Finally got the car on the ground with the new frame! Right now the car has 4.50 tires up front and 7.00 on the back. I'll be running 6.00 up front and 7.50 out back. Also, I only had 150 lbs on the rear cross member. Between the bigger tire up front, and the body weighing the back down, the car should get a little closer to level. Love the rake, but the cars sat a little more level in the late 40's.
Fit the round back spindles to the front Lincoln brakes. Ran into a problem where the backing plates won't fully seat due to clearance issues between the backing plate and the top of the king pin. On a good note, it won't take much to get the tie rod in the perfect spot.
Back on the ground with the Lincoln brakes and wire wheels. 6.00 tires all around, it'll be perfect with 7.50s out back. Lincoln backing plates needed some clearancing, but nothing too crazy. The front brakes require a spacer from Speedway to get the wires to fit.
It's been a while since my last post. Two deployments, two kids, and a lot less free time! I'll sprinkle in what I've been up to for the past 4 years and my plans to finish the roadster up! First up, after a long detailed search, I was able to track down the exact kind of intake and heads Bernie Couch ran back at the dry lakes in the late 40's. Small details like this will help with my tribute to a great man and a bitchin hot rod.
Keep after it, your getting there and having fun doing it! Bernie would have been so proud to see you doing this tribute to him. Your being deployed would have also really been of interest to him. Bernie had a a lot of great stories that he shared with me, and I wish I could have heard more, especially of his time in the war. He was really proud of his time in the Navy, and his ship held regular reunions that he attended. He loved his roadster and drove the hell out of it! He was just as fired up about his roadster all these years later. One thing of note, was that he told me was he had switched to a full load of alcohol when he got his roadster up to 134.32 mph. A few more of the 300+ pics Bernie gave me..... This is why Bernie had to build a new motor in 1949..... These are pics of Bernie breaking in his new motor with a run all the way up to Coos Bay, Oregon, and one of his many trips to Las Vegas, Nevada! Bernie's inpection slips from 1946 and 1947....... Some of Bernie's many timing tags over the years.....
Thank you so much! Always love seeing pictures from Bernie that I've never seen before. I need to figure out a way to get some digital copies of those! I also loved his stories from his time in the Navy. Things were alot different back then!
what drums are theres on the front??? and is that a wheel shim, if so does it fit tight on the lugs????
What you are seeing is the flange of the hub, not a spacer. On '46-'48 Ford drums, the drum is actually mounted on the inside of the hub's flange.
You can use '35 wires with both styles of '40's brake drums; just have to support the center. Long time ago, we cut a piece of black pipe (can't remember the size) 1/4" thick and tack welded it to the drum. Now-a-days easy to just buy the support rings from Speedway. '46-'48 outside flange hubs many times have balance weights welded to the edge of the drum; they need to be knocked off to use '35 wires as the wheel center will hit them and twist them up if tightened down against them.
thanks for the reply,... I bought speedways.. the lug hole are way too big and I think the plates should be more hub centered so that when you put the wheel on they aligned with the center and not hang down so far... also didn't like how the outer edge doesn't contact the drum making the only contact the very center of the wheel... I seen a post where they welded the plates to the wheel, I even contact glued them on, but still wasn't happy with the results...so I removed them... just a guess but,... my bet is it's a hundred to one that don't use them and don't even know they exist
And that is exactly the reason too check closely for cracking around the lug holes when buying '35 wires; especially if it looks they had been used on a hot rod in the past.
Forcefull, just use the Speedway supports. They are so near the center of the rotation that any non-concentric imbalance will be undetectable. And, they do support everything that needs to be supported. Trust us. We've done this before. Or, don't trust us, and we hope you can find some replacement wire wheels in a thousand miles to replaced the ones you cracked.
The Jalopy Journal
