Saw a 29 A at cruise night last night with modern radial tires. The fronts were an 8" wide tire that filled to the outside edge of the fender. I stood there thinking it would look way better the way you have it, and it does. You nailed the look and stance. Good job.
Thanks guys! I finally found that a rear 3/4 photo from lower down shows the rake the best. It is VERY nose down but it’s hard to see in photos if it’s not just right. I spent a lot of time getting it to sit how I wanted to, I’m really happy that the steelies brought the tires under the crown of the fender a little better. I’m going to have to C notch the rail to clear the leaf spring so any extra room I can have for tire movement the better. I’m not entirely sure what’s next on the list. I’m thinking I’m going to mess with the steering column support and get that all ****oned up. Considering dropping it down a hair. Before I do that I think I’m going to tack the roadster ch***is together into a roller so I can move it around and make space for my son to have a work bench in the garage with me. So that’s the dominoes I’ve got to knock down next i suppose.
Man once you see what the right wheels and tires can do to a car you can’t un see it. Makes car shows and the cl***ified adds a whole different experience.
Hey, Tim; What did(do) you end up w/for tire->fender clearance? Bounce & turning? Does look nice. TIA. Marcus...
I’ll go stick a tape under the driver side when I get a chance. It still has the stamped irons on it. I’d guess maybe 2-3inches. Will hit bump stops before it hits the fender I can turn the wheels lock to lock and it doesn’t hit anyway thing but I’ve never measure the clearance on it
Hard to get my hands in there lol. It’s pretty close to 2” vertical before the tire would hit the closest part of the fender brace and I’d say 2-2.5 at the top of the tire. I’m going to put the front in the air and turn the tires when I get a chance as see how close the fender brace is to the tire at full lock. That’s gonna be the closest interference, I don’t mind it rubbing the fender but the brace would be an issue. I’ve seen a few guys clip the end off, or shave the vertical flanges off. I’ll see what room is there and then think about my options. I also have the early solid fender braces as well that may be less in the way.
Yep! A POS with the right wheels, tires, and stance doesn't look so bad. That's how I make my garbage look good You could use the method they used in Freiburger's latest Model A video, and once it's in the air use a ratchet strap to compress the front spring to see what clearance you have when the suspension is actually working.
A few years ago we took the hot rods out for a road trip and put zip ties on the front shocks in a way that would be a “witness mark” for how much the suspension compressed. No one got more than 1.25” of compression and that seems pretty standard. So factor in the m***ive pot holes and the fast speeds that this city presents I figured 2” in the front was a safe bet also as I mentioned to @drdave yesterday this front spring has been on the car for years and years at this point so it’s a safe ***umption that any settling is pretty much done on this brand new spring up front
Yeah I think to get the front end to compress two inches I’d have to take the shocks off and then drop the car from about 18” off the ground at minimum. noticed the brace on the driver side isn’t tight against the fender like the p***enger side is. If I tip/bend that to be the same it gains me at least an inch more turning clearance.
Put the front up in the air and put it at full lock. turned all the way to the right the back side of the drivers tire is closest right here. I’d guess 3/8 at most. that makes the p***enger side look like this. and this is the closest spot at that point. Measured same point on my fingers and it’s roughly 1.75” so if the car was compressed all the way, at full lock it would probably still not hit on the fender. Although the opposite side with the back of the tire hanging out probably would. The only time I can see this really being an issue is taking a very tight turn on sort of a slant. Like cutting a U turn on a gr***y hill side. If I do that in my 46’ the tire rubs on the inner fender. As of right now I’m totally fine with that. If at some point it bothers me or it’s worse than expected I’ll find a solution at that time. oh, and in case you’re wondering why I put it off the ground the turn the tires, with the cross steer it really wants to twist the drivers side frame rail. I haven’t seen what it does after I added the pan hard bar but I didn’t care to find out today. Eventually the frame will get boxed and that should get it all good to go.
Wheels & Stance..Wheels & Stance... Wheels & Stance. The only thing more important to appearance on a hot rod is Stance & wheels. If these are wrong nothing can fix it. If nothing is done to the rest of the finish on this thing is ***S. Get it running and drive its *** off!
Road trip to @atch netted some f1 shock mounts. I’ve yet to mock them up but I think they are gonna work slick.
Pulled the new to me center section out of the bags to check for critters and wash the crates before they came inside today. Everything gets a heavy trash bag and a bunch of raid before it sits in the sun a few days before I bring it in if I can’t check it over real good or real soon before it goes inside. Everything looks fantastic kinda curious what this random bracket/brace is for. He wasn’t sure what it was. back into a bag it goes to keep the dust off them and the oil stink out of my nose. Don’t know a better way? I need to look into how to tell what gears these have and if they have a posi or locker. I’ve never tried to figure that stuff out with the parts not in an axle ***embly I could turn tires on etc.
I am sure @squirrel and others can help. Normally, the ring gear has 2 numbers stamped in, the tooth count on the ring and the pinion. Gotta divide to get the ratio. Here are some 9" gears and tooth counts. https://www.strangeengineering.net/product-category/ring-and-pinion-gears/ford-9-inch-gears/ I know later Ford hung some strange weights on the trans and the diff for NVH. If it matches up with diff bolts somewhere that might be it. Looks like it has holes in two different planes, though.
Yeah I was thinking maybe it was for some upper links for a triangulated four bar? Not sure. Could be a cool way to mount a torque arm I guess. when we get around to swapping gears or I find a better container solution I’ll check them for numbers on the ring gear. Pretty sure they are both open diffs.
Tim, Just count the teeth on both gears and devide. Bingo. Your gear ratio.. Use chalk, grease pencil, paint pen, or something to mark where you started your count.
Alright made some progress on making this extra frame horn/rail into a jig for reshaping the f1 mount next weekend. I need to take one more reference measurement and we should be good. Thinking I’ll mount it with the top hole in this crossmember rivet hole. tilted it puts the top bend right where it needs to be. Just need to tip the whole thing at the top of the rail to clear the fender and tip the shock mount section nose up. im not 100% sure if that’s the route we will go as things change but I wanted to be able to bolt it on with out drilling anything out or a new hole. So I found this random bit in my stash. A little file work and the small end fits right in the frame and the big end is the size of the shock mount hole. Will let me bolt it right on and know I’m centered etc with out extra h***le I think I will have to cut/weld or bend the section between the mount holes on the f1 mount to land them both on the frame but that’s a pretty common thing to need to do.
I’ve been buying used 3rd member carriers or storage containers when I can find them. But I found the 2 1/2" gal bucket works....at least for the 9.3. I can see the bucket getting brittle over time though, but at least they're cheap.
I did on mine. I cut it at the bottom of the top hole, that way you can rotate the leftover piece up, bolt it on the hole, trim the other small piece to fit and tack.
Alright update! 105 deg with out the heat index lets go bend some shock mounts with a torch! waiting in the shade I just thought man I hope there is at least a fan… a/c has been fixed! Prayers answered lol. after some chit chat we decided on on placement and I set about marking some reference lines. The edge of this straight edge is the center line of this mauve shock mount as I had it mocked up. I wanted the new mount to keep the shock ends basically where it was but an inch out and an inch up. Putting the bend roughly in the same spot from this vantage. tools of finesse acquired. Set the mount in the vice with the line marked as even with the frame top set parallel to the vice jaws. get it hot, put the big wrench on the end and pull it square to the vice jaws and check with the mauve mounts. After this bend felt good I remembered that it felt like the shock end was roughly the thickness of the threaded section low. We marked a thin board where the top of the section was, heated the bend and put the closed end of a 3/4 wrench over the stud and pulled up until that mark was at the bottom instead of the top. felt good so we set the second piece up and grabbed the second mauve mount to reference. we forgot to even check them against each other because I needed to get home to handle some things and they were still hot. So nestled into the frame rail section and laid back into the trunk they went. Latter that night I stuck the bolts in and clamped them together. They are nearly exactly the same! I set a board across the top and it sits flush across the pair. Excellent! The only Difference between the sides are a slight, I’m talking maybe 1/8” max variation on where the top of the shock stud hits the ground. It’s close enough that I had to put a straight edge to even see it. Close enough for rock and roll man. a quick mock up and I think it’s gonna be good! The first hole is going to be using the rear most front cross member hole. So I’m going to wait until the car is apart to do it so I can take precautions against anything moving. Then I’ll pop the hole up to size, dial in the angle of the dangle ( 7 deg back same as the caster of the axle since the lower mounts are off the perch pins) and figure out where I want the second holes to be. It seems like cut and weld the second hole is the most commonly used method but depending on how much it needs to move I’m considering heating the space between the bolt holes and bending it. either way works and I’ll make a call when it’s time. But for now I’m gonna check this off the list as soon as I clean up the threads.
Additional notes. 1: I’m going to make sure I can get the top of the shock off with out the fender brace interfering. I think there should be plenty of room but I do have the early fender braces if I need to find additional room. 2: I do plan on a 1/8” plate backer inside of the frame . I’m thinking I’ll weld a nut to them and install them before the area gets boxed. I’ll also do this after I do the frame notch for spring clearance so if there’s a route to re enforce that area with this plate I’ll have it do that also. kinda like a fish plate even though I will not be cutting the entire height of the frame, or even half of it.
I had to move the Pete & Jakes upper weld-on shock mounts on my '29AA because of the fender brace interference. I pie-cut them and slightly bent them out just enough to avoid the conflict. Hardly changed the angle, but did set the shock slightly more verticle. You've got the right idea with welding those backer plates with nuts inside the frame before you box the frame. I wish that was done when the transmission crossmember was installed. Really difficult positioning the crossmember bolts through the patch of boxing plate once I added a transmission cooler down inside of that p***enger frame rail. Screwing around with taking the transmission in and out (now up to my fourth installation) has made me a big fan of welded nuts inside a frame. Keep us updated.
The Jalopy Journal
