Alright another day slowly marching forward but I got out there. Got the boxing plates drilled and the spring mounts mocked up. Got the spring mount brackets for the axle about 80% done. Just a little more trimming, grinding, fitting and I’ll have them tacked together. been messing with my new band saw set up because a cut off wheel in this thick stuff is a joke. Think I need to switch to a finer tooth blade but in general so far so good. My original plan of shackle mounted lower shock mounts is not going to work. There just isn’t room. But I think this latest idea will work. I’m On idea 4 or 5 for lower shock mounts lol. The ladder bars, spring mounts, shock mounts, pan hard bar all want to be in about a 5” space. Being careful to make sure nothing will hit each other and you can get hardware out of each thing with out taking something else apart to get to it. Some times it’s unavoidable but most the time I think there is a way. anyhow, still feeling good about progress. Hopefully have the springs and ladder bars all sorted and tacked by the end of this coming weekend. Then I need to find some longer bolts for the pan hard bar brackets and I’ll put that in place, shocks last and then I’ll move to the front end. Just a few things to button up there. “Should” be a quicker reward for work hopefully. Been thinking of some bump stop options as well. I think in the back I can screw some pointed rubber stops into the rear cross member channel. Up front I’m not really sure where they’d even go. The front rails are getting a little notch for the spring the travel in so it doesn’t bottom out. Maybe I’ll just add a 1/4” thick chunk of rubber in the top of the notch to soften the blow a little? Shocking how many hot rods are going down the road with the front spring bottomed out on the frame rail. Checked a lot of cars at a show years ago and the majority had the spring touching the frame rail with the car parked and no one in it! I’ll post pix when everything’s in place right now it’s just a blur of clamps, shims and stands.
They all kinda look the same right now. I’ll post some once I’ve got it together and clean up my mess a bit. I figure if I look at a photo I took and I can’t tell why I took the photo/ what it’s supposed to be showing, it’s probably not worth a share lol
Alright update with photos! I think I got about 15 hours in this week and I’m maybe a day away from really being somewhere. And maybe two from having this end wrapped up. the four bar and 1/4 spring axle brackets got mocked up on the passenger side a few times. Making sure they cleared threw full range of motion and I can remove hardware with out havjng to move anything else. I need to change to a normal shackle as the idea of a lower shock mounted off the extended stud in the shackle won’t work. There just isn’t any room and if there were it’s to high up anyways. When I do this I’m also going to swap the flat side of the shackle towards the ladder bars. It clears with the nuts with more room that appears in the photos so I figure with the nuts on the other side I should be set. when I grab the different shackles I’ll exchange this pan hard bracket. Ended up with one for a 9” not an 8” but it’s good enough for a mock up. Looks like it should work just perfect. Nice and horizontal and threads the needle wonderfully. this is my current thought on shock placement. I really wanted them on the front side but there’s only so much room. If I was really dead set on a clear rear view I could have used lever shocks, mounted the lower end of a tube shock off the ladder bars bracket or even laid the tube shocks flat and used a pivot. What I decided was to run them in the back as clear and simple as I can. There’s no need to over complicate it when there’s an easy option. info use a bracket similar to a 50’s Chevy pickup mounted to the existing spring pads I can snake the shock between the body and the rear bumper mounts to a mount welded to the top of the rear cross member and land around 20* which seems pretty acceptable to me. I may have to re work the bumper brackets for clearance but I think I’m going to end up cutting them up a little bit To change how they mount anyways so that’s no issue. Pulled the axle out and cleaned / made brackets and the tube and put it back together with both sides mocked up. Spent over an hour getting the wheels centered in the wheel wells- glad I made so many registration marks for my laser level! I also spent a lot of time getting the axle centered in the chassis which was a lot of frustration. Every time you tweak something it all moves a little bit somewhere else . I can see where chassis table with a fixture to hold the axle solid in relation to the frame would be a real time saver. Maybe in the future I’ll build some stands that bolt on in place of the wheels? That could be a good work around as well. So there we are ladder bars and quarter elliptic springs aaaaaaaalmost done. I think I’ll have about another day in making sure everything is exactly correct and tacking them in place. Then I’ll take the axle over to a buddy to tig the brackets all on 100% nice and solid. He does this work all the time so I feel a lot better about having him doing it and knowing it’s correct. once that’s done I suppose I’ll gather hard ware, put the axle in the car and get the pan hard and the shocks on. Im going to get the correct height tires swapped into these steel wheels as well. probably another week of work if I’m being hopeful. But the back will primarily be done then. It wont look any different but I’m really looking forward to the next time I get to push it back outside. Hopefully with the rest of the front end work done it’ll be a little easier endeavor than the last time.
I have all my driveshaft work done at Midwest Wheel on front street. Cheaper than Inland truck. Now I only get my driveshafts shortened there. When I needed a completely new shaft I called around but prices were ridiculous. For the completely new shaft with u joints and yolk I went through Fast Shafts in Des Moines. Super fast and price was cheaper than anywhere local.
Decided it was as close to right as it was gonna get and got everything tight and tacked it all. got the big half of the spring hangers and ladder bar mounts tacked to the axle and the boxing plates that mount the spring hangers temporarily tacked in place. muscling the rear into my daily in the morning and taking it to a buddy to tig it up nice and strong. He’ll probably have it done before I have another garage day available. Then I’ll put it back in and get the back half buttoned up. I’m feeling like this is really a turning point and once it rolls and steers like it’s supposed to the rest is the down hill. probably not but it feels good to think so, so I will lol
I’ve really collected a lot of the nickle and dime parts over the last years. As well as some neat little details. I feel once I hit the point of emptying those shelves progress should feel quick. Fingers crossed and all that
I agree about the little detail pieces. I have a bunch for my roadster if I ever get to the point I can start using them and if I can find them.
Picked the axle up this morning on my way to work. It’s not on the way in any stretch of the word but a guys gotta do what a guys gotta do lol. he pulled the axles and mostly drained it to weld it up. I’ll take the opportunity to clean up the backing plates and axle ends and get them in some primer before it goes back together. It’s going to come back apart for some 4:11’s but who knows when that’ll be so I’ll dump some gear oil back in it in the mean time just for peace of mind.
Sure is a lot easier to move around with the axles out! got it unloaded. Got about a week until I can fuss with it. But it’s a big step forward
Nice!!! Won't be long and this will be rolling and steering without having to worry if the blocking and propping will fall out along the way.
It’s getting closer! yesterday my fancy light switch/ horn button showed up in the mail and I grabbed a little bit of hardware for the A. No work happening this week but hopefully I can get a couple hours of cleaning the shop and re setting a little bit. I try to keep everything clean but when you’re armpit deep in a project you’re trying to make progress and things get left out. In those cases if there’s either a pause in progress or it’s just to much mess for me I stop and clean it all. The garage is one of the few places I can have near total control of so I like keeping it nice and put away. That being said the next steps are making a mess cleaning this axle up enough for primer and install. I’m thinking rustoleum rusty metal primer in red oxide brushed on and latter it’ll get some gloss black industrial enamel or ace brand rattle can. Have had good luck with both and both are easy to touch up. 1: clean and prime rear axle 2: put the axle together and back in the car 3: pan hard pan and shock mounts 4: put 750-16’s on current rear steel wheels and 525’s onto 4” wide 40’ ford wheels. All four wheels will need cleaned up no doubt. I’ll rusty primer the inside of the wheels and probably leave what you can see for later. 5: turn car around and finish up the steering, alignment and add pan hard off the wishbone. That should be enough stuff to keep me busy til December. Somewhere in there I’ll change some bolts in the 46 to fix an exhaust leak now that it’s fall and I want to drive it, and I’ll probably clear a few shelves and mock up the roadster chassis enough to look at it and smile. I think if we could land in spring with a 46 that’s ready to go, and the A with the body off and the chassis finish welded I’d be pretty dang happy. That would put us into a summer of cleaning up, refreshing and rebuilding mechanical bits. Much of which I have on the shelf. Starting to feel optimistic about driving this before it’s 100 years old.
On the note of optimism I saw in my binge reading of his champ car build @THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER had made a list of what he got done on the project at the end of the year. I’m a list guy but they are rarely one that looks back. I think that’s a great way to end out the year. Once it’s all on paper you can see that you did in fact get a lot done!
Printed of the instructions and diagram he sent me and put it all together in the cabinet. Thought I’d share a photo of it real quick. VERY beefy! All that shows through the dash is the knob with the rubber bellows behind it. The bellows covers the polished jamb nut for securing it to the dash. Just another one of the “small” things ready for later. At one point I drew the dash out with every knob and button I thought I’d need. But I’m thinking it will end up quite a lot simplified. I’m going with an electric choke so it would seem ignition, lights, horn would be all I really need close at hand. if I end up putting electric wipers on the car I’m thinking some of the units have a switch right on them and if not a switch right up in the header panel seems a good spot to me. ~ drawing a blank on wipers, is it Newport? Everyone loves? I will also need to mount the gas tank switch. Tanks Inc last I checked makes a unit that not only lets you change gas tanks but sends the signal from the current use tank to your gauge! Pretty handy. But seems like I wouldn’t necessarily need to have it right in front of my nose. I also am going to plumb and wire in an electric fuel pump. I’m thinking if I wire it to keyed power I can have a toggle down stream and when it’s flipped I can just turn the key and it turns on. I’m thinking that one will land under the dash next to the fuse panel. The idea is to run the mechanical fuel pump but if it gives up the ghost I’m a flip of a switch away from getting myself home. Maybe both fuel related toggles can go next to the fuse panel. If I put them on a little under dash bracket pushed back from the dash face a little bit they are dang near on the firewall brace anyways. And one less then on the dash/dash rail means one less thing to snag an elbow on later. I believe that the tank switch will also let you select no tanks. So might be handy to be able to shut off fuel source and electric fuel pump from a not obvious switch. Also years ago PorknBeaner and I gave ourselves a nice gas shower bumping the motor over in the 46 when the pump turned on with the key. A switch like this would have been a hand thing that day. shoot I’ve even had a key chain set aside for this car since 2019 lol
Seems like a good uses. Really I think it came from arguing with myself weather I wanted to use the mechanical pump or an electric. Both seemed an easy answer.
Because of the location of the Stude V8 fuel pump vapor lock can be an issue. When my son took his '54 Conestoga to college where it would be in the dorm parking lot we tried to make it harder to steal. We bought a battery with a shutoff built in (piece of crap) and a fuel shutoff mounted near the fuel pump (bad Idea). It did shut the fuel off every time the engine got a little hot, like trying to climb every hill in Nevada, Arizona, & New Mexico. Lucky that part of Texas has no hills. With the shutoff removed it was much better. We added an electric pump just in case.
Good info! It gets around 114 in the summers but I try not to be out in it too much. First colder rainy week of the season I’m looking forward to sweat shirt garage time but I have a list of parts I need to hurry and and paint now lol
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/model-a-banjo.1342932/ The banjo I won’t be using is official for sale so I can by a few parts
Since I'm posting switches this is my turn signal switch. Pretty neat little self canceling unit. I believe I’ve seen guides on rebuilding them here on the hamb but from the looks of the wires there’s a good chance it looks ok inside. Guess we’ll see when the time comes. Anyone mess with one of these before?
Neat! From what I can tell They are 12 volt and wire pretty much like the switch in my 46. I’m assuming anyways considering every 9000 diagram shows a switch that looks more like my chrome one in the 46 than this one lol. I was curious what kind of bulb it uses but I guess if it works it works and if it doesn’t maybe it’s got a marking I can search and find a replacement. visually the plan is to clean it up, polish the lense and arm and paint the body. Everything else is gloss black but part of my brain is saying this would look cool in gray hammer tone. haven't mocked it up I hope the wheel will work with the 4 spoke I have on it.
How many wires come out of this switch? I had to use a trailer adapter on a model A that was using 37 taillights so both didn't blink when using the turn signal.
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