10-4. Cleaned my tip, turned the shielding gas up a little bit as it was a little below 20, and it worked ok for the remainder of holes. As for the leaf, I ain't got a press, so I am going to procrastinate on that. Put the control arm back together. Got the shortened pitman arm as mine was really worn. Got the crank finally ready to come out. That woodruff key was tough! Here are pics of the babbitt. The middle section actually has some cracked off, so I am thinking babbitts will need replacement.
Read the chart on the inside of the access door to set up according to material thickness, and read the literature that came with the machine. THEN take a piece of scrap and practice. An old friend told me to check for penetration, beat with a 3lb sledge; no cracks or breaks? good penetration. Make sure your lead is seated with the "O" ring into the machine before you tighten the wing nut- press the trigger and listen for an audible hiss of gas at the tip, not in the machine ( go ahead and laugh- it happens).No gas via a bad connection or an empty bottle will make the welder sputter and pop, and the welds will be all full of what look like air bubbles (and no good).Rule of thumb, when everything is right, sounds like the crackling of frying eggs (go ahead and laugh again, it's true)( smell the toast?- just kidding) You've got to practice short bursts with a Mig, or you'll get a pile of what my buddy calls "rabbit shit" ( lots of little balls of wasted material that do nothing) plus it will overheat and blow the circuit breaker. Lots of heat being produced so go slow and skip around on your work. It's a lot more fun to weld than to grind! Hiss, fried eggs, beat with a hammer, done.
Yup. Lookee at my fabrication of z- boxing brackets. Start by going to your local USPS. Grab some flat rate boxes for free and they are the perfect thickness for templating. Cut em up and tape them in. Now you have a real boxed frame! Take the panels off by removing a strip of tape so that all the sides are still connected. If you try to make it as one piece, the large sides will actually hit each other, so you can't. Darn. So you can make it out of two pieces instead. One side and one end cap per. Trace out your design using your favorite sharpie and cut it out. I used an angle grinder. Put her back in the vise and bend the end cap pieces over using your trusty 3lb hammer. Make sure you do this the correct direction! You will get something like this: And you need both sides, so... Now for the outer most piece, you must note that you are going over a rivet. Dang it. Anywho, take your cardboard cutout and press it onto the rivet. It leaves an indentation. Line it up with your metal piece and center punch through. Drill it out with a 1/2 inch bit and you get two sweet pieces. Fit and finish with a hand file, and you're good to go. /tech week impersonation.
Now you're cookin'! ( just don't burn the meatloaf!) Frame cleaned up nice, but I won't say I told you so!! You using 1/8 or 3/16" for your boxing material?? I prefer 3/16 myself, especially up front if you're going to weld motor mounts to it. Make strong like bull. And don't forget plating inside, plug welding and angling the ends with your grinder for a nice strong butt joint. Get that thing rollin!
Bending up cross member braces this week; will box around them, so I need them before boxing. Have the plates prepped though. Here are some pictures of what I have been up to. Still don't know about the rear spring.
I think you are sandbagging us, first you show us a crappy frame bada bing a really nice one shows up, then you show us a crappy 4 banger then poof, a V8 shows up. I can't wait to see what other surprises you have in store for us.Keep em coming.Oh and we need more info on the engine too.
Around here we spell "bada-bing" "Candia Swap Meet", frame imported by Mr. Elliot Brown, Vinyl Haven Maine , via the "Roll-A-Bone" hot rod emporium. Cut to; background noise, oil and gas smell, crowd roaring: " And here in post position comes Ben LeBlanc in car # 20 , 50 laps into the 500 lap Enduro!! He's lookin' good folks!!! He's got the right team behind him, and he's headed for Victory Lane!!! Keep an eye on this one !!"
The Iskendarian cam is just the box; not a real isky, so I am hesitant on calling them the real deal; will have to do a little searching. The cross brace I cut out is in 1/8 inch plate; trying to bend it into a C-shape wasn't happening so I outsourced it today. Just going to be hard to get it perfect bend wise; but I supplied the bender with a rubbing of the frame. As for the surprises; I have to keep it a little entertaining for you guys.
1/8" is tough to brake. You can do it but not long short pieces like that. Long thin strips will go though. I'd have tried to do that with tubing or angle iron personally.
Having an issue installing my front. I had my A spindles rebushed and also picked up the kingpins to go with a little over a month ago; following the shop's suggestion on the kingpin. Well, take a look. Tell me how you think I can fix it... A spindles with 37-41 pins
There's nowhere for that bearing to go. I think the KP boss on an A is larger than the 37. http://www.droppedaxles.com/FORD_AXLES.html Only way I see to do it is to put the washer and soft bushing there then line the pin up and lock it in. Looks like you may have a quarter inch or so sticking up the top. Add washers as needed I'd say. There's nowhere for that bearing to live, shelve it. Is there a thin thrust bearing under the axle there already?
The bearing is in the wrong spot. It's correct for the earlier kingpins but they switch bearing positions, later. IIRC.
I think the mechanical brake KPs with the cup on top needed the bearing there. Those KPs you've got are for a juice brake car.
Ah, ok. My bushings on the spindle actually stick out a little due to the guy who rebushed team did so. I can put a washer on there as a spacer and it will actually look sharp. Should the new washer (since I am taking out the bearing) be made out of brass or just keep it steel and lay on the antisieze? Thanks in advance.
Steel should be fine. I don't think I've seen them in brass and properly lubricated, should not really see much wear.
Envious of your opportunity to take on such a build at your age Bud. Your making good time now. Subscribed. Dan
Looks great man! Just one thing? What's going on with the rear brakes? You got the wheel cylinders at the bottom?
On the years with an A banjo, the stock wheel cylinders hit the spring perch. The simple solution is to mount the drum upside down on the opposite sides. A crescent then needs to be cut out and added back onto the other side of the backing plate in order to flip the wheel cylinder back right side up. Cool, eh?
You don't sound that enthused... That was the quick and dirty of it. Way more than I thought was going to be involved. And I've been moving along, but now am wondering which master cylinder to get? I am trying to mount pedals, steering, and such and this is crucial to the whole set up, as one would imagine. Anyone have a suggestion? My thoughts are dual reservoir drum drum, but I don't have any part number in mind. I want to keep it traditional though, but don't like tardel's single reservoir idea...
I would suggest you go with a dual master. I think the most common are GM style that have a horizontal 2-tab mounting layout, so you'd just need to get it level to your bracket and mark it hopefully. Try to go for something that you can get parts for easily and that suits your needs. I think the one I have came off a 60's Mustang and I see a lot of mention of Corvette masters too. Hopefully this'll bump up and get you more answers.
Looking good. Do what Patmanta says,dual cylinder brakes all the way. No harder to install at all and no one will see the thing. Also ask Hamb guys about an E brake setup, need one on your hot rod, tuning that 8 with it running in neutral, gotta have an E brake.
For sure. I actually picked up an A e brake conversion kit for juice brakes at a swap meet a couple months ago. It was the one from clings I believe, and it came with the cables as well as some brackets, which I am tossing up actually using. I think it also came with the A handbrake mounting bracket as well, but unsure about that. Worth it for I think forty bucks? Bought it with my trans. And just to give some background to everything, my engine that I bought was actually from a guy with a forties coupe. He bought the car off of someone and it came with this block, which seems acid dipped and cleaned. Anywho, the car was only pumping 5psi oil pressure, but the guy didn't care. So he took that running engine out for a swap (unsure what he was going to), and just sold the other one to me. The poor running one was also apart, but selling for 800. I believe that what I got was the engine that the first owner had bought and cleaned and prepped to build for the car, but just never got around to it. The guy was a very tough negotiator, but I got everything for the engine (minus drivers water pump!) along with new clutch and a couple other goodies for 300. Good enough for at least a placeholder! Right now I am working on fitting the A pedals into the correct place; but the brake pedal mounts only a half of an inch away from the trans, and the clutch is not going to be able to actuate correctly if the brakes are in the way. Any more questions, ask away!
The Jalopy Journal
