Projects My '26 Roadster / Vintage photo search

Clayton, In talking to "Youngster" about my solo build he said that you had mounted your rear spring in front of the axle. Are there any detail pix of how you did this ? I guess it would sure help the rear of the car some.

Dave

 

Dave,

I do have plenty of the ch***is in without the body. This is how the rear axle was setup in it's original configuration:


Essentially, the T axle halves were flipped to put the spring perches on the bottom...then I extended the shackles similar to this old photo of the prototype Chris and I built...only far more substantial:



While this setup worked exceptionally well, it did not leave me enough adjustment and suffered from a clearance issues. For it's current rebuild, I took this design back to the drawing board and vastly improved it. It still accomplishes the same stance as before and does not require any mods to the drive shaft, radius rods or torque tube....but allows for almost 10" of ride height adjustment:



Hope that helps.

 

Clayton, Like the set up on the rear. Works great with a Model T rear axle. Only problem is I am using a Model A rear axle . . . . I'll come up with something. Can't wait until the Special is a roller . . . .

Dave

 

how about trying 32 bells? Jared

 

Thanks for the reply there. How's the weather in R.I. ?

Wonder if I could use the housings off of my '41 Ford car. I do have a '46 truck housing . . . . . May have to do some mockup.

Dave

 

A pair of '35-6 rear bones would be an option Dave. They bolt to a plate on the axle tube and the spring mount is behind the axle.

Ron

 

You should be able to hang the rear axle in this fashion:


The Model A's are sprung the same way as a Model T, from atop of the axle via spring perches mounted through the brake backing plates. The only problem you might have is that it would stretch the WB by 2" or so....but that could be solved by simply shortening the frame by the same amount as the axle is pushed back. This way you could avoid having to alter the drive shaft....and who cares if the frame is 2" shorter, the WB would still be the same

 

*UPDATE*
Front End Work - The Headlight Fork / License Plate Bracket

Whew!.... After that whirl wind Christmas holiday, I have been itching to get back to the shop and with Monday off...I made the most of it playing with cars



I have a few more small projects to tackle on the front end of the ch***is before I can "sign off" on the front end and move to the rear end, so yesterday I worked on another important piece of the puzzle who's finish was not up to my benchmark.....the headlight fork ***embly.



The forks have never been right since day 1 (I was learning) and since the the car was getting a refresh, I added them to the list. I had collected the correct looking pieces (like the yellow cross bar from a White Truck) for them over the last few years, just never got around to fixing it. I got started by cutting the ***embly apart (also found a bad weld in the process):



Next I made up some replacement studs (with some awesome old cap nuts I found) for the two forks as the originals were toast and broken off.



...then I got them all welded on:



Next, I cut down the cross bar. I removed 1 1/4" from each side to make it fit. I'm quite proud of my welding job







The newly welded, trued up and rebuilt headlight forks after clean up work and some bead blasting:



All ***embled....







Next week, I plan to get the front shock mounts made and at least a start on the front Panhard bar.

More to come, stay tuned
​

 

Lookin good! I'm so glad to see her finally looking a little less like a pile of metal

 

Thanks my love ....Me too, I like her looking more like a car again

 

That headlight bar is très subtle. Nice work. I'm still itching to see you start on the rear suspension.

-Dave

 

Thanks Dave!

It is a subtle addition, but it's the little details on a build that really make the car

I'm excited to get to work on the rear end too, but I'm not going to jump around and get side tracked on another step in the process. I started the front end and I only have 1 or 2 more things to do before I can "sign off" on it completely...so I'm going to finish it before I start something else.

 

I totally agree. I meant that as a compliment, as I think it’s easy to get hung up on getting the biggest impact from each detail and the builder ends up with a vehicle that is somehow less than the some of its parts. I admire your restraint in including tons of interesting period parts without trying to showcase each part to the casual viewer.

Understood. I’m definitely enjoying the front-end rebuild, but I’m being selfish since I’m planning to follow Gerber’s method of flipping the front crossmember (I don’t need the engine mount), the front suspension is less relevant to me than the way you’ve done your rear axle, which I intend to mimic.

Keep up the good work!

-Dave

 

...and I took it as one

I agree and that is the trick (and one of the hardest in my book)....not overdoing it and not showing off everything as it's own sovereign show piece. It's supposed to be one "package"....everything flowing together to make one perfect package, not a super-rare parts display...

...that's what the shelves in you garage are for

I know your excited for the rear axle build..and I will deliver in spades, just gotta finish the front first. On a build like this it is SO EASY to get distracted or side tracked on another aspect of the project...and when that happens it becomes a jumble:

"Oh shoot, I really should have built that first..."

"Damn, I totally forgot the finish the...." Fill in the blank

We all do it from time to time . I did this ALLOT during the first build up...Multi-tasking is NOT one of my strong suits, so I told my self that I would not do the same thing this time around.

On that note of course, since the front end is drawing to a close I am getting antsy to start the rear...so you should hopefully see the first updates for that in the next few weeks

Editors Note: One more big leap will be made this weekend. A mutual friend of the shop (the same that helped Chris form the hood sides on the "Special") will be coming up to help rivet the wishbone frame mounts to the frame Saturday morn

 

Actually the A spring mount is incorperated into the axle flange. You can get a rough idea how I did my A rear here on page 2;

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=556518&page=2

Ron

 

You are correct Ron, had to look at my Model A drawings again.

The point I was getting at though was that the spring perch/shackle boss is on top of the axle just like a Model T....so in theory, my lowering method could be adapted and applied to a Model A in the same fashion.

I do like the way you accomplished the drop on your car though....real sharp!

 

nice work! the rear axle and spring layout is very neat

 

Clayton, I like the parts you used for the headlight mounts and cross bar, you have a talent for looking at something and figuring what you can use it for. Proper old school hotrodder's ingenuity in action. Nice to know that there are still people out there with that capability. I have a shed full of neat old unrelated parts that will some day come together as a unique early style build. Just need to finish the HA/GR project first. As you said, "SO EASY to get distracted or side tracked"...one thing at a time or nothing gets finished.

 

The front end really looks good, man. I really dig that front bar mount for the headlights and plate. Real subtle. One of my favorite features of the Model T is the headlight mounts.. However, I do have to ask; they don't offer much, if any, adjustments, do they? Maybe I'm missing something in the pictures that show how you can adjust them?

I think I may steal your idea for integrating the plate mount into the headlight bar on my A build.

 

"Proper old school hotrodder's ingenuity in action. Nice to know that there are still people out there with that capability"

Thank you kindly. This does seem to be a dieing art from these days, but it is what the early days of hot rodding was built on. I just love the concept behind it and training my self to look for "the part" or "the Shape" as my Dad used to call it when we used to do scale modeling when I was a kid. During the period which my car would have been built, you would have had access to wrecking and salvage yards containing parts from 1912 to 1928, all fair game.

Any time I go to a swap meet, flea market, etc....I'm always scanning for stuff like that to add to my "building stock"

Thanks TS! I have always love the cross-bar look. They were very common on cars and trucks prior to 1925...as seen here on this 1912 White "60"


Since I was building in a period when this stuff would have been available and fair game...I thought " lets do it and change up the front end a bit"

As I have said, it's the little subtle things that make the car. I got this from a very nice H.A.M.B.er in the UK not long ago and it really sums up what I was going for...and I guess I got it right

"I really appreciate how you've taken a stockish roadster, and modified it very cleverly using very few, but very well thought out and executed methods, with almost nothing changed permanently. Lengthening the wheelbase and lowering the suspension simultaneously without going remotely near a forge to drop the axle is fantastic.

Somehow your machine has the proportions of a high end car with twice the wheelbase"


The stock Model T headlights do have a great look and I had originally contemplated running them on this car, but they just didn't look right.

...as far as adjustments, they don't have a whole lot of it. The early headlights had a cast stud about 9" long that bolted to the front fender brace. To "adjust" those, you tweaked them with bending irons...the later style '26-27 headlights are similar if memory serves. I have the full procedures at home and will scan/post them for you.

 

Texas Speed,

Here are the scans of the adjustment procedures of the Model T headlights from the Ford T-1 Service Manual:

The Old style:


..and for the New "Improved" car:

 

Ah, that's pretty cool. Thanks.


iPhone - TJJ app

 

No problem. Some of the stuff in this book just cracks me up..."Just put this big steel bar on the headlights and BEND THEM 'till it's right"

 

*UPDATE*
Oh...A riveting we will go, a riveting we will go....

Well Happy New Year my fellow H.A.M.B.ers and what better way to start off the new year then with another great update!

Since I had a 4-day weekend due to the holiday, I was able to get some extra work done....so Friday I headed out to the shop to get my wishbone ball stud plates drilled for Saturday's "Riveting Extravaganza" as I mentioned last week.

Most of Friday was spent drilling......10 holes....because Vanadium Steel is VERY HARD and my new plates decided to have a few hard spots



sorry this one is a bit blurry, but it is the finished drilling work



The following morning, a good friend of the Shop...Mr. George Lavaco was kind enough to come out with his vintage riveting tools to give me a hand. First thing was to get the rivets laid out on a fire brick (or in our case a cinder block) and get them heated up:





Once the rivets were red hot, Our friend Brian would garb them with pliers and put them into the holes in the frame:



Then I had to put the big steel forming buck against the rivet head while George hit it with the air hammer from the back side:







And after all that (which killed my shoulder!) we got this as our final product:



I'm quite pleased how this turned out

Next week: Front Panhard bar/Shock mounts.

....Stay tuned


​

 

That looks great!! I could only imagine how sore your shoulder is from that.. Just think, people on here are going to say that now you know how to rivet, there's no reason to weld anything to your frame anymore. You're going to have some buff shoulders when your car is done!

Happy new year!


iPhone - TJJ app

 

Thanks TS! I will most likely have some more riveting projects in the future, but there are certainly somethings that will need to be welded and others that will need to be bolted...but we shall see, it does look great and it is a fun skill to learn!

I do hate drilling through that frame though

 

Those plates look like they've always been there... Nice job Gents!

 

Thanks Cactus! That was the whole idea....and the look I was going for

 

what kind of rivit gun did you use? I got about 70 of them to do! I love reading your threads

 

Clayton, I can only echo what Cactus1 said. Very clean and neat work.

Happy 2012 to you and your lady.

Dave and Bernice