153 mercruiser speed gems 46 side shift ford combo looks like ~ going to run a 39 case but this ones got the good guts in it and the tail mount so it'll be used for mock up right now. I had to stick three 2x4s under the tires to get the hoist legs under the axle! Gotta go I'll edit in the rest later!
Cut it in the middle and retain both ends with stock threads and splits. Sent from my SM-N900P using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Guess I'm out of photos! You can see a few things of interest in that last photo. In the lower left hand of the motor you can see the red motor mount. It has two front mount legs for mounts in the power unit so I bolted them back on and for now they are sitting on the front crossmember but once the motor moves back I'll put blocks or a jack under them. Figured it was a good way to position the motor with out blocking the rails. Might put a board under both of them and then block under that in the middle. This motor doesn't weight much. The motor will move back about 4 1/2 to 5 inches which should be about perfect for firewall and radiator clearance. I've read of people. Nipping the center mount off the top of the adapter that's unused off to clear an uncut firewall but I'll see where it lands before I start cutting stuff. The back is currently held up with some jack stands. I need to pull the carburetor and elbow off the intake manifold so the motor can slide all the way back into the stock divot and I need to pull off the little head pipe off the exhaust to drop it down a few inches as well. The head pipe is actualy cast iron, I was going to hit it with a cut off wheel and realized that's maybe not the way to go so I'll go after the stubborn bolts. Anyhow there it is right now. Plan is to get the trans bolted up, motor position and make my mount templates. Once the motor and trans are in on correct mounts I'm going to address some front spring issues and get the nose down a bit more. Over all however it seems to sit about like I thought it would though it sure feels like a monster truck with my low ceiling lol. Guess if your going to run 750's and fenders your ass is gonna be pointed up!
Congrats on the baby man. Word of advice, get any wrenching you can in while you have the time. After they are born you won't have any spare moments for awhile!
The Jalopy Journal
