28.5-29 I believe towel city uses a 235-75-15 tire for them. It's in about the same spot as mine, and will be used for the front edge of the tunnel for the driveshaft. The trans will be hard to service no matter what, seeing as he is planning on running a floor under it like my t roadster has.
It looked like it was one of those where another 1/4-1/2" would be the difference between using a fair portion of the Anglo-Saxon Dictionary or just one or two entries. Maybe have it bolt on with flanges?
well if there's one thing I'm good at, its taking pictures. well I welded them in, mostly cause I don't know exactly how it will be finished, on my car, when I did the great trans swap of 2024, I opened up the top of the tunnel... and after making some flanges, made it all go back together. but until he figures out what the rest of the floor looks like, I cant really plan for it. bum part of building a chassis for someone else. .
Agreed! The trans saga was part of why I commented. I shudder when mechanical parts are locked in by welded framework. Italian (and Brit) exotics are famous for difficulty in drivetrain R&I. I'd say a big tube slip joint could make it removable as an alternative. One bolt through each side of the tunnel and the joint. Could even be an armrest mount point, too. I just did a quick tube enlarge here.
okey doke! got the shop warm and getting stuff done! unfortunately, I have to go into work tonight to plow snow, but I wanted to get some more stuff done. last night I cut a notch in the rail, and kinda figured out the placement of the box. I lowered the box down into the rail, so that the clutch arm could go over the box into the z bar. I used a 3" piece of tube for the main notch, and then made a metal piece to fill the corner I cut out for the box. I made two passes with the Mig filling in all the crevice's. When I got back to it today, I put together a mount out of 3/16 plate. I started to plot out the outer plate, and figured out I could put a hole in the side plate and pull the side plate in farther. I burned it all in, and it is STOUT. Even without welding the inside YET, It's super stout and turns the front wheels perfectly. once I pull the motor back out, I'll weld the inside, and grind the boogery top filler pass that's on the inside of the rail. but one more step checked off. .
I was going to ask if you can get the box out with the motor in but looks like yup! Did that top plate come with the spacers already? Curious how they are attached
Hope you’re staying safe out there we got about a 1/2 inch of solid ice then 8 hours of sleet on top of that. I think you guys hopefully missed out on that and are just getting the snow. Thinking we are gonna get around a foot this afternoon. Roadster weather it ain’t!
We got 12.5 and just east of us got 16.5! Plows finaly made it here around 1 am. What a storm! I’m sure you’ve figured out every nut and bolt by now sitting behind that wheel
As Tim noted above, we got hit with a good size winter storm. I've been out the last four nights plowing the highways, and have had ample time to think things over. I've been getting my brain wrapped around the few things I have left to finish with this chassis, and then I can roll it around and finish weld everything. The biggest thing left to install is the rear spring setup. I've been working on convincing Dillion that the stock T crossmember I have is a better option for the car, than the adjustable perch he picked up. He has a couple other cars he wants to build, so it's not like he wouldn't use it elsewhere. I'm gonna put the spring perches on the rearend, along with the other brackets I am building/ installing on the rearend, and then leave the rear crossmember out till we put the chassis under the body again. Hopefully in the next night or two I can get back to it. .
Had some more time last night to work on the chassis. A buddy came by before dinner and helped take the mockup block/trans and the front axle off the table. then I could lay out where the cuts would need to be on the front crossmember. Whoops. That's better. and I capped the ends of the rails for a little more smoothness. I cant wait t see this all ground down and smoothed out. its all 3/16 plate and a chunk of 3/16 wall 3" tube. hopefully by the end of the week I can get the front crossmember dialed in. .
small, but heavy update. my buddy came over again and helped get the rearend out and up to the bench. . . that was heavy. I've gotta finish welding the mounts for the hairpins, and then I can move onto spring perches. We also flipped the frame over, and I got the bottom of the center crossmembers welded up. moving right along. .
So, question about welding the bracketry to the rear end. You worried about warpage at all? Welding on a rear end scares me to death....not that my welding skills are suited for anything structure or suspension related so I have no business even worrying about it anyhow. LOL
I'm not too worried, as long as I don't lean on it too much, it shouldn't warp too bad. at least, my other ones haven't. I usually check them as well as I can with straight edges, If something was to happen, a well placed weld or heat with a torch would bring it back in line. It's just metal buddy. hack it up.
still working, stood the frame up to get to some more difficult spots also welded the radius rod mounts back up on the axle. then flipped it, and did the same on the other side. and then I took a break to help Mike pick up a car from KC, and in return he came and helped for a few hours on Sunday. After finishing up some filler plates on the top side, and Mike griding on some stuff, another friend came over and we spun the chassis around and flipped it. I whacked the back of the lower rail off, and mike ground it level while I made filler plates (sorry no pictures) Its getting close now, and hopefully this week, I will get the rearend welded up and back in so I can set up the panhard bar and rear shocks. .
Cool. Now that you’re this deep into a project on it how to do you like the working height of your table?
Its not bad, with tall stuff it's almost too tall, and with short stuff it's almost too short. so it strikes a nice balance.
ok, so since I last updated, I have had a couple good work days. finished trimming and fitting the front crossmember. I left the front and back unwelded until after we test the ride height with the weight of a real motor in the chassis. A terrible photo of my caps for the rear frame rails. they are flush, so they can be ground to look like the rest of the tube. After welding the hairpin mounting tabs on both sides, I added these little gussets to tie them in at the top. while I was making finicky little pieces (a lot more of that to come) I made these gussets for the trans mount. and then I ground on the ugly inside framerail on the driver side. you can also see that I fully welded the inside of the steering box mount. then I moved on to the back end. .
I didn't get any pictures, cause I had a couple buddies over and we were chatting it up while I did it, but I welded a piece of tubing in between the rear spring perches, to hold them at 48" apart I had measured a T rearend previously and it has the perches at 48" centers, but I figured if anything the 100 year old spring wouldn't mind a 1/4" more stretch. we drug the rearend over to the table again and got it mounted up. I used the -very-convenient- rear frame brace, as a place to mount the straps to hold up the rearend at 3" off the upper tube, which is planned ride height. this begins to compress the spring, with only 5 leaves in it. I then took the shocks, and compressed them to 14", so there would be 3" of compression and 2" of droop. I tacked in the lower shock mount, sliced to tie into the hairpin mounting bracket. I then made both sides of the upper shock mount out of a 5 hole ladder bar bracket. It was 1/8" thick and I made another small gusset out of 3/16" plate. since the brackets were made for 3" axle tubes, they were oversize for the 2.5" axle, and since its tied in on the outside with the hairpin mount, I decided I'd trim some fat. with a shock mounted, I could figure out how to mount the panhard bar. I started with a mount on the inside of the spring perch on the driver side. super high tech movable attachment point. I wound up with the bar 3" off the back of the axle tube. Its misses the rearend cover by 1/2" or so. it looks closer, because he ordered a chrome bar, so I left it wrapped in bubblewrap to keep it nice. the passenger side frame mount is made of 3/16" plate. It clears the shock nicely. If we wind up using this crossmember I'll trim it to give room for the bar to move. Late last night I finished tacking all the mounts for the passenger side. all together for a look.. some overview pictures for a little context on the layout. now I have to blow it apart one more time and finish weld everything. should hit the floor this weekend, for the last ride height test, and maybe it will be out the door soon. .
A little behind on plan, due to snow, cutting a truck in half and welding it back together, and waiting on Dillon to bring me more parts, but he finally did, and I traded @Austin kays the hurst mount that I was using for mockup. so I had to get the motor mounts built. I had talked with dillion about my plan the last time he was here, and he liked it. so this was what I wound up with. Dillion took a template I made, and cut the sides out of 3/16 plate, and drilled the holes, and then I trimmed them to fit, and bent them around the front. Once I had them tacked together I loosely assembled them (with cushions) and set the final angle of the motor and trans. once the pads were tacked in, I could put the motor down. much better. now I just have some welding and grinding left, and I can move the car to the floor for the final mockup with a real motor. then it leaves. the countdown begins! oh wait. its supposed to snow tomorrow. dang. .
I don’t know how I haven’t seen this before tonight. More ideas to plagiarize! I wish I was this motivated.
Ok, boy am I behind. It's been a hell of a time lately, between the blizzard, and then three days later starting paving at work, (all made possible by bipolar missouri weather) I've not had time for much. but I made progress. oh yeah. a bunch of mockup later, and I had a whole car to look at. I also installed a full motor and trans so it had more weight. Its a little high, but when the new front spring settles in, it should be just right. Looks good, but boy it makes the garage tight. once I got some things sorted with the body, it was back off, so I could finish weld some stuff, finalize the motor mounts, mount the rear crossmember, ect, ect. I even got some help! Once it was back apart I took to welding it up. I got the panhard bar mounts fully welded, and made some braces for the top of the crossmember. we then spent more time than I care to remember, peeling tape off the front end. and installed. we then stuck the mockup motor back in, and got it ready for a body. uno momento. .
and part dos. If you know me, you know that I love bare chassis shots. But between freak rainstorms yesterday, we were able to stick the body back on. starting to look like something. and then we are up to today. Dillon dropped by, with a load of steel, a trailer, and his own rear tires. Baby-girl was unphased. and after loading up some stuff, we loaded it up. and that draws my time with this project to a close. It was a fun job, I learned a lot of things, but I'm ready to get on with building things that I have full design freedom on. like dads roadster. See updates on it HERE . I will update the thread if/when I get pictures of progress. .
Thanks. I cant wait to see it with a roof on it. I'm hoping he can drag it back down to my open house. .
The Jalopy Journal
