Projects Modified Lakester Build (THUNDERCASKET)

That's certainly an option, but one that will require a lot of grinding and measuring to get it true & symmetrical. I'd only end up pinching in about 1/2" ro 3/4" and I'm running an inline, so that shouldn't hurt me. I haven't ruled it out, but for this first build, dropping $100 for a new, unaltered one is looking really good.

 

You might want to see how the body sits on that A-frame first. You might find that a slight pinch will better match the shape of the cowl anyways. Not sure, but worth looking at before you drop cash on a new crossmember.

On a separate note, you're going to do a lot of grinding and measuring throughout the entire build anyways...

 

Photochop looks great!

Love the motor choice

 

Yeah, I haven't ordered a new one yet. I'm planning on getting what i can get for a mockup together first. I don't have much for tools still and I'm lacking a grinder that I can get precision with though, so that's another hundred bucks there anyway. It's all stuff I need but the question is always when it goes into the budget.

I've got angle grinders and fairly steady hand though... so maybe.

Thanks! I'm happy with things so far. I'll be in the shop most of this week nights now that the weather is getting just right up here.

 

Ok, weekend got ate up by yardwork so nothing major to update as far as progress goes but I do have a couple things to yap about and a question to ask.

Firstly, anybody got suggestions for getting all the oil & gunk off my bellhousing? It's a blackened nightmare. I've scraped a bunch off but it just keeps coming. My transmission is in a similar but far better state. What do y'all use on grimy parts?

And secondly, I've decided to try to fabricate headlight buckets for the project starting with some '40 rings. I have a separate thread going on that over here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=796044

 

Ended up getting a new front crossmember from SoCal. Finally got it in place. It took some grinding, filing & sanding to get it in just right inside my frame.

I also got the transmission & bell mated finally after getting some missing hardware. The shifter location might get a bit hairy but I was planning on stretching the cab a bit to push my seats back anyway. We shall see. I'd rather not have to find another tailhousing/linkage.

That's all I got to crow about other than more yard work.

 

I have hit the point where I have most all of the major components for the build, after starting my parts collection in November. I'm finding it to be kinda like that feeling you get at the top of the first drop on an old wooden roller-coaster, but with a huge dose of NOW WHAT?! mixed in.

I should have most of the weekend to work in the shop, but I feel like I don't know where to start!

 

So, I was in a wreck the day after this last post. I'm not sure what's going on yet with all that comes with being in a wreck. I'm OK but still stiff. I'm not sure when I'll have myself together enough to work on the car again. Wish me luck, I'll need it.

 

OK, BOUNCING BACK! Got into the shop on Sunday and made some progress!

I got my tranny bolted up to the engine & hoisted the whole rig up, into, & under my frame. I probably should have removed the center crossmember first. It has been... uncooperative. I've ground, hammered, chiseled & drilled at them. I got 4 out before I wore myself out.

But I'm a whole lot farther than I was!

 

Hope the insurance comes through for you . . . sounds like it could have been worse.

As long as you end the day further than when you started . . .

I did that yesterday. 3 hours to get a 1/2" more throttle travel.

 

It was close. My life didn't flash before my eyes but it was certainly in the queue! Insurance did right by me and I bought a new RAM 1500 Big Horn from my buddy's dealership on Saturday. Now, even though I lost my Challenger, I'll have a truck to haul parts for my next dream ride, which I'm building instead of ordering, so that's a consolation.

I feel like I made up for most of the time I missed. I got some work on the shop itself done in there too. I put a ceiling fan in along with an A/C, which will help me keep my stamina in there over the summer and keep my heat circulating in the winter. Double-plus! I also put some more shelves up.

 

Keep at it....I like they way your going with it.

 

Thanks man! I appreciate it!

Over the weekend we worked on drilling out the rivets on the crossmember some more... about up until we busted most of the good drill bits I had on hand. We pulled the body off and flipped the frame to get at the last four, then it started raining so we had to bring the body back inside. It looks like a rusty sleigh now.

I'm off to the hardware store today to pick up a few new sets of drill bits so I can, hopefully, get that old crossmember out and get some real progress going.

My wheels and tires came too. I'll hopefully be painting the wheels tomorrow.

I got 6 gallons of Evaporust on the way so I can start dipping some of the small to medium parts on my front & rear ends. I can sorta see a roller at the end of the tunnel now.

 

Grind the rivets off much easier, just watch knuckles..

 

I've been air chiseling the heads off, then grinding, and trying to hammer them out first. They do not usually budge. I've popped two out fine but the rest are in there solid so we had to drill.

I've got a bunch of replacement bits and spares for them, so this weekend we should have it out and I can finally start getting an idea of where I gotta put everything.

 

I got to work on my wheels and brakes a bit over the weekend.

I used the rattle can Eastwood Satin Black wheel paint on my wheels. I'm not totally happy with the results but that's more from awkward application than anything else. In retrospect I should have gotten those handle sprayer thingys for the rattle cans. My fingers would start to slip after a while and I'd get drips of paint blown onto the wheel. At a glance, they turned out fine though, just a couple weak spots. I don't care what they say, 2 cans is not enough for 4 wheels. Get 4 cans.

I started cleaning the brake parts up with the Evaporust I got last week. I'm pretty happy with the stuff. It does the job and doesn't burn my skin or damage anything other than rust. It doesn't even smell that bad! Best of all, it cleaned my parts really well. I put 6 gallons in an 18 gallon container. This isn't enough to cover all the parts at once, so I had to rotate things a bit. I ended up leaving the parts in over 24 hours just because I didn't get back to it in less time, so IDK how fast it can work, just that it did and I'm pleased with it. I've got the F1 brakes in the bath now. I've got pix of them dirty & the Ford pas. rear brakes clean posted below. They were in similarly rusty condition.

 

I got some paint on my brakes over the weekend. Looking to do some mockup assembly this weekend.

I used that Eastwood satin black wheel paint on my wheels. Has anyone else found it to be pretty weak stuff? I scuffed one of them with the sole of my shoe and it took the paint down to the primer. I'm pretty disappointed with it. I'm wondering if I didn't apply it properly or something.

I hit the brake parts with Chassis Black. That stuff I'm pretty pleased with though it takes forever to dry. This is how they turned out:

 

Made some progress over the holiday weekend; not as much as I'd like, but the heat slowed me down quite a bit.

We got that damned xmember out, I tacked my front xmember in, then we got the frame flipped back over. I got one spindle, brake and hub rebuilt and assembled, got my tires mounted and balanced.

Did not get my front end mocked up but I did score a set of nice, straight 40 front split bones in the mail this week. I'll get it put together this week hopefully.

Also, QUESTION: not sure if need new bearings or over-torqued the spindle nut but my hub isn't spinning more than a half turn when I spin it. Ideas?

 

Ok, too excited to not post what came in the mail today:

 

So, we did some traveling, got married, like ya do...

Before that I managed to get the wheels on and slap a mockup together with good intentions and a couple zip ties.

 

Congratulations!

I have been following this. You have the makings ad a very nice car. Looks like you have a fair bit of work to do on the body but nothing irreparable. I am in the process of building a 27 body from scratch. Keep up the good work.

Here is a link to my build in case you are interested
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=596032

David

 

Thanks!

The body is actually worse off than the pictures show. I have some patch panels to save some time and I'm planning to extend the cab a bit. I have patch panels for a roadster to provide lines to match the sheetmetal which I will need to fabricate to. The subframe is rotten on the pas side, so I will also need to fabricate that with some box tube and angle iron.

Right now I'm trying to get my axles sorted. I'm looking to get a 4" dropped axle up front and I need to swap bells on my open drive F1 rear with the bells from a passenger bajno so I can hang the rear behind the crossmember. Then I can mount the spring and figure out how much to kick the rear up.

Next up is trying to figure out motor mounts. Fabricating flat mounts is looking to be beyond what I have tools for and I haven't found anything that I know will work with the (ugly) stock mounts on the engine.

 

I dropped my axle four inches, I showed the method I used in my thread. The link is in my post above.

David

 

I saw! That's a bit beyond my skill and toolset at this point though. I do have 3 axles lying around though.

I'm still reading through your build. It's taking me a while since my home pc isn't running terribly well, my phone is small, and my work blocks any photo hosting sites.

where I'm really looking for tips is with the subframe and support pieces that I see you've fabricated.

 

If you have any questions I will help if I can. I don't have an original body here though, I am now working from photo's and measurements.

David

 

Any detail you can provide on the construction of your subframe and internals would be greatly appreciated... particularly the subframe!

My plan is still to approximate the original subframe with 2x2 box tube and .5" angle iron (as I recall).

Once I get my frame all set, suspension, & motor mounted I will be turning to the bodywork. I will post pictures of the original subframe (what's left of it) for reference. It's hard to even find pictures of a Model T subframe let alone any parts for one.

 

I found a lot of photos, I am sure I have some of the subframe on my computer at work. I will have a look.
Because I don't have a body here to work from I needed lots of photos.


David

 

Swapped bells from the closed center over to the open drive center this weekend. Washed off most of the crud too.

They both look due for new drain plugs.

The mount for the factory panhard bar is bent a bit and the threads are rotted away. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that yet.

 

I got my dropped axle last week and excitedly slapped it together loosely... then scratched my head for a bit because something was way off. In my excitement I put my wishbones on upside down.

I've got one of my events coming up in October that was a perfect excuse to do another render of my build for. It's Friday, so here's my contribution (cross posted)

 

I've made a bit of progress on the car this past month. I scored a nice F1 piece to cover my frame horns (with some work) and slapped my rear end on there.

I'm sitting at a 4° rake now, ass waaay in the air with about 9 or 10" difference between the lowest point of front and back crossmembers. The 9 leaf A spring has about 9" clearance over the center shaft housing and my shackles are at 35° so I think I need a shallower, possibly longer spring (though there's not much load on it at present).

The shackles look to want to make contact with the rear bones. I bounced on the rear crossmember a bit and got them to hit. I've seen this setup done on modifieds but most seem to be bent parallel to the frame. Not sure how that is done.