Projects 1950's Tube Frame Sports Car

I s****ped the x member idea because I realized that if I did it I was committed to either running only the 39 tran and/or pulling the trans out the top side. I have a big Buick trans and a Packard trans I'd like to try. Both are quite a bit longer than the 39 Ford. I have the Offenhauser adapter bellhousings for them that make them work with a flathead.

Today I welded in the rear tube and bent a matching one that is 16" forward. It will sit roughly at the front edge of the seats. When I laid a straight edge across all 3 tubes they match.





Then I added a couple smaller diameter tubes that run on either side of the torque tube 16" in from side tubes. The combination of the bent crossmembers and the smaller diameter put the top of these tubes roughly near the bottom of the main framerail tubes as you can see with this piece of steel laying across them.





Next time I'll fit and weld in some tubes with will angle from these tubes up toward the outer edges of the bellhousing.

 

I was wondering why you were getting rid of the angle iron floor braces since they seemed functional and original to the build but now that I see what you're replacing them with I like your setup a lot more. Considering how well it matches the trans crossmember it looks like it was built with that tubing setup.

 

The original was functional but really sketchy as far as anything to fasten the seats to or for seat belt attachment points. In the end I guess I roughly duplicated the original design with structural tubes instead of angle iron. It added a little weight but I'm happy how it's turning out.

 

I've been curious how aligned the drivetrain is on this car. Before I weld the rear spring perch in I decided to check. The only way I could think to check it is to run a long straight edge over the car and drop plumb bobs. I'm shocked how close everything is to centerline! I was antipating having to shift the engine. I'm going to drop one more bob to the front of the crank to make sure the engine is straight, this is only important if I ran a different longer transmission. Otherwise with this combo I'm golden!

Long angle iron set on big tripods.





Front perch spring bolt



Center of diff



Center of torque ball- scribed some lines with dividers on the retainer.

 

Looks Great Buddy!

 

Finally had a chance to drop a 4th plumb bob to the water pump. Engine is really straight to the car centerline. I'm pretty amazed how close everything is.

 

Any closer to putting a body on this thing?

 

I'm still a ways off from a body but I'm getting close to having a driving ch***is. Yesterday I got the tabs welded on the cross member and made the tubes that triangulate the tail section.

Tabs that mount outboard end of seatbelt and bolt the front end of the brace tubes.

Some of the welds will be ground off and redone.


Tubes were slotted and the tabs tacked in. The tubes are removable so the axle can come out the back. I don't want to have to slide it out the side like the old Kurtis ch***is. They really stiffened up the tail.



I also tacked the inboard seatbelt tabs on. Made and idiot move and used one of my mill clamp studs rather than ready rod so I realized I need to knock one back off to get the stud out. I'll redo it with all thread next time I work on it.

 

Just thought I'd post and say this project hasn't died. This summer has just been a complete loss as I'm tearing down a barn in preparation for having a new shop built next year. I'm getting close but I've been trying to be responsible and not let my fun projects distract.

 

Tearing down and SAVING the barn, I hope.

 

Quality takes time and then there's life...glad you're still moving ahead with it...new shop...that'll be nice eh!

 

@The37Kid It's not a cool old barn. More of a 70s shed. It was 72' long though and full of stuff.

 

Just found and read through the whole thread over the last couple evening.

Love your attention to detail with improving things but also keeping the same vibe of the original car. I'm excited for you to get to the point of a driving frame and to see where you go with piecing a body together for it. Very cool!

 

Cool project. I want one with a Devin body.

 

Hey, this showed up on the sitting and rotting thread. If you like it you might be able to track it down.

 

Jeremy just needs a couple of Buick fenders, some sheet metal and the picture. He’s good with improvisation.

 

A pic of my brother’s tube framed sports car…

 

Anyone read BS Levy’s series of books, in particular The Fabulous Trash Wagon? Jeremy, won’t build one like that. Just saying…

 

Hey folks. Sorry I've been so bad about updating stuff here. I haven't done too much work on the car in the last year with all the other stuff going on in life. It's definitely still in the works though and I've been doing little bits and pieces whenever I can. I added some gussets in the rear corners of the frame.









I decided I didn't like my torque tube setup since there is no way for it not to run downhill to the trans. I bought a vintage sprint car tube that had a seal but forgot that the tubes for a quick change won't fit a regular V8 center section because of the large pinion nuts. So I decided to just start over and basically build a racing style torque tube setup from scratch. I decided to use the ****er style ujoint like Ford used. To make it work with the 36 Chevy tail housing I am using I combined a front half of a Chevy truck ****er joint and a Ford rear half. This was kinda complicated and but here are some pics of the joint.
Front half with the spline changed to the open drive Ford spline that I use in my trans. I also pressed a sleeve on so the 36 Chev speedo gear will fit.



Rear half turned turned down.



The rear Ford yoke was bored to fit the GM joint bushings. Some of the GM bushings have a ground area that lets you get underneath wire retaining ring. Ford never did this and it's nearly impossible to take a Ford joint apart without destroying the wire clips. The relief allows you to take the GM ones apart easily once you do a couple. I had to push the bushings in deeper on the Ford yoke so I cut a second set of wire grooves. Look closely in the next couple pictures and you can see how each bushing has two wire grooves. I built two complete joints like this so I have a spare.







This joint and the pinion 6 spline coupler will let me make my inner driveshaft out of a shortened solid Model A shaft. I'll use the front spline of the A shaft, cut it the right length, and turn down/repline the back end.



I have a couple 37 Buick transmissions and if I want to eventually use one of them I found a solid driveshaft from a mid 20s Chevy 1.5ton truck that has the right spline on both ends to fit the 1.1875-10 Buick ujoint spline. This would possibly give me two shafts that could have ford splines cut on the back end to fit the pinion coupler.

With that in mind and because I had a couple big chunks of s**** steel I drew up and machined a racing style torque ball that fits a big Buick trans.





I also machined a torque tube flange that fits the V8 center and will use a 2.25" torque tube. I know the standard sprint car torque tubes back then were 2.3" but it's much easier to find dom tubing that is nominal 2.25". I have several pieces.







Here is a cross section view of how the flange will fit on the rear end.



The piece the CR 16254 lip seal rides on is a turned down 37 Ford speedometer gear that has a stainless sleeve pressed on. I'm not quite done with it yet but here it is with the sleeve on. I'll OD grind the sleeve to 1.625 and then face it to .615" which will just fit between the coupler and the face of the pinion nut. Once it's shortened, a corner I cut into the gear and the sleeve will form a face groove for a viton oring that will seal to the pinion nut. I'll have to cut a large chamfer on the rear of the ID to clear the radius on the pinion splines.





So that I can have the option to run different transmissions the tube will be a sliding fit in the flange. An prong near the front of the flange will keep water out and a cap screw near the base will retain it in the flange. There is not push on this tube since it has a sliding torque ball.
Here is the flange sitting on the axle.





The torque ball in the next picture is a National K-400 repair ball for fixing a Chevy with a scored up 2" torque ball. It gave you a sleeve you drove over your Chevy tube and turns it into a 2.25" sliding surface. I'll be using this one with my 39 Ford transmission initially.



I pulled the transmission out and flipped the throw out shaft so it has the lever on the p***enger side. I need any foot room I can gain for pedals. I need to add a couple bends but once I do that I think it will clear the cross member. Then I will mount my slave alongside the oil pan pushing backwards.



One last thing that got done this fall was I found a couple more 35-40 tie rods for my lower front 4 bar links.









I'll try and do better at keeping this thread updated. It's been a crazy year with family stuff and trying to get ready to have our shop built. I'll post a couple pics of the demo and dirt work that's been going on.

 

Nice! And that applies to everything above. And the little guy did a great job with excavating for your new shop.

 

Got an original 36 Chevy speedo gear pressed off and onto my new hybrid joint.

 

Here's what the old Ford speedo gear ends up looking like. This will run between the pinion bearing nuts and the driveshaft coupler. The viton ring will seal against the nuts and the lip seal in my new torque tube flange will run on the outer diameter. More to come.

 

Where it'll end up.

 

Great work, and a difficult job !

 

Very nice! Beautiful torque tube pieces !

 

Ran into something weird when I went to put my new joint on the back of the trans. Somehow the original 36 Chevy one I used had a reverse speedo drive to the two I put on my new joints. Had to swap out the driven gear and then it fit on much better.



I also got the driveshaft coupler and seal piece installed.




I also made my annual stop to see the Hudson powered sister car but it's still not for sale and hasn't moved in 10 yrs.

 

So, if it becomes available, are you going to start on a sister car?