Dropped the body back on the chassis to see how it all goes together. I’ll need to “adjust” the firewall a bit. Body still needs to move forward by 2”. And I still need to cut the sub to clear the frame step, so the ass will drop another 3”. Feeling good about the proportions and stance.
As with any build, I had a change of plans. The ‘40 X member alone was frustrating me, so I changed my path to a hybrid approach. I put the ‘29 cross member back in. Now I’m using pieces of the ‘40 X member to stiffen things up and make space for pedals. Looking good so far and seems like a good alternative. If you see anything I’m missing please let me know.
Thanks @So Cal Brian B We know progress is better than...well...you know... Still trying to figure out the front wishbone and rear radius rod mounts, and the column shift (tight space), but I guess I'll just keep moving ahead one step at a time.
Had a few spare minutes in between meetings today and got the subframe trimmed to clear the step. I left a bit on the top to keep it structurally stiffer, and I'm going to weld in a piece of sheet metal to "box" in that part of the subframe to stiffen it up more. Of course, the subframe isn't in great shape and will likely get replaced, so I'll try not to spend to much time and effort on this since it is "sunk cost"
Now it's sitting lower in the back than it was before. Sits almost level. May need to adjust the front or the back depending on how it sits when more parts are on the car (seat, gas tank - trunk, battery - trunk, deck lid, etc.)
A little progress. Cut down the ‘40 X member to go behind the model A cross member. Sectioned them ala @Aaron D. to fit inside the frame. Today was garage clean up day.
Got one of the rear X members welded up. Still needs some trimming to get it tacked into the frame, but I’ll wait until the other one is finished and do them both at the same time.
The 8ba is running all wide belt accessories on the front. 8RT pumps, double wide belt crank pulley, and a wide belt Powergen. The rear belt drives both pumps and the gen, and the front belt runs the fan. Question: what belts do I need? I could just call C&G but I thought I’d ask y’all first.
Got the transmission mount fabbed and installed. I’ll trim some off the underside of the ends so they can’t be seen, and I still need to finish rounding and smoothing the ends that will be seen. Then I mounted the ‘29 yoke to the trans crossmember and bent it to align with the’40 wishbone. Cut bothe to length. Now to weld something inside to join (ala AaronD’s build. Thanks Aaron!) Slow progress but progress.
I was working on getting my wishbone finished up, but something looked wrong. The yoke was sort of twisted. Turns out that when I bent the legs of the ‘29 wishbone in to match the ‘40 bones, I bent one out of plane. Need to get that right before I weld it up.
Got it straightened out and in place. Lines up nice and everything is tight. Next is the rear X members and a mount for the rear bones. Then I should have a roller.
I made all the measurements to make sure the pan wouldn’t contact the wishbone, but you know how that goes. I put the engine back in and bolted it down to check. I’ve got just over an inch on both sides. I also did a very objective “bouncey” test to see if they would make contact. I’ll see if I can figure out how to upload that. Seems like it’s all good. Moving forward.
With the front suspension done (enough) to roll the car on it's own, I decided to spend some time on the rear suspension. I got a Rock Johnny Joint for my radius rods to bolt to, and I'm working on a small crossmember for that. Planning to weld it in between the rails, and then add some braces from that forward to the trans crossmember and back at an angle to the frame rail on each side as well, like a pseudo X member. Should stiffen things up a bit and provide more than enough support for the radius rods and third link from the banjo. I'll flip the Johnny joint over so the zerk is on the bottom.
A piece of the puzzle arrived in the mail today. I’ll share more later on this. I’ve been battling the flu for the last 4 days and have done nothing much at all. I feel like $10.
I know I said I would try to upload a video of me testing to make sure the engine doesn't contact the wishbone when it moves. Here is my VERY objective scientific experiment video of that event: I know there are some sounds, but I did not hear the pan or starter contact the wishbone. I may want do the "experiment" again and put some chalk on the wishbone to see if any of that transfers to the pan during this very scientific test. If you have any other thoughts or ideas, I'd be glad to hear them!
About the box I received the other day...A while back, I bought this Standard beehive coil from a HAMB'er. More recently, I bought this Mallory YC-310 from another HAMB'er. I really like these traditional style distributors, and hope I can run it on my '51 Merc. I think I'll need to change the front cover, but I'm O.K. with that if I need to. The shaft has a bit of play, but I'm hoping that once it's installed it will have enough support on the distal shaft to be O.K. Undecided on running them as-is, or cleaning them up when I clean up the engine.
The Jalopy Journal
