Back to the small stuff that takes forever. First thing on the list was the throttle linkage. First step was to locate where the pedal would sit, so I tossed the seat back in and put my foot at the spot that felt good. After that I built a small stand off for the pedal. This allowed me full travel, and at full throttle the pedal arm is about 1/16" off the floor. Good for now, might have to adjust later for carpet. Cut one end, put a radius on it to match the pedal foot. The pedal spline setup was flipped from the factory design. This was to allow the linkage to sit straight through the firewall. I wanted a simple pass through linkage, but I didn't want a steel braided line. After a bunch of figuring on pedal location, pedal/pedal arm angles, throttle at full and resting positions, and trying to get the smallest hole in the firewall possible. I came up with what I think is a fairly simple design. I just used some 3/16" rod, a heim joint and some hardware. I made the arm from the pedal to the heim joint location out of the same 3/16" rod. Tapped the end, then bent it over. Other end I made a small pocket for the joint to slip into. This part is fixed so I ended up putting the adjustment in the carburetor rod itself. From the top side, used some brass parts to tie it into the carbs. Next item on the list was the breather. The other cast one was hitting the firewall, and being a cheap casting there is no way to weld it. So, I found an exhaust adapter that fit the breather portion perfectly. I traced the old on on a piece of steel and cut it out real quick. Inside I welded 2 baffles at opposite sides on angles. This should baffle the oil vapor, same as the cast part had. Put a 10 degree angle on it to clear the firewall, then welded it to the flange. After that I used some JB weld to make a smooth plate to tube look. I wanted this to look more like a stock part than a custom part once painted. That's it for those. Next is the ever so fun project of mechanical fan with 3 carbs.
Next on the list was the throttle linkage and the crankcase breather. Throttle pedal itself was flipped. I installed a small nylon washer to space it off the base/foot I made. The base was to lift the pedal allowing me full travel at a more comfortable location for my foot. Next was a ton of figuring on the linkage, for something so simple. I had to factor in full throttle, no throttle, pedal angles, pedal arm angles, distance traveled, heights, all while trying to keep the hole in the firewall as small as pilossible. The throttle rod itself is 3/16" steel. I tapped both ends, one for a heim joint and the other for a acorn nut to finish it off. The heim is to keep some movement in the throttle while things twist under loads. It also allows for movement in the arm height as it travels through the arc from full throttle to no throttle. I picked up a grommet that I was able to cut with a razor knife. This keeps as much out of the cab as I can ask for. Also used some brass to tie it all into the carbs. I'll probably look for a brass acorn to swap the other one on the front. Next was the breather. The old cast aluminum one was.straight up and it hit the firewall. So I traced out the base and cut it out. Next was the tube, found an exhaust adapter that fit perfectly for that. Inside the tube and at the bottom, I welded in 2 baffles to match the old cast one. I then started sanding at different angles to get the breather some clearance from the firewall. Ended up at a final 10° angle. Made sure it could be removed from the tube with the fuel line above, then welded it together. After that I used some JB weld to feather in the joint. I wanted this to look more like a factory stamped part than a custom welded one after paint. Next item on the list is the mechanical fan setup with the 3 carbs.
Just an FYI, a Harley rear master cylinder boot OEM 41764-79 makes a good throttle rod boot. Opening is about an exact fit for the rod. It was 8 or 9 bucks at one time, not sure now. Drilled the hole in the firewall to fit the first necked down portion of the boot.....stays put.
I like your work. I did find on my triplet of 97's that the throttle linkahges work best when tipped forward 45 degrees (or 10:00 rather than your noon set up).
I'll have to look into the bellows style rubber boot, I like the clean look of the flat one for now though. Yeah, didn't know about clocking the linkage. I suppose that can be done, but I'll need to make another rod to lengthen it. Time to dive into the mechanical fan mount. So I ran into this problem promptly in my process. The front groove on the lower pulley sits almost right under the cap and wires. So the belt ran right through it. Not going to work. So, after staring at it for an unknown amount of time (longer than I want to mention) I came up with an idea. I decided to use the original generator mounted fan setup from my parts stash and convert it to a fan setup. Yes, it's been done before, but I haven't seen it upside down. I took everything off the back of the aluminum backing plate like the brushes and pins. Then ground down all the high spots. This picture shows the rough grind. I cleaned it up with an 80 grit 2" disk. I also indexted it some by grinding the lip on the outter edge. Also keeps it sitting inside the other side of the bracket. Next I cut the main shaft off, stuck it in the lathe and turned the larger end down to fit snug in the bronze bushing. Next item on the list was to make sure I have oiling to the bronze bushing. Since I flipped this I needed to flip the oiling setup as well. Pulled the oil cup off and plugged it with a piece of brass stock. Then turned a piece of brass to accept the oil cup and press into the aluminum housing. I cleaned and pre-soaked the oil wick inside as well. Time will tell if the weep hole (tiny hole at the bottom of the wick area) will leak. If it does I will plug it. I had to drill out the lower (old upper) hole on the steel bracket side and tap the aluminum side to reverse the bolt head. It was hitting on the timing cover upper bolt head. I'll also counter sink it so the fan blades on the pulley clear it. To be continued....
Fan setup continued.... Next was to make a bracket. I knew things were going to be close as I was mocking things up, but close it sure is. Everything on this is close, which is why it took me days after work to figure out. I see why guys go the electric fan route lol. Grabbed some 3/8" and 1/2" plate and made a bracket. Put a small angled recessed spot for the oil wick area. So when it slides up and down for belt tension it won't rub. Now here's where I messed up and made it more complicated than it needed. I should have made the 1/2" stand offs on this bracket deeper by 1/8". Then I could have milled a groove in it to slide like the factory mount, but that's okay. This works too. The top needed something to keep it from rotating, so I placed a small tab on the top of the bracket, seen here as my template. After that I needed one inside. Turned down some aluminum for that as a spacer. It also keeps it from rotating on the lower side. Time to check clearances. Again, snug as I'd like it to be. This is mid point. It will go as low as sitting on the casting of the engine. Then up till it touches the oil cup. Plenty of travel for belt tension. A front shot of the system mocked up. Close to the distributor as well on full drop, but still plenty clear. Put the fan bracket at its lowest point and ran a string around the ouuter edge of the pulley to measure belt length. It came out to 26-7/8". I ordered a 27" belt first to try. It was spot on perfect! To be continued....again....
The whole crux of this design was the double pulley. A special thanks to fellow Hamber Groovybaby6 for selling me the double pulley. I really appreciated his prompt response and delivery of the pulley. I decided that this would be a good idea. A single side pulley for the fan. As you can see it seems to be good to go, time will tell after use. This was a bit more involved as normal. Some trial and error, disassembling and re-assembling the pumps many times. They are very specific in how they go together. Many checks with a micrometer and feeler guages. I pulled the pump off the driver side. Put the double pulley on and put it back on the car for testing. However, I noticed a diameter size difference from the other side. So I checked, and sure enough not the same. I had some other old pumps laying around, those had the same diameter of the double pulley. Swapped the passenger side pulley. Promptly ran into the smaller pulley hitting the snout of the new pump body. Here's a shot of the snout difference from old to new Speedway pumps. Had to grind it down to be just under the inner diameter of the old pulley. Stock Speedway pumps. One sanded down to fit old stock pulley. After I got the pulley and pump situations figured out I then made sure the pulleys all lined up. Turns out my alternator needs spaced out some. Shouldn't be to bad to do with a spacer. I also pressed these 2 pulleys in a little further than before to match the lower crank pulley better. So this picture is more than it currently sits. All that sorted out and final test mounted. Seems to tension the belt well and clears everything well. I'm super happy with the look and the fan location. I will do some final detail work like clearance the fan bracket itself for the upper belt.
Time to finish the air cleaners. Maybe I'm a bit overzealous on this but yes I sanded the top of the bar across the carb opening to flow better. Guess it's the small details. After those bars, I tig welded them to the main bases. There is a tack on the bottom of each one as well on the inside. Next was to figure a center stud of some kind. Grabbed some 1/4" rod and tapped the ends for 1/4-20 threads. Put a groove in the bottom and slid it over the cross bar. Then I tig welded all 3. Forgot to mention that I drilled for a set screw on each base. I did one for now, and it seems to hold well. Tapped the bases for a 1/4-28 set screw. Time to stick them on for a test fit! I sure do like the look of the slight stair step. A single wing nut will hold them down. Next item on the list is a large one and will take some time. Radiator and grill shell locations. Height and angle of grill will be a process.
While I'm deciding on grill shell height and radiator options I decided to do a few more small details. First up was the spark plug wire looms. I wanted a stock look, but the stock locations didn't work with my setup. I also wanted them to protect the wires in case of a belt breaking. Here is a stock driver side loom. Notice it drops down and not forward as I need. I had a ffew damaged sets, so I decided to get to chopping them up to make one set fit. Using the factory bends from the damages sets. Tig welded the joints up and put a flare at the end where the wires feed through. In this pic I actually wasn't satisfied with it. So I decided to shorten it, in turn bringing it up another 1/2". Next was to do the other side. More chopping, cutting and welding. This side isn't as nice, but I didn't want to cut up a nice tube for one bend. Gives it the look anyway in my opinion. This isn't a Roadster show build. Under the passenger tube up front is 2 loops I brazed on the tube to hold the wires for the distributor. You won't see them, but they are there. Next was to get those little tin grommets to fit back in. I'll tell ya this, you can have your way with these things and get ugly with it, if that makes sense lol. There is an inside side which is smaller in diameter than the outside, so pay attention to that. Here's a pic of how it looked before. With some care and patience, a few misc small hand tools and pliers I was able to get it back to looking stock again. Some will crack, and you'll have to start over, but out of 5 total, I needed 7 tin grommets for the project. I took them off the junk tubes. All said and done they serve the purpose. Keeps the wires secure and protected! Managed to feed the coil wire though it as well. Tip, silicone spray is your friend to get these wires through. If you notice as well, I've got the oil filter housing mounted. Cut the base off that, drilled a couple holes on the back of the mount. Then put 2 rivnuts on. Bolted through the firewall. Simple and effective. Bent up some 1/4" brake tubing for the oil feed and drain lines. The coil was also bolted up to the firewall using a early ford slide style mount. I ended up using one factory firewall bolt location for the mount as well. Onto more projects, next will be the battery location and mounting bracket.
Looks great @FiveNdime ! I've got those same wire looms on my '48 FH. It was a bear to get the wires through. I got the ignition wire through as well, but my coil is mounted at the front of the engine upside down and goes directly to the dist. I also have the stock dist. and not the crab cap, so I used the rubber boots for the wires between the dist. and the loom. Still following and taking notes...Cheers!
My wife got me a cool little key chain for my A. A company out of Germany makes these. Pretty cool! Next was the dome light for small details. I had a dome light from an old Willys pickup laying around so I decided to use that. Bent up a couple little mounting feet for it and riveted those on. Then I had a bulb socket laying around which made a good light option. The factory one was toast so I had to remove it. Just bent the tabs down, drilled some holes and riveted that on. Along with a ground wire prepped for when I get around to wiring it. Used a couple of wood screws to mount it on the top just behind the seat rest. Next on the list was the battery. I explored a few mounting locations, one being the firewall between the tank and firewall itself inside. While a battery can fit there, it was just to much of a hassle. Next was the trunk, and that I didn't like looking at. That and I don't like the battery inside the cab of the car if possible. So I decided to crawl underneath it and get to figuring. I found one spot that would work good. It serves a dual purpose. One, I can access it from under the seat. Second it can be removed from below. Third, it will be close to the starter and on the same side of the car. Went to the steel yard and bought some 3/4"×3/4"×1/8" angle iron. Grabbed my spare K-member piece I had extra from the build and went to town on a mount. I don't have a vertical band saw due to room in the shop, but this little tool is awesome for these small projects. Cut off the bottom area ofnthe angle iron where it met the frame rail, and put a radius to fit the inside corner. Where that meets the K-member rail it gets a foot with holes drilled for mounting it, so I made a couple of those. Again, putting the radius for the inside corner of the K-member rail. Welded up the inside and outside corners, and burned the mounting feet on as well. Next was to fit it with some angle braces. One side could be welded on. The other side I wanted to have the ability to unbolt it. I didn't think that the battery would come out of its spot without it. Turned out it does, but with that arm removed it makes it much easier. After that I drilled some holes and welded some studs on. One for the front strap mount and one on the side foe the brace. Then I had to figure the actual mount/strap setup. I wanted it accessible from below and from above. I wanted it easy to remove and install, and I wanted it to look clean from below if your ooogling at stuff while it's parked. I drew out a design on paper and decided to roll with it. I put a square hole and slot next to it. The arm/strap has 2 bends to create a Z shape. Ya just pop the strap through the square hole and slide it over to centerline. Then pull down and slip it over the stud. Use a single nylock to lock it down. I'll put some rubber under the battery after paint. The strap has some stick on rubber weather stripping on it now. Final mounted using all 1/4"-20 hardware. Final shot out of the car. Everything fits well in the car too.
Everything on this car is impressive. I really like the light socket - horn contact. That will probably show up on my car.
I finally got around to figuring the front grill shell height. Set it on my cart and drew a couple lines to cut it 1" lower than stock. Kinda painful to cut up a perfect factory 32 shell, but it's fine, I'll live lol. First I set the grill on it stock, it was hideous looking, way to tall. It's amazing what 1" cutt off the bottom will do for looks. Standing on the side and looking from the front, from down low to up high to sitting in the driver seat. All the views were taken in to make sure the "look" is there. I settled at 1" for now, but I do believe I'll be dropping it about another 1/4" to 1/2" more. That said it was time to order a radiator. No aluminum for this, has to be period correct brass. Full disclosure here with Brassworks.... I reached out to Brassworks a few times via phone and email messages, and was sad to say they took over a week to respond. Never did respond to my email. I understand it's business and sometimes you can't be right here, right now, but over a week isn't reasonable to just pick up the phone, or send an email. So I went with Johnson's Radiator formerly Walker Radiator. The first time I called they picked up the phone and answered all of my questions they could. Some they didn't have answers for, measurements which is frustrating to me. You should know the measurements of your product or at least be able to get them for me. Aside from that I was really happy with them, thier lead time is 3 to 4 weeks for a 2" chopped 32 radiator with 1.75" outlets, No AC and No Trans-cooler provision. I went with a 2" chop so I have some wiggle room for height. I really only needed a 2-1/2" chop, but liked the idea of having that extra for adjusting. Onto the pics! This is a shot with a 1" chop on the grill from the side. I think a little lower would be good, but not much. Had a little time to kill so I bent up the final line for the filter, and tucked back inside under it is the oil pressure sender and feed line setup for the oil filter. Quite tricky to stuff all that in this spot. The firewall and brake pedal were in the way. Next project is wiring while I wait for a radiator. I put the harness on the shop floor to see where things went. Then put the box in the car. Oh wiring, how I love to hate you lol. I picked up a kit from EZ Wiring. Good product, decent directions, but I had to blow the harness completely apart and move things around. I'm kinda thinking I got the wrong harness delivered than I ordered. I have odd circuits like AC, power antenna, radio, 3rd brake light, electric fans, other misc items. No biggie, I got them out and used some for other stuff. I'll label them so it's not in question. I know wiring okay so it's not a bad task. Before I started I had all components in place as best I could. Some like front lights and signals are not in, but I'll just leave them loose up front. I had a pile of wire and was trying to figure out how and where to hide it. I had a drop cut from a rear radius arm. I grabbed that and decided to make a trough for the wires to sit in. It would hold the wires and keep them out of site as best as possible, as well as providing a path for the wires to travel. Took the arm and cut it to length. Built a bracket that incorporated the arm and the oil filter. This should also help any fatigue at the firewall. Did some die grinder work to clean things up. Smothed it out with a 2" disk and some 2" scotchbrite pads. With everything smooth and unable to cut or damage the wire it was time to put it in and see how things fit. Put it in then marked the column for a stud to bolt the upper end to. Pulled the column out, tigged the 1/4-20 stud on then put it all back in. Wires are way loosely routed but this gives ya an idea. Slowly buttoning up the wiring. A friend gave me a tip. Grab wire tie roll to tie the wires together while routing them. It can be found at a hardware store. It's a green coated wire for plants. Also comes with a cool built in cutter on the roll. Saves on zip ties being used then cut. These can be moved and reused multiple times. You can see the green ties in the picture. Also in the picture which I didn't document is the CDI box mount. One piece with #10 machine screws welded for studs to hold the box. The lower is where it mounts to the firewall using the stock 4 holes. The grommet was placed here since there is already a hole in the firewall. Still all loose at this point. Since wiring is slightly boring I won't bore people with all of it. I will just post the main stuff. Once I get to my fuel circuit I'll post that, it's not completely unique, but I want to give people the overall look at how I'm wiring it. Stay tuned!
When I was talking with US Radiator, they were VERY cagey about sharing dimensions on their radiators before I placed an order. I'm guessing that they got burned by sharing too much and other knock-off companies ripping off their designs. Looking great! Keep at it!
As I mentioned, I didn't want to bother ya with to much wiring. I'll try to keep it simple, not in my nature, but I am really trying with this car. First was the rear tail section, boring as sin, just 2 tail lights so I'll pass on that. Only thing I did that I'll mention is to remove the sockets, heat shrink the wire to the socket base deal (hard to explain, but the contact point of the bulb base) to keep water out. Next was a dab of die electric grease on the socket contact point. Heat shrink about 4" of the harness coming out of the tail light housing, and then wire it all up. Biggest part was the fuel system, solenoid, and misc positive connections that needed to be made. So I went ahead and drew a diagram of how I wanted to run things. Most of it didn't change, however placement of some things did. The pump ground now runs through the inertia switch instead of grounding the relay. One thing I did check out is the inertia switch itself. I pulled it apart and figured out how it worked. Quite simple, but I noticed it had a 3 pin position harness with only 2 wires. So I grabbed my multimeter and tested continuity. Sure enough it was wrong. It was wired as a normally open circuit. I needed a closed one. So I unpinned and swapped one wire. Bingo, worked as a closed circuit. If it trips it will go open cause no ground, in turn shutting the pump off. Just a fail safe if I get in an accident. For those wondering I had no room for a oil pressure switch, I would have run one of those in tandem, but couldn't. This is the switch pinning from factory Here it is setup as a closed circuit. Here's a few more misc photos of the setup. It's not finished or tight but it lays out well. I have a few more misc constant hot wires I'll be wiring to the positive lug. I did the lug so I didn't have to have multiple wires at the battery terminal. Just keeps it cleaner. I'll be swapping to a 2 prong weather pack connector at the pump. I'm really trying to keep all this stuff serviceable. I'll be picking up another pump and wiring it the same. Also have a spare inertia switch that I'll be tossing in the spare parts to carry. The relay is positive switched via the ignition and fused with a 20amp fuse directly off the positive lug. It's also waterproof, and to me it looks to seal well, time will tell. I will carry a spare one of those with me as well. Next I moved to grounds. As I've done in the past I took a small piece of stainless steel, drilled and tapped a hole in it. Located a spot on the frame for it, then drilled a hole for a pass through for the bolt. This allows me to run a ground on the stainless side directly to the battery. Then the stud running from that through the frame rail will be the stud for the chassis to body ground. Didn't get a picture of that, but ya get the idea. Engine to chassis ground was a braided line I made. A bit more period correct since it's out in the open more, though I did hide it as best I could. Next is the interior wiring bits, stay tuned.
Interior was a bit more in depth. I'll get right into it. First was to separate it all into individual looms per component. Setup for the ignition switch, light switch, turn signal switch, guages and misc. Plus the wires out of the harness that I will not be using, but saving for future additions. Quite possibly use one for a wiper motor since I do live in Washington and plan to drive it in the rain. I started with the ignition switch. Used the same heat shrink connectors. Nice thing is after the heat I can form the wire to run around the switch. No stress on them that way. The white heat shrink on the orange wire is a spare I pulled up the switch. It runs all the way back to the rear of the car and is coiled up. This way it can be run anywhere on the car with length of wire to spare. Next was guages. Wired most of it in series. Power is daisy chained, same with the grounds. The dash light portion of it has the ground bolted directly to the ground terminal to save from double grounds. The main grounds are also wired in series, then ran down the column to a ground bolt. Poer for the light was also chained together. Simple and effective. All guages can be separately removed for service without removing any other. Next, the light switch. This one was a bit on the tight side for space so I had to be careful. It's a Painless Wiring switch. It came with the black plastic connector and the terminals to crimp to the wires. This way if I have a failure, I can simple unplug and plug a new one in. It's a standard GM switch found on darn near every pickup of the day. Still readily available at all parts stores. Again, serviceability is what I'm looking for. A couple shots from under the dash area. Next on the list was the signals. Now, this one had me going for a minute. I didn't notice but the flasher relay was a 2 prong in the fuse block. I have a 4 way flasher switch, that needs the 3 way flasher. Yes you can wire a single 2 prong with 4 way flashers, but I didn't want to install 4 relays and buss bars and a bunch of other misc junk to make it work, not interested in that. So I took the fuse block out and gave it a look. Kind of a happy accident, but the 3 prong plugged in while leaving one tab accessible. The 2 wires in the fuse block weren't correct so I un-pinned them 2 wires. Ran a 3rd blue wire for my signal indicator and re-pinned it all back together. Bingo, back to square one, but it took me for a ride, probably got a few gray hairs along the way lol. Testing, testing and more testing to make sure it was good to go! After this I abandoned the constant hot wire for the hazards. I really don't need the hazard lights. Quite honestly I use them more while parked on the side of the road waiting for someone, so I didn't bother with the constant power for them. Next on the list of interior items is the phone charger setup. Now I can hear some grumbling out there, but let's be real, we all got portable electronic devices that need charging. I'm not going to be without a power port. I have also wired in a cigarette lighter port. This setup also gets me a voltage monitor for the battery since I have no room for a volt meter. The box is a simple voltage cut off device. It can be set to auto, on or off. The unit will automatically shut off at 12.1 volts. I could set it lower, under 11 volts to be exact, but that's to far to go in my opinion. This will keep the battery in the car charged up just in case I use to much juice or accidentally leave a phone plugged in. On the other side, we have a USB port, and a USB-C port. A on/off switch for the power to the ports, and also shows the voltage of the battery. Then the cigarette lighter port. That's it for now. Next is the dome light, trunk light, and front light section. Still waiting for the radiator to show up. High beam indicator is done, horns done that's just the misc dash stuff. Stay tuned!
While waiting on the radiator to show up I decided to start on the headers. I've never built a set before, but with some patience and practice I got it figured out. I did the math for the primary tube size. It showed me needing 1.5" tubes. So I picked up a small straight section of it and set it up in place to see what it looked like. I did not like it at all, so I decided to sacrifice a little power for larger tubes for the look. Final primary size is 1.625" for the front and rear tubes, and 1.75" for the center tubes. First was the flanges. I wanted 1/2" thick, so I picked up some steel and took it to a friend's place to have them cut out on the torch table. After that I spent a little time on the sander cleaning them up on the outside. The inside I sanded down to fit the OD ofnthe tubes. Put a small chamfer on the outter edge. Drilled all the holes and tossed one on to check final fitment. I'm going to try and not completely bash Speedway here, but this one got me a bit frustrated. I ordered the universal bend kit part #91013816 to practice on. The picture shows a set of bends. I failed to scroll down and see the note that said "each kit will vary as to the number and type of bends". Here is what I got, random is an understatement. The other issue I have with the kit, is the wall thickness of the tube. It says 16ga on thier site. That wasn't even close, here is a picture of true 16ga tube next to their's Bottom line, it's good for practice, but that's about it. Might be suitable for some things, but I'd buy higher quality if the bank account can afford it. The tubing I had was from SPD Exhaust, great people to work with and very knowledgeable in the field of exhaust. Here's a quick shot of the mock up design. I did change it up for the final design though. Quick Tip Use a hose clamp to use as a clamp to hold the tube, but cut out a spot so you can tack it in place while holding it. A friend told me this idea, worked really well. Next post will be the final header design.
Some quick detail photos here. Made one mistake on the practice run. I oversized the bolt hole for just this one bolt on each side. That way it can be removed, but boy is it close! Next photo here just shows a tack, but a well placed one. It's under and hidden, but holds the first tube in place at the flange. It's done on the car of course, put some tape over the exhaust port before ya start to keep junk from entering the engine. Next is behind the flange. This was a little harder to do, but time and patience will get ya pretty darn close to right on the money. I used a sharpie and marked the tube to get a parallel ring to use as a guide while sanding it down for fitment. I made a cone to resize the bent areas of the tube that met straight sections. Had to use a little heat sometimes to help flare it out. If I were to do this again I'd do about 1/2 as steep of an angle. It would give a smoother flare, but again, I'm learning here. Now for the fun stuff, the final tubes! All tacked up and ready for final welding. The center scraps from the J-bends used were utilized to make the tips. In the design I followed the frame, then transitioned to following the body when It got down to that point. My brother stopped by after work and final welded these up for me. He is amazing at tig welding! The tubing is miled steel, I picked up some stainless ER309L .045 filler rod to tig them up. The rear tube has one 90° bend and one 180° J-bend to build it. Center tube has one and a half 180° J-bends to build it, and the front tube has the same one and a half 180° J- bends to build it. These are a 2.5" CLR (center line radius) bend as well. If I did it again, I might try 3" CLR bends. Next will be the work on the fan spacer and radiator/grill shell.
Picked up a piece of 6061 T6511 round stock to make the fan spacer. Got started by getting a rough shape turned down. I didn't have my fan yet so I focused on the hub on the engine side. Got it fitting nice and snug, enough to hold itself in place. Transfered the holes and set it in the Mill to drill the mounting holes. My fan came in so now I had a template for the depth of the spacer. I also had the pilot holes size and mounting bolt locations to work with. I ordered a Speedway six blade 16" steel fan. After all said and done a 17" would fit just fine and come close to reaching the furthest fins on the radiator, but for now the 16" should be fine. I drilled and tapped the fan holes for 5/16-24x0.75" UHL 12pt bolts. Made a steel centering ring and pressed it into the spacer. Tossed some loctite 638 retainer on both sides and pressed it in. Finished hub, I then put it in the bead blaster to dull it up some. I'm not into shiny aluminum on this car if I can help it. Mocked up on the engine. Spacing behind the fan is about 3/8" to the closest point. Spacer length is just under 3" Next on the list is the radiator and grill shell!
Time to locate the radiator permanently. I layed it out to make the fan spacer earlier. Fairly basic, set the car at ride height then welded a tab on each side. This radiator is from Johnsons Radiator and is the 2" chop part number with 1.75" outlets and inlets/no AC model. Very nice radiator but you will wait for it. My wait time was 8 weeks. I was told 5 max when I ordered it an received zero calls to explain the delay along the way. Good quality from what I can see, but Johnsons, step up your game a little. Picked up some stainless 1932 model Vintique Inc. radiator support rods at the swap meet for 20 bucks new. Tossed those on after cutting them to length. Set the radiator to the same angle as the firewall. Next was the grill shell. I traced some lines at the bottom to get my 2" lowered shell down between the rails. Just carried over the factory shape. One more beef with this radiator. If it's custom one would think that they could keep some kind of lower mounting hole design to fit. They took 2" out of the center so the only factory bolt holes were the top 4. I wish they could have made the bracket fit the lowers as well. Easy fix, but another dang it anyway moment. Couple notched tabs to relocate the holes. And once again a dang it anyway moment. Story of this car so I laugh at it now, but the top 2 holes are no where near the right spot to bolt the grill shell on. I messed with these for a while, no it's not due to the bottom location or a defect in the shell. I've measured and checked everything on my parts to no end and its just these 2 holes being off. The holes were transfered exactly as the original locations were on the tabs I made as well. Drilled and tapped the top 2 radiator tabs to mount the shell, easy fix, but not sure why it's so off. All said and done it looks great, I'm happy with the outcome. Might be hard to see but I notched the frame rails to the same profile of the shell. Giving me some room between each piece. Next was the upper radiator hoses. I found some Gates Green Stripe 2" radiator hose for the straight sections. Used some of my old Speedway exhaust bends to make the rigid tube section. Not perfect, but they will work. I might make some new ones later. Lower radiator hoses, whole different story here. Many trips to different parts stores to look in the hose section. Gave up on that one after a day and decided to look online. I found Gates had a very very good website to search. They list them out via ID size. All the hoses are pictured so you can scan them for the potential bend your looking for. Found one that looked good and ordered it through my local parts store. 17 bucks each which I thought was a deal. After cutting them in specific spots and trimming till they fit, they turned out right on the money. Next on the list will be the headlight bar and front shock mounts. Getting close to the end feels good!
Quick note here for others. I was told this truck and wanted to pass it along. When building headers, after braced up you can use the factory manifolds to hold the primary tubes in place for welding. It's the perfect jig for it. Now I can tig the tubes to the flanges with some Silicon Bronze rod, well my brother can. He's way better at it than me. Headlight bar, what to do with it? I looked at a bunch of pictures and ideas from others. Didn't see the way I had planned on doing it. So figured we'll, I can't be the first one, so I'll try it. I wanted to keep the use of the A housings and bar. After staring at this and having the idea pop in my head I cut both ends off. Roughly ground the cut end by the cup for the light. Trying to make it look somewhat factory. Then set the bar on a couple pieces of wood to get into position. I made one critical error at this moment. I set the cups for at roughly 0 degrees. Bad idea, the lights do not bolt on at level, they are tipped. So a after I had welded them up I took the torch, heated them up and rotated them down to have the proper tilting adjustment I needed. Welded up and bolted on using the original hardware. A bit rusty, but I like it. It will get all cleaned up later of course. With the factory light buckets on. These will have sealed beam adapters installed. Next is the shock mounts which I'm currently working on. Those are another head scratcher for design, took me a while to figure out how I wanted them to look.
Thanks guys! Its so close, I cant wait to fire it up and drive it. I've been busy with lots of little items, most not necessary to dive into with pictures and an explanation. Next on the list for larger tasks were shock mounts for the front and turn signals. I ended up setting the shock at the recommended length at ride height for the shock. Then building the shock tower to fit. I didn't like all the pre-fabbed stuff out there so I decided to do my own thing. Some rectangle tube and some round stock, with a gusset plate. Zip ties on the shock are to hold it at the right length. The shock is not touching inside either. There is at least 1/8" surrounding it. Here's the gusset/plate template. After that I tacked it up located the holes and drilled those out. Set it back in place and thought it looked decent, so I burned them both in. Shocks slide in with minimal resistance, and once bolted are snug but easily movable for suspension travel. After that was a quick install of the rear plywood floors. While they are not finished completely, this gives me a base to work off of. Some may know this product but I use this stuff called Wiggle Board on my arches, curved paneling etc at work. I figured I'd try it on the back floor since it curves. Worked amazing, here is a pic of just how plyable it is. Only bends in one direction though. Floors are cut and in place. Also final bolted the body down in 8 places, 4 for each side. One far forward at the cowl, one directly under the door hinges and one directly under the door strike, last one sits way out back. Took a little time to get the right thicknesses in each location. To get the doors to close decent was the fun part. I was waiting for a new rear spring from Posies, it finally came in. I ended up with a stock model A spring with a standard eye. It gave me the exact height I needed to be at. When I set the chassis up it was at 2.5 degrees at ride height. My final result is 2.4 degrees at ride height. New spring compared to the old T spring. While in the middle of things I decided to swap out the break in oil as per Driven's recommendation. So new break in oil went in for this next 300 miles or so. Then I will swap out to thier hot rod oil. They sent me a card saying thank you, I thought that was pretty cool for a personal touch! Here's the oil I'm running. Next on the list to go was markers/signals for the front and a bunch of misc items like. Tie up some extra wiring circuits, fill the trans and QC with fluid. Adjusting the brake pads and then adding fluid to bleed them. Etc. etc. Lots of little misc items.
On to more misc items to knock off the list. One Huge thing off the list is the final welding of the headers. I picked up some Silicone bronze rod for the header flanges. My brother welded them up for me, and they turned out awesome. Filled up the rear end ever so slowly so I set this up to fill it. I'm using the Mobilgear 600 gear fluid. It's like honey going in. During the fill process I found a couple leaks. One on a bolt, so I re-siliconed that up after pulling it out and cleaning it. That held good, then it leaked out the splines of the yolk out front. I followed the instructions for HotRodWorks install process, no mention of sealing this up. So I decided to drill and tap the shaft for a fine thread 5/16" bolt. Next I grabbed a felt washer. Covered it in gear oil specific silicone to help seal this thing off. Then I put the bolt and fender washer on, not tight really but snug with some red locktite. Tossed the driveline back in and that project should be over.....maybe famous last words, time will tell. Don't have many pictures of the signal and marker light process, but I'll just describe what I did. I picked up these aluminum housing lights at the swap meet for I think 20 bucks. They are a military 24v housing. I took the sockets out since they were for single filament bulbs. Bought some 1176 bulb sockets and they almost bolted in right off the bat. Just had to file one hole out a tiny bit larger. After that I wired them all up. This is all temporary wiring for the first season, thus it's out in the open and not loomed up. Bead blasted the housings, cleared them with a matte clear and located them on the side of the chassis. They will be on with the first pull of the light switch. Then turn off when the headlights come on. Simple clean setup. Starting on the rear shock mounts. I drew out a template and cut out the main plate. Drilled the locating holes for the pins I'll make. Tossed some round stock in the lathe. Drilled out the center and tapped it for a 7/16"×20 bolt. Then machined the end down to fit snug in the shock bushing. Cut them to length, then machined a button on the back to again locate it on the plate. Here's a shot of the back welded up. These will be welded to the lower arm, not the axle housing. They will be gusseted quite a bit upon final install. The upper mount I haven't quite figured yet, most likely a pin as I have here, but welded to the frame with one vertical support. Bumpstops are also in. I'll try to get a photo of those next time. It's getting close guys!!
First order of business is the bump stop photos I promised. So here they are. They are not cut down to size yet. I'll determine that based off total shock travel once I get it on the road. This is definitely erroring on the side of caution. I have left more bump thank shock travel at each end. This will allow me to tune them in. Next was to finish the rear shock mounts. I'm quite surprised in how long it took me to do these. More so to figure travel and shock angles. Since I'm mounting off the arms and not the axle they angles are vastly different when you move the shock front to back on the lower pivot point. I had it up and down for verification many times. No bind in it at all through the travel now, possibly a very tiny bit, but nothing noticeable. Now there will be some under heavy articulation, which I don't expect to see like my Jeep. For the rear upper mounts I used some angle iron cut to fit. Drilled a pilot hole in them for the pin I turned down on the lathe like the lower. Tog welded those up and migged them on the chassis in thier final spots. These are drilled and tapped for a 7/16"x 20 bolt like the lowers. The lowers were located and tack welded in place. Figured out my angle for no bind at 84.5 degrees. Then I cut out some plate to gusset them with. After that I set the gussets at the same path of load travel below. Used a straight edge to locate each center of the pins. Drew a line on the arm and tack welded them in. Tossed a shock on for the 100th time to test it and it worked great, so I burned them in for good. I have 2-7/8" of up travel at ride height. Bumps are set at 1-3/4" which I know is too low, but for now I want to see my shock travel under real conditions. I was thinking of a way to mark them to check. I'm going to use a light bit of grease on the shaft. This will be wipped clean and pushed up the shock shaft by the dust seal. This will allow me to set final bumpstop height. I was going to use a hose clamp barely snug, but I don't think I have the up travel for that up front. It will hit, in fact I might have to extend the shock mounts. I found the front is now lower with the taller rear spring I swapped in. No big deal, but I'll run it in it's current state to see if it's fine. My wife gladly sat on a box to help me bleed my breaks, though she was not so thrilled to sit in the car up on the lift, and that's putting it lightly. Got those okay, but with a couple of vertical upward bends in the system I think I've got some trapped air. So I'll have to power bleed them. Quite possible that I have one more slow leak as well on a front brake line. I'm going to monitor that. After the brakes I needed to fill the fuel tank to find more leaks, cause ya know your gonna have leaks it seems with these new builds. I put roughly 8 gallons in and had the lower line clamped. I had previously vacuumed out the tank, but it was looking really clean to me. After flushing the tank it had a very negligible amount of debris in it. No way would it have been an issue for the filters to take care of. Now that the system had been flushed, I clamped the line to check for leaks. Sure enough the main shut off valve under the tank was seaping very very slowly. So I'll remedy that, but the guage held, as did the factory riveted spots. After I fix the valve, I'll pressure test the system with the pump to check again for leaks. I'm also quite amazed at the amount of pressure and volume just a gravity setup has, should be more than enough for this engine. Next on the list is the finalizing of the fuel system. After that I still need to rheam out the front pitman arm for the tie rod end to mount on the lower side. Then I can hook the steering up. Then, toss the seat in, shifter, and bleed the brakes one more time. Should be able to fire it up after that!
Back at it in the shop. After flushing the stock tank out and getting very little junk out of it, I hooked up the line to the pump to prime the system. Leaks for days, I tend not to over tighten things, especially fittings. So, I pulled everything back apart and sealed the fittings up good this time. Turned the key, and zero leaks. So I moved on to other items at that point. One was the pitman arm. I had to rheam out the opposite side to accept the 7° tie rod end. Got that done, and bolted it into place. Set the car back down and the drag link is almost dead parallel to the tie rod. Exactly how I was planning for it to be, so onto the next thing. Time to crank the car over, well crank and crank and crank it was. In my haste to get it fired up I had completely forgot that inpulled the coil fuse for testing purposes months ago. Tossed the fuse in and, drum roll please! My HAMB friends, this thing has been fired up and test drove down the driveway for the first time! I must admit, I got emotional, the years, hours, heartache and joy all rushed to me at once. To say I shed a tear, well, that is the truth, sitting in my shop alone looking at this thing I'd built with my own 2 hands, listening to it rumble away. When you love the build, the culture, the people, I'd say it's safe to say one does get that way in this moment. I simply love this stuff! Enough of the sappy talk, back to the car. Upon firing it up, I let it sit and idle for about 10 minutes. Going over every fluid location, letting the thing rise in temp to check for pressure leaks in the coolant system. Oil pressure was good, coolant temp got close to 180, but it was only running for about 30 minutes, so I will need to do better real world test on the coolant temp. After the first drive down the road I came back to find the drain line for the oil filter was seeping ever so slightly. A quick turn of the wrench and that was fixed. One other issue, It was running like complete trash. Way to much fuel, I couldn't get the car off idle at all without it stumbling. I just idled it down the road and back for the first drive. When I got back I made a few phone calls to local guys who knew more about these carbs than me (which is nothing). I was worried I had to much carb for the car. In fact I'm 98cfm to much as per the calculations, though not 100% accurate, it gets me in the ballpark. I think this can be tuned with some knowledge, exactly what I'm currently diving into. I want to learn to tune these things, and know them inside and out. I've got a lot of years to keep wrenching so why not learn now. After getting some good info, I started with pulling the air cleaners and stacks. Turned the key on for the pump and watched for any dripping I the carb. Didn't see any so I then pulled the tops off to check float level. Well I do belive I've found something. The back carb had the plunger stuck, like it wouldn't push down at all. Not sure why that was, but after turning the key the rear most carb float was not set correctly. It was about 1/4" from the top, not even close to correct. I tried to bend the float tab to set the level, but no dice. The Grose Jet or S-Jet inlet valve is not sealing up. As you can see in the photo, the 2 holes I have paper towels in were overflowing into the venturi. Thus running into the engine. This may be the cause to my overfueling? That at the plunger not working proper? Not sure, but I pulled all the plugs and the rear 2 were wet, ones in front of that were close to wet. Not wet, but shiny, not flat soot looking. This is the correct float height on the front 2 carbs at 15/32". I have ordered a few sets of main jets, power valves and gaskets. To be specific. The 97's came with a .045 main and a #67 power valve. I have ordered .044, .043 and .042 mains, as well as #66 and #67 power valves. I'm going to try and get this thing dialed in enough that I can drive it. Spark plugs will also have to be ironed out, It's got Autolite 405 plugs in it currently. I'll be reading those like a hawk during this process. May need a slightly hotter plug, time will tell, but due to the compression, I want to keep a slightly cooler plug in it. Edelbrock recommends Champion RC12YC plugs. So I'll look into those as well. The fuel I'll be testing with is 93 octane non-ethanol fuel. I have already made an appointment for it to see a scope in July. This way it can be fine tuned for air fuel ratios. I'll need to pick up a sync tool as well for this learning process. Thanks again for the platform to do this. What a great adventure, but I feel it's just the beginning. This winter will be the tear down and paint work. Body may or may not get chopped, stay tuned!
I've been following this build, really nice workmanship. Building a car with your own two hands really does give you a sense of pride at your accomplishment. I would guess most of us are hobbiests not pros. I was looking at the front end photo and saw that the shackles at pretty much horizontal. My understanding is that they should be angled at around 45* with the spring end being the lower end. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me will say this is or isn't correct. Hope you have many safe, fun miles in your new ride.
Thanks for the kind compliments! Probably a shot with no weight or up in the air. Fairly common in my shots since half the time it was off the ground. I'm not certain if it needs to be exactly spot on but this should be close enough. It was actually closer to a true 45° until I swapped in a new higher arch rear spring in it. I'm still in the process of tuning the carbs. Currently waiting on some parts to arrive to tackle that. I will be swapping the 45 mains for 43 mains. Power valves will be swapped from 65 to 67. Outter carbs will be set to S for summer on the linkage, center will be on the W. I will adjust the throttle plates, sync them and get the idle mixture as close as I can by ear. I'll keep everyone updated on the process and results.
The Jalopy Journal
