Projects The Dead end Thread - My '34 Austin Ruby Project

I went out and measured my old axle and you guys are correct. Have no idea why I thought it was that narrow. Thank you for giving me 6" more to work with.

 

Still trying to figure out the tig. Near as I can see, it looks like the wires going to the foot pedal are 28 gauge according to my newly acquired wire stripper. They have a mere 7 strands per wire so no wonder they easily break at the connector plug. Soldered the connector plugs to telephone patch cable bought from the drug store that holds 8 wires. Since I only need 5 wires, on some of them I wound two together to make a stronger wire that wouldn't break as easily and then reinforced the wires going into the connector with heat shrink tubing. I have both the mig and the tig mounted on the same cart but whenever I had to switch from one to the other, I would have to unplug one and then plug in the other. Now I made a plug where both can be plugged in at the same time. No real fear of blowing the breaker since I only use one at a time anyhow. This cheap welder has the on/off switch located on the back side which is very awkward to use so I mounted a toggle switch on the front instead. Everything is now so much better but my tig welding skills still suck big time. I hope to get better at this.

 

This car has been an exercise in gleaning information put out by knowledgeable guys on the internet on doing bodywork. I keep playing around with tools and hope something works out. I purchased a stripping tool over 20 years ago from the Snap On guy which just collected dust in my tool box called a "Crud Thug". It came with consumable rotating stainless brushes and didn't really do much. Saw a promotional ad from Eastwood that showed a similar tool but it included paint stripping discs. Tried calling Eastwood to see if these discs would work on my tool but never received a reply. Didn't want to order them if they didn't fit. Last week, I got a Princess Auto flyer that showed their version so I went to the store to check it out and the stripping disc works with my tool so after all this time, I finally have a decent paint stripping tool. I was considering making new running boards but after seeing a video on "Carter's Auto Restyling", I went to work repairing mine. Welded up the cracks but I still need to go visit my neighbor across the alley to use his shrinker/ stretcher to remove the curve made by some overweight person.

 

Not getting much done. I go out to the garage, turn the heat on, and stare at the front suspension pieces lying on the floor. Didn't want to take the car apart because I wanted to get the powertrain and suspension pieces mounted with it together to avoid clearance problems that would arise that I couldn't see. Mainly, the front crossmember where the transverse spring mounted. It is a cast piece that is riveted to the frame rails and also supports the front fenders. By now, I can see that that clearly is not happening. Also, with the rust and cracks that I'm finding in the body now that the fenders are off, I have decided to rip the whole thing apart and mount the body on the rotisserie. With a bare frame, I will have a better idea what to do. Probably will end up building a new frame. I think that it will probably be safe to leave the body on the rotisserie outside in the driveway.

 

The body is unbolted from the chassis but instead of trying to mount the body on the rotisserie, I started on the front suspension. I purchased the components some time ago but didn't mount anything before because it is a lot of measuring to thin air; nothing to really get a grip on. This is a very small car and the parts used will not really be applicable to anyone other than guys trying to build an Austin, Bantam, or Crosley so I hope that this gets by the moderators. I'm setting up my suspension geometry with the "that looks about right" mindset; eyeball engineering. How parts move going up and down in three dimensions taxes my simple mind. My reasoning being, this car will top out around 40 mph anyhow, it isn't a canyon carver. Look at the stock IFS on cars from the 1930 to 1960 era. Suspension pivot points are all over the map because the engineers were still figuring it out too; no computers and we keep telling the new guys to keep the stock setup. What could go wrong? Basically, I will place the center in the middle. Aim for frame clearance around 5". Whatever I do on the right, copy on the left. Have the lower control pivot points be the same distance apart as the pivot points on the steering rack. Make the spindles lean back a little for caster and the upper control arms tilt back a bit for anti-dive. Roll center? Who knows? Make sure everything clears the fenders. If the car goes left when I turn right, flip the rack over.
I went and built something to mount my parts on. Tacked it together and I am way off. However, now I have something that I can measure to make corrections. With my angle finder, I have about 12 degrees camber so the distance between the upper control arms needs to come in a whole bunch. Also, the whole thing is too wide to work with my steering rack and now that I have an actual front wheel mounted, I can measure from that to my center line to establish my correct track width. Spent two days making this and it is all wrong but still time well spent.

 

That helped a lot. Cut everything apart and redid it. Sure makes sense to only tack weld things together and now I have a workable track width of about 38". Put my setup roughly under the front of the car on a milk crate to get a better sense of how it fits and it is clear to me that the Suzuki engine that is still propped in place will not clear. I should have got a special narrowed SuperBell dropped axle from Pete and Jake's instead of all the money I have thrown away on this setup. That means that I am committed to keep on going on this electric car path with a narrow rear axle that has a motor attached to the third member such as on the three wheel rickshaws found in China and India. So far, my emails to various vendors have gone unanswered. I really need to learn Mandarin and Hindi.
Tomorrow, I will go back to getting the body off the frame.

 

While I applaud your exploration of using an electric motor for power (with today's e-car powerplants great performance is possible) I think you should consider putting the gas burner engine recessed back into the firewall to clear the IFS. It looks do-able in your last pic.

 

Right after I posted that yesterday, I came up with the same idea; set back the engine into the firewall. Every hot rodded Ruby seems to have a recessed firewall anyhow. Been thinking the various pros and cons of gas vs electric. On the pro gas side, I already have two engines, the transmission with its driveshaft yoke, and my narrowed 9" rear with 4.57:1 gearset. Negative side for gas, I still need clutch and flywheel, need to fabricate fuel tank and I lose the rear seat. Pro electric - no driveshaft tunnel, no firewall setback, don't need clutch, transmission, fuel tank, radiator,starter, or charging system. Con electric - I need to come up with about $3000 for the rear axle, even more money for batteries and top speed around 40 mph. Presently, the gas side is looking better because my wife mentioned unexpected expenses coming up. In any case, I'm starting to have fun with this project.

 

Started putting the Austin on the rotisserie. I had made this to work on my T coupe and it is rather spindly but I figured that the Austin being such a small car, might as well use it. Biggest problem being how to mount it since these old cars were never intended to be flipped and no good mounting points in sight. Didn't need the pieces I used before on the T anymore so might as well cut them up and modify them. I mounted the T along the floor but this time I knew that I needed more support higher up to resist the flexing issue. Used up as little steel tubing I could get away with since I didn't have much and used an old bicycle fork for a brace in the front. Amazing how I manage to forget what a lousy job I made of the rotisserie until I came to the final uniting of it to the car. Same misalignment issues I had before but somehow I managed it all by myself without any injuries. With space issues in the garage, I have to decide whether to have the chassis in the shop and work on it, and stash the body and rotisserie in the driveway or vice versa. I really need to make a decision as to what I'm doing with for drivetrain. If I work on the body, I can delay that thought.

 

It had been almost a year since my last post here and with this new place to post my adventures, maybe I was premature in calling this a dead end. As far as new developments, I managed to find a gearhead in China who helped me purchase my electric motor/rear axle assembly and it is now in the garage. My current problem is in relearning how to post my pictures since my aging computer and printer are not co-operating with me. Now I have a new laptop and printer and hope I figure it out.