That looks good!!!! The engine looks great also!!!!!! It is so nice to see a rig that doesn't have a 350/350!
Thanks! I've been getting the "it looks so good with fenders" from everyone...made me think thats what most people did first, pulled the fenders! Fordorford- I agree, theres not too many bangers running around, something a bit different than the norm. I'm not trying to be different or "one off", just trying to build a car the way a guy might have in like 51/52 ish. It's not complex, it is actually a very simple car with ordinary hot rod parts.
welp. i told ya i was craaze! i posted one alot like it on here from the craigslist guy after i couldnt afford to ship! a HAMBer bought it...thought it may be you! either way, its lookin killer!
I finished tearing the rear down, gonna clean it and seal it up, then paint and put it back together. Heres a teaser for you guys, I rolled one of the rear tires under it while I have the rear end out. I am hopeing it will end up sitting about like this...
Chris, Your coupe looks great! I really like what you're doin' to it. All the pictures in this thread have been saved to my hard drive. Ed
I want tech. How'd you get those drums off? What's it take to swap-in hydraulic brakes. etc, etc, etc.
To get the drums off I simply used my drum puller. For the hydrallic brakes I simply folled Enbloc's thread, it is pretty easy to do: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124112 On the front I just used later spindles, so it was a bolt on, the rear I rotated the backing plates, but rotated them far enought that I did not need to cut the hole in them, just heated and put a "dimple" for clearance. I will post pics tonight.
Rand Man, here you go. On the front end I used an orriginal dropped axle that 5wbomber dropped for me, and 42-48 spindles. I had to move the tie rod to the top of the wishbone, but it hit the oil pan and crossmember so I had to make one that had a drop in it (see pics). Just hook up your brakes and yor gppd to go! On the rear I rotated the backing plates, then heated and "dimpled" the area were the spring hanger hit the backing plate. I still have to machine 1/8" off the lip of the backing plate and the very edge of the brake drum so they do not bind when put together.
Oops, forgot to add the most important part! I am installing the master cylinder on the center crossmember facing twards the front of the car. I am then welding an arm on top of the factory meachanical brake shaft, thus making it when you step on the brake pedal, the pedal pulls the shaft forward, so with an arm on top, it will push the arm into the master cylinder. Kinnda heard to explain in words, but I will post pics when I get that fabbed
There was discussion about this a while back. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=138191&showall=1 I thought the consensus was that putting a bend in your tie rod weakens it. It will flex and get longer and shorter when you hit bumps and ultimately buckle, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckling) or could bend over time with road wear causing your toe to become out of adjustment. Any thought of gusseting your tierod to prevent that?
I made it out of 1" od, and 1/2" ID, so it is WAY thicker than an orriginal. I really do not see it bending unless something very large and heavy hit it. Also Vern Tardel mentions doing this in his book, and though no one can know it all, I take his words and wisdom very seriously as he sure knows more than I do
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...8191&showall=1 Elrod, this thread was about bent tie rod ends, not tie rods. And mine was done in a pipe bender, no heat was used. I have seen this done hundreds of times on cars. Again, I feel the rod is stout enough that a car as light as an A will not bend it by simply hitting bumps or hard corners. Any other coments or concerns on the subject are more than welcome!
Thanks InjectorTim, I'm gonna lower it a tad, it sits WAY too high when left stock. The pic of it with the whitewallon the rear is with no rearend in the car, and sits how I want it to sit after modifying it.
Deedster wrote:<O</O You're doing what I've thought about for a long time, starting with a stock A then going from there..It's like going back in time building a hot rod. <O</OThats exactly how I did my car. I found a good home for the stock parts I didnt use and used the money to offset the build. It was like deja vu all over again <O</OThe car looks great! I think Id just relocate the tie rod below the wishbone when you bend the steering arms to correct for Ackerman for the late spindles on the shorter Model A wheel base. Youll probably need to bend that hairpin steering arm to help with bumpsteer too before you get the car on the road. <O</OAny chance you have some pix to show how you ran the parking brake cables? I know most guys swap the plates from side to side and mount them upside down to get a better angle and to get the cables out of the weeds.<O</O
Well, I would show how I routed the E brake cables, but like mentioned above there is not rear end in the car right now, I just took it out and am going to clean it up, re-seal it and put the hyrallic brakes on when it goes back under. Soooo, in other words I havn't got that far yet. When you say bend that "hairpin" steering arm are you reffering to making it shorter? I am going to do that as well, as advised by other hopped up A enthusiest.
Your lil' A coupe is a perfect argument for less is more: -No cartoon chop -Not dragging in the dirt -Fenders, hood and running boards in place LOOKS GREAT!!!!!
Gashog, you wrote "The car looks great! I think I’d just relocate the tie rod below the wishbone when you bend the steering arms to correct for Ackerman for the late spindles on the shorter Model A wheel base." This is a great idea, in fact this is what I was going to do first, however, with the 4" drop, you cannot drop the spindles far enough to clear the wishbone without lenghening them. That, to me, seems scarier than the dropped tie rod.
Chris wrote: you cannot drop the spindles far enough to clear the wishbone without lenghening them Bummer. I would think it's been done before. Is the problem because you are using a Model A wishbone? I know guys really have to contort the stock 40-48 steering arms to clear but maybe they don't have quite as extreme a drop as you did or went with aftermarket arms to bend. Did you correct for Ackerman with your setup? Chris wrote: When you say bend that "hairpin" steering arm are you reffering to making it shorter? Sorry, I mean to bend the arm up or down to relocate the draglink attachment point to correct for bumpsteer. I did a tech post on it at: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1753761#post1753761
Yes, because the use of the stock unsplit wishbone, the arms are simply not long to drop that far. If they did, the spindle arm ends would get closer and closer to the axle, thus really messing up the geometry of the steering, if it would steer at all (loss of leverage). Like I said, I could have simply lengthened the arms and then dropped them, but I do not see that being safe. As far as the Ackerman thought goes, when I modified my arms to clear the dropped axle, I measured the gap between them and the backing plate, as well as what degree they sat when looking at it from the side. I had to move the spindle arm down and in, then rechecked my measurments and got them back to were they were. It is impossible to get them back to exactly were they were, but this is what I have done with all of my cars with dropped axles (4 total) and had great results. For the steering arm, yes I am going to shorten it some (1 1/2" is what I was told) to try to get the wishbone and drag link at the same degree (again, impossible to do, but the closer they are the better it will handle/steer) If it doe have some bump steer it does not bother me, it is still a 1930 model A and is suppost to dive like one Thanks for the suggestions and link Gashog!
I remember reading a '50's rod magazine when I was a kid. This issue featured a Stock-Rodded Model A sedan. It may have even been a four-door. One interesting thing about it was that it ws the daily driver of Bob Hirohata. The guy who built the famous custom Merc. The flat four was hopped up pretty hard. It had all the all the old original hot rod tricks. Chrome wheels set off a fairly stock body. It was lowered a bit and chromed out underneath. As a kid I didn't fully understand why he stuck with the stock A stuff, but I'm wiser now. Wish I could get ahold of that magazine today. (Think I'll start a theread on that.)
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