Projects 56 Vicky Build

Well, the good news is that this molasses like project is not dead, bad news is just I haven't been able to work on it at all. Bought a house, had a bunch of surgeries, blah blah, life is getting the way. Shooting to have a rolling chassis this winter, then begin some body work finally.

 

OK, sold another car, so there's kinda some room to work now. Going to get going on getting a rolling chassis, then rebuild motor and trans and get them in. (look! it's a plan, something might get done!)

 

I like your car. Heres a 55 with pretty colors

 

Always amazes me how these cars look good in just about every color.

 

I'll have brew on that.....

 

no, the project isn't dead.


Been working on the chassis. Still ordering misc BS as I find that I either lost it, or forgot to order it.

Hoping for a roller by spring. Rebuild motor and trans over summer. Start on body in winter.

I'm going with alot of the parts and themes that the car had. Kinda street sleeper/kinda drag/kinda IFS gasser deal. Not really easy to call it anything but a hotrod I guess.

I have decided to go manual brakes/steering like it has been it's whole life. I think I am going to do a disk conversion in the front though. Not sure on what prts I need yet, will have to dig deeper into the granada swaps and such. Not sure about reusing stock column and box or going to something else yet.

The chassis will be assembled with the traction bars for now. I will be making a set of ladder bars at some point. Thinking about 42" long. I will likely make them after the engine/trans/shaft are in so be sure it all fits nicely. Not sure how I want to go about resolving binding (since this will be 99% street). I am leaning towards front shackles on the front of the ladders, Thoughts?

 

Ive been doing some painting and assembling the last few nights.

Also, when I was taking some bolts off the old chassis, I finally noticed that some one clearanced the steering box for the exhuast manifolds....



So now I'm thinking about swapping to a Borgeson box since I'm not going to be just cleaning and resealing this one...

 

Few things painted.

 

Not sure what you're aiming for as far as the height of the rear end, but you have the rear shackles upside down. Originally, they tuck up into the "C" bracket. Lowers the rear of the car a couple inches. Usually able to just flip them with a good pry bar. Be careful.

 

Nice eye! They are inverted for higher stance in the rear. I will be running a larger than stock height drag radial so I think I am going to need the clearance. I also have a set of old foxcraft lift shackles I may be using as well, but well see when I get there.
Either way it's all mock up at the moment.

 

got the trans cleaned up, shifter taken apart, cleaned, installed new reverse detent (goes in reverse easily now). New gasket, ready for oil.

 

With the shackles flipped to gain height, make sure the drive shaft is still into the rear of the transmission far enough. Years ago I had a 56 TBird that when I flopped the shackles to get the back end up if I hit a bump it would knock the rear seal out of the transmission. After 2 seals knocked out I flopped the shackles back up and never had a problem again.

 

So, long story short, I've been coming down with gasser fever in the last year or so, and have finally given in. So.... I'm going in a slightly different direction.But atleast I have a damn direction for once.

Also, fortunately I have another 56 ford in need of all the front end stuff I have already done, so I will simply unbolt and transfer it over. So no money lost there.

Stay tuned. Will be doing some figuring out as far as springs, axle to use, etc.

 

One day I had hoped to create a detailed project thread about my 56, but it turns out that I am much better at taking stuff apart and cutting it up than I am at making things and putting cars back together.

I can give you some food for thought though.

1) I cut my frame at the original steering box mount which was (I think) a bad idea. I think it would have been best to at least keep this mount intact while planning how to tackle the steering conversion from the original to the solid axle.

2) Cutting the frame in this area (it is at least parallel in this spot...) results in the frame being about an inch wider than the center-center distance of the springs on an early F1 (48-52) axle. I started with a '52 axle, but wound up with a '49 front axle setup as the track width of the later F1 (53-56) is wider. I should have pinched the new frame rails in to match the axle. I still may redo this as I am not too confident in my frame welding. I ordered the parallel leaf kit from Speedway as the F1 springs are too long (ok, I couldn't figure out how to make them work).

3) The F1 axle seemed like a good choice, Speedway sells disc brake kits and steering arms, the original truck, cast-on steering arms just need to be removed. From my research, removing the stock cast arms is common.

Just some ideas.

I have some pics of where I am at at the moment, but I don't want to clutter up your thread as my drivetrain combo is different than yours...

-Matt

 

So i havent made any headway, been working on my cafe racer in my free time lately.

I did how ever sit and think, every gasser needs a name. Since my car is a Ford Victoria, im thinking of calling her the Ford Victorious. Maybe i could get some stock style badges that say victorious and mount them in thr stock spot above the check mark on thr door. Thoughts?

Sent from my SM-G930V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Also, not that I am anywhere near it yet, but I have decided to repaint the car the original Peacock blue and colonial white I think It will look good, never seen a 56 gasser those colors either

 

Well it's been a while since I've been on here. I've been posting pictures on my Ford Victorious page on facebook mosty. I haven't really posted any pictures to any forums since photobucket got greedy and killed all my existing links. I sure don't feel like paying for hosting, nor do I feel like downloading and re-uploading all the pictures to the right places, so I'm a little bummed about that.

I've acquired some crappy keystones for the fronts and some ansen sprints for the rears. I'm kind of currently strugling with which chassis to cut up, but when I get there I'm going with a WAC axle (spoke with on the phone last year, very nice guy. Actually quite local to me, about 20 mi away)

I decided to swap to a chevy 5x4.75 bolt pattern for cost and ease of finding rims. (also because I need axles in the front and rear, so I had the freedom to switch to any pattern I wanted) It's important to me to have the same bolt pattern front and rear because I will actually drive on the streets regularly and I'd like to be able to throw a donut in the trunk just in case and have it be able to fit all four corners.

I just keep going back and forth about how wide king pin to king pin to get for the front, and also what style spindles to go with. I need to get the whole shebang axle, springs, perches,spindles, brakes (going multi pot disk in front, drum rear) etc. Trying to decide to get an axle and build to fit, or make frame rails and figure the axle after. Either way I am cutting the front stubs off about where the steering box is forward (mostly because I personally don't want the spring pockets there for a few reasons)

Also how thick of a steel would you guys suggest for the front rails (DOM and mild thicknesses). I have a chunk of 2x3 mildsteel, but it's about 3/8" thick and heavy as hell.
Any input/suggestions?

 

Big step towards getting the car moving. Came across a Chevy truck axle with a speedway kit on it for dirt cheap. While not ideal, it will use my Chevy pattern rims and allow me to move forward with the build. I can always upgrade brakes and axle later on. It also came with a Vega box and a Vette column. Well see what I end up using. Everything is greasy and rusty but I'm on a budget. Next step, get the frame stripped back down and swap my painted better chassis under the car.

 

Your new axle looks like it is a 49 to 54 in the pic. If so, the spring mounting is narrower in front than in the rear. I would think 1/8 inch wall tubing would be strong enough for the frame, but Im no expert. Sorry all the pictures are lost.

 

Axle markings are "365672GM340" it is 50 1/2" OC kingpin to kingpin, 26 3/4" OC leaf center bolt to bolt

The best I can tell and please let me know if I am wrong, or you can help in anyway, is that it is a GM 3100 1941-1955 axle.

 

Do you mean that the spring mounts on the frame themselves are narrower in front than rear? As in springs are not completely parallel with one another?

 

Yes, narrower in the front than in the rear. The later 55's, up through 59 are parallel.

 

Except for the pink color they call coral. My 55 chevy was originally that color. And I always thought what kind of weirdo drives a pink car.

 

I used the same axle. If you are fabricating the front frame it's perhaps a little more of an effort but many have used them.