Hot Rods now a '33 5w chopped ford hemi coupe

Frame sure looks nice!

I have long theorized that the kind of person who would unchop a car likely wears plaid dress pants and has been arrested at least once for public masterbation....

 

I like that gonzo......you made me laugh.......

 

wow....thanks dumprat.......

 

well, I working on boxing in the frame........

 

frame boxing completed, ready for the next step..........rear parallel leaf spring set-up....

 

Someone mentioned throwing away the left over parts from the chop. I hope I'm not repeating myself but I saved all mine and lo and behold. a friend of mine bought a '34 5 window chopped top car that needing some "changing". I gave him my left overs and it was a definite improvement. Pictures below.

 

well, we got the rear parallel spring set-up mocked in.....looks good and tires are dead center in the cars wheel wells......

 

Looking good! How did you weld in those boxing plates without warping the frame all to hell??

 

thanks man........
you just keep alternating your welds, side to side, back to front.I usually just weld about 1/4'' spurts ,then after time the unwelded area decreases, then tie them all together.Plus, I had the frame secured to the lift bars.

 

Here's my 4" chopped Hemi powered 34 sedan - its worth the work


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

that is sweet........I'm gonna PM you to see if you can send me more pics of the '34......thanks for the post....

 

Are you going to put c notches in front and rear for suspension travel ???

 

Just in case you need more motivation. I do indeed plan to get it into shiny paint and with fenders eventually.

 

FYI, I C Notched my rear frame rails and put the rubber bump stops in the notch because with two grown adults in the back, it would bottom out. But I didn't C Notch the front. My rear is also hung with parallel leafs with the super slider springs, almost identical to what your doing.

Looking at how little travel you have between the top of your rear axle, and the bottom of your frame, you're going to bottom out.

For your font rims and tires, I recommend the 15X5 and not a 15X6. My old rims were 14X6, the new rims are 15X6 (same back space) and now I have a rub on the drag link from the driver side tire when I turn the wheels to full left. The tire just barely touches it. But I am pretty sure I can heat and bend the pitman arm about 1/4" inboard and it should clear. I only ever turn the wheels to full stop when getting into or out of a parking space, so I haven't done it yet.

 

How does the car ride with the parallel leafs? I am in the beginning stages of building a sedan and don't know what type of rear suspension to go with coil overs, transverse or parallel leafs.

 

I don't know about c notching yet. I have to get the front assembled, wheels on ,motor and trans between the rails to get the front ride height. Then I can get my rear ride height and work on the stance I want.

I'm not there yet. I have more to assemble then I can make a accurate decision. I might end up putting the springs on top of the axles.

 

My Model A has at MII front suspension, and the rear is hung with Coil Overs and a Triangulated 4 link. I bought it as a running vehicle, but I had to cut all of the brackets off the rear of the frame, and re-weld them back on because they were binding, two of them were cracked and breaking free and both of the shock mounts were a bubblegum'd up mess. Once I fixed that, The Model A rides just like my daily driver. Honestly, it really does feel just like my 2013 Ford Edge.

My 34 has a solid tube front axle with a split wishbone, and the rear is hung with the same parallel leaf that 2345coupe is using. It rides like a hay wagon. Its really bad! I really thought it was because the 34 is really stripped down so perhaps it doesnt weigh enough to flex the suspension, but this Christmas, I had it out with 4 grown adult men in it and it still made us cringe at each pot hole in the road. Having said that, the extra weight of the passenges did indeed help. Im hoping that once I get the hood and hood sides, fenders, interior, and glass, that the extra weight will help the 34 to ride better.

 

Here are some Picts of the how my rear end is set.

 

well,I started to assemble the front end..... its a ,34 ,4" dropped axle done by Joe of Joe's Hot Rod Shop. The spring is a posies super slide reverse eye, Pete & Jakes.The spindles are '42-47 and were matched to the axle. I want to run f-1 hubs (48-51) so I can have 5 on 5 1/2 bolt pattern. I think I just have to change out the inner race and bearings of the f-1 hub to a 42-47 inner race and bearing to make the f-1 hub work. I find out if it will work when I get the new races and bearings.
Mean while, I'm drilling out the door pins so I can weld in the lower door patch panels.

 

To use the f 1 front hubs ,you will have to use different inner bearing. If I remember the brg # is 14116. Also use a different inner seal and I can't remember that #. Use the search feature here there are several threads about the swap. With the rear springs in the top position of the front mount ,you will definitely have to C notch the frame. Might work in the middle or lower position, but you won't know until you mount the body , gas tnak , interior ,etc !!

 

thanks 47 ragtop..........I moved the rear spring to the lowest hole now . I want to see how far the hemi pushes the front down ,then address the rear.
Thanks for the hub information.

 

Dirk: Did you buy a kit for the rear spring setup? If so, what and where did you get it? Thanks, Tim

 

bought the kit from a HAMB member

 

Tim, I think its a kit from Speedway from a really long time ago. I didn't build the car originally, I got the car as a running project and have been re-doing things on it over time. I didn't change how the rear end is hung though, but I did pull the 8 inch rear out of it and put a 9 inch rear under it. But my rear spring are definitely the Posies Super Slider springs and the rear shackle and boxing plate is identical to 2345coupe's kit. The only thing I see different from his kit vs mine is that my front eyelet bracket is welded under the frame rail instead of inside the frame rail.

You can see what I'm talking about in the picture above. You can also see that my rear axle tubes are on top of the spring and you can kinda see the "C" notch where I cut out the frame rail and welded in a piece of tubing. I think I used a piece of 5 inch diameter, 1/4 inch thick tubing cut about 3 inches in length, then cut in half. I didn't notch it all the way to the top of the frame rail; its an inch down from the top of the frame rail and the frame is boxed. I put a rubber snubber in the "C" notch and I checked the other day and I don't see any scuffs in the paint on the axle tube so its no longer bottoming out.

My front suspension also looks exactly the same as his, except that I have a tube axle instead of a I-beam axle. Also, my front wish bones are longer than his. Mine are split and have the welded in bungs like he is doing but they go all the way to where the master cylinder bolts under the car. They are almost even with the transmission shift linkage to let you know how long they are. I had to cut a hole in the mount plate that the driver side eyelet bolts onto for the master cylinder when I changed it from a single pot master cylinder to a dual pot master cylinder.

Hope this helps.

 

Dirk35 would you recommend this rear suspension or go a different route? It sounds like it rides very rough

 

Honestly, I don't know why my car rides so rough. It shouldn't ride this bad. It's really rough. Its possible that my springs are too stiff. However, I haven't narrowed down whether my problem is the front or the back.

My Model A doesn't ride like this at all. I built a 35 ford Pickup before these cars with a MII and a Parallel 4 Link with coil overs (yes, I know Traditional Police, it wasn't period perfect) and it rode great also.

If you're not opposed to a Triangulated 4 link with coil overs, that's the route I'd go.

For my car, I personally think something isn't right on the suspension on my 34. I just put new shocks on it a month ago and its still bad so they aren't the problem.

Once we get a little better weather, I plan to look at the front end to see if perhaps its bottoming out. I looked at the bottom of my frame rails where it meets the spring and it doesn't seem to bottom out, but I think Ill put some modeling clay, or maybe silly putty and see if the front is bottoming out.

 

BAM! Now on to our regularly scheduled program.

 

Great thread, read the whole thing. Subscribed and looking forward to the next update.