Projects 1950's Tube Frame Sports Car

I snooped and snooped a bit more and you mentioned The Chuck Manning Special and while searching for applicable info I found several interesting images in a Hambers Media Folder...he didn't have a Thread on it however...



https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/members/sracecraft.13461/

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Thanks @Stogy. A buddy of mine is building a replica of the Manning. There were a couple pics there that I hadn't seen. My plan has evolved over the time since I posted about the Manning. Currently it is to do my own body and somehow incorporate a set of 46 Buick fenders I found. Here are some pics of cars I like. Most of these pictures are cars that I've seen on Geoff Hacker's Forgotten Fibergl*** page.
https://www.undiscoveredcl***ics.com/forgotten-fibergl***/

This one that Geoff Hacker found has front fenders like I plan to use.

I like the back end of the Ingalls Special

And the back end of this one.
Here are some pics of my fenders. I took the panel off the Buick doors that follows the fender line. That will probably be used somehow for the doorskin but will be inset not lined up with the fender like on Hacker's car.

I plan to move the wheel opening up in the fender and as far forward as I can.
That's a general plan. I've been focusing on trying to get the ch***is reworked and then will paint that prior to starting body design. Progress is really slow due to having too many projects and two little kids.

 

One of the best threads on here EVER

 

Nice solution. Simple machine work and keeps the axle end essentially unmolested, just reamed to size. Brilliant!

 

In this thread I have learned I am not really a car guy after all.

 

Beautiful and well thought out job on everything.

Just my opinion, which is of very little value (usually to me too), but I think it would be much ***ier with the doors and front fenders flush like the little brown car in front of the car hauler, long and swoopy. Not with the doors inset. Maybe I misunderstood your plan.

 

Lots to love between these pages, here. Including your work .. thus far.

.. but one of my favorites, if I ever hit the lottery, is in the collage above.

Hit the link for more of its story -->

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=15488

 

I like that you have bits and pieces that cover the range of samples you shared...very interesting racers they sure are...

It's interesting the heavily Louvered and belly panned Hybrid is one that I've shared many times...don't remember seeing that pic...neato...

 

It's not it, here's what I thought it was...



This I believe came from @rbantique's collection of so many treasures from the Yesteryear...

I actually referenced this as a Hrybrid Hotrod Custom...there are a few more pics too...

All I know is this must have had something special under that hood too...

Credit to Photographer, Owner
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Well what are you now then?...

 

Thanks for the encouragement guys!
@Fabber McGee you might be right about the doors. In my mind it would look cool to kinda have a reverse scoop at the back of the front fenders similar to the much smaller simulated one on the 57-60 Vettes. It may not work out as well in real life. I'll have to see when I get there.
@kidcampbell71
That car is one of my favorites too. The tricky thing is to get a car to look good from all sides. There are a lot that I like one end or the other but it's rare to feel like the whole design flows. That Kurtis definitely nails it!
@Stogy
That's a really interesting roadster that I've never seen before. Do you have any other pics of it?

 

Finished reaming the spindles. The forged steel they're made of makes you work for it. I appreciated how easy the br*** reamed when I got to sizing the new bushings.
Pressed the new bushings in. In hindsight I maybe should have just made solid bronze ones. The F100 spindles have the zerks in a different orientation so the grease grooves might not be optimized. They'll run though I'm sure.

The tin retainer washers for the felts that comes with the speedway kit are wrong. They must have just used the early Ford one. Obviously an 0.858 kingpin does not fit thru the hole that just slides on an 0.812 one... Called Speedway to tell them I had to bore it out but after listening to the hold menu half a dozen times on their tech line I hung up and decided they're on their own. Mentioned it in my review to let others know. It's hard to tell in this pic but the one nearest is opened up about 0.030".
Got the new bushings sized. Pins just slip in.
***embled.

Stay tuned for the axle mods. I have decided to bore the holes oversize in the mill so I can control the lock pin to kingpin centerline relationship. The 60 axles use a straight bolt rather than the tapered style so the distance has to be right.

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/just-louvers.1028008/page-46#post-13296504

Here's a couple more images of this highly modded one off...

I wonder if they were built by the same builder...

I will say you certainly have a Variety of directions to choose in Capping this ch***is...and all period correct...

There is more on this ride...I have to locate it...I believe it's from the land of Square Roll Bars...

Credit to Photographer, Owner
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A bumbling, inept wannabe?

 

Jebbesen, just laying that fender out on the ch***is looks incredible to me. I really think you're on to something.

 

Glean and glean and try and try...then hire a machinist...

There a huge Skill band in this Gang of Hoodlums...I just pick up my jaw, realign it and continue reading till it falls down again...happens a lot...

 

Did some machine work this afternoon in preparation for boring the axle out for the new kingpins. One thing I think is critical on these tube axles is maintaining the correct location of the kingpin relative to the lock bolt. The tube axles use the same kingpins as the regular axles but have unique lock bolts. Unlike the regular axles the lock bolt is NOT tapered. It's just a special straight bolt that is driven into the kingpin notch locking it in place. I posted this before but here are my new lock bolts and a drawing I made up with dimensions.



This next stuff may be confusing but I'll try and explain what I did today.

First I made a 0.463 diameter pin that just slides thru the hole in the axle. When you ***emble an original 60 axle with the correct bolts and kingpins the 7/16 (0.437 dia) threaded portion p***es by the kingpin and then the kingpin notch cuts into the .463 diameter and locks everything in place. The threaded portion is 0.013-0.015 smaller on a side than the body of the bolt so I cut a flat that deep on one side of my new pin.
Then I took a piece of 1" shaft and chucked it up in the lathe. For half it's length I turned it down to the 0.859 dia of the new kingpins. The new kingpin measures 0.765 from the bottom of the notch to the opposite side. I milled a flat on one side of my .859 turned diameter so that it also measured 0.765.
This next pic is just to show that the flattened shaft is the same size as the kingpin across the notch.

Now when the .859 diameter is in the correct location it's flat should just touch the flat on the dummy lock pin.

I chucked the 1" shaft back in the lathe and turned it down to just slide thru the worn out axle eye. Now no matter what diameter I cut the turned down portion to the flat remains in the correct position to locate the new .859 bore.

I'll put the shaft in the mill spindle to find the correct location to bore the axle eye at. A little extra work up front but now it's about idiot proof.

Next time I have a free afternoon I'll set the axle up on the mill and bore the ends.
One other interesting point I noticed today on the V8-60 axle is that it appears Ford did a Brinell hardness test on each end just outboard of the perch bolt bores.

 

You can find the testing dot on almost every old Ford part used in high stress locations. Spindles, axles, etc. Seems they didn't just test every hundred, looks like they tested most all.

 

That's pretty wild they did that much testing. Very cool!

 

Remember we can always make better idiots!

 

LOL! I think we build our cars the same way.

 

I never ever will do it all myself. I don't have the expertise, but in my many years in aviation, machinists have truly stolen or at a minimum ***isted the show and made the impossible happen in style...The same could be said for all the professions wrapped up in a Hotrod/Customs make up...

Many here do it all and are overly skilled at doing so or not...and I High Five them on their many walks through those varied trades...it certainly must be an eye opener many times...

 

Got one end of the axle bored out this weekend for the oversize kingpins. First of all, I made sure to be using a period correct machine. LOL

Put my alignment pin in the spindle and the cobbled together a way to hold the axle. Initially I thought that the perch boss was aligned with the kingpin bore, but they're a couple degrees out each direction. This setup is pretty hokey but it's the best I could think of at the moment and seemed to work ok. By bolting the two 1-2-3 blocks together I was able to tip the axle in both direction and put the kingpin bore vertical. Then I did the procedure I tried to explain in my last post to position the new bore correctly to the lock bolt. I'd really like to see if I can get a blueprint of this axle from the Ford archives.

This last picture sort of shows the slight angle of the two fixture blocks. I forgot to get a picture with the pin in the bore. You'll have to believe me for now that it fits. When I do the other end I'll make sure and get some pictures of the new bore.

 

Looks like normal machine set up time is 10 times actual machining time. Great job

 

Yes that does seem to usually be the case. Thanks

 

Trial fit the p***enger spindle tonight. Everything seems to fit together nicely.

First just the pin.
Then with the bearing and spindle.

 

I was able to bore the other end this afternoon. On both ends the boring bar bounced a little when it went thru the center part. The intermittent cut with a long boring bar made it so I couldn't get away from that. What I did to compensate is bore the top of the hole to the fit I wanted and then run my piloted reamer thru which was still set from fitting the spindle kingpin bushings.

 

Rough ***embled for mockup. I believe I need to add a little arch to the Posies spring to shorten it slightly and put some tension on the shackles.

 

Looks great! I'd love to get a tube axle like that. Maybe Santa will bring me one...