Hot Rods The (mis) Adventures of a Compulsive Tinkerer

I like the 6.40 profile...

 

Those tires fill the rim perfectly.

 

Made a little progress with the tires today. My inner tubes arrived along with the break-in oil so I mounted the other slick and put them up against the bed on each side. I was able to get an inside to inside measurement from which I could determine the rear end width needed. 57 1/4” would be perfect. I have a 9” pickup rear end that I could cut down but….
Speedway shows a 9” housing and axles for $688. They come in 56, 58 and 60” widths. The 58” one will be fine. The picture shows three bolt patterns in each axle, if that’s true it would be great, I have a few different wheels and I would have some choices. I’ll call them tomorrow to verify everything.
I think that I’ll buy the Speedway rear end and sell the two 9” and one 8” that I have. It’ll offset the cost and make some room in the shop. Extra bonus - it’ll be clean, I won’t have to deal with cleaning out the stinky old gear lube. Yep, that does it, I’m gettin’ the new one. LoL.

 

Budget36 mentioned the rear fenders. I scrounged around today and found the bobbed fenders that I have. They came on a little trailer I bought years ago made from a Model A pickup bed. They’re not perfect but I thought they were cool I just haven’t had anything to use them on. So today I decided to mock up tires and fenders. I moved some junk to get a better photo angle.
The stock ‘33 fender….


The fenderless look….


And two angles with the bobbed fenders….

The bobbed fenders are actually a left and a right. I think this one actually belongs on the driver’s side but you get the point. It was pouring rain and this fender was the easy one to grab. I like the look with slicks and Halibrands, reminds me of Hugh Tucker’s AA/SR.
Also note that the current height works well with the fenders, but without the fenders I would lower the back to make the tire radius match the bed reveal or lower.

 

I like either, but sure like the originals better. I just like the “swoop” in the back.
But I’ve no doubt you’ll sort it out as you want it to look.

 

Yeah, just looking at options. My first choice is full fenders. I’m hoping to find some decent front fenders and running boards. But I have always wanted to use those bobbed fenders….

 

Go Bobbed Bob!

 

This whole project started because of a Weesner print that I saw and bought. I like everything about this truck, even the candy tangerine paint and white and orange interior. That’s why I lean towards full fenders.

Unfortunately, my wife doesn’t like orange cars so it will be dark gray hot rod primer at first. It will probably end up blue or light metallic green if I get that far.
(Credit: amazing artwork by Keith Weesner)

 

I cut out my previous Buick mounts today clearing the way to install the new boxing plates. I used my new cordless grinder from HF with a Dewalt cutoff wheel. It kicks ****. I’m not a big HF guy but this grinder is great.

The PO had removed the rivets and bolted the front crossmember in with grade 8 bolts. I’ve modified ‘33-‘34 front crossmembers to drop the front an extra inch before and I was thinking about doing that, but I was also thinking about maybe installing a Model A crossmember. I have a really nice one that I can use. I’ve done it to ‘32 frames but I’ve never done it to a ‘33-34. It looks like it would give me a little more drop than cutting up the ‘33 crossmember.

Almost a 2” drop at the spring mounting point. It might affect the lower radiator hose but from my recent fit check, the radiator needs work anyway.

 

While I let my poor old brain mull over the front suspension, I decided to get out the starter for the new Stude engine and see if it fits. The Wilcap adapter uses a Mopar starter, part numbers are listed in the instructions. I bought a starter on sale a long time ago so I got it out and bolted it up to the adapter plate. I’m not real happy. The solenoid sticks straight out the side. There’s only three alternate positions and they all stick the solenoid out where the steering box and stuff are.

I can rotate the whole starter up and drill new mounting holes in the adapter but one hole will be very close to the edge. I will probably do that.
I do have another starter that might fit better. It came with the other Pontiac engine. I’ll pull it off tomorrow and see if it fits.

 

I love me some Baurer.
Yes, I’m a HF guy!

 

Would a mini indexable starter work?

 

This one is indexable but only has three positions. ?? It doesn’t change very much.
It never fails, you buy something you know you’re going to need way ahead of time and either it doesn’t fit or it doesn’t work when you finally try to use it.
It doesn’t matter, I can swap with the other Pontiac or go upstairs and get out the one that came with the Hemi to TH400 adapter that I bought long ago. I’m sure one of them will fit.

 

I got out the boxing plates just to see how well they fit. They look really good.
(Yeah, I know they go on the inside)


This is the radiator problem that I mentioned earlier…..

 

What side is the top hose on?

 

I’ll have to go look. I’m not really sure that that’s the correct radiator but it was the only old one there when I bought the truck. The seller didn’t seem to know either.
I bought this little truck as a basket case, it was spread all over a storage space along with construction equipment. My wife and I partially ***embled it with the help of the seller and his son so we could put it on the trailer for the ride home. We knew ahead of time so I brought nuts and bolts and tools.

 

I was voting for the Bobbed fenders... 'til I saw the Weesner truck... now I'm with you on the full fenders.

 

The Buick is a long engine. It also has the starter on the left side so steering gear clearance may be a problem. I used a Steer Clear unit on my Model A to solve the starter problem.

 

Yeah, I noticed that things were a little tight with the starter on the same side as the steering but I will probably use a Vega or 525 box and cross steering (I have both lying around) , so it should just be a shaft running by the starter.
I’m leaning towards keeping the Buick in there but since the Chrysler hemi has the front mounts in a similar position and might be able to share a single motor mount crossmember, I’m gathering up the parts to install the Hemi for a quick fit check.
Those Steer Clear units are pretty slick, huh?