Projects '23 Ford Roadster build aka The Incredible Hulk

It's winter in the Pacific Northwest, I see brine and salt on the roads near me.

 

pictures are what it looks like now.
there is still plenty of work left to make it road ready.
the plan is to sleeve the through frame bolt holes, which means pulling the engine to weld them in.
not looking forward to that
there may also be clearance issues with the upper bars that will have to be addressed.
All in due time

 

I forget….it was 84 here yesterday.

 

And wind chill of 13 in the morning

 

you do nice work

 

yes that is some nice work.

 

What is this piece you have chucked up in the drill press? I glanced at it the other day and ***umed it was a tapered reamer, but then upon a second look, I didn't see any flutes.

 

I was wondering about the bar geometry when you built them; but just thought that the set-up would cause a change in caster during suspension movement. How did you determine they were binding resulting in the harsh ride?

 

it's spinning

 

Ahhhhh…..makes sense.

 

it wouldn't be as much of an issue with a beam axle but with the rigid tube axle the bars act much like a split wishbone or hairpins,
when one wheel rises it will try to lift the other wheel.
ie: bind
that bind is absorbed by the bars.
it's evident by watching the bars flex when one wheel is jacked up.
if one wheel is jacked up the other will follow, not 100%, the bars will flex first but if I jack more than about 4 inches the other will start to lift.
the bind causes the harsh ride and of course fatigue in the weakest link, the bars.
I knew all this going in and I don't think it's about to fail, but it's definitely not optimal
in terms of ride quality or longevity of parts.

 

^^^^
Thanks for the follow up.

Good explanation; the rigidity of the tube axle didn't register in my head.

 

one side coming together
enough for a test fit anyway

 

how I tapped the rod ends after shortening,
chop two inches off a tapped rod end
cut the rod to length
drilled a piece of hard wood, rock hard maple here
exact size as OD of tube
slice the wood to allow compression
stick both tapped stub and untapped rod in the wood block and clamp in vise.
using plenty of cutting oil run the tap into the tubes using the tapped stub to align with the untapped rod
after enough thread has been cut into new rod remove the stub and continue tapping the rod.
gives a nicely centered and aligned thread to the new shorter rod.

 

Nice, Paul. Having the 4 bars parallel eliminates any twist, as long as they are essentially the same length for all 4. Being basically lazy, and having access to a pipe threading machine in the past, and not a lathe, I have used one for tapping 4 bars and tie rods and drag links. Just thought I’d share this in case anyone else is doing the same thing. I’m keeping my eyes open for one as my lathe isn’t big enough or powerful enough for threading long and large pieces.

 

thanks Dave,
yes it would be nice to have all the tools a fully equipped shop would have but when we don't we try to make do.
my little old lathe is too small too.
the through hole on the SB 9A is only 3/4"
these tie rods are 7/8" OD

 

And why is it that we never have enough room for the toys? Your shop looks just as crowded as mine…

 

it's full
paths are clear but if something needs to come in something has to go out first.

making progress

 

I managed to put together a tie rod kit over the years.
11/16"-18 right and left taps and dies
and left and right threaded stubs
it's come in quite handy too.

 

p***enger welded bracket removed.
apparently I never expected to have to, because they made me work for it.
now ready for dis***embly and paint.
'jacked one wheel up about 6" and the other stayed on the ground. the old setup couldn't do that.
looking forward to seeing how it rides.

 

T-Bucket articulation, what a concept!
Now I'm going to have to try that on mine!

 

The new version looks like it will work much better. 4 bars should be set up as a parallelogram so they eliminate bind.

 

Here's a calculator for finding the angles. I am too far removed from high school geometry to figure this out, but maybe someone like @Tim_with_a_T can get to info that's useful. I'd guess most have 3 inch up, 3 inch down travel at the most at the axle. So a total of 6 inches along a length of at least 2 feet, probably closer to 3 feet. I'd guess the caster change isn't too much.

https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/geometry-plane/parallelogram.php

 

yes and with the drag link p***ing through the rear upper bar joint pivot point bump steer should be negligible even with the divergent 4 bar/drag link angles

 

If the bars are a true parallelogram there will be NO change to caster at all.

 

That is a slick way to tap tubes; I used a different approach and took a piece of tube bored to just clear a tap and it welded to an angle; clamp the "tool" on the tube and the tap goes in nice and straight. Made one for 11/16" Ford ends and another for 5/8" clevises used when building hairpins or ladder bars. Now we power tap on my kid's lathe.

Really like the articulation you gained on the front; has to ride better. Makes you wonder how the "famous" hot rods with un-parallel 4 bars really worked.

 

For those lucky enough to have a lathe, you don't need a tap (or dies), you can single point cut the threads.

 

@Paul just subbed you on YouTube, good stuff! Mine is HiRevz Media.

 

wet paint ***embly

 

all together now
just back from first time "around the block"
much less harsh, especially when one wheel hits minor road changes, manhole covers, filled pot holes, pavement breaks...
but also a little less flat in the corners,
more like a normal car where before it was more like a slot car.
all in all I think it was a good move.