Projects Im getting Married! Project 46 ford begins!

Wish I could help! At the rate you go when your working I think 2 weeks should be more than enough time for you!

 

Gary? I also left out that I'm running roughly 27 inch tall tires on the front. Maybe that makes it seem taller suspension wise then it is. A lot of people seem to run a shorter tire but I like to fill up the wheel well and maybe tuck a little rubber up into it.

Woodbutcher, I agree I got pretty lucky

N847, it's a lot easier to get stuff done when it's near by! I'm trying to get the mechanical stuff done as far as running decent and stopping safely before rolling her up for the wedding. Then when that's done with a can go back and tweak and adjust things till there optimal. I've got a week until inlaws are here and it's been in the low 20's working on it in the mornings lately so I'm trying to be productive with what time I do have. Hopefully it's warmer Monday and I can make a big dent.

Then if I need to go get some time away from it all I can

Keep ya posted



also, check out what we found! its huge and has tons of info on 38-48 american made cars from parts numbers to drivetrain cut aways and blow aparts to how to adjust body panels and door latches! super stoked

 

Alright so nothing to exciting going on but im trying to get alot done today including wiring up and installing my gauges in the dash.

If you have followed the build your aware that i bought some 5" gauges that are totaly not 5 inches wide. Well with a 5" hole to fill i talked to a few people about turning me some fancy washers more of less out of something i could polish up.

4 months of ill get to it this weekend and i said fuck it and went to home depo with a tape measure... ok so i grabbed one off the shelf.



I found electrical box caps that you typicaly see on a ceiling covering a spot were a light used to be are the exact right size to fit in front of my chrome dash bits and have a nice curve to them as well.

I bought 4 so i can put one on each side of the dash and sandwich it in.



with the curve on the piece i figured a compass or other circle template wasnt going to work so i found center



marked how big the bucket of the gauge was



connected the dots



and used a dremall to cut them out. my measurement landed it just past a crease in the cap but the wheel wanted to follow the crease. i ended up chopping away at it with some side cutters and got them to fit.



clean them up a bit and some rattle can and shazam! $8 or so bux to make the gauges fit!

kinda simple and easy to do but i thought id post it because i spent so much time trying to figure something out with appartly no aftermarket direct fit for these cars. I have seen alot of little trim rings for sale that i see in pretty much all of these cars running teeny tiny gauges in the big openings, and not only did i think they looked sorta like ash trays but when i found what was avalible via the internets they were hundreds of dollars :O

couple hundred bux to make a gauge fit wasnt in the cards. ill prolly do something nicer when i can get my hands on a lathe for an afternoon but im in a crunch and honestly tired of looking at holes in the dash.

hope this helps somebody out

 

The centers of hub caps works pretty well too.

 

not a bad idea! i couldnt seem to get the back ones to work so i ended up using some drilled flat stock and bending up back halfs, speedo went in with out to much hassle but im fighting the 4 in one on the passenger side. give it another go tomorrow i suppose

 

By the way, this is a great pic.
Good mornings often start just like that here at "the ranch".

 

Thanks, might print that one out

 

Got the trans pan bolts snugged up today hopefully that'll slow my pretty obvious leak, checked my split bone mounts, tie rid and drag links, painted all 4 wheels quick and dirty style so they'll at least be 10 footers till its warm again and I have time to do a better job, backed off the residual valves and cranked them back down trying to get them to seat and seal but didn't have time to bleed them an see what happens, wrote this giant run on sentence, and got the speedo bolted in and the 4&1 for the clock hole pretty close to in.

Mocked up the stock shocks to see if my idea will work, gonna have to play some more to see if it's plausible. Going to get my new stickers on the plates tomorrow, go talk to the insurance guy, go hunt for some blankets for temp interior, bleed the brakes and install the 4 n 1 in the dash tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Hopefully I'll get seat belts in, seats covered, gauges wired, wiring harness extende and tucked up under the dash, and a hundred and a half miles on it my next week today!

Thinking I'm going to run the little baby moons from speedway, they don't bump up like the stock center caps and make the wheel look like one continuous shape. Hopefully they clear the spindal :S guess we'll find out. Anyone running them? I mocked it up with a moon from off a semi truck/trailer and everything seems to clear

 

well i got the gauges in finally, i actually ended up making the back side 'retainer' out of roughly 1/8 ish inch hard line. worked way better then the first 3 or 4 failed ideas.

any how took a spin around the block to make sure they stayed put like they should and promptly had one of the many giant speed bumps in my parking lot pull the drivers side exhaust open at the back of the head pipe. blub blub blub raaaawwwwwrr haha. im sure every one appreciated that.

I think that im going to end up putting some fenderwell headers on it and just quick dicking with the snake next of bends that im trying to get to work around everything thats in the way on the drivers side. but for now ill put it back together and cross my fingers.

I also go my short dog bones from blacktop buhda! they look awesome but when i went to bolt it all together i found something i had no considered at all.

when i heard of people lowering there 46-48 and bottoming there suspension out on the stock shocks i thought they ment travel wise. well, turns out it literally bottoms out on the shock itself. With the wheel off i went to bolt on the shock and found that my sway bar is about an inch give or take up into the space the shock body would normally occupy.

With the wedding super close the plan for now is to get the car safe and driving dependably, then pretty it up a bit and call it good. Im short on time with all the rest of the stuff going on and i know if i try to get it all done it'll be rushed and ill have wasted money half assing it and have to redo again later.

Its driving and functioning, i can finish it with out dead lines over the winter and start to enjoy it again.

Right now my plan for the shocks is to move them from in front of the axle to behind the axle by drilling new holes in the rails and bolting them on just like factory but on back side. seems like that would clear everything the only concern i have is if the steering box and bracket bits will land in the way.

guess ill find out later
i'll keep you all posted.

 

Trying to get the exhaust stuffed into the drivers side is a real bitch. 10 pounds of poop in a 5 pound bag.
Fenderwell headers, that's sounds like a hot rod. Have 'em dump straight down with a dude coming off the back to shoot towards the back perhaps.
Some flexy pipe running all the under the bones might do the trick too. That's what was on mine before I smashed it.

 

Yeah I've got it all sorts of snaked and flexed right now. Looking at photos and looking at my car it looks like they might dump close to the opening that already exists at the back of the inner fender. My biggest mess up on this whole deal was putting the brakes, proportioning valve and residual valve in the spot of the stock brakes. With them there I can't tuck the exhaust up into the X member to get it up off the ground more.

Oh well, I think fender wells will solve most of the issue and the rest.... Well let's just say an ample amount of soil may show up on either side of these ridiculous speed bumps

 

if it don't move, chrome it!

I ended up not being able to make Malcolm's shop crawl but i did drive the 46 to work today with zero drama even stopped on the way home to take photos to prove it moves!







also dont know if i made note but i got all the wires extended and tucked up under the dash better, put down some rubber matts and then put in some black carpet front to back. almost feels like a car now

 

Damn that's shiny!
Cool pics Timmer!

 

Looking good, man! That mural on the building is pretty cool too!

 

thanks guys its about as done as its getting other then waxed before the wedding, then ill prolly slow down on it a bit.

im trying to get one of my photog friends to come shoot some pix for me around town so i decided to do some myself to show him ideas. got a mural of a 56 ish olds looking dasha nd windshield down the street and some other cool places to try out as well

 

incredibly soon to be inlaws are at our place this week....getting awefully close.
Its about 50 deg and windy out, stir crazy walking around the living room i thought to myself " shit its got headlights what am i doing here" The 46' still seems to be a little cold blooded but tacos made me forget about that...



another shot i think about every time i drive the daily driver past on the way to work checked off the list

 

I'll post photos and a real update when we get home but I drove the 46 100 ish miles in a down pouring rain with a cross wind hitting 40+ mph. No windshield wipers and I could see my breath!

Other then brutal weather factors it went just fine! Tomorrows the big day :0

 

Glad the old girl made it down! Can't wait to see you all tomorrow, early congrats!

 

Downpour? That was God telling you to get it side-ways and have some fun with it!

 

About went sideways at 55mph uphill with a semi truck on my ass. That's god saying drive slower

 

Hahaha! He just wanted to help make the rear bumper match the front.

 

Congrats Tim the big day is here!

 

Congrats bro...Hope you are enjoying your day! The car looks great your hard work has been paying off!

 

I'm leaving the house [with MRS Rocky] in about 15 minutes to attend the hog rassle. Se ya there.

 

cool car man. and i just happened to stumble across this on your big day! congrats brotha !

 

Congratulations man!
Good timing on the old ford.
Hope you find a quiet place to park on the way home!
TP

 

Tim , Congrats and best wishes to you both .



.

 

Crissie and I had 46 years together.....I hope you two are as happy as we were.
Congratulations!

 

Just got home from the wedding...and once again I discovered I'm the absolute worst photographer in the world. I forgot my camera so I had to use my 1937 flip-phone camera...the worst camera in the world unless your subject is precisely 8 feet away in good light.
The "procedure" was held in a converted barn.very midwesty to be sure. And around back of the barn was Tim ans Sarah's trusty 46 sedan..waiting to wisk the new married couple away.
The only "people" photos didnt' turn out as eveidenced by the one shot I took of Sarah going down the stairs...see if you can even see her at all! I took one of Tim giving a toast but you can't see Tim at all..looks like a fuzzy blob and no, Tim doesn't look like a...ah, nevermind. Here's the photos.
My wife didn't approve of my HAMB t-shirt so I had to actaully get semi-dressed up. But I did manage to sneak my 34 ford belt buckle into the wedding..HA!

 

Rocky,
It's like this....photos aren't nearly as valuable as memories. I'll bet someone in the group got a few, and for that matter, the photos you took will be good enough to evoke those memories.