Projects The project 'generation gap' modified

For years now my Dad and me have helped each other out with our respective automotive projects. Recently though we decided that building something together that we could both have fun with sounded like a good idea. The fact that hill climb events have become a regular addition to the UK hot rod event calander, and the talk of a proper affiliated 'flathead' hill climb series, further influenced this decision.
The question was what to build.
It had to have a flathead and with the intended use being hill climbing, drag racing and of course regular street duty it needed to be small, light and nimble. First thoughts were of a 21 stud powered T based speedster but then the opportunity to buy the remains of a little modified came up. This particular car has a bit of history to it though as it was built by Tony Cardy and once held the UK street driven flathead E.T. record at 12.7 seconds at a little over 100mph. Tony is a bit of a legend in Flathead circles over here as he kept upping his own record and with all early Ford running gear. You can read about his exploits here...
http://www.flatheadmeltdown.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=46&Itemid=46

Sadly Tony p***ed away last year which is why the car became available and myself and my Dad decided it was too good an opportunity to p*** up.
So this is what we have to start with...
Much modified A ch***is
Gl*** T modified body
A front axle
Ford pilot banjo rear
Drilled bones front and rear
A springs front and rear
Ford pilot 21 stud flathead
Volvo gearbox (4 speed and synchros)
A grill shell
Will also run wide 5's

Here are a few pics...






You may have noticed a theme, Tony liked things light so drilled whatever he could.
We have a long way to go but this has given us a big head start. Will post progress as it happens.

 

I'm also working on a "generation gap" T project. A '26 cut-down/narrowed touring for my daughter. I'll be watching as you progress.

 

That sounds like a real cool project.
Be sure to post some pics.

 

Sounds familiar. I'm building one too. Steel body though. Rebuilt 302 and c4. '41 front beam and spring over. Model A bones. It's my bucket list. Hope to get done before I kick the bucket!!!

 

unlike most on here, I applaud the use of the fibergl*** body. The man really knew his stuff. Why go through all that drilling, then **** up the weight with a metal body. This looks like a great project, hope you and your dad have a lot of fun with it.

 

Well not much to report as we have been slowly collecting the majority of the parts needed to really get moving on the build. Got the tyres mounted to the rims today so we did a little mock up to see how it will sit.



Will post more as progress continues.

 

a way cool project , keep on posting the progress , i like the build

 

A little progress to share...
Got the motor sitting between the rails and started to put together the front end. At this point I thought it might be good to do a quick tech piece on how I used the Ford Pilot spindles with my A axle. Have to thank NealinCA at this point as I remembered him doing something similar on his RPU with early spindles.

Right then...
One of the issues with The Pilot and early US Ford spindles is the availability and price of replacement king pin kits. This is a way of using the more common 37 and up kits that are widely available.


Early spindles have the thrust bearing on top of the upper spindle boss sitting under the king pin cap and there is no room for it to sit on top of the lower boss as on later spindles.


If you use the the common king pin kits in this configuration the slot for the cotter pin that goes through the axle will be in the wrong place and it would require substantial shimming.


A new slot can be ground on the opposite side but the more serious issue is that the king pin cap really isn't designed to take the force that will be acting upon it.

The solution is to use needle roller bearings, which are cheap and readily available, where the regular thrust washer would go. The part numbers required are..
NTA 1423 bearing x 2
TRA 1423 washer x 4



You can then mount everything on the axle as you would with later spindles including the felt washer under the cap and then shim as necessary. (I only needed one of the thinnest shims each side) The cotter pin hole will now be in the right place too.



The king pins do protrude from the bottom a bit but can be easily turned down.
The only other issue is that these bearings wont be sealed like the one's that come in the kit but a good regular coating of grease should do the job.
Hopefully this will be of use to some of you.
Not much progress but progress non the less

 

This is looking cool!

 

Little bit more progress for those still awake
Drilled and tapped the bellhousing to accept the V#l#o gearbox and bolted the lot to the 'mock up' pilot motor. I know the phone pics are ****...

The green box section is temporary as I had to chop out Tony's 'swiss cheese' crossmember Plans are to use a modified original A centre that will incorporate the gearbox mount and then have bracing coming off this fore and aft to make it a K member to add some rigidity.
Bolted the front end back together and mocked up the rear end to see how it sat. This is near enough final ride height, just a very slight rake although it is a tad higher than anticipated but I don't dislike the look.

Still seems to have a bit too much positive camber although not as bad now everything is bolted up tight and the heavy wear on the one side of the tyres does make it look worse. The wishbones may get pie cut as where they are now gives me 6 degrees castor ,the same as what is built into the front spring perch, but puts the ends too far away from the ch***is for my liking.
Stuck the body back on to get another overall look.


Next plan of action is to get the rear axle hung so will need to sort brackets to mount the spring shackles, wishbones and shocks. Then front wishbone mounts followed by the K member. That should see the ch***is fully rolling!

 

looks really cool!!!

 

Super cool build!

Very much like the T I have on the go right now.

Whats your wheelbase?

 

I installed some Model A spindles on a tube axle the same way that you did, including the needle bearing. Have about 600 miles on it and seems to be working fine.

Nice build.

 

Thanks, still messing around with the rear end location to see what looks best. Think we have settled on it now so will throw a measure on it and report back.

That's great, good to hear someone has done the same thing with no issues.

 

Your project is coming along great! Concerning caster, instead of pie-cutting the wishbones, how about simply lowering the frame at the spring mount?

 

Yeah that could be another option, nothing is ruled out yet.
There's still a fair bit of weight to go on there that might drop the ch***is a little bit more.

 

Any updates?

 

Nothing to show really I'm afraid. We have made templates for all of the brackets we need to mount the rear axle and front/rear wishbones and are just waiting for them to be laser cut for us. Also picked up some box section steel so that we can modify the centre cross member to accept the Volvo trans and also to add some strength to the frame by turning it into a K member.
Hopefully it should be rolling within a couple of weeks although I have a few jobs to do on my 32 pick up at the moment that take priority.

 

Haven't updated this build for a while but that's mostly because we haven't really done much to it!
Got the spring mounts attached to the rear axle, wishbone mounts will be next along with fabricating the centre member.



The gl*** 27 tub has been moved on as we picked up this steel body which we believe is based on a 20 Willy's.



It was a fair bit bigger than the 27 and we are shooting for a single seat modified so the cutting wheel came out and this is how it sits now.



So there we go, not much but at least a little progress.

 

Why are,nt the 4 mounting holes for the backing plates square at 90 degrees to the driveshaft ?
Looks like your axle is ***embled with a mounting hole pointing up. (driveshaft in a horizontal position )


Turn your head a bit to the left for this pic.

 

Man I hadn't even noticed that but it is a quirk of the British pilot axles. The backing plates are orientated that way too. I did have to double check though!

 

Little bit more progress.
While I have been off sunning myself and hurtling around sprint tracks the old man has cracked on with the body and managed to get it back into a single piece.
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We will flatten out the top of the cowl at the firewall as it looks a bit sharp but other than that it doesn't look too bad.
We also started to make and fit the K members to the ch***is so we should be fully rolling soon then its onto pedals, steering etc.

 

One from today.
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Looking good!! What are the headlight brackets from?

 

I liked the body before it was narrowed. My 2 cents.

Looks like a 26/27 T coupe upper cowl section out front.

Still cool

 

That 21 stud appears to have been relieved, so you are on your way. Good luck. This should be a neat little rod.

 

Nice. very similar to the frame & center x in my mod

 

I'm not sure what they are as they were already on the ch***is when we got it.
They look like aftermarket ones that have been welded to the frame.

 

Managed to spend a couple of days on it so started fabricating the frame that will sit inside the cowl and support the box for the cowl steering. More bracing needs to be added yet.