Projects My GN Cycle Car tribute build

The tach I ordered on eBay finally arrived. Has some kind of cellophane type material around the casing next to the bezel that is missing/broken in spots. Interesting. Will be fun trying to figure out how to get this to work with the T5 speedo output. Lol!






[edit] I meant speedo and not tach. Lol!

 

Decided to muck about a bit with the speedo I purchased off of eBay and started this thread.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/mating-vintage-sw-speedo-gear-to-ford-t5.1312958/

Installed it in the mock-up gage cluster. Looks good.

 

I like the tach, I mean speedometer. I have no use for a 140mph speedometer that reads higher than I will ever go.

 

Fan arrived yesterday. Can’t believe how slim it is which is a good thing for my setup.



Also picked up this pc of copper bar last week. Will use it to support the coolant pipes coming off the heads somehow.



Been busy the last while building something for my eldest daughter. Hoping to get back at it tomorrow.

 

Kiddo made a last minute design change, so that derailed my plans to return working on the speedster, but I did get this battery tray from an older GMC pickup at the auto recycler. Actually, was kinda hard to find something that could be easily removed (didn’t bring any sockets - only sawzall) and was made of metal. Should be back on it later today.

 

Embarr***ing slow progress even for me. Lol! It is Easter though and youngest is back at home until Monday evening, so spending some time with her and my other daughter.
After 3 iterations of cardboard aided design fails, I think I might have figured this PITA bracket out. Will draft up a proper one on the drafting table tonight, and will be cutting steel tomorrow. Haha!





Sometimes I wish I just got $hit done, like this…

 

Getting pi$$ed off! Not sure how this went astray. Going to tack a small extension pc to the bracket, mark the location of the holes for the U-bolt, and see if that works. If so, will have to make another bracket using these new dimensions. Crazy!

 

Finally! Will still need to tweak it, and make the final version. Still flexes more than I want, so will need to stiffen it somehow. All the BS for a stupid brkt!

 

Well, another bracket/clamp done. I feel really stupid posting stuff just on a clamp(s). Will only post on some real progress going forward, so you won’t be seeing as frequent posts. Next will be a crossmember/support for the battery including the battery tray I grabbed from the auto recycler. There will a another clamp on that for the rear pipe ***y. D’oh!

 

Appreciate the frequent posts, we're out here watching and waiting for the next one.

 

A bit more progress than lately. Mounted the battery tray to a 3/16” plate I had lying around. Cut down some rubber bumpers I also had lying around to isolate the tray a bit and to provide some space for the angled drain pan in the tray.
Decided to re-route the piping going to tgd rad inlet as it was bothering me. Had to trim the previous brkt I made to provide clearance for the new 90 degree fitting. Battery is damn close to the trans output. Hope there is enough room to clear the U-joint.

 

Got the fan mounted to the radiator. However, poked a hole into one of the tubes when a drill bit snapped in two while trying to drill out the busted M6 bolts that used to hold the fan shroud. Probably best to get a new rad anyways. For now it will do for mock-up purposes.
Also, made a temp support for the radiator. Had to move the rad a bit from its’ previous position as it was sitting crooked due to the lower tank on the DS being bigger than that on the PS. Will need to check it against the layout.
I want a shroud around the fan for the engine fire up/cam break-in, so that is something else that needs to be fabbed up as well. The bottom of the blades are about 1.5” from the face of the core. Not sure if there is an ideal distance. No instructions came with the fan.

 

Oh yeah, picked up a bunch of hardware yesterday which came in handy today. We had a brutal snow storm Wed/Thurs and got about 6” of snow. Had to drive to Cornwall, ON yesterday also with my daughter and saw lots of cars and semi-trucks in the ditch.

 

Well, after a month and half of futzing around with the coolant piping I thought I was essentially done with the piping/routing, but giving a last look before calling it quits tonight, I’m not really happy with the pipe crossing in front of the radiator. Got to sleep on that. This has been one of the most involved and frustrating things I have worked on in a long long time. Doesn’t really look like much, but there was an incredible amount of head scratching trying to figure all the details out. Probably 75% of that time was head scratching. Not to mention, I have over $1K in this coolant piping/cooling system. Absolutely crazy!

 

Picked up this this little digital dodad last week along with a digital angle finder. Will come in handy shortly.



Tomorrow, I’m off to southeast of Ottawa to catch the eclipse and to get more copper fittings a****st other things, so no work on the speedster. Might start some electrical work when I get back at it. Need a break from the cooling system.

 

Neat build / love the plumbing. Not sure about the flux when brazing. I’ve never used flux when brazing copper, and I’ve brazed a lot of copper.

 

You have radiator & piping but i see no rear suspension with frame under. What are u planning for rear & front suspension. Does not look like much room between rear, pipes & frame.

 

Yeah, not sure. Seems from what I seen on YT vids I watched, flux is only used when joining copper to other metals. I’m positive though, they yard some flux when brazing the pair copper tubes to the return bends at my old job where we made our own heat exchangers. I’m going to just use solder now anyways, so not an issue.

 

The C-channel frame rails extend all the way to under the fuel tank. There is no rear suspension yet. Lol!
I plan on using the Model A rear transverse leaf spring for the rear suspension. I’ll cut it into two pcs, making 1/4 elliptical springs. I think they will be mounted below the axle tubes with a shackle to allow flex. Next will be some type of “radius rod/arm” to locate the axle. This is still all yet to be figured out, but I’m starting to look into it. I’m trying to apply the “rolling wave” project mgmt approach. Lol!

 

I was going to suggest solder, as it’s easier and you’ll never exceed the melting point. Brazing is superior in vibration, but your mounts look well engineered. Carry on!

 

Thanks! I mentioned I had watched a vid of guy comparing the strength of copper pipe after being brazed and soldered. The brazed joint bent like a pretzel and nothing happened to the soldered joint. That did it for me as well as having to anneal some of the copper joints and pieces of pipe to add the hose bead really showed me how soft copper actually becomes once annealed.
When it comes to the clamps, I think I’ll have a total of 10-11. I was thinking of adding one close to the long copper pipe near to where it enters the rad, but I can grab that pipe as is (with no hose clamp on the neck of the rad) and I can move the entire ch***is with engine trans. I was kind of shocked actually.
I’m still trying to figure out how to attach/clamp the two pipe sections coming off of the heads to the breather tube. Like I said previously, a lot of head scratching going on.

 

As a bit of an aside, I just managed to arrive in time to see the start of the eclipse yesterday. Being the idiot I am, I thought that one of the two oxy-acetylene goggles I brought would work. Of course they didn’t, but luckily, an elderly couple next to me offered me a pair of eclipse gl***es. They had an amazing life story. She was from Montana, he was from a small town outside of London, ON where I grew up, and they met at univ in Utah. He became a prof at University of Ottawa, they had 6 children, 5 of which went to the same university in Utah where they had met, and 5 live in the USA.

 

Fabbed this up this afternoon to mount the starter and radiator fan solenoids.

 

So, work has started on the electrical system. Lol! Solenoids mounted. Tomorrow I’ll use some 1” sq tubing to mount the mock-up dash. Will need to think about how to secure the wires using some type of vintage style clamp.



Picked up this puppy about a month ago in anticipation of crimping the large gage wire terminals.



Also, been gathering up flange head style fasteners. Like the look. Too bad they don’t have any in M5 and smaller or larger than M10.

 

Got the mock-dash mounted. Just winged it as far as positioning it as I had no help, but steering wheel ended up in the perfect spot. Will need to check it against my layout to see how close it is. I barely managed to squeeze into the seat and thought I was going to need medical ***istance to get back out. Lol!

 

Oh yeah, can’t find that damn Bosch light switch again…

 

Running the 1/0 cable to the starter/battery/solenoid. Used the hydraulic hand crimper for the terminals. Does a nice job. Should have bought one years ago. Will need to get more terminals etc tomorrow.

 

Been working away at the wiring the last two days. Just have the fan to wire up and some 1/0 ground cables. Will need to verify the wiring as I’ve changed it a bit from what I was thinking almost two years ago. D’oh! Will update the schematic in the link below.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/advice-on-my-6v-positive-ground-schematic.1266398/

Went with a negative ground, but still stuck with 6V. Would like to wire up the tach, but from memory there was an issue IIRC.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...o-federal-marine-motor-co-tachometer.1221251/

Some pics…

 

Might check out this Ford F100 steering box/column tomorrow or Monday.

 

So picked up the F100 steering column:box. Asked the seller if it worked. Said yes. Three hrs later calls me and says it is frozen, but had another box that work, but not sure what it is from, but it is bigger. He was heading out of town, so told him to leave both out so I could have a look when I arrived to meet his wife. Nice couple who were into old Ford pickups. They were in the process of restoring a 48 pickup with the idea of taking it along parts of Route 66. Decided to go with the F100 box only because I knew what it was supposed to be and that’s what lots of folks used in their hot rods.
It turned out that the wrecking yard that I was also heading to for some Dodge minivan rims to use with my Ford wide-five rims was only 5-10 mins away, which worked out great. More info about that can be found in another thread I started below.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/thoughts-on-speedway-front-axle.1315233/

Had a quick look last night after getting home (12.5 hr day door to door), and I don’t think the F100 box will work with my setup. Depth of box is about 6.75” (flange surface to adjusting nut) and I only have about 6” clearance between the inner frame rail and oil pan. Also, the sector shaft is too short and doesn’t clear the outer plane of my frame rail. My frame rails are “reversed” C-channels with the flat surface on the inside, towards the engine/centreline of the ch***is. I don’t want to get into a lot of mods/fabbing to make it work, so it may be a no-go, but will need to do a bit more thinking.