Next was to start on the stance of the roadster it was just sitting a little to high for my liking, I know back in the day there were roadsters around with a high stance and I hummed and arred about leaving it as is or lowering it. I looked at the Don Montgomery books at a lot of early 50s hot rod mags and although there were some roadsters with a high stance there were more that had been lowered. I decided to flatten the rear cross member, been done lots of times before and different ways, I read a how to article on this in the now defuncked Chopped magazine and did just as in the article except I cut the rear center section and opened it up adding a pie section so the original cross member lines would line up better. First job was to make a jig, flat plate drilled to cross member u bolt hole pattern, 2 x 1" square tube and 2 pieces of 2" x 4" drilled to cross member U bolt and 1 length of 5/8" threaded rod cut into 4.
Next bolt jig to cross member. Weld some cross sections of 1" square tube to the plate with some uprights to the chassis to hold it all in place.
With the jig plate now held in place, remove the threaded rod and mark cross member ready for cutting. Cut out using 1mm cut off wheel.
Next bolt center section back in with 4" spacers in place, center section is now in original location with correct angle just sitting 4" higher in the frame.
Mark and make small cuts at a time to get end section to fit. The chassis makes a good work bench for clamping end sections too while making cuts. A small piece of steel will need to be added at the front and at the rear where I cut and opened it up to get the original cross member lines to line up.
When you have it all fitting good remove and grind areas to be welded grind a good chamfer on both sides for good weld penetration. Clamp back in place ready for welding.
This roadster absolutely rules!! With that said, with a reverse eye spring and some leaves taken out with some longer shackles, you wouldn't have had to cut up the crossmember. But that's just my 2 cents. Love it!
I did contemplate about reverse spring eyes and removing some leaves, but did not think I would have got the desired drop I was after, I don't like the idea or running longer shackles. I went with flattening the cross member as I still have the original rear cross member out of my coupe as I fitted an A model one to it to clear the quickchange, so I figured if I did not get the look I was after I could always fit this cross member back in and go another route. I have sat the rear end back under since flattening the cross member and it all looks good so far.
Ok it's been a while since my last update, 2013 was a very busy year for me between a holiday in the US to take in Bonneville and a lot of work commitments, I did not see a lot of time at home. However I was doing a lot of planning and chasing up a lot parts both new and early period correct pieces, just this last month I did manage to get some more work done on the build and should be able to continue every other month when home from work, so updates should be a little more regular. First up I decided not to use the 35 rear end as I wanted to use 48 rear bones, so I located a rear end out of a 37 pickup.
This rear end has seen a lot of hard work in it's past life, one spring hanger was bent out of wak and both spring hanger eyes were chewed out on one end. Some heat and massaging got the bent hanger back to where it should be, next job was to repair the chewed out hanger eyes. I just ground them up square, made some new sections and a tool to hold them in place while I welded the new sections in.
I wondered what happened, thanks for the update, I'm still plugging away on my roadster , race you to the finish line!! Thommo Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Properly the only mod that I am doing that is not traditional, fitting HRW 28 spline axles to the banjo rear, did the same mod to my 32 coupe it's a great mod and I like the idea of knowing I can give the old flathead hell and it's not going to twist an axle off. Machining the carrier out to accept the new 28 spline axle drive gears. I sent the axle bells out to local machine shop for machining as they are to big for my little lathe.
Rear end going back together, I purchased a sand blaster and blasted and primed all the parts myself, as the local joint is a rip off and they don't do a very good job.
Next I fitted new A model style front cross member just held in with one bolt each side at this point for set up purposes and new So Cal reversed eye front spring, which I hand carried back from the US to save on shipping. Fitted the motor and box back in, so I could fit the rear end with un-cut torque tube, plus check out the front stance with new cross member and spring.
Looking good mate. I saw the roadster in the background of you're salt lake thread last year and wondered what the go was. The axle conversion looks really good too. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
With the extended length 48 torque tube in place, I just measure the wheel base to work out how much to shorten the tube, mark and cut. I cut out the center bearing section, not needed on a 32 with the short wheel base did the same thing with my coupe and had no issues.
With a good taper ground on tube ends for weld penetration I just tack 3 pieces of angle bar evenly spaced to one tube section to hold it all in line and weld small section between angle bars allow to cool before removing angle bars to complete welding.
Tube fully welded only do short evenly spaced welds and allow to cool a bit between welds so you don't distort the tube. Welds ground back and primed ready to be re-installed.
The Jalopy Journal
