Rog came by to lend a hand and slide the whole assembly under the car. We were both pretty excited to get it set on the ground and see where it settled. Up in the air to play the jack stand game. Everything is fighting to live in the same place right now.
Poor planning on my part.... assumption is is mother of all FUBARs. I put the new cross member in and never thought to check the spring U bolts against it. Surprise. Surprise. It's too narrow by a hair. Whichever hair phrase you use in your shop, that's the hair it was too narrow by. It's not going down the road yet so we fit the spring anyway and just put a 6 inch C clamp on it to keep it from dropping out when we jack the car up.
After getting the bone and spring in their proper homes we slid the hubs over the spindles (no blacking plates or brakes at this time) so we could put a wheel on and set the car down. I hollered for my wife to come take a picture.... both Rog and I immediately climbed into the car and stood on the front end to simulate engine weight. That's only about 475/500 pounds. I imagine with the small block and everything else it will be closer to 700. BUT LOOK AT THAT! DAMN! That's what I'm talking about.
I couldn't get back far enough to get a great picture. And it was dark and rainy outside. Here's a few quick ones of the car sitting back on the ground. And a 3/4ish front
It's sitting with a slightly forward rake which is what I had hoped for. I still want it lower..... but DAMN! What a difference. I'm playing the tire size game in my mind right now. It's on 6.00x16s. I may go 6.50 in the rear and keep a 6.00 up front. Or I may go 7.60 rear and 5.60 front. Or.... I may go whitewall or I may go black wall.... or or or. I'm pretty content for tonight. My mind will certainly be busy as I try to sleep. Here's all the parts that have been retired.
It's gone from this...... To this...... And now to this.... I'm still giggling when I see it this low now. I'm glad it's tucking tire. The last two pics.... both are without engine or trans but with the 9 inch. I'm amazed at how much lower it is. That's legit. Now all that's left is everything. Stay tuned.
Looks good. You could probably spread those U bolts a hair easily and get them to work. I have a 6.00 16 on my car and I think it looks good. But results may vary
Your thread is great.I wish I had you age and garage help. You are going to have an amazing car. I want to trade my avatar for a coupe or tu door . Just a simple car to go on cruises in. Good luck.
Thanks guys. Yeah, I thought about opening then up just a bit..... I may still end up doing that. I'd like to keep as many original parts as I can. Old steel being better in my mind that new import steel. I dig the look of your coupe. I am fairly certain I will keep 6.00 on the front. I'm back and forth on the rears. I want a subtle rake more than a stink bug squat. My wife wants white walls on red steel wheels..... I want black walls on blue or black steel wheels. I may even compromise and do an almond color but that's a ways off. I still have plenty to do before day dreaming about wheel colors.
One more in the daylight coz I am not tired of looking at it yet. Power-parked it for all you secret GoodGuys out there.
Alright fellow fat fenders..... who is running discs? Who is running drums? If discs, what kit or manufacturer? If drums, what mods IE Lincoln or otherwise? I'm rethinking the 16 inch wheels and considering going with some chrome reverse wheels and a spider cap. I had those on my Edsel and I loved them. If I am gonna switch wheel style I can run a disc. I was going to keep the drums coz I liked the look of the 16s and clearance on discs would have been an issue. I'm waffling but I haven't committed one way or the other yet. And I can still sell my brake kits for what I am into them. This pic changed my mind..... or at least got me thinking about chrome reverse again. Does anyone know whose car that is? Are there any other pics from the side out there?
I have original drums on my car, stops fine but I'm used to early cars. In my eyes (my opinion only), to pull off 15's on fat cars like these it's gotta be really low like the one pictured above. If it's too high it looks like a roller skate
Thanks Chris. I'm not worried too much about "stopping distances" or anything like that. I'm fairly confident with most drum brake set ups I've owned. Most of my old cars have been 4 wheel manual drum cars and I've rarely had issues. I'm sure I could run drums and be fine. And I may still end up that route. The flirtatious idea of a chrome reverse wheels had me considering all my options. And 15s get it down another inch. Just playing with ideas.
Great build and a great thread. Seems you're doing everything I've been doing to mine except you've gone about it much quicker than I have. Had mine (46 Mercury 4 door) 7 years but it's always been a back burner car that got bits done between other (4) projects. I'm in BC Canada, it's March 23rd and there's still snow on the ground meaning I can't do the bodywork on my 58 Suburban in this weather (no heat in the shop) so the 46 gets a little more attention. Same stuff really, TCI rear spring kit, Chassis Engineering front end kit, Chev drive train & Ford axle with drums all round. I imagine you will have a good few thousand miles on your ride before mine hits the Tarmac. Keep adding to your thread, it's great inspiration to those that do, those that don't do and those that do do once in a while. That's a lot of do do?
Couple of good looking Sedans there fellas. Thanks for the pics. I still really like the way the 16s look. Haven't fully decided.... haven't really had time to think about it. Been a busy few months and any wrenching has been on dailys. Had the Corvair out a few times but I need to get back to the 46. It's about 3 hours of work away from going to get the motor mounts in and yhe wishbone split.
Got a few hours today to play with old cars. I got the new dropped steering arms bolted on, clearanced a few tight spots, and did some other clean up. Now at least the steering wheel controls the steering axle again. Much easier to move around and ready to go to the welder for some work.
Here's the passenger side steering arms bolted to the backing plate and spindle. I tried bolting it just to the spindles with no backing plates but the bolt heads hit and wouldn't tighten down. They needed that added width of the backing plate to help mount the arm. The arm is really tight against the axle. I ended up blowing it all apart again and grinding down the axle to clear. There goes my powder coating. Oh well. I have a bunch of stuff that needs to go. Good reminder to fit and refit parts before committing to a finish. Even after grinding it's still a really close fit but it can go through the full range of motion without interference.
Still the passenger side. You can see the big dark rub mark on the new steering arm from where it was hitting the axle. Yes, I know I'm missing pieces on the king pin. This is just slopped together to make it steerable. I have a brand new king pin kit from Sids that will go in with all new parts when the time comes.
Car is taking shape and looking good-Also really digin' the 'late night garage shots' Keep up the good work!.
The washers I bought didn't want to fit against the spindles. A few minutes with a grinder and they slipped right in.
Driver side went about the same. I took a bunch of meat out of the axle before I put it together anticipating the arms would rub. Still was not quite enough. The arm rubbed and I did some more grinding. There was a pretty good ridge of slag left over from the casting.
Eventually got everything bolted back together and steering again. Looks like everything will clear... time will tell when there's a motor and tranny and the bones are split. But for today it steers and I can move it again.
Back outside for a few more quick pics. Still looks a little a taller than I had hoped. Need to get engine and tranny in and put a few miles on the springs to settle it out.
All in all, it was a pretty good day. Got a chance to flip the car around and clean out the garage. Also moved it over a hair to make getting in and out of the garage just a little easier. I still need to adjust the tie rod end quite a bit. The tires are scrubbing real hard when we moved the car. Theres only about 3 threads showing on each side so I'll have to come up with something.
Saw these two at the Viva Las Vegas car show. More than one way to skin a cat. I didnt crawl around either one too much to see what they had done to them. At least Dita looked good......
Also, a buddy sent me this pic..... Think I am about 99% sold on chrome wheels now. I dig that stance but I want mine just a little lower in the back.
The Jalopy Journal
