Looks like a great project, and even better work. I got a 46 ford cab last fall and wanting to do the same thing. Except not with the straight 8. All im sure of is it wont have a sbc. I was wandering what front suspension you are using. Keep it up. your giving me hope for mine.
Thanks Greg. I bought the front end from Speedway. No time to go scrounging. I opted for their longer "Curtis" hairpins. Thought they would look better with the longer frame I have to accomodate the straight eight. Just had a thought: if the straight eight doesn't work out, I should have room for two V8s. Hmmmmmm. God, please help me.....or not.
Nice concept. Had a straight eight in a 40 Buick when I was twelve. That thing sounded crazy running around the block with open headers. There is a guy in Hemmings that has some dress up and hop up parts for these. Jon
Great looking project! The frame looks killer, you're lucky to have scrounged that cool tubing pre-bent, and really like the Buick 8. LOL, got any more of whatever those bed supports are made from laying around, that's really cool. Brian
The parts used for the bed supports become available every once in a while. Our older brother in WV has asked for some for his truck so it may be a while before we have any extras. Charlie, 802 cubes would be fun! But then, I do have a 500 Caddy in the shed. 1000 cubes...scary thoughts...
Since you asked... just one concern with your frame. The torsional rigidity of the frame is in large part dependent on the torsional rigidity of that centre hump section. I'm not sure that due to the length (straightened out) of that section that it would be all that rigid, especially given the leverage of such long rails. I'm not an engineer, just a first timer too, but I've had some good advice and spent some thinking time on such things. Other than that it's a nice job. Pete (edit) BTW I don't think you're going to kill yourself
I don't know about that i just saw a 60s gladiator cab for sale locally and thought Hmmm A 2 wheel drive Crom!!
I know, I know. I drive past a salvage yard to get to the hotrod and last weekend, there was a J20 sitting out front. Just came in. I stopped, got out, began chanting: Just say no. Just say no. Just say no...got back in the....wait for it....Jeep....and drove away. I'm down to three Jeeps now. ok, four. But thats a lot better! "I own a full size Jeep...but everyday, in every way, I'm getting better..."
Got some work done. We installed the pedal assembly and fabbed the clutch linkage. I was planning to use a juice clutch but it looked like the brake pedal was going to hit the slave cylinder on the bellhousing. Thought a mechanical linkage would not be difficult to make. Decided to try a linkage that would pull on the clutch fork from behind to keep it our of view. This looks good. We will install the clutch and pressure plate into the bellhousing and test it out. We need to check for proper travel and pedal effort. We also installed the steering column temporarily to check for fit and placement. Have some work to do on that tomorrow. I also purchased a rear axle for the truck. I have an 8" from an old Maverick in there but I am not happy with its width. Its a bit narrow. So, this week I bought an axle from a '98 Exploder. Its an 8.8 with the 4.10 gears I need. It also has a limited slip diff and disc brakes and its about 6" wider. We'll get it installed tomorrow and see how that looks to me. Once the steering is installed, it'll be a roller! I know all this is not really in the traditional style favored here but this is what I have.
Now that looks like a pretty sharp setup! Do you have some sort of bushing on the rod? Are you going for power brakes? how about power steering and going with hydro brakes?
We do have bronze bushings in there. The pivot rod will remain stationary in the brackets coming off the crossmember and the tube the levers are attached to will rotate on that rod. We have the bushings in each end of the tube. The attachment to the clutch fork may get redesigned. Today, I plan to get the clutch assembly in the bellhousing for testing. We previously measured the stroke needed at the clutch fork but haven't tested everything together. I have no idea right now what the pedal effort may be. Also plan to get the steering column mounted and hooked up. I'm using a manual Vega box for now. Will have to find out later what the steering effort will be. Next is getting that new axle installed. The 8" is simply bolted in with the spring perches not yet welded to the axle tubes. We'll likely just recontour the perches we already have to fit the larger tubes of the 8.8 and put things back together. Yesterday, I got a driveshaft from a salvage yard and we may be able to measure it to length and shorten it up. Lots to do today. Shop is an hour away, so I'm outta Here!
Got some work done today. As I readied my DD Jeep for a trip this coming weekend, my brother got the brake pedal hooked up to the booster and MC. He got the whole shebang mounted. Once I was done with my job on the Jeep, we installed the clutch disc, pressure plate and tranny to test the clutch pedal. We did have to shorten the rod leading to the clutch fork. Everything worked fine with that. We then set about removing the 8" rear axle and installing the 8.8". The 8.8's original spring mounts were 1" off from where we needed them to be. We torched off those original spring mounts and I set to them with a grinder. We needed new U-bolts for the new axle, so we took a lunch break and headed 20 miles into town for munchies and to get some larger U-bolts. With full bellies and the needed U-bolts, we headed back to the shop. We made new bolt plates for under the springs as the 8.8 axle tubes are much larger than the old 8". While working on this, we decided to remove a few of the leafs from the ScoutII spring pack I am using in back. Truck now sits a few inches lower. The springs now seem too soft so we will be putting one leaf back in to see how that works. Here is where we are at now. Its on all fours and can be rolled around but the steering is not yet hooked up. Next weekend, I should be in Colorado for a vacation. Meanwhile, Gary took the radiator and grille shell home to get the radiator mounted in the shell. We didn't get the steering hooked up because the U-joint I ordered for the end of the column didn't show up. Plus, we had plenty of work with everything else we were doing. Gary is also going to shorten up the column mount for the underside of the dash. It was just a bit too long. When I get back, plan is to install the steering column and get it all hooked up. We'll stiffen the rear springs, get to mounting the radiator and grille shell. And shorten the driveshaft we have. 1 Day a week is not enough but has has to suffice for now. Summer is coming up fast. It'll be a bit rough and in primer but I hope to have it on the road.
Got some work done. Last week we got the steering column in and hooked up (among other things) and pushed it outside for the first time. See the thread: First Light! In the photo, you can see the engine is leaning back at an angle. Too much of an angle I think. To me, it looks like the truck is broken in the middle. After looking at it and discussing various things, we pushed it back in and lowered the front of the engine by relocating the frame side of the engine mounts. This cured the "broken" look but moved the oil pan too low for me to be comfortable with. I thought we should have moved the tranny up instead. Also in this photo, I painted a piece of plywood to simulate a bed. We cut it, moved it around some 'til we got it where I liked the look. Today, we moved the front of the engine back up and then moved the tranny up to help level the engine out. This looks much better. The oil pan is up (hopefully) out of harms way. Brother Gary took the engine mounts home with him to rework them for the new engine position. We had cut the frame side of the mounts off and lowered them to the bottom of the frame in our original effort to level the engine. I liked that as they were now more out of sight but the engine was too low. So now, we're going to lengthen the engine part of the mounts to move the engine back up while keeping the frame side mounts down low. In earlier photos, you can see the tranny is tight up to the underside of the crossmember hump. We C'd the hump to allow the tranny to move up. Its a bit rough but we'll clean it up during final welding and grinding. We also set a seat inside the cab and checked positioning of the seat and steering wheel. All seems ok with them. I am using mid70's IH ScoutII front leaf springs on the rear. They were pretty stiff so I pulled 3 leafs out. That was too much. We placed weights on the rear frame to simulate the weight of a full gas tank and a bed. The springs compressed too much. It was very soft and bouncy. So I replaced two of the removed leafs in each pack and thats much better. We'll see how it works. I can adjust the number of leafs as needed. We also took care of some small problems with the spring plates and rear shack mounts while we were back there. In the above photo, you may notice the hairpins are dropping as they go back to the frame mounts. I hadn't noticed that while it was in the shop. So we cut the mounts off the frame and remounted them higher to level out the hairpins and give a little more ground clearance near the mount. Learning as I go. I have the radiator at the local radiator shop for some repair (I screwed up) and some modifications. That should be done in a couple of days. This week I will be getting a new steering wheel, some good seats, the radiator and Gary will modify the engine mounts. Next weekend, at it again!
You and your brother are working fast! The truck is looking good. Sorry we didn't get to meet when you came through.
This is a great thread! I'm enjoying your progress and learning a lot! You and Gary wanna adopt a younger brother?
Love the truck. My first build was a 37 chevy Pick Up, ( see my public profile ). I'll try to find some old pics and post em! Great choice
Thanks guys. uh, Ryan, about that adoption idea....how much do you make? oldschool66, went through Richland Center on the Power Tour swim to Madison last year. I'll be going through there again this year on the way to Madison. I'll honk! Look for a turquiose '66 Mustang.
I bought some seats out of a 1980 Mini Cooper for the truck. Also some headlights and turn signals (not from the Mini). I have a steering wheel and adapter/install kit coming. I have my radiator back from the repair shop. Brand new radiator from a Mustang skid-steer loader that my brother gave me (he gave me the radiator, not a loader). i ran a drill through it the first day I had it. I needed the damage repaired, a new upper inlet installed in a new location and a filler installed on the top to match the Willys-Overland shell. $50 total! Cool! Gary got the engine mounts modified, and we will hit it again this Sunday. Saturday we will be heading to St. Paul for a show and swap meet at the fairgrounds. Work is slowing down and it looks like we will be going to 3 day weeks soon. Less money but more time to work on the truck! Luckily, most of the big stuff is already bought.
Well, its been a while since the last update. Progress has been slow as I had to divert time and lots of money to the Mustang. Then a 2 week road trip for the Power Tour including a visit to family in NC, WV and OH. Vacation was fun, Mustang looks great (body work and paint), all mechanicly sound (wheel bearings, tires, brakes, lube, tune, misc). Trip was just over 3500 miles. Right after getting back there was the Back to the Fifties show In St. Paul and that took the whole weekend, then the Goodguys show in Des Moines. But, we did get some work done on the old Chevy. Gary made a carb adapter and we have a Motorcraft 2100 2bbl on the Buick now. We moved the rear spring shackle mounts a bit further back on the frame as the shackles were at too great of an angle. The tops were leaning too far forward. Better now. We got the driveshaft shortened and installed. Fabbed a floor section to replace a section under the seat that had to be removed for clearance on the frame. Just a bit more work needed on that. I made some mounts for the headlights but don't like the result all that much. The design is ok, they just look bulky. Have purchased some lighter, smaller material and will redo them. Also, now have an Eaton M90 supercharger for the Buick.
Got some more done on the truck. We built a bed out of plywood to check proportions, height, width, length etc. We're pretty close to what I had mind. Got some more work done on the floor. Had to remove the cab from the frame for that. Also, removed the tranny to get the flywheel off. I'm having the flywheel resurfaced. We set the supercharger on the intake manifold and looked that over. No real conclusions drawn. It went onto the shelf. I didn't like the way the radiator strut rods looked. We pushed the truck back into the shop and I moved the cab ends down a couple inches. They now line up with the body line on the door and cowl. Looks much better. No pics of that yet.
WOW a really nice build. Really cool choice of engine . Shes gonna be real smooth driving down the road. Plus with the Eaton should run pretty good. You and your brother are doing some real nice craftmanship.
Not much progress to report as the Mustang has been taking my time (almost done with what I am doing) and money and work has slowed considerably leading to lower funds. But, we're still plugging along, doing what we can. We're working on the cab. Getting the floor done, with a hatch for access to the brake master cylinder. Welding up some holes, banging out some dents. Milestone today! We got that straight eight running! That was a relief! I bought the engine on the word of the widow that it was supposed to run. It was still packed on its shipping crate so no opportunity to test run it. So today, we hooked it up, filled with fresh oil, and fired it up! Cool!! Sounded great. No smoke, no untoward noises. My brother Gary had previously made an adapter to fit a mid-60s Autolite 2100 2bbl in place of the original Carter. It worked fine. We mounted a bit of exhaust pipe to the manifold with no muffler, sounded great. No video as no camera was available. I'll get some footage next week. We're going to concentrate on the cab now. That'll take some time and won't require much cash outlay (for now). Meanwhile, I'll spend what I can for the stuff we're going to need to get it driving. Mostly that will be a fuel tank and lines, glass and weather stripping for the cab, rear tailights, gauges. I have a '51 Nash gauge pod but it will need adapting to 12v. I have a wiring harness with fuse block and brake lines and fittings. Though, I do still need a master cylinder for 4 wheel discs but they don't cost much. I can make a wood flat bed out of material we already have. I plan to make a regular metal bed if finances allow, or a wood flat bed only if need be. Since work has slowed down, I now have more time to work on it but far less money (plus its a 130 mile round trip to the shop, so gas cost has become a factor). Isn't that how the world works?
Nice to see that some else is going with the straight 8 route ,they are big but a small block chev is so over done. Great start and keep up the good work I will watch for your progress. By the way I plan to hot rod a 1941 Chrysler straight 8 next year. Take care, Rob.
The Jalopy Journal
