A few more... 082410 Fuddruckers 025 by SoCalCarCulture, on Flickr 082410 Fuddruckers 027 by SoCalCarCulture, on Flickr 082410 Fuddruckers 032 by SoCalCarCulture, on Flickr 082410 Fuddruckers 034 by SoCalCarCulture, on Flickr 082410 Fuddruckers 037 by SoCalCarCulture, on Flickr
That is a nice one there! I used to live down the street from that Fudruckers - come to think of it my ex wife still does.
I have had almost no time to work on the car, my best friends wedding was this weekend. So I have been out of town. Just got home. I have to go into work early tonight. But I did take a little time to mock up my fuel cell mounting brackets out of cardboard. The chains will be welded the brackets and the master links will be up on top so I can take them loose if I ever need too. I am going to get little rubber strips to fit between the tank and mount to keep it from sqeaking. It should be really sturdy. I figure I can cut a few holes in the brackets to make it look a little more 'racey'. I also bought a pretty cool fuel filler cap. Ill see if I can find a pic of it.
Here is my cheesy gas cap. I am going to soak it in some soda or vinegar to take the cheesy "bling" look away from it. Then polish it a little with steel wool. Yeah. Its kinda 'faux patina'...But its gonna happen. Lol.
I also got my rear tires. Now I can start cutting my rear quarters and get them fitted in the wheel wells. They almost fit in there as it is. I guess back in the day, whoever raced this car originally ran around a 28 inch tire. These are 29.5 tall. But I needed to re-radius them anyways bc whomever did it originally...really hacked them out crudely.
Why do people with great cars feel the need to finish them with lame vanity plates and Harley stickers? Those kinds of items wreck the coolness of the car.... and the owner. Not getting enough attention?
I also like the lines of the coupe a little better. But, I guess my opinion is a little biased, since I own a coupe. Lol. I like stickers myself...just not Harley stickers on a gasser/street freak. Here are some of the ones I've picked up to go on my car once its done.
And, since South Carolina allows you to register your vehicle with a vintage license plate, as long as its the year of the vehicle-- I picked up a 53' south kakalaki tag. It was only $12, so I couldn't resist.
Welp. Sorry for no updates in so long guys. Its been a busy one the past 6-8 months. Life is a pain in the ass sometimes. My wife is in college and her classes change every semester, so that really kicks my schedule around alot. Add to that all the overtime i have had to work the past 8 months. Then two kids...ages...4...and 1...makes for a tough go for car time. On top of that, my parents recently moved to a new house...so i have been helping him renovate alot of the little things wrong with their place since mid-march, which took alot more time than i really anticipated to be honest. But the main problem with them moving-- is the shop i shared with my dad, was at their old house. So my jeep cj and the Ford had to be moved along with alll our tools. So it stalled out there. I have the car now at our house, under my car port and i have just been doing busy work basically, like welding holes up. Doing minor body work, etc. Just anything to keep inching forward. So thats where I am at the moment. I havent abandoned the car or project. It just isnt my first priority at the moment, mainly due to the lack of a real workshop. But my wife and i are currently house shopping, so that will be a non issue soon enough. Then it will be balls to the wall on it again. The wife and i are going to head down to the commerce swap meet @ atlanta dragstrip this morning to see if we can rustle up anything cool for the car. I cant really think of anything else. Ill try to do a better job of updating my thread once i really start getting sh*t done again. Hope everyone is having a great fall so far! That cool weather feels amazing.
I would like to know how far this project is also. I have a Ford with a Chrysler. Be nice to see another one.
Sorry for the 5 year break I've been on! I still have the car. Its just been on the back burner because I have a few other projects I've worked on since then, nothing HAMB related tho, more newer cars. I've been slowly working on the 53 tho, I cut the entire front frame off, built a new one out of 2x3 box. Installed the speedway front axle. Im also about to start getting the engine mocked up, I've decided to do a little bit of a setback on it, maybe 5 inches or so (that measurement isnt set in stone at the moment, I still need to do some figuring). Recently I removed the rear axle because I was going to begin fabbing up an entirely new rear leafspring suspension with sliders on the rear of the springs and I was also going to go ahead and completely tear down the rear 9 inch that had been swapped into the car and go through it, when it occured to me it looked a little different. It had tapered axle tubes and a weird drain plug, at first I thought it was just some cobbled together rear axle that had been pieced together sometime back in the day, but a friend mentioned the K-code mustangs had tapered axle tubes. So I started researching it, I think it may actually be a K-code rear axle. But I'm not 100% sure because I'm not that familiar with the numbers game and all of that side of hotrodding. But I figured I would post some pics up and I am sure some of you guys would know way more about this axle than I would. I would really appreciate any help you guys can give me on i.d'ing this axle. Sent from my SM-G975U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Btw. Here are some pics of the front frame being built. I did alot of this out in the open on my drive way because I don't have a shop at the moment bc my wife and I are in the middle of house shopping and are renting a house with no shop, which sucks, but at least its level lol. And also I plan on doing a tilt front end, so I had an old set of barn door hinges i got from my grandads farm when he passed away in 2018, so I plan on using those for hinges. Sent from my SM-G975U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The tapered tube housings are more common than you may think. Found on K-code Mustangs and Fairlanes initially, in '66 their use was expanded into the FE-powered Fairlanes/Comets, then the '67 Mustang/Cougar. When the 351 rolled into Ford town, it was used behind those too in the same cars. This allowed Ford to use the same brakes/small-bearing axles/mounting hardware as the 8" rear. This design made it to at least '71 that I know of. The housing rather than pumpkin fill plug should make yours a mid-60s piece, you'll have to determine width to narrow it down further. One flaw with these is Ford used a thinner gauge metal for the axle tubes to allow easier swaging of the tube down to the smaller diameter so these are bit flimsier than the straight-tube housings. So if you're planning any severe use, reinforcing the housing may be a good idea. I installed a housing-mount sway bar on one of these and bent the housing under somewhat-hard cornering. If the axles are hard to remove/install in the housing (need more than a few light taps to seat them), the housing is bent and should be straightened.
Yeah. I didnt think it was some super duper rare axle by any means. There were probably tens-of-thousands of them produced. But I just dont have much desire to go cutting it and bracing it like that. Because it is at least uncommon. So I'll probably end up selling it off to someone who actually needs it for a restoration and finding a normal Ford 9 inch to work with. Sent from my SM-G975U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The first-gen Fairlane and Mustang housings are fairly rare, the later ones not so much. And not all the K-code Mustangs got the 9" as Ford figured out that the hi-po didn't deliver enough torque to kill the 8" in street use.
Small stones picked up in sticky slicks get flung out during a burnout. No one wants a cracked windshield.
Alright. I got the rear axle torn down. It's got a 54-xx inch wide housing (measuring from flange to flange), which seems to he the width for a 1967-70 Mustang rear end,(also for the Torino, Cyclone,Fairlane--but the spring perch widths are different for those cars) the axle I have has 43in center-to-center spring perches, which is the the factory width for the mustang in 67-70. The width of the axle, measuring from the wheel mounting surfaces is around 59 inches (I was struggling to measure it in the picture because I was trying to do it one handed while taking the picture, it's a little more than 59 inches when I was actually able to hold the tape steady). Which, also would also indicate a mustang. Also, does anyone recognize those weird ringed/grooved brake drums? Most of the ones I've ever seen are just flat on the outside or have fins. The carriers casting number is C7AW-G which from looking around on the internet, has a larger carrier bearing than a standard 9 inch. But it's a 3.00 open rear with 28 spline axles, which isnt heavy duty at all [emoji28] So maybe it's out of a 67-70 Mach 1 or something? In those years, Mustangs only got a 9 inch if it was a 351W or larger engine option, so maybe it was a mid-level mustang axle, basically a lighter duty 9 inch, with slightly bigger bearings in the carrier? I sure wish this axle had a tag with it [emoji28] At this point, I'm trying to figure this out for pure curiosity. Sent from my SM-G975U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I think you have a 66-67 Fairlane , 390 Cu In not GT option , axle housing and stump . Most were 3.00 open design with this engine .
I would go the 8.8 route , from an early Ranger cut the long side to use stock short side axle axle . Only needs one cut and easy to locate , plenty strong , most are 3.73 ratio that I have touched . You can disc brake it easily it that’s the way you want to go .
That axle chart has been on the internet for years and for the most part is very accurate EXCEPT the 67 Fairlane callout at 63.5" width and coil springs. I worked at a Ford dealership and have had dozens if not hundreds of Fairlanes up on a lift and never seen with coil springs yet or that wide. Don't know where that came from but it keeps getting passed along.
That may be what I do, I've had my fair share of 8.8's, being a 4x4 guy and also had a couple of Mustang 5.0's. They're cheap and strong and lots of parts out there for them for cheap. Probably close on the width I need too. Sent from my SM-G975U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
That's a side-by-side comparison between a real 66 K-code housing and the one I have. They look nearly identical. They even have the same "L" on the hex drain plug. But the 66 housing has a 52-1/4 flange width and mine is 54-xx. I'm assuming Ford/Mercury probably shared that axle housing with other makes with an inch added on either side to keep costs down, or maybe they had some 66 axle housings left over and just tossed them into 67 cars. Who knows [emoji28] Sent from my SM-G975U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Figured I would post this as well. My 9 yr old getting his hands dirty. After helping me tear down the 9inch, he wanted to do more, so I drug the towel city pie crusts out and let him clean all the storage dust off of them and get them cleaned up. I figured if he got outside and froze a little bit in the chilly morning time with me, he would help put more pressure on my wife to speed up the house hunting process [emoji28] Sent from my SM-G975U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I think I may have solved the mystery rear axle. It looks to be a 1966 Q-code Thunderbird rear axle. They came with a 3.00 open dif and that makes sense bc a 3 speed auto was standard. That also explains the 2 inch wider axle width than a K-code rear axle. I found a forum where Thunderbird guys were talking about what axles their T-birds had in then, one of the guys had a Q-code Thunderbird and shared a bunch of pics and mentioned the 3.00 open dif and weird hex drain plug. That also explains the heavier carrier bearing center section, I guess Ford figured it needed beefier bearings for all that weight. Let me know what u guys think. This is just the closest I've came to figuring this out. Sent from my SM-G975U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Jalopy Journal
