Projects 1950's Tube Frame Sports Car

I think you can probably get it done with a reamer if you have the critchley type with sliding cone that keeps it straight with the hole. I'd alternate going thru from both directions, top and bottom. It might be a little harder to maintain the relationship between the kingpin and lock bolt but should be doable. Might be best to have a helper so you can use a big t handle wrench and have them run the alignment cone.

 

Good suggestion. I'll have to make an alignment cone as my reamer doesn't have one.

 

Jeremy, when you fitted the F100 spindle bushings, you referred to having shortened them. I just went back and looked at a bunch of pages of your post to see pictures of you doing this. No luck, either I have missed that or you didn't put pictures of the process in. If you have a picture or two of the process, could you share them?

And an interesting tidbit. I have to do the same thing with the tube axle I acquired as well. I think your ***essment of the reason why the holes wear is spot on. I've been figuring out how to ream them with the tools that I have, and think I can do it with an expanding reamer. Now here's the interesting thing. I'm using F1 spindles as they are beefier than p***enger car front spindles by a significant. And they also have the larger 0.859ish diameter kingpins. The bushings however are the same od as 46-48 Ford p***enger car front spindles. So no resizing of the spindles is required. What this means is that if you need to put another set of 37 spindles on your car, then F1 kingpin bushings just happen to press in without reaming of the spindles. They do however require shortening and final honing to size as per normal.

I have a set of 37 spindles and may swap them into the Whatever project. But only if I decide to use something different for brakes...

 

Dave, do you possibly have some mixed up parts you are working with?

F-1 spindles use the same .814 king pins as early Fords; in fact the kingpin set is the same one used on '42-'48 square back spindles.

 

Not that I'm aware of. They were listed as 48 thru 52 F1 kingpins, and the dimensions are just what I needed. But I'll check. Hey after all, I'm old and I have my moments...

I'll check and get back on the parts...

 

When you're true to traditional builds, any turn, any straight, up or down, is always a huge adrenalin charged rush, and it never goes away !!!! I once had a friend ask if I wanted to get together on a Friday night, then go to Sears point Sat for the oldies drags. I told him that Laguna Seca was that weekend. Blasting up the first straight, trying to keep the old ****** pointed in the right direction. Slam'n third gear, hard acceleration.. Wind blowing the snot outa my nose from the open helmet, Back into second for compression to help keep the brakes from fading, squaling the tires... Get'n my nickers outa my but crack... Set up for turn one....Hell you can't "set up" for a critter that handles that bad. Get sideways...Try to keep outa the fast little cars way and keep from hit'n the slower guy next to you. Get half way straight, nail it, bring in all the carbs. Gawd, the noise is soooo sweet and loud !! Man, repeat 11 times every lap. Do I want to sit and drink beer, then go to the drags...... I don't think so, Tim......

 

@Dave G in Gansevoort, The bushings in the 46-48 p***enger and F-1&2 spindles are just slightly longer than the 37-41 round back ones. It's not much, maybe a quarter inch by memory? The kingpin and bushing set that I used is the .859 dia ones that appeared when Ford switched from the F1 to F100 in around '53. Up til then all the pins are .812 as far as I know. I shortened the kingpins and the bushings to fit my round backs just like you'd need to if you wanted to run '46 and up kingpins and bushings in round backs. I reamed my round back spindles out to accept the larger OD bushings that come with the newer .859 pins. Does that answer your question? In hindsight I maybe should have just made up some custom thinwall solid bronze bushings that fit the round backs and not messed with reaming the spindles. I don't think you can ream the standard steel backed .812 bushings out to fit the larger pins without taking all the bronze out but you'd have room to make some solid bronze ones.

 

@Dave G in Gansevoort @RICH B I believe Rich is correct, F1-F2 spindles use the same pins as 46-48 p***enger. The 1953 and up F-100 and F-250 spindles look essentially the same as F1 spindles and use the same wheel bearings but they have bolt on steer arms on both sides whereas up thru '52 the drivers bolted on and the p***enger one was integral. The pin diameter changed in 1953 to .859 and continued that size for many years.

 

Yes I was a little more alert today for a short visit to the garage. First real chance to be hands-on with the parts. Lasted long enough to check out all of the parts I have for the eventual axle refurbishment.

Yes, I have 48-52 F1 spindles. Yes the kingpin set I have matches another set I have for 42-48 Ford p***enger car front spindles, except for the part number. Go figure.

Looking up the numbers, the ones listed for p***enger car spindles also lists the F1. But not the other way around. Prices are essentially.

And I do have a set of kingpins for a Ford F100, with the larger diameter kingpins. It's the bushings in that set that are interesting. They are thinner than the bushings in the F1 kit, however the od is the same. And will press into p***enger car spindles, or the F1 spindles without remachining. Just needs to be honed to size as normal.

So did I luck in on the whole shebang or is it a fluke? I'll take it regardless...

So once the back is feeling up to some real effort in the garage, I'll try to fit all of the miscellaneous bits and bobs together.

 

@Dave G in Gansevoort They did make oversize kingpins for '42-'48 Ford with worn axles, which I would guess also included the F-1 trucks. I bet that is what your set is with the larger kingpins along with standard OD bushings.

 

@Dave G in Gansevoort that interesting. You have any pics or part numbers of your oddball set?

 

I'll check next time I'm able to get to the garage.

 

The box is labeled 53-56 F100, I didn't write the part number down. Interesting that the bushings are thinner wall than the ones for the F1 spindles. I haven't tried pressing them into a spindle yet, but it still looks like they will fit. I'll know more when I give it a try... ***uming the back holds up. Had to fix the snowblower today. Prediction is for some of the white stuff up here. And I should have done this a month ago, but then I hurt my back and the rest is mostly a fog, it's just the drugs...

 

I know its been way too long since I've posted here. Pretty much all my spare time (which is already in short supply since I have 3 little kids) has been spent getting stuff set up so we could move my wifes horse to my parents house. I had to put in a heated waterer and get shelter before winter and then most weekends since last fall were spent building this round bale feeder from s**** I had laying around. The only thing I bought was the 10 gauge steel I sheeted the roof with.



Yesterday I finally got a few hours to work on the car. When I first got it I didn't like the front frame hoop that held the upper shock mounts and lights. In hindsite maybe I should have kept it on, but since it was already cut off I decided to build a new one that was taller to match the height of the Willy's jeep radiator I've settled on running. I went back and forth whether to just make it square or if I should do something more stylish. I decided to go square like the original so that is matched the rest of the frame. The tube is 1.75dia .09 wall mild steel. I mitered the tubing and fused the corners so I could mock it up and figure out my shock mounts.





Once I made sure it looked how I wanted I opened the corner joints up with a chop wheel and gas welded them. I told my buddy, "it's not Kurtis ch***is quality welding but it is at least as good as the rest of the frame." When I eventually blast and paint it should all look like it belongs.






The shock mounts are short pieces of the same tubing that I fish mouthed and pressed threaded bung into. I'll weld the bungs in and then gas weld the tube stubs to the uprights.







I'll post some pics as soon as the shock mounts are welded in place.

 

Looks great busy guy! Gary

 

Nice. Nothing wrong with a good gas weld on 0.090 tubing. Good to see you are back at it. Now can you lend me some motivation to get back to the Whatever project?

 

Great progress !!......and yes.....horses take a LOT of time and energy.....hope your family appreciates it. I made the decision as a youth in 1959 to switch from horses to internal combustion and I have never looked back. Still appreciate great horses especially working and quarter horses, but only as a spectator. Have fun

 

Yeah I'm kinda like you but my wife has had this one for quite a few years. At least he's just basically a big friendly dog. Lol
She's not into showing thankfully. Figured building the feeder got me lots of welding practice. Doesn't seem to make it look any better but lots of practice.

 

Here's roughly how the front shock mounts will work. They'll be welded on a couple inches lower obviously so the shock sits at about 2/3 travel.

 

A couple weeks ago I finally found a bakelite Sun tach for the car. They did make a 7500rpm bakelite one but those are even more rare. I was real happy to find this 5k one that had the light pod still attached.



I've been in touch with a guy who upgrades the old transmitter boxes using new electronics. I need to find an early EB-9 transmitter box that has the screwed on tag and studs for the wire studs instead of tabs.

Several years ago this one was for sale here. If anyone has or knows of one like it available please let me know. This one isn't mine, just an example of what I'm after.

 

Got the front hoop back on. Gas welded the shock mounts but the bottom joint I wirefed with a backing ring so it had full generation and stayed aligned.

I was worried the shocks would have to be leaned in quite a bit to clear the upper 4 bar links. Turned out better than I was expected from a shock angle standpoint.

 

Finally found a period Bakelite tach. It's date marked 1947 on the back and the box I found is '56.





I plan to have the box internals upgraded by a guy who does them for the Sun GMC tachs. He feeds his new setup 12v and normally runs a wire in the back of the box to do that. I decided to add an additional terminal. I also drew up the gasket for the box lid. Going to have that laser cut out of cork. When I get that I'll post pics. Here is the added power terminal.

 

I love all your details. Buddy!

 

Did a little experiment. Originally the car had some bracework that the pedals hung from. That got removed along with the original steering gear and to make room for the headers. I think I might add a tube on each side between the front and middle frame bulkheads. That will give me a solid place to mount the brake/clutch masters and also might help with mounting a body eventually.

 

Almost have the tube fitted for the other side.

 

You could add a huge amount of rigidity to your ch***is if you continue that tube to the rear kick up. Smart feller like you, I imagine you already thought of that. Are you planning on a roll hoop?

 

I haven't decided yet if I will bridge the center area or not. If I weren't going to run doors I would. Doors might be required though depending on what the body ends up looking like. You're right it would stiffen it a lot. I plan to add at least a rear roll bar hoop. There will also be an added cross tube under the seats and an X added under the floor to give me a place to attach a torque tube restraint.

I don't plan to weld the front tubes in until I finish mounting the steering gear just so they don't get in my way.

 

Jeremy, have you read BS Levy's series of books starting with The Last Open Road? One of the books is ***led The Fabulous Trash Wagon. I'm guessing your body won't look like that supposedly did.

I vote for a Devin body, but it probably won't be easy to get. Oh well that's just my opinion

It's looking good

 

Looks Great Buddy!

 

I think my plan at this point is to get a Victress S1 body from a buddy of mine and rework it to fit. The body is in very rough shape so I won't be wrecking a good original body.

An original Victress adverti*****t



Same ad with the top removed and body adjusted. ****pit and windshield is moved back about 10", body is lowered to match my 6" ground clearance with wheel arches moved up. Doors are modified to include front portion of fender due to my seating position being so far back.



Then I erased their frame and did my best to draw my frame to scale. I based everything off the roughly 98-100" wb.