Those heims are great! You can actually buy seal kits for them now. Keeps a small amount of grease in them. Or use some syl-glide brake grease. That will keep em quiet and make em last for decades on a street car.
I work with some great guys! I just need to buy the one missing misalignment spacer, at ruff-stuff then Im Golden!
Got the missing piece! A whopping 6.90$ And they said we can have one day a week off still at work so next Thursday Friday off already 2 days ought be enough to to the rear wishbone modifications and box the x-member around my new mounts!
Well, These Amazon Oil impregnated Bronze bushings seemed to do the trick! Cut-off All the Non-Essential old Mechanical brake Arms, just left the 2 for the Hydraulic Master cylinder, Replacement/conversion! Spent a whole 6$! Yes I’m cheap! And I could’ve spent money and bought a new pedal assembly from some aftermarket Chinese knock off place but, I wanted to use the original parts as much as possible. Now, I think I’ll use the same type bushings on the clutch/brake pedal assembly! Save me 35/40 bucks for a kit! Chirp-Chirp!!!
Those rivets are almost impossible to get out with out drilling. I don't know how Ford did it, but he made sure they wouldn't fall out. I know you already found them but McMaster-Carr has the bushings you needed. The one you have is their PN 6391K275 but they make a heavy duty oil impregnated bronze bushing, with more of an iron content in the same size, PN 2868T196. I purchase all my bushings from them, they have any size you can want.
Kewl! I stabilized the body alot better! Now I can roll the chassis Foward to work on it, or reverse in the drive way to degrease it and wash it! And leave it out of the way to work on, and under the body! Then at the end of the day I can just roll the chassis back under the body, then park my wife’s rig back inside, and put it all away like a big AMT model! A Little Tight in My Tool and refrigerator Area!
Moving Right Along! Moved the Bars in! Just gotta Weld, and fab up a cross member, fix some frame cracks, and replace the ends with the Heim Joints, Box it all end... Keeps Going.... But the hard part is done! Are you Happy 31Vicky? Thanks for the suggestion by the way. Not as nice some would do, probably, but it will look decent when I’m done
an accident waiting to happen, good thing you caught it. nice job on all the body repair, my tudor is almost as bad. i think you should come visit for a while...i'l buy lunch. dont forget your welding helmet.
I’m so glad I listen to some of you guys! This metal was holding it together like a sandwich when I pulled it apart it just fell apart! I feel bad because my dad said “I got 100,000 miles out of it!! On back roads cross country! I had to explain to him I’m not complaining just sharing with him what I find! and then I’m glad I caught it before I put the car back together! He’s kind of sensitive sometimes!
And an added bonus will be the amount of difference in how the car handles. Should be a whole lot better now!
Thanks! That flat bar is just a guide by the way! I’m building a cross piece with 2” dip around the drive shaft out of heavy 1-1/2 square tubing then, I’m gonna box the x-member around it, and then add couple of 4” x1/8 wide plates to connect the x-member to the outside Rail top and bottom. That should do the trick!
Am I happy? Well the better question is are you happy? Sure would’ve sucked when the rear end came out of that thing tore up all at work you just did back there. And all the damage would mean nothing if somebody got hurt in the accident. I get it that you’re not running a whole Lotta horsepower,,, I still wouldn’t put it on the road without a replacement or something doing the job of the torque tube that’s been eliminated from Henry’s design. For anyone that wanted a better understanding of why not to run parallel bars.. Grab yourself a piece of plywood that’s square Relatively The width and length of your bars. And try and lift one corner of that piece of plywood simulator of one sided bump. Observe what happens to the 4 sided plywood. Watch how it moves, Then try that with triangulated piece of plywood, simulating the bars headed towards the transmission. It’s even better with stiff bushings that provides some compliance up front
Yes, I am Happy now, and glad I caught that, I knew it was was splinted before, and I think that’s why my dad got a little defensive, when I showed him that picture, because I know he must’ve done that, quick repair, and probably realized something was going on at the time, even though he claims he doesn’t remember. You really can’t blame him though, he was just doing what he knew how to do at the time, when he built that suspension set up, but I see what you’re saying also because the frame is all warped on the bottom from it Fighting itself, and you can tell that those pieces that broke, we’re work hardened and brittle from the stress. So thanks for the Schooling on that. I also remember watching old videos from the 30s on why they made those frames flex, and suspension pivot in the center like that. So I get that whole concept. (The roads were really just old wagon routes back then!) So I came to the conclusion that if you’re going to change the suspension geometry, you need to box the frame fully so it can’t flex and the suspension does the work, or keep it as close to Ford’s Geometry as possible if you’re not gonna do that. Basically no half way in between stuff! So Thanks Mr. Vic.
Henry design had nothing suspension related attached at the outboard ends of the frame but the shocks. Center mounted springs and center mounted wishbones. The frames could flex but they never saw much if any flexing related forces because the moving ends (wheels) don’t transfer up and down motion or weight bearing to the outboard frame. It all goes to the fore/aft center line. On your situation there, the outboard bars turned the rear axle assembly into a giant anti sway or anti roll bar with giant long leverage arms. On any anti roll bar system something always gives (usually the 1” +/- round bar) in rotational forces, there’s rubber compliance and most always flexible links. If it’s all rigid something has to give or get torn apart.
Thanks! You should do A YouTube video Class! Nobody is teaching the ways of the past, it’s going to eventually disappear. I love going to the old mining towns and having the blacksmith, demonstrate how he does things. I am always fascinated by those types of skills. Ok! ..... enough chitchat I need to get in the garage and start finishing that business!!! Thanks Again Vic (dont know your name) I do have to give my dad credit though. most of the stuff he learned, he learned on his own, nobody was around to teach him he didn’t have a father. He did belong to a car club when he was 14, he was the youngest member. because they thought he was mature like an adult. the ‘Conquistadors” out of Vallejo California. Circa. 1958-60??
Done with These! Looks Like its gonna be a lot more then 2 Days to do the Rear Suspension Mods! Oh well it’s not race.
This how far I got Today! The shaded area gets cut out, and dropped down 2” on the inside of square tubing. So it will hang down about a total of 3-1/2 inches for drive shaft clearance about where the joints are. I think that will be cool!
They naturally tuck up Nicely Now, I was worried they would hang down to much, Because they were outside before they gave the illusion that they were lower, but the math is the same. Weird... but good for me!
Can you cut those pieces at a 45 degree angle to get the drop you need? It will look cleaner than square cut. I would run a 1/8" "fish plate" on them as well. Might give you some more meat to weld the link mounts too. I have built a few 4x4 crawler suspensions ,and have a tendency to overbuild things.
I was gonna do all that, but I flunked math several times in school, so Im just gonna 45 the square ends top and bottom, and probably do some curvy gussets, and maybe a few hot rod holes, to jazz it up a bit.
33, you are having too much fun. I have been following your build since day one and enjoy looking at your progress every day. Keep up the good work and pictures!
Thanks! I really appreciate it! I’m trying to keep in mind like a 16-year-old in the 50s and 60s building something in his grandmothers side yard, so I want it to look Homebuilt, but not too trashy, and a little safer. It’s really hard because I’m kind of Type A and like to do things really nice, but this car is different, it needs a soul!
Here’s another one of my Pops! I wish I was a little birdie, or fly on the wall back then, And know what he was really like, before he got old and Jaded. Course he has always been detached. Just recent years has he opened up... “a bit” don’t blame him anymore though, he had a rough upbringing, like so many others... ☹️ ( It wasn’t all Leave It To Beaver back then, you know)
The Jalopy Journal
