Sorry to hear about your wife. My plan was to use late 70's GM transtunnel too,cant remember was it nova or what.But the replacement piece i got,was so rotten that i decided to make my own.
Speedy Recovery to your wife steinauge. Not sure why you and Finnrodder had to rebuild the trans cover part of your stock floors. I'm running a 700-R/4 in my 51 Vicky and have the stock GM trans mount bolted direct to the stock cross member, same in my 51 Vert project. I did work over the fill tube a bit on both but bell housing clearance was not an issue. Drive shaft tunnel, I guess if your really in the weeds I can see that. Fill me in guys. The Wizzard
Thank you both for your good wishes.I started with a big hole in the floor where the trans hump should have been,so I have never had any of that sheet metal.If you look back at pics of the body off the frame you can see the big hole.The parts car had had all the front floors cut out before I got there.I am using most of the trans tunnel from the 77 nova because it fits the PG trans well and I already had it.The car has 4" lowering blocks and shortened front springs. the drive shaft was touching the floor lightly about halfway between the seats-that was where the sheet metal began and the hole ended .The drive shaft is about level with where the floor should be right now. I am going to make a raised tunnel from the back of the trans tunnel to a bit behind the seats since that is where the shaft clearance problem begins.I have the tunnel in with sheet metal screws right now so I can move it around.Once I get the drive shaft tunnel located I can weld the whole mess together.I believe I will call this thing "frankenstein" because it is stitched together from so many pieces!
Nope,i didnt use the GM tunnel piece.It was just a plan,i even get the replacement part.I thought there was no point to fab new floors from crispy replacement pieces.The floors were in really bad shape,so i made completely new floor pans from the fresh sheetmetal.
I made up the drive shaft tunnel today and have it in place and screwed down.Now I have to make a panel to mate the GM trans tunnel to the Ford firewall and a panel to attach the driveshaft tunnel to the back of the trans tunnel.Note the high tech sheetmetal brake
Went over to my buddies place in Deland yesterday.He said he might have a couple of headlight buckets that might fit the Ford.I came back with 2 complete headlight assemblies complete with 6 volt bulbs,4 nice 16" 5 on 5 1\2" Ford steel wheels and 3 complete 6 cyl chevy int\exh manifolds with Rochester monojet carbs-goodbye rochester model Bs!! and a bunch of other bits.He was cleaning out a shed and if I didnt take the stuff it was going for scrap.AND they FIT!
It's all smoke and mirrors my friend. You're doing great, and you're making a heckuva lot more progress than I am these days.
Thank you all.I went to the spring "turkey run" today.Thousands of cars but a really poor swap meet,I couldnt even find my missing headlight trim ring.I will start wiring the Ford tomorrow,hope to have it done in a couple of days.
Well,our swap meets are always really poor.Usually they are filled with 80's GM parts or factory parts from Sportsters or Softails,pretty useless crap for me.I am sure you cant beat that what comes to lameness of the swapmeets.
Antti we see a lot of that same stuff. The turkey run swap meets are usually so good (imo) that a poor one is worth commenting on!
Got the lights in and wired today.Naturally the drivers side headlight bulb blew while I was getting the camera out.
I have the turn signals in and working.I just used 2 little bullet shaped marker lights for the front,once I figure out what to do about the grille I can use whatever looks best to me.At this point I can actually license the thing and drive it!
Thank you all for the kind words.I am in the process of closing up the trans tunnel and hope to have that finished this week.I have had to take a couple of days to try and bring order to the chaos that is my garage !
I have been fabricating pieces today.I made cover plates for the clutch pedal hole,the master cylinder access hole and the BIG hole where the shift linkage\steering column\brake pedal shaft go through the floor.That took a little while,but came out ok .
Still making plates and plugging holes.I went to Daytona nut and bolt today and bought 100 stainless sheet metal screws,I was getting tired of spending more time looking for sheet metal screws than it took to make the part! Anybody know of a source for cheap,waterproof sound insulation for floors,firewalls etc?
I know I've seen on here where you can make your own lizard skin with paint and microspheres (glass or ceramic, don't remember which), I also know there's a HAMBer who sells something like Dynamat for pennies on the dollar of what Dynamat will cost you.
Looks nice! I have to something like that too,to get the "column hole" filled. Here is a link for that insulation stuff vendors add: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/ez-cool-insulation.615202/ I've been thinking of using that same stuff too.
I have been worrying over the two pieces I need to make to finish off the trans\driveshaft tunnel.If you look at the pictures you can see they are rather complex shapes.In any case WAY beyond my sheet metal skills! It occurred to me today that I can make those small panels out of fiberglass! It will all end up under the sound deadener anyhow.went and got some cloth and resin yesterday,we will see!
That's a good idea with the fiberglass. That's exactly what I did with my 52 when I had to make some clearances for my c notches and rear axle.
Got the glass laid in today,its ugly! Fortunately it will look better when I get it trimmed up.(and better yet when covered with insulation) I have duct tape under it so it will lift right off.The glass is six layers thick and feels plenty rigid.I am right glad to have the floor closed up.
Got up early today and worked on the Ford.I got the fiberglass pieces trimmed,cleaned and vacumned the floors and sprayed them with truck bed coating.I also made a bunch of sleeves to protect the wiring going through the firewall,painted and cleaned up a bunch of little things I had made under the hood-brackets and such.I have had an ongoing problem with the steering wheel in that car.I got the steering box,shaft and column out of my 51 parts car.The steering wheel came with the pile of stuff I got when I bought the 50 in the first place.The problem is that the shoulder on the back of the wheel that evidently should fit into the expanded end of the column is about 1\16" of an inch from the end of the column when the nut is fully tightened.Also the OD of the shoulder is 1.250" while the ID of the end of the column is 1.437".I ended up turning a piece of 1 1\2" stock to make a sort of adaptor which worked out just fine.Does anyone know what year Ford this steering wheel came from? I know it is 51 or later but thats all. 000000
Kurt,that wheel looks like its '50 shoebox steering wheel.1950 was the last year Ford had keyed wheels,from '51 to up they used splines on the steering wheels.I think those earlier steering wheels have a nice design,the '51 wheel is just fugly to my eyes. Here's a pic of the '51 wheel:
Thank you Antti.The thing is this wheel is splined not keyed. That is what has me confused.Being my steering shaft IS a 51 it is splined too so the wheel fits fine,I just dont know what year wheel it is.
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