First update of many. Front end is all rebuilt and back on. Clean, paint, rebuild the POS Posies spring, new king pins, track rod ends and brakes. Front end ready to go back in. Strangely its a '32 heavy axle attached to a '36 wishbone. On to the spring ***embly. The spring is a Posies "Super Slide", super load of rubbish more like. Whats the little plastic ****ons all about apart from a gimmick? I can't see them lasting very long at all. Plastic rubbing on metal with the weight of a flatty on top of them?!? First thing to do was take it apart as half the leaves needed tapering. Then I had to cut the second leaf back. You can just see how its slightly shorter in the picture. The spring has a reverse eye main leaf and as everybody knows you have to cut back the second leaf otherwise it will hit the reversed eye and lock the spring up. Did this have it done? Nop! It was almost touching and it didn't even have the weight of the engine on it yet. Next I had to chamfer the edges of the top leaf. Every Ford factory spring has this done otherwise the square edges of the spring dig into the round corners of the crossmember and the spring won't sit in the crossmember properly. I changed the centre bolt to a proper square headed spring bolt. The head of the bolt not only locates the spring but also stops the spring from sliding sideways which in turn will cause the front end to move as well. The bolt supplied with the spring had a round head and was way undersized for the square hole in the crossmember. Eerrmmm.... Round peg, square hole comes to mind. Spring finally ***embled. Give me an original Ford Spring any day of the week. When fitted into the car the spring clamps didn't sit flat on the spring AND the crossmember. I made these spacers again so everything would bolt up tight stopping any unwanted movement in the spring and front end. Spindles fitted, king pins shimmed out and backing plates fitted. Front brakes on.
i don't understand why you should be having any problems with a Posies spring , even with those ****ons. i have used many of them in `35-`40 fords and have always been happy
Thought I'd add a small update. If you've been wondering why its all gone a little quiet, well thats because it has. I got chucked out of my mates garage after a week ( ) so it was a dash to get the car back together so it could be moved to the workshop where it will be for the near future. In the workshop its been stripped of as many panels as possible in anticipation of putting a floor in and that is pretty much it... Its all gone on hold until after the Hayride. There is just too much going what with both soap boxes, the trophies for the Hayride, the coupe axle going bang, my new bike and life in general. After the Hayride its all systems go. Even though there has been no progress on the car itself I've been doing all the leg work getting parts, rebuilding and painting in readiness for when they are needed. I've got stuff everywhere and its beginning to prove a challenge remembering what I've got and where it is! Storage space is running out fast and bulky items are now 20 foot in the air...
Many of you had asked about the '36 at the Hayride and true to my word now the Hayride is over we have got started on it. This is as it sits now, a stripped shell sitting on the ch***is and looking rather sorry for it self. We have pulled every panel possible from car to gain as much access as possible. The floor, which is a rusty, distorted mess had already had all the spot welds drilled out really nicely so we was able to remove it in one piece. This has saved loads of time and has left us ready for to put the new floor back in straight away. I have all the floor panels sitting ready to go in after the ch***is work is complete. More of in a minute... First job has been the repair of the ch***is. The X member had the usual gas torch pedal fitment. : I just happen to have a '36 X member in stock ( ). Instead of repairing what was there we have chopped the whole piece out and replaced with the same good section from the other x member. This is the good section ready to go back in. The piece we removed included one of the gearbox mounts. The mount was good so was removed from the bad piece and refitted to the good section as this didn't have a gearbox mount on it at all. To keep it all looking factory I got the mount hot riveted back in. I seem to have lost the picture of the hole in the ch***is or forgot to take one even! Here's a jump to a picture of the new section welded in. The rear axle has been removed which was a pain in the backside as every nut and bolt was different and were all spinning for England with no easy access to cut them off with a grinder. The axle has been stripped to steal all the good bits for the new rear end. Finally the new steering has gone in as well. The car is going to run a '40 steering box and column shift. Fitting this was a complete piece of piss as it was a matter of removing the '36 steering box mount and replacing with the '40 steering mount which just so happen to come with car and which was still attached to the ch***is rail it was cut from!
Nice car and very nice work. While you are doing the floor, if you find any bad rockers/subrails, there is a high quality metal shop, Mcpherson Automotive in Kansas, that hand forms an 8 piece rocker/subrail set that will do both sides of the car, from the cowl to the rear inner fenders. These pieces fit and look like originals. They also sell pieces separately. Good luck. Keep up the progress photos.
Hell of a deal? That body was $7500 at one time... Come on. It's cool and all, but $7500 for a over-chopped '36 5 window. No way. I'll bet that car like it sits went for less than half that money. Nobody will ever fess up, but you know it. The 3 window, whole different story... Bad Ride! Kevin Ooltewah Speed Shop
Good work on the 36. I sent some photos of my 36 to Mike when he was working on the chop on that car. Keep us posted, I want to see where you are headed with the build. John.
The car is looking great. I can't understand your issues with the superslider springs as I have friends who have thousands of miles on them with the ****ons working great.
Congrats man...Nice looking start & project..I hope to have one some day...its just a dream...I love it with the skirts!!
Where is Preacher from? I see the 5 window has Idaho plates from Gem County. Oh! and I have a 38 Chevy that I would love to send over there.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I hope to keep it updated regulary. May well see another update by the end of the week! Thanks for the info. The floor was bad but the subrails are perfect luckily. Last I heard it went north to Yorkshire.
Finished off the repair section by taking back the welds. Happy with how its come out. Also completed a couple more repairs to the ch***is. This time it was the counter sunk anti-chatter rod holes. One side had the back of the countersunk cropped off which must have been taken when they cut the chatter rods off because the bolts wouldn't undo and the other side had nothing at all apart from a lump of plate welded over what was once a hole. I bought a pair of rods from a guy on the HAMB and luckily he had the section of ch***is with them, which is what we used to repair mine. Notice the pedal ***embly now in as well. Started on the rear axle as well. The axle is a 2-speed Columbia. It has had a lot of chopping and changing in its life. As far as I can tell it started out in life as a '40 ish Ford set-up. At some point in its life it was modified to fit in a Model A. It had a shortened torque tube and driveshaft (Model A dimensions), the radius rod mounting lug moved to accept shorty '48 'bones, the stock '40 ish rear spring hangers had been cut off and Model A style hangers fitted on the top of the axle bells. This is how I bought it with the intention of fitting it to my old roadster. The roadster sold but I kept the axle, so now its being converted back to V8 spec to be fitted to the '36. With the axle bells removed of all spring hangers we had a blank canvas to work with. I went with the stock '36 'bones as these were the neatest and easiest to fit and a pair just happen to come with the car. All we had to make up was a oval bracket that had the same hole spacing as a '36 but with a larger centre hole to fit the later, bigger axle bells. This is the template my dad made. Its an odd shape as he had to extend the outer flange for strength but also keep in the confines of the radius rod. The finished knuckle dusters... This is how they sit in the radius rods. Next job is to weld them onto the bells and then the axle can go together.
Just found this thread, nice to see the 3Window has a new home. For some reason I like seeing Hot Rods built across the pond, we have imported a fair number of sports cars from you so seeing the cars spread around is good. I have to ask about the floor in that shop........if it is concrete it looks like the final float was done with a rake. Good luck with the project, keep us updated.
Keep the pics comeing. It look grate. How long do you think it will take you to get it up and running? I too like the 36's but I'm with you on the body part It would have to be a 40 5 window opra coup for me. Their just sick or a 40 Willie coup. Thanks for posting and keep up the work.....
The shop is an old cattle shed converted into seperate units. I'm aiming for it on the road, rough and ready and in primer by the end of the year.
cant belive i missed this tread,,looks well nice, carnt wait to see it what docks did it come into as it sure as hell dont look like chatham..bob
Lower the headlamps and get a LaSalle grille for it, Westergaard style. That chop is dead on. Rawther luverly...
The Jalopy Journal
