Alright, so i've had these old frame rails behind the house for a few years now, they were to warped to build a street car out of, so I cut them up, threw in a couple crossmembers and started mocking together my own HA/GR.....now i just need some more ideas. Heres a little info on what i've already got for the build: - 1931 chevy frame rails - 1940 ford front axle and un split 'bone (not planning on splitting them) - 1967 ford 9" from a Bronco - 8BA flatty I built a couple years ago - Ford 3-speed '39 truck style - set of jeep/willys "smoothie" style 16" wheels, same as the ford bolt pattern (the willys guys love to find these things) I am slowly getting the mock-up together, but i don't want to stall when I get to that point, so please throw some ideas, constructive critisism, and comments my way before I get to deep into this thing. Sorry the pics a little messed up, sun was not in a good place when i was shooting the pictures.
Looks like you have a good bunch of parts to start the build. Find an old kitchen chair to set between the rails for the seating layout and set the parts around the engine so you know how much foot room you will have and start setting the rest of the parts in place. Sitting there and making engine noises helps with the engineering part and gets the creative juices flowing, that's how ours started. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=189651 Start a build thread and enjoy the process, we'll all chip in with ideas as you go along. Take your time and enjoy the build. We have had several setbacks on ours, (health things and finances) but when I get frustrated I just go out and sit in it a while for therapy and the journey continues. If you have friends involved that helps too. Without Old6rodder giving me direction and seed parts we would have never started ours and crewing with him at the races and a couple of p***es in the Barn Job have really kept the fun and enthusiasm flowing. Don't be afraid to be different...that's part of what these cars are all about. Building it how you want to and having fun. Welcome aboard, looking forward to seeing your car come together.
Oh yeh , the build is always fun . Tom I thought I was the only one that sat in the ch***is and made engine noises and practiced shifting . Get that build under way and get skidding I say.
Ha, I've sat in the driveway on that rear cross member a couple times imagining where every thing will sit and flying down the the strip. Keeps me motivated, should be back at it this weekend.
You don't want any ideas from me, I just threw everything into a pile and hope I'll come back to a completed car. Not to mention the IRS ****
That is one hell of an interesting car 64, should be damned cool to to see it go down the track. Very interesting front end set up to, no issues with it wanting to rock to one side or the other?
Seemed to work well for this car going quite a bit quicker than we ever will, with a much narrower rear track. Don't feel like it will give us any problems.
No problem Nailhead. I'll admit the thought processes on our build have stretched the envelope at some points. We have had several periods of down time that have allowed for much scratch pad engineering along the way and have developed some concepts a bit out of the normal box as the build has evolved.
Alright, after ****ing around all day at speed world here in AZ, finally came home and did a little work on the car. Drug most of the parts out of there repective hidding spots, set them up for some inspiration, and dove right in. Pictures are still uploading, so they will be posted in a few min, but wanted to throw this out as a teaser.
Picture time... You can see the stubby back of the frame I started with, no room for a rear axle and the down sweep was going to make it hard to fab something up, So I cut it off, and added about 20" of 2x3" .120 wall I had in my s**** bin after making the ch***is for my barracuda drag car. The '31 chevy frame is between 1 1/2 and 1 3/4 depending on where you messure the frame, so i will have to add some plate and gussets later. And of course I had to add me own "Vroom Vroom" pictures as well. Not to bad for 2 hours worth of work, mostly in the dark.
Oh, I also set the front and rear ends in place for roughly a 120" wheel base, the engine and trans are going to slide back another 6" or so and the shifter is going to get cut down quite a bit, without the board under my ****, its right inline with my neck.
Forgot a couple from the other side showing the Zoomies do clear the frame. Also used a couple straps to hold the rear end in place for an idea or what it will look like. Will make up some plates for it tomorow or next weekend. Also, the frame isn't as crooked as it looks in the straight on shot, the engine isn't centered and I was standing to get a good shot of it, not the frame.
Looks good, keep us posted on progress. Nice to see some diversity in a Ford V8 as most of us "westerners" have built inlines.
Ok, not as much done today as last night, made a pattern for my axle mount plates, dug out some 1/4" plate to cut the mounts out of and drug a couple wheel sets out of the s**** bin that used to me my parts shed. Front wheels are 16" Jeep/Willys rims with the 5x5 1/2 bolt pattern for the '40 spindles, rears are an unknown year 15" with a 5x5 pattern for my Bronco 9in axle. I am thinking a 6.00 or 6.50 tire for the front but not sure what to run on the rear yet. Suggestions are welcome, i'll look through the theads for ideas also.
No worries, it'll be atleast a week till I get anything else done. Have to track down a plasma cutter for the mount plates, drop the rims off at the powder coaters, order up a set of front spindles as I can only find one for the '40 axle, and it needs kingpins and bushings anyways. Add to that I still have to actually work this week, I don't plan on even touching this thing till saturday at the earliest.
The "accepted cheater" tire for HA/GR is the L78 Coker. Technically it's a skosh oversize but it's what most are running and it's a good street tire for the strip. Can be had blackwall or white.
I haven't dealt with them (yet), but Coker lists the tread width and diameter of their various tires on their web site so you can use that for help in tire selection. http://cokertire.com/
Sounds good, i'll give them a call before the holidays, would be nice to have a roller by the new year....
Yeah, they list their L78 as just under 6" but it measures just over in real footprint. It's likely a legal thing for them, so their advertised dimension's accepted, making'em a "legal cheater".
No updates this week, Hurt my back pretty bad last week picking up a new tub for my '57 CJ3B willys jeep tow rig, had to get steroid injections in my back today so i'll be laid up all week healing.
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