'35 5 Window Custom: After a long delay,I'm back on it

About three years ago, I started a thread chronicling the transformation of a 1935 Ford five window coupe into a traditional early post war custom. With a little help from a talented buddy, I got from here:

 

To here:

 

Since then, the project has been relegated to the “When I get a free minute” pile, with me working on it very sporadically. I hadn’t planned on performing a full frame-off build of this car, as it was originally intended to be a daily driver. The kind of car that benefits from being just a little rough around the edges. However, every time I disassembled it just a little more, I’d say to myself “As long a I’ve gone this far, I might as well…..” Before I knew it, I had the car torn down to a state that would require smelting equipment for any further disassembly.
Four or five months ago, I started, in earnest, to put the ‘35 back together. And, I’ve been taking lots of pictures of the design, machining, welding, and general fabrication process. As a matter of fact, I’ve got more pictures than is probably appropriate to post in a single thread. I’ll try to keep it as succinct as possible.
Unfortunately, I’m in a financial position that forces me to sell the car as soon as it’s wrapped up. That’s O.K., though. The creating is always better than the having. Besides, being forced by financial pressures to sell a custom as soon as it’s done makes it truly traditional.

 

Here's where it was a few months ago. Body on jack stands and a frame outside leaning against my shop.

 

Parts gathered for the approaching storm of activity:

 

Very nice, how much of a chop?

 

First up, obviously, is getting the drivetrain situated in the frame. I'm using a 59A flattie, hooked up to a t-5 ( one of my few concessions to modern convenience and know how). I found a dealer with a couple of new-in-box 1995 S-10 T5s, and he was selling them for a song. I knew that this was part of the short run of T5s with "world class" gear sets and a forward mounted shifter. What I didn't realize was that this three year run of s10 transmissions used a Ford bellhousing bolt pattern. So, none of the adapter stuff I had purchased from Speedway would work right out of the box (serves me right for not buying from a small business). Even worse, the Speedway aluminum apapter didn't line up properly with the bellhousing bolt holes on the block, and the clutch fork that they include with the kit collided with the hole in the adapter that it passes through. So I machined and modified everything to fit. Because of that, I couldn't return and exchange the kit for a Ford patterned version. Soooo...A little more time on the milling machine and all components are cooperating.
Moving on to the back of the transmission: I cut out the top of the x member center. Then, I modified a heavy duty rear transmission mount, turned and milled some spacers at the correct angle to sit on the bottom of the x member center and the right length to keep the drivetrain at the proper angle. I'll get to the pics of gusseting/strengthening that part of the frame later.
Here's a little pictorial narrative:

 

As I recall, It worked out to 3.5" in the rear and around 3.75" in the front.

 

Very nice so far. A '35-'36 is on my short list.
Keep us posted.

 

Nice to see you're working on it again. Definitely keep us posted.

 

After getting the engine/trans in place, it was time to hook everything up to the rear end. Obviously, using the T-5 meant I had to convert to open drive. A nicely made conversion kit from Hot Rod Works, and a custom driveshaft from Gilbert Driveline took care of that. The front ends of the rear wishbone needed a new home, so I welded them to a tie rod end, and fabbed a mount system with an appropriately angled mounting hole reamed in the center. I fabbed a couple of bolt on arms to eliminate rear end twist. I'm also going to do a little more gusseting where that tie rod end gets narrow.

 

Here's the whole front mounting and stabilizing system for the banjo:

 

BTW: I'm actually a lot further along than this. I'm just getting around to putting this thread together between coats of paint.

 

Nice fab work. What do you do if that tie rod end goes bad? Or am I seeing something incorrectly?

 

Thanks.
Cut, weld, repaint. I can't take credit for the idea. I've seen it done more than once before, so I'm assuming that a: it doesn't get quite the same stress as a tie rod end used in a steering situation, b: when the suspension moves from full extension to full compression (against the bump stops) that tie rod end pivots all of about two degrees, and c: let's be honest, most cars like this don't get enough miles on them to wear out tie rod ends. But no, your not missing anything. Replacing it would be a hassle.

 

Ran all the brake lines, fabbed some headers, and started running the exhaust. Oh, and that left side exhaust pic is deceptive. The center tube curves back in the right direction before it meets the header.

 

That is the proper way to stabilize a banjo rearend. Nice clean fabrication work. Keep the progress posted.

Frank

 

This ought to be a pretty incredible build thread. Love the work so far!

 

Glad to see you've been working on it!
Zach

 

Very nice work! Thanks for posting the photos and descriptions!
Love those '35/'36 Coupes... Someday, someday



Malcolm

 

Nice work! Gonna be watching this one go together for sure. I'm diggin the chassis ideas you got going on.

-Shiny

 

wow. great car.

 

Looks great any chance we will be seeing this at Elis place?

 

Looks great! Can you explain the function of those 2 rods that run parallel to the driveshaft? Are they to take up the twisting force of the rear axle as load is applied from the driveshaft?

 

That was my goal, but I've got a feeling I'm gonna just miss the deadline.

 

Thanks. The idea is to regain some of the rigidity lost when I swapped the original torque tube set up for an open drive.

 

Here are a few pics of the clutch linkage pivot that I made to get my pedal assembly to work with the particular clutch components that I've got. The frame had the prerequisite hole gouged in it for the juice brake pedal assembly. I've seen it done with a torch, but the previous owner of this car did it with a DRILL! That must've taken forever! This wasn't the easiest/cheapest way to do this, but I had some D.O.M. tubing and bronze rod leftover from an old job. The last pic is of the assembly welded in place and covered in body filler dust.

 

sweet hot rod

 

Looking great. I got a 35 5w that im thinking about building. This is some inspiration to do so.

 

Cooool! Nice work!