P1ssing down again yesterday so I decided to put my rear brakes together in the workshop, I have a stash of 11" Ford drum parts and a new pair of drums so it looked an easy job First problem I came across was I have New big ford axle ends but out of the 5 pairs of backplates I had all were old ford fitting Only thing to do was to modify them to fit. I had a pair of new ford bearing axle end housings so turned up a mandrel from a lump of aluminium to align the backplate with the housing, then I scribed the holes as they are slightly different. Once the holes lined up I clamped it all together and ran a drill through each hole to clean them up. I now had elongated holes in the backplates, answer was to weld on some large diameter thick washers. Everything was going very smoothly until I started to assemble the brakes then I suddenly realised I was missing the parking brake levers Couldn't find any in my stash so I've asked my mates to have a look and see if they have any laying around otherwise its order from the states which is gonna hold me up yet again Oh well 2 steps forward and one step back This is the parts i'm missing just incase any one has a pair hanging around, they are for 11" diameter brakes
I'm starting to think they are out to get me !!! Finally sorted the backplate bits and pieces and pulled the drums out of the boxes and guess what ? Wrong stud pattern Anyway I decided to use them and just redrill, heres how the job went. First I turned up a spigot from a lump of aluminium round bar to align the centre hole of the drum, then a aluminium spacer I had was fitted to it, everything clamped up and then I drilled through the stud holes in the spacer, Fairly straight forward job but I could of done without it to be honest. I cleaned off the very thin coat factory paint with a zip wheel and epoxy primed them and then gave them 2 coats of 2K Jedi black. .
Not quite sure what happened there claymore, there was only 1 when I posted, had problems with the mobile app yesterday too. Thanks for letting me know bud
I swear, every time I check in on your thread, you've fabbed up another tool for solving a problem. I'm amazed at how you fab so many of your fasteners and brackets, etc... It all looks great.
Cheers Eric, missed my deadline for our Hotrod drags unfortunately so just plodding on now so its ready for next season, I will get a bit of road use in but no track action till next March i guess
Well ain't gonna make the Hotrod Drags so decided not to rush the build now, will just plod on and get it done. Decided to sort a couple of modifications I had planned for the winter. First I have decided to go with solid motor mounts but wanted it to still look ordinary so I machined up some copies of the rubber mounts in aluminium, I'm going to paint them satin black so they will still look like rubber. Next modification was to the ladder bars, The installation of double adjusters will allow me to preload the suspension and plant both tyres equally on launch, Out of interest i played with the adjustment to see what it would do and found 1 complete turn on the adjuster moves 1" at the end of the bar. I thought about doing this when I initially made them but decided against it, don't know why because it makes a lot of sense really and makes it all adjustable. I had to shorten the bar to accomodate the double adjusters which meant making up a couple new thread bungs, These were made from 1" steel bar, the ends are turned down to fit inside the tube snugly and rosette welded on all 4 sides. Normally the double adjusters would be in the lower leg of the ladder bar but i didn't want them to show, they will do the same job. .
Don do you mean on the adjusters ? If so its a factory finish, cad plating I believe, it doesn't last that well really. .
Steve, everytime you post, your workmanship & attention to detail astounds me! Was once told the reason Canadian cars are so detailed is our long winters give us more time to work on them! Where are southern neighbors are busy cruizin'. I guess the same logic can be used for our British friends! Well done Mate!
Cheers Mo, I just like things right to be honest, for me this build isn't that detailed, I can get really anal if I get carried away, hahaha Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
After Happydaze pm'd me I realised I wasn't very clear on how the double adjusters work, the male end is LH thread & the female is RH thread so undo the 2 nuts either end and then you rotate the centre gold part to adjust it up or down.
Don if I had a LH 5/8" die I would of made them but it was cheaper to buy them. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Langy, Looks like you are rolling along quite nice on you Willys'. Sure is going to be one clean and well engineered HOT ROD ! Will be looking forward to when you start racing it. I would love to have some of your metal skills. Luckily my cars are fairly simple . . . . Wish you all the best on your Coupe. Dave
Whenever I see Steve I always take the opportunity to rub in that he said this project was going to be a little on the rough side, something like the car from the movie Hot Rod. I knew Steve didn't have it in him to leave anything "rough". Don
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