Love to hear that I had a feeling. Although it's kind of a the fact they where just banging around with all my other parts loose in a box.
Found a few hours today to get out in the shop, I was able to get the three lasalle cases painted inside with red glyptol and brushed on a ford tractor gray to the outsides. Modified a spare side shift case with a ford trans mount to get an idea where my trans crossmember will sit seeing as the lasalle trans is a few inches longer. Was hoping to mount the engine far enough forward to avoid cutting up the A rectangular crossmember but no dice. Hoping to get my wish bone mounts dialed in and welded on tommorow now that my engine is sitting square and level in the frame rails.
Recent focus has been on wrapping up the radius rods. Mounting plates inboard on the frame rails hopefully for a better turning radius made a pie cut at the yoke to bring the rods closer to the frame ending with 8° of caster. I think down the line when I find a nice set of longer later model radius rods I'll revisit this project. Not thrilled with the look of the short "A bones" but they will do for now.
Had some time to spend on the car today, picked up a pair of NobelSpeeds new laser cut mounts and worked them over to better fit what I had in mind they are based on the deminsions from the VernTardel book. I found these mounts far superior to the speedway universal type mount I was using previously, right now they are bolted to the stock shock mount holes 2" from the back of the crossmember. I will be adding a third bolt from the topside although i think its unnecessary. Body is still just sitting inplace going to work on steering next. Gathered up all my model A U-bolts for a quick media blast and thread chasing. I thought a few where too far gone but they all cleaned up nicely.
Had my friend Zac drop by on his newly finished scooter to address some loose nuts and bolts and he was able to help me get the body set back on the chassis. Choppers go hand in hand with hotrods.
Not much done this week startered whittling down the F1 cross member and am working on body placement basing everything off centering the rear wheel arch over the axle. I was hoping to avoid entirely cutting out the factory ford center cross member but the added length of the lasalle transmission is forcing my hand. Tore down a gritty looking F1 steering box and was pleased to find it in incredible shape internally.
Really second guessing the f1 cross member, with added length from the lasalle transmission my pedals will be quite a ways back. I scooted the body back as far as I could and it helped some. Considering cutting the center out of the cross member and staggering either side of the cross member forward to get my pedals in a better spot. I cut nearly all the factory center cross member out but it looks like it will all need to come out.
Tired of sitting idle I made the decision the old crossmember was coming out, welded a few spars across the top and bottom of the frame some tack welds on the front cross member for bracing. Lacking a duplicate set of regulators for my torch and the plasma cutter on loan the center punch a pile of dull drill bits my favorite hammer and a sharp chisle I set to work knocking out all the offending rivets. Glad to see I can still *mostly* swing a hammer only smoking my chisle hand once. The cross member is out. Slipping the F1 unit in made it all worth it, lots of pruning to go but I think this will work nicely.
The Jalopy Journal
