Here are two simple projects from this past hot weekend. Project #1: My buddy Sammy and I installed 3" lowered front springs in his 51 Pontiac. I don't think anyone has worked on the suspension since the car came off the assembly line. Tons of caked on gunk and lots of dirt and rocks inside the lower A arm. We actually had to dig out bolts at times. They were under about 1" of oil and dirt. Anyway, Sammy did most of the dirty work, after all it was his car. Here's where it started: After some dirt digging we were able to unbolt the A arms and get to the spring. We first attempted this with the anti-roll bar attached, but with it attached the A arm would not drop down far enough (as shown). The shock drops out the center of the A arm via an access plate. Here is a shot of the stock and new spring lengths: Here's Sammy doing the dirty work. If you look at the floor you'll see the dirt and rocks that he's dug out of the A arm. And here's the final result: Here it is on the street: Not totally slammed, but at least he's not looking up at the stars anymore. Project #2: I owe this one to Zibo. I saw his solution to this problem at the Asphalt Invitational, and I completely ripped it off. When you install a late model flathead to an earlier model radiator (50 flathead motor, 41 radiator) you have to figure out how to attach the water hoses. The late model's hoses are 1" I/D. The 41 hoses are 1 3/4" I/D. The way I initially solved this problem was to collar the water outlet on the 50 motor with multiple rubber hoses, thereby making the 50 water outlet 1 3/4" in diameter so that I could slide the original 41 hose over the outlet. That solution was cheesy at best, but it worked. Ok, the new solution. Buy a copper adapter that goes from 1" to 1 3/4" from the local hardware store. This adapter shown is actually 1" to 1 1/2", but the 41 radiator hose was able to clamp down the extra 1/4" just fine. The chrome pipes are also from the hardware store. 1" diameter with right angle bends. They are sink drain pipes, but work perfectly for this. A picture is worth a 1000 words, sorry for the verbosity. Mike
Nice job. Where did you get the lowered springs for the pontiac? How about some more pics and details on the pontiac, looks like a custom grill... buick? s.
I really like that copper adapter! I'm going to need that, and I was trying to avoid shimming hoses up. The poncho looks great too, I wouldn't change it a bit!
Here it is last week at the Asphalt Invitational. I believe that is a Buick grille. I think all he had to do to get it to fit was cut one tooth off of each side. He's going to move it forward another inch. I think he found a great grille. http://50chevy.com/photos/watermark.php?image_file=/asphalt_invitational/IMG_0710.jpg Mike
Here's where I got my springs from www.coilsprings.com I was just looking at old Hamb post and I saw someone had metioned this company before so I tried them. and yeah, that's a 53 Buick grille. It was great how it just fit in there. I just had to hack one tooth off each side and she slid right in.
The Jalopy Journal
