Get a dodge or Plymouth flathead six fan. Large hole and very flat. Easy to trim to whatever size you need.
That’s something to look into! From a quick google they look like they may be a hair flater than a Chevy truck
Well after the never ending holiday break, extended by record amounts of snow I’m finally getting back into the swing of things. I’ve been gathering bits for a different project I’m waiting to share but this morning I got some things put away and a plan made. next steps will be removing the hood, grill and radiator and then lifting the back of the transmission up and blocking it up. This will let me get the fan face and radiator more parallel and see if I have room for the fan or I need to cut out more of the firewall. fingers crossed everything clears with it tipped and I can move onto motor mounts
Alright into the shop this morning before work. Pulled the hood, radiator and grill. jacked the trans up in the back from the rear most trans mount pad, there are two options on this motor for a mount. One under the bell housing and one on the tail. Some Stude trucks got a second little cross member with a rubber pad under the second location for extra support. I’m back and forth which I’ll use but I do feel like the side mounts and the rear trans mount seems a more standard support system that doesn’t leave the trans and over drive hanging. Anyhow I lifted it until the base of the distributor hit the firewall. I gain a lot more fan clearance on the bottom half but not enough. This cross brace will need cut to clear the cap anyways so I’m scheming a simple bracing to cut the center out for continued mock up. another little bit and I should have just under 1/2” clearance with the metal ninja star fan I posted earlier. I’m also going to have to cut this subframe cross brace. Even though I can probably get the yoke to clear it will need a driveshaft that obviously won’t. So I’ll figure out a brace and then cut it clear as well. As this all goes on I’m thinking If I make the bolts on the back of the passenger head clear the firewall I can move it all back about a 1/4” before the head would hit the firewall and a 1/4” more clearance for the fan would percentage wise be a lot more. while doing that I’ll move the water tempt sensor that I removed from the back of the drivers side head and put it on the passenger side. When I make a hole for the bolt holes I’m thinking I’ll make a pass through for the sensor as well. Then I can actually remove it with out having 4” from the back of the head to the firewall. a little clever thinking and I can make an easy cover for it. Any how that’s what I’m thinking for now. I also played with my new lazer level and checked a few things for level and the body being centered on the chassis etc. the next time you see one of these model A (? ) screw jacks grab them! They normally have a little saddle on top. I’m using one to hold my transmission up and with the reversing pawl I can lift or lower the transmission in very small fractions of an inch and that 100 year old screw and gear isn’t going to leak down. They come in handy more than I’d have thought! went to check the fan in the 46 and this bracket split as opened the hood. The exact same tab @porknbeaner and I welded back on to my previous hood lol. Must be a weak spot though I’ve never heard anyone else mention it failing. I’ll file it clean and zap it back together but that put an end to my playing this morning.
My bolts pulled out of that bracket which the morning when I was leaving to go to goodguys Des Moines one year... and that was when and why I took my hood off. Never tried to put it back on until I sold the car and had to creatively re-engineer the bolts to get it remounted. Must be a lot of tension in the way those hinges work.
Yeah I think it’s 80 years of work hardening off a tiny “lever” with a big spring on it. Breaks either the tab or the rivets. Theres about a foot of snow with a solid 1/4” of clear ice under that outside the garage door so no rush fixing this lol. plan is hit a stop point on the A where I need to come up with a plan or money and pivot to the pre spring 46 list at that point
I built it in 2015, raced it on Pendine sands in 2016 and 17. Been cruising in it since then, no problems at all. It was a stock,4 banger, driving car when I shipped it over from New York. I gained extra room by moving the front crossmember forward 1 1/2" and steering box back 4"no problem being fenderless. The fendered one is for rainy days, ha ha.
Love it! Got any photo of motor mounts? Curious what you did for trans cross members as well, anything you’ve got to show I’d love to see it hopefully getting back to my project tomorrow
I'll try and take some photos tomorrow. I used flathead motor mounts adapted to the Stude motor and custom made a crossmember for the auto box which I also mounted on the same type of mounts. Simple but effective. Cheers, Ron.
Well I got the A up on block and stripped back. Marked the top of the frame with a reference mark to the drivers side motor mount and pulled it all apart. I measured and it looks like if I don’t move the engine backwards there’s only a fraction of the distributor that’s going to need to clear the firewall. Just a bit over 3” and with the distributor offset to the drivers side the clearance won’t be in the center of the firewall basically the drivers side of the distributor will be close to the vertical brace for my swinging pedals the edge to center is around 4” so I think I’ll only lose one hole in the flange. Not bad! the tube brace will get cut and a new section that goes around the distributor will get stitched in once it’s all final. Then the sheet metal will get a tunnel on the lower half and a blister for the cap in the top half of the firewall. I’d like to keep the cowl top removable so I’m trying to figure out what to do with the spot the tunnel and blister meet. At the moment I’m between flanging the edges and putting a bolt through the overlap. Or leaving some sort of gap between the metal and putting a split rubber hose over the edges. Letting them but together to more or less seal. Anyhow there’s the update. Planning on making bracing and first cuts tomorrow.
Got everything braced and cut. Waiting for a spot in the weekly schedule to shoehorn the motor and trans back in. I think the space for the distributor may need to be a little wider but I’ve measured until I’m cross eyed so we are at the try and it and find out stage. If it’s too narrow it’s only by a 1/4” or so. I’ll leave it on the chain so if it needs cut I can swoop it right back out, slice it wider and put it right back. fingers crossed
It’s back in and I’ve got just enough room to do what I need to. I’ve got it sitting damn neat exactly where I had it before taking it apart to cut. Checked it over a few times with the laser level to make sure it’s dead center and everything is level side to side. now to bring up the tail to bring the bottom of the fan away from the radiator. May do that tonight.
I’m gonna be real honest I was “call your buddy and vent how stupid this $&@$%** car is” mad yesterday morning. the chassis next to the A has a 283, 39 trans and a 40 banjo in it. I for a brief moment thought maybe I’ll just start all over again and swap drivetrains across but I’ve been too stubborn on this thing not getting a Chevy to relinquish just yet. So it comes as “convenient timing” that I’m now bed ridden and sick as I was considering taking a week off from the project. Maybe a fever dream will reveal a solution, but so far I’ve just been dreaming of crunchy tacos and being at work lol.
Don't be discouraged when it comes time to rebuild that engine, the cost is a lot higher than that SBC. Maybe you'll get lucky and find a running donor car, they're out there...
@RAK eould you believe this thing looks have have been rebuilt already! Compared to the filthy transmission the outside of the engine is maybe one summer of leaky valve covers dirty. When I opened it and turned it over to watch it all the oil is clean and the valley has like new gliptal (? ) paint. I think I will try to source a metal timing gear but I’m hopeful that this will run for as long as I need it to. It is also very likely that I end up buying another running motor to stash. They pop up pretty often it seems and they aren’t ever crazy money. All the Stude guys I’ve met have been fantastic.
You really got lucky! I had a similar experience, bought a 64 Cruiser with a 289 that didn't run and found the same thing. Good for you... Rich
This is probably like comparing apples and orange peels but you might have been surprised at the around town performance of the Chevy 4. And if you had stuck with that and weren't happy a 283 would have just bolted in. That said the Stude is cool and will perform as well as anything.
Yeah had I known what a massive undertaking un doing everything I’ve done and then starting over with the Stude was going to be I don’t know that I’d have jumped into it but I still think it will be a better car so I’m gonna trudge on. The biggest frustration has been that with the 4 banger it all just went right in like it was made for it, very easy to package and sort of with little compromise. This giant Stude has been litterally months just trying to figure out how to get it to fit. As it sits I think I’m leaving the engine and trans as they sit. Raising the tail shaft did bring the angle a little closer to parallel but not enough. The radiator and fan sit 5 deg different at the moment and would not allow for even a 12” fan as the blades would hit in the lower half. It did how ever pull the back of the passenger head away from the firewall enough that I wouldn’t be worried about the bolt heads rubbing a hole in it. I also have good, well “good” clearance from the exhaust to the steering column as it sits. So right now it’s really looking like it has to have an electric fan or I have to bump the grill and radiator forward and stretch the hood. Which I don’t want to do because the stock proportions are fantastic. Running a deeper 32’ shell had crosssed my mind to gain a little room but again I like the 28/9 shell and don’t want to compromise there. so I’m thinking I can either just barely fit an extremely thin 10” fan on the bottom of the radiator or two 8” fans more towards the top. not loving either choice, I can see why so many of the swaps have no fan when I flip threw the little books. anyhow there’s where we are I suppose oh! In better news it does look like the plan I’ve had to make the stock dip in the lower firewall wider and shifted towards the drivers side should work! I held it up against the back side of the firewall and I think it should clear the distributor
Hang in there, you are closer than when you started. It will have a huge cool factor that Chevy 4 would not have had.
@55zephyr reallyblove you adding photos! Thanks I’m coming out of my sick week haze, visions still a little buzzy but I have a couple ideas to make this work. On more of a plan C note has anyone seen a 32 shell on a 28/9 kinda like this but with the grill sectioned to be closer to a stock height grill? I like the shapes of a 32 grill shell but the opening being that tall compared to a 28 really changes the proportions to me. Curious what bringing the bottom up and putting the stock splash apron in place might look like. maybe I’ll photo shop it this afternoon
The Jalopy Journal
