Here's couple pics I had on my phone. The front shocks mounted up, and yes I know the shocks are upside down but it was easier to weld them like that. I'll get some pictures of the rear shocks when I get the rear end back together. I made this little tool, out of some s****, to make it easier to figure out where I needed to mount the shocks. A bolt in each hole gives you the shock height where it should be a ride height (half way between compressed and extended). I also got the seat riser taken out. Man there are a bunch of rivets holding that thing in there. The main brace for the floor has been hacked in half but luckily I have a piece from a model a floor brace that is exactly the same, so I'll get that fixed. With the riser out of there I'll start figuring out the seating. I'm over six foot so I'm going to keep the seat down as far as possible.
What's the condition of the riser tin? Anything good, I need some patch pieces. Looking good, Mark. I need to sneak up there and check it out...
Brent- You welcome to stop by any time. As far as the riser goes somebody hacked it up a little bit and I wasn't super gentle while getting it out, but it's not real bad. You are welcome to it and I'll shoot you a couple of pics. NortonG- Thanks. Your t is coming along too!
Ok, I had a productive day out in the garage yesterday. A little while ago I picked up a complete '53-'56 f100 front axle. I bought it for brake parts but I liked the way the lower shock mounts looked. I pressed out the shock stud because they were pointed in the wrong direction. I drilled and welded some flange nuts to the frame and used a piece of square tubing for the lower mounts. Then I ground out the last few rivets in the floor plan so I could start fixing the pan and the floor brace. I had a section of model a floor brace but it ended up being more work then I thought it would be. The two braces are similar but not really that close to each other. This is where I cut off the damaged material. I really think whoever cut holes in this was using a hammer and chisel. The piece on the right is from the model a, the piece on the left is what it looked like after I modified it to match the model t. It's not perfect but a lot better than it was. Early on in the build I bough one of Speedways brake reservoir kits. For the price it wasn't bad, but for how much I had to modify it I should have just built my own. As most people know there isn't much room in these cars. I really didn't want to have to push the brake with my left foot because my left leg already has no room. So I made a spacer to mover the reservoir as much as I could and then cut the pedal to shift it over to clear the steering column.
Nope, the t isn't sold. I'm still slowly working on it but life has been getting in the way a little. I decided that it had gotten to the point where I really needed a better place to work out of. So I have been building myself an art studio in my spare time. I hope to have it all finished by the end of the week. Then finally I can get back to getting the t on the road.
I've been getting back to work on this. Mostly little stuff so not a lot to show. I did have it rolled outside so I took a couple quick shots.
It's good to be chipping away at this build again. Over the weekend I got a few things done. I got the seat frame made and mocked up. Before I upholster it I'll cut out some actual plywood. I think I'm going to shorten the bottom section about an inch or so too. I also had enough s**** metal to make the gas tank holder. It keeps the tank pretty secure but I'll add some leather straps too. It'll also be a place to hang the license plate off of.
Glad to see that you're still at it with this, I love this build! This little Mod is built like a damn Sherman tank!! Keep it up!!!!
Nice build! Gas tank looks a lot like mine, '31 or '32 chevy. _________________________________________ My 27 roadster: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=749610
Yeah I think it is a chevy gas tank like h.i. said. When I bought it the guy said it was out of a '28 chevy but I don't know how accurate that is.
Nice build. But a few questions. First of, what is the back of the body from? The shape in it looks different, but I do like it. Most body are smooth, right? Your ladder bars, are they gonna get some Racing/lightning holes? They look ********/industrial/truck like, please more pictures. Have you thought about your drag-link would look better when being parallel to the bones? And gets a better arc, closer to that of the bones, so less Bump steer. In my book, what works good, looks good. Please take this as positive as ment. Usualy if your rear end is showing, a smooth look is prefered. It's not smooth, but stout, and in a odd way appealing. Like a chick with big ***s and big feet, looks a little off but still good. I'm from another country so this may sound weird, but I hope you get my point. When building, there a right way, a wrong way and "my way". And your way seems to work just fine too.
Volvobrynk, Let me start off by saying in no way am I an expert on any of this stuff but I'll try to answer your questions. The whole body is from a 26-27 Ford model t roadster or roadster pickup. If it was from a touring body I think they are a little smoother or most of the fibergl*** bodies are smooth. Normally the turtledeck would cover it up. Having the the draglink and wishbones parallel really won't do much in getting rid of bump steer. The lengths between the draglink and the wishbones are too different and even if they were perfectly parallel they wouldn't follow the same arc. As it is set up now if you draw a line through the draglink it runs through the mounting point of the wishbone. It still won't fix the problem of two different arches perfectly but it's a good compromise. Here's a drawing I borrowed off of another thread. As far as the aesthetics go I like the look of how it is set up now, sort of cl***ic. Yeah the ladder bars are plenty strong now. I thought about some lightning holes but it would have been a lot easier to do them before they were welded in place. Plus I don't have a good hole saw so they'll probably stay the way they are. Next time I have the body off I'll snap some pictures of them. Lol, big ***s and feet is an interesting way of saying it. I'm not totally sure about what you mean by smooth on the rear end. A quick change or even a banjo rear end is a better looking rearend in my opinion. A quickchange would be a dream but I'd have more into that then I do the entire car. The 9" I have in there was cheap, narrow, ford built, and tough so it's what I went with and should work good. I guess over all to my mind a modified build is sort of like the chopper version of car. Yes I have overbuild a lot of aspects of the car, but underbuilding is a lot scarier to me. I've never built a hot before, hell I've never even rode in one before, so this car represents me absorbing as much information from people, magazines, and this forum and then trying to spit out a car, lol.
I think you're on the right course. Your draglink and wishbone setup should work just fine. Like you mention, you'll never completely eliminate bumpsteer once you start modifying and changing. As for the smooth rear end, I believe he is referring to the smooth backs of the '57 Ford 9", or the smoother backs on earlier Ford and Chevy rears. But like you mention, budget and availability dictates. I've been enjoying this thread. Keep plugging away!
Lookin' good bud! We'll have to go cruisin' together soon! Sent from atop my toilet using the TJJ app for Android.
Okay, that picture is new to me, the other pictures I saw on here was different and leaning towards a more parralel. But I might be wrong on that one. If so my bad, bud I learned it differently. What I meant about the look of the rear end, I meant more the complet rear of the car. The tank brackets look stout, and the way you made your kick up looks more then stronger enough. It leans toward truck, when in doubt ad more steel. But it aint ment in a bad way, I work with trucks everyday, because I like trucks. And the Girl with big feet-comment, could have bin hot Girl with a big mole, you cant stop looking at her visual "defects", but overall she is still hot. The rear cross member and the bracket for the steering box. They are a little distracting to the eye, but they look like they work just fine. What tires are you gonna run?
Awesome build, I can't believe I didn't find this till you sent me the link. You've really done some nice work so far. Subscribed...
Looks like this thread just died suddenly three and a half years ago. Did this puppy ever get finished?
I'm finally trying to bring this build back from the dead. Life got in the way for the last few years but I was able to hang on to the car. This weekend I got the headers welded up, the windshield stanchions cut down, the headlight mounts evened out, the brake pedal worked out, and the rear body mounts all done. It's nice to be making progress on this build again!
Got some more done this past weekend. Finished welding and bracing the transmission crossmember/torsion bar mount. Then made some baffles by cutting a gl***pack in half, and using the block off plates that came with the header kit. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, and should look less like a fire hose once they are all black.
When I pulled some parts off the '52 f100 for this build I grabbed the speedometer. I thought it would look good so I cut out the space for the original gauges in the dash, filled the hole, and then cut a new hole to put the f100 speedometer in.
It’s been a crazy couple of years and I’ve been out of the country for a lot of it. Progress on the T is starting to pick up so I thought I would start updating this thread more often to keep myself motivated. I went through the nightmare of downloading all the old pictures from photobucket and reloading them. There were a few that were corrupted or lost, but I think most of them should show up now. These are a few older pictures, and I’ll try to get some new ones up this weekend. Put new seals in the 9”. Got the frame painted by a friend who has a body shop, and got it rolling again.
Front end has been final ***embled. Engine and transmission are in and starting to get everything hooked up. I should have the body back from paint in a month or so. Spent most of the day going through all the brakes. New brakes all around, now I just need to run brake lines. Also ordered the tires which should be here in a couple of weeks.