Projects Introducing the Roofus Special

Yeah, making something adjustable makes a whole lot of sense.

 

It might make a lot of sense to be adjustable, but it wasn't easy. All I successfully made was some scrap metal.

I'm gonna have to think about this some more.

 

Well, if you don't care if it is traditional, just use torsion bars and run them inside the frame rails. That's what circle track guys have been doing for years. It allows you to adjust both height and spring rate.

 

I have the same luck. Most of the time I make things out of paper, then wood, then metal. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't .

 

Actually, I like the way leaf springs look.

I had considered torsion bars way back but decided on leafs for looks.

 

Today, I feeling like putting the crossmember under the spring and securing it with just two BEEFY u-bolts.

I've seen pics of similar set ups on cars in the past. They didn't exactly give me a warm and fuzzy feeling from a safety point of view.

Has anybody seen one actually fail when the front of the car is held up by the u-bolts?

 

Springs are commonly run under rear axles on late model cars. NO problems.

 

Yeah, I guess you are right. Lots of cars/trucks dangle by u-bolts draped over the rear axle. For some reason, the thought of doing it in the front didn't seem right. ...brain fart I guess

 

Pinkies Rod Shop did the spring over crossmember deal
on the brown RPU they did a couple years ago.

 

As long as the bolts are the right size, no problems.

 

It doesn't look like you are going to have a lot of room for spring movement on compression. Can you put the spring mounts between the legs of the A arm on the bottom of the assembly by moving the A arm forward so the shackle eye goes between the legs there by spreading the load to both legs.

Your cross member can carry the upper spring mount either in front of or behind the X member it rather than under it.

 

I thought about that a little bit too.

Moving the spring back gives a little extra clearance with the frame. I will need to do a mock-up to see if the spring in that ocation interferres with the steering though. I think it might be tight.

 

I have transverse leaf with A-arms on the front end of my "Tribaker" which has a modified 41' Stude set-up. Stock, they used 16 thin leafs. I am using 2 of four leafs of a mid 70's Chev half ton pickup. It was 43" eye to eye and was much flatter. This allowed me to space it away from the frame for more clearance. I have the engine mounted along with all the other heavy stuff, and those two leafs seem to be just right....

 

Yeah, a flatter spring would be easier to fit in the available space, but I like the look of the tapered ends on the Ford spring. ...and more than likely, the spring will be completely exposed on the finished car. Right now I am once again leaning towards using the whippet radiator (mounted right behind the spring).

 

I was planning on setting it up right at the scrub line for that "stupid low" look. Nothing was going to hang below the frame rails. The car was going to be flat bottomed to be driveable down low. ...then last night I saw this car on Northwest Vintage Speedsters.

It has a really nice shape. I really like the hood line. The car sits higher than I thought I wanted mine to sit. ...But it looks SO RIGHT! It looks like they dropped the motor down to have a lower hood line. I think the Whippet shell would work with a car like this.

I think I may raise my car about 3-4 inches and lower the motor by the same amount.

 

I love the sample car pictures you are posting. this thread is like a two for one! thanks and keep up the awesome work.

 

Some of the cars appear to sit low, but the driver is still "up there". The trouble is that you see the drivers in the car only rarely.

 

Check out the mechanical brakes with Buick brake drums!!! I like that car!!!!!

Flipper...Can't wait for more progress. Great car.
Clark

 

Here is the car's page on NWVS

http://www.nwvs.org/CarPhotos/029E/029E.shtml

and the other photos

 

Flipper,

I like your ideas. I've been playing with XK Jaguars for 30 years and always wanted to build a boat-tail speedster. I rebuilt several Mark 2's and if you need advice on the engine and trans when you get it running, send me a message.

Paul

 

Here's a picture of a Model A speedster a buddy of mine is building. What does everyone think about it.
Jerry
<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

 

Looks like a fun car. Do you have any construction photos? or more pics in general?

 

Here's some pictures before he skinned it.
Jerry
<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

 

I played with the front end some more. I thought I wanted a t-bucket type spring perch to mount the front spring and a seperate crossmember down low to mount the rack and pinion. I was planning on making a splash apron below the the spring crossmember to hide the rack.


IMG_0851 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0852 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0853 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

The piece pictured was 2x4. It seeme too bulky so I grabbed a piece of 2x3 and trimmed it to fit between the frame rails. I didn't bother taking pics. It just looked wrong. The straight line going across the front of the car did not play well with the swoop shapes.

 

So I scrounged around the various junk piles and pulled out a 4x4 transfercase crossmember out of a WW2 era Dodge ambulance (everybody has one of those right?). It kinda looked like a model T rear spring perch, but was way bigger. I cut a piece out of the middle and tried it on for size.

It is going to span between the lower a-arms and the spring will be mounted above the crossmember.

Here it is mocked up, centered under the spring.

IMG_0866 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0860 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0867 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0869 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

I really like the arch. It looks like it belongs there a lot more than the t-bucket perch did.

 

I also tried it slid forward and rearward to see what grabbed me. (The gray piece in the pic is the 2x3 crossmember I tried. I tried it mound on top of the upper frame rails and also from the bottom side of the upper frame rails...it just looked wrong)

Forward

IMG_0874 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0873 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

Rearward

IMG_0859 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0862 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

I liked it best slid to the rear.

 

So now that I had an idea of how the sring was going to be attached, I neede to sort out where everything else was going to be.

The radiator is a pretty important piece...so I threw it into the mock-up next.


IMG_0876 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0877 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0879 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0886 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

Just adding the radiator made it look more like a car.
...But the radiator that far back just didn't look right.

 

I scooted the motor forward so that the radiator was right behind the leaf spring ....where it would be if I do the upright grill shell like a Rally.


IMG_0888 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0887 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0891 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0895 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

 

What do you know? The motor is back ahead of the "firewall" again. ....where it was last year! ...before I notched the firewall!


IMG_0889 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

Foot room is much nicer....again!

IMG_0890 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

Just to make sure that moving the radiator closer to the spring didn't change which perch location looked best...I mocked stuff up the other ways again.

IMG_0897 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0920 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

Rearward still looks best to me.

 

So now that I know where the radiator goes. Time to try and squeeze in the rack.

The good thing about the wide spring crossmember is that I think I can hide the rack and pinion under it.

The rack needs to go 3.5 inches forward of where it is pictured here. It will pretty much be under the radiator.

IMG_0925 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr


IMG_0924 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

proposed cut outs

IMG_0929 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

from the side

IMG_0930 by Flipper_1938, on Flickr

Now the REALLY fun part. Trying to figure out how to put it all together where I can pull the steering back out at a later date if I have to.

The original idea was to mount the rack on its own crossmember and the bolt the spring crossmember over the rack.

Then I thought about mounting the rack to the underside of the spring crossmember and bolting both down as a unit.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to fish the rack into the crossmember if the crossmeber was welded in (I really want to weld it so that I can gusset up to the upper framerails next to the radiator).

That's where I am for now. I still have some more thinking to do.