Finally making some progress on the sedan again

Well I ended my 2-month "vacation" from working on the sedan and finally made some progress today. Last week I ordered stainless brake lines from Inline Tube. I just gave them the lengths I needed and they swedged the fittings on.

I have never flared ss tubing before, plus I don't have the proper tool to do it correctly. And I didn't want leaks all over, so I let them do it for me. It was real reasonable, about $130 for all the ss lines I'd need for the whole car. Plus the nice thing is that I had them make up the lines with the correct size fittings everywhere, so I had no adapters anywhere.

I ordered them last tuesday, and I had them by friday, I was amazed at the quick turnaround.

So at least I got them bent up and the bulk of it done. I still have to make a couple of stand-offs to support one of the residual valves, but its pretty close to being done.

So its not much but its a step in the right direction. It was great to work on it again, plus I realize that the rolling chassis is pretty close to being done. Heres a few pics for now

 

Nice.

I'll have to keep Inline in mind. Everytime I make my own brake lines I feel insecure about it. I usually ruin three lines before I make the perfect set of flares. Even then I don't like the idea.

 

Thanks! I'm in the same boat as you. I REALLY suck at plumbing issues, I hate doing brake lines. Thats why I figured it'd be way cheaper in the end just to have it done by somebody that knows what they're doing. And on making brake lines, thats not me

I would highly recommend Inline. They were so quick, I was amazed. And everything was well packed.

The only screw up I made was the line for the front crossmember that goes side-to-side. I ordered it 1" too long. But not the end of the world, it was a $9.00 line, and they'll have me another one by the weekend. Not like I was gonna drive it this weekend anyways hehe

 

That's a really sweet chassis, friend ! I'm going to start a chassis build of my own soon. Got 32' rails to mate up with a dropped floor pan in a 27 T Roadster Pickup build. I'm running a tri-powered 283 with a GM T5 tranny hooked up to a 9 inch Ford with 3:55 gears. It'll be REAL low with a 30 inch bed out back; Can't wait to get started! good Luck on yours!



If crime doesn't pay, why are so many criminals rich?

 

Very nice work again. But could we expect anything less. Hopefully I will be running brake lines soon. I have never made brake lines so maybe I will have to follow you on this one too.

 

Damn bro keep it up.

I am very envious of your 4door very unique and just like the one I plan to build.
Awesome !

 

Your lines look nice. I have used inline tube for some fittings and other oddball things I could not find locally and the service was always great. The guys on their tech lines know their stuff. Glad to see the Ramen noodle special is moving again.

 

It's great to see you're back in the saddle on your build.
Now get going on it, spring is coming!! LSM

 

Thanks! That sounds like a great project. I am dying to build something on 32' rails. As soon as I finish my sedan, that will be my next project I think.

Good luck on your project, post up progress pics too

 

Yeah I didn't feel like "experimenting" with making ss lines on this car. One of these days I'll figure it out though.

Hey CK it looks like your tub is coming along great btw!

Dan

 

Thanks man, I appreciate. I like the fact that its a fordor too, its not something you see everyday. Thats probably because of the huge pita it was to replace the rotten wooden subframe with steel

 

Haha I forgot about the Ramen Noodle thing. It was nice to get a couple month break so I could eat some normal food again. I guess I'll be back on the ramen noodle diet til its done ha

 

Hey LSM, whats up?

Thats exactly what I've been thinking, as its been so freaking nice every day. It makes me really wanna drive the sedan. I hope your taildraggers doing well, it sure was looking good

 

I believe with your brake light switch behind your residual valve you will have problems with your brake lights staying on. Jusy noticed that in the pics. just trying to help you now before you have probs later. I did this on a car before and the brake lights stayed on constantly because the constand psi. Plus it needs to be as close as you can get it to the master cylinder as you can get it. I have since decided to never use one of them again. The can be a problem in the long run too.

With that said your frame and lines look great and am glad you are back working on it. I sure cant wait to see drive this sucker down the highway.

 

I wondered too. I talked with Inline about that. The reason I needed(or wanted) to put them there was to prevent needing a REALLY long run of complicated bends to go up the rear kick-up to the rear brakes. It kind of gave an easy stopping point.

As it is, the rear line is 60", I'm amazed I got it bent up and fit without screwing it up.

The Guy at Inline told me that they offer the brake switches in "high" & "low" pressure versions. And that since they would be on the outside of the residual valves, I would need the high pressure version, as the r-valves keep 10lbs of pressure beyond the valve.

And also that the residual valve had to be close(within 12") of the m/c. And with the way I had to run lines thru the crossmember, I had no easy way to put the brake switch before the residual valve.

I hope he is right, I really wasn't sure if it would work or not. I guess if worse comes to worse I could end up with a manual switch, but I hope it will work. I hate brake systems. Seems like it is always a nightmare to get them together, at least for me.

I appreciate the info though, and I too am REAL anxious to drive it before I die, hopefully alot sooner!

 

once again very nice work. I can't wait to see it on the road.

 

No problem Dodgerodder. I really hate putting post like that up on the board in fear of someone thinking your bashing there stuff, but this is a board of helping each other out and this is one thing I learned from my mistakes. I did not realize they had two different pressure swithes either. Maybe this is why they came out with that. Hopefully in your instance this will make it all work for you.

 

I know what you mean, but you're right. Sometimes you can look at something 1000 times and see nothing wrong. But somebody else looks at it once and instantly sees a problem. I am all for constructive criticism

I sure hope it does work as-is though

 

Dan, Maybe it's my shitty luck, but I haven't had good experiences with pressure switches. I've tried the high and low pressure switches and have ended up going with mechanical contact type switches off the brake lever. The mechanical switches have been real good to me, so I'm sticking with those in my builds. That's just my opinion, cause I know a lot of people that swear by the pressure switches.
As far as the Taildragger goes, I've been collecting parts for it like you know and just finishing up a few mods on the C-dan, but then it's full speed ahead.
Whats your goal to be on the road? Keep the updates coming now that your back on it! LSM

 

Yeah, pressure switches seem to go to one extreme or the other. Either good luck or bad. Hopefully this works out, if not its easy enough to overcome I guess.

I chose the pressure switches because I really needed a breaking point so I wouldn't have to have one line go 47 feet long with 128 bends. Hopefully I'll actually have brake lights too

After my sedan missed my first self-imposed deadline, I won't set other one. But I'm back on it again, and will stay on it til its done. I really want it done for spring. But I don't want to drive it til everything is done on it the way that I want it done, cuz once I start driving something, nothing else ever gets done

 

Good to see some progress again, can't wait the next update!

 

Awesome work man! You have skills. One thing you might want to think about is a front u-joint failure. You don't want that to result in front brake failure too. It probably will never happen......but something you might wanna think about. Anyhow, you're doing good man.

 

Thanks man, I appreciate! Yeah that is definitely something to avoid. The subframe I built for the sedan body has a hoop that surrounds the front of the driveshaft completely. At least if a u-joint should break, it'll be contained, and keep it away from the brakelines.

I think in a battle of driveshaft vs. brakelines, brakelines would lose for sure

It would suck to loose your front brakes too hehe

 

Any progress lately?

 

Dirty31, you said you don't use the pressure switches anymore so what do you use..nothing? Please fill me in. Thanks, this is an important thread cuz I'm finishing my brake system this weekend and before I order any ps, I'd like to know what the options might be. I've heard other people say they are a necessary evil.

 

Actually I'm still getting there Stone. The rolling chassis has been pretty much sitting waiting patiently for the body, which is what I've been working on for the past month or so.

Its the damn subframe thats been so time consuming. The fordors are completely wood framed, and rotten wood at that

The main subframe I have had done/built for a while, but I've been getting the doors reframed, and am about to start getting the roof strips above the doors reattached. It never freaking ends on this thing. If this had been a tudor body I'd be driving the thing by now. Doing a total subframe rebuild to make this thing a body again has been harder then building the rolling chassis for me.

After that I still have to build mounts to get the visor on, and built the subframe section for the rear body panel to tie in to the rest of the subframe, and the damn thing will finally be a body again-nothing to it haha

 

I think what he meant was the fact that my brake switches are the inline pressure switches, instead on the manual type that goes on the brake pedal itself.

The inline pressure switches have had a bad reputation for failure, the mechanical ones are pretty tough.

Hopefully mine will be ok, if not I can put a mechanical switch on easy enough. One reason I used the inline type is because I needed a break in the line there, otherwise the rear line would have been stupid long with 147 bends in it. Hopefully soon I'll get this damn thing drivable. When that happens even if the brake switch craps on me I won't mind cuz I'll be happy to finally drive the thing

 

yeah sure its nice and all but wheres the sub and amp goin to fit for all the rap music???? man yer doin a hell of a job dodge!!! keep us very posted..im goin off of shots of your frame to build mine this summerish [translation] in 2 years!! nice work man......breeder