Hot Rods The "Whatever" project

So over on the garage journal, I responded to a thread, and promised a picture of my clugged up compressor system.

This picture! For some reason, it won’t work over there. Granted I’m computer illiterate, but I have figured out how to do these things over here. What gives? Well, now I know that it works here, I’ll try again over there in a little while.

Meanwhile back at the oasis, I got a pair of new shocks from Jeg’s yesterday! Really look good. And should work for the rear suspension on the Whatever Project. 18 point adjustable from soft to firm, both bounce and rebound adjust with 1 nob. The coil springs are on back order, but that’s okay as I don’t need them for setup. They are twin tube non-pressurized, so they can be put in a set position and stay there, not like the gas charged Konis, which are a pain to work with…

 

Lookin good Pal.

 

You can post it a couple different ways over on the garage journal when it's being picky (happens to me too). One, take a snip (screenshot) of the pic here.... OR... Two, Right Click on image here, "Copy image address", go to GarageJournal thread, make new post, click on the Insert Image icon, select By URL, then paste your URL (image address). :

 

Thanks Tim. I got it and you’ll have a good laugh about it. I had cropped the picture to make it a smaller file size. Evidently the new tablet does it differently than the old one, so the original was still there (???). I just restored the original version and it loaded just fine! Go figure…. Like I’ve said before, I am computer illiterate, and this proves it

 

It might have saved the edited picture as a different type of file. Take a close look at the suffix. .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .img, .png, there are lots of them, and it may have a default that isn't compatible. This can usually be selected when saving in the drop down menu.

 

Nah! It was just me… me and computers just don’t get along. I became an engineer right at the end of the slide rule era and the start of the pc era. After 10 years as an industrial mechanic. Computers were still main frames and terminals, and Fortran. I did

 

See what I told you! Couldn’t even get it to finish up one thought…

I didn’t get my first pc until 5 years in as a research scientist. By then I had learned how to delegate computer work to other people. Oh well…

 

New to me parts.

The insides are good, should clean up with a minimal cut, probably just 0.03 or so. No broken fins. Now I’ve got four of the 90 fin, and two of the 45 fin drums. Now I’ve got to figure out how to get these to fit 40 Ford spindles, and one set needs to be modified to fit the rear hubs on the quick change. Since the front brakes are exposed to good airflow, I think I’ll use the 45 fin drums on the front. The back brakes will be more shrouded to airflow, so I’m thinking that the 90 fin drums will work better back there, as there’s more surface area to reject the heat.

Another thing today is a new tig welder! But I’m saving that for the garage journal. Should be up and running in a day or two. More details later

 

Dave,
Just be sure to support the hubs around the studs as you remove them. I have a pair of 90 fin drums that are deformed on the face because someone just pressed on the studs without doing that. They may be RUINED!
otherwise they are PERFECT!

 

Thanks for the advice. You’re right, it would be a real FU if I were to ruin one of the drums before I even get them on the car. My plan is to get the hubs out and do whatever machining is required to fit them to the grand national type hubs. Which reminds me that I need to get a couple of those spider backing plates for the rear.

I think I can adapt the front drums to the spindles just like the disc brake rotors, just need to get to NAPA and go through the parts books to get a set of bearings that are compatible. Then machine if necessary a spacer to fit. The really good thing about using the Buick drums is the bolt pattern is already 5x5, which matches what those gn hubs and the rotors I have on the front.

So note to self: make a mandrel to support the drums before pressing out the studs.

 

Going wide 5?

 

No, 5x5 stock car. Or more appropriately, big GM. The quick change has old style GN speedway hubs, heavy billet hubs. And aluminum hats with 1.25 inch wide rotors. Which are just as heavy as those Buick drums. You wouldn’t by chance have a pair of spider backing plates that you’d be willing to part with, would you? I’m sure I can machine a ring to bolt them to the tubes. PM me if you do.

 

Thanks to DonT, I have an air filter that with a new base to fit the 3 2 barrels, will work fine for the whatever project.


Now to make a new insert for the 3 carburetors, and get a filter. And decide what to do about the finish. It’s cast aluminum, so polished, bead blasted, engine turned, definitely NOT painted. Opinions?

Did some practice welds with the new Square Wave machine. Even with my shaky hands, I got acceptable results from the first bead. Nothing thin yet, but first more consistent practice. I’m sure I’ll be procuring some new tungstens, in the smaller sizes that collets were supplied for. The adjustability is all new to me, so next practice I’m going to try fiddling around with the parameters available for dc welding.

 

Got some real progress done today! Finally was able to get to the Sunnen bushing grinder and hone the kingpin bores on the V8-60 axle to fit F100 kingpins. To recap, 48-52 F1 spindles are almost exactly the same as 46-48 passenger car spindles, with the exception of the axle pin, which has a larger inner bearing and seal. And F100 kingpins are just larger in diameter than the other ones. 0.859 vs. 0.815. Length is the same as 46-48 passenger car kingpins and 48-52 F1 kingpins. And the lock pin notches are all the same location. I’ll be plaigerizing Robert’s lock pins next. Here’s pictures from today.


First picture has the 2 sizes of kingpins, F100 is closer to the spindle for reference. The second picture is the nearly 100 year old Sunnen bushing grinder that still gets the job done. The other 3 pictures show the pins fitted!

Now some of you might remember that I had a big garage reshuffle and cleanup. Most things are easier to find. Guess what? I have misplaced one of the 4 F100 kingpin bushings. And if I had all 4 I would have pressed them into the F1 spindles and honed them to size. But no! Instead I spent over an hour looking for it! To no avail! Hopefully I can get just a set of the bushings.

 

Just a little note. Found the missing bushing! It was in the most obvious place, on a kingpin stuck into a spindle! DOH (hand slapping forehead). Only took moving stuff around, looking in boxes, opening storage bins, pulling stuff out of every drawer. Yup, that garage cleanup really helped…

 

I have a question for anyone who might be able to steer me towards a new body part. Does anyone know if someone makes a T-bucket pickup bed the same length or slightly longer than the turtle deck? The turtle deck is 33 inches long. I’d like a pickup bed at least that long for the whatever. I could use some extra space for stuff…

Anyway, if anyone has any information about a manufacturer that has a longer bed, let me know. Thanks. I’m going to post this as a separate thread as well

 

Dave, posted in the other thread. Hopefully in the future if someone searches, that pops up.
I did see an ad for one before I got mine that had a long bed. I'll let you be the judge.

 

Only thing I don’t like about this is the windshield and the stays for it. It’s otherwise nice looking considering that the rolling stock is easily replaced

 

https://hotrodfiberglass.com/product/t-bucket-pickup-bed-30-inch-length/

 

This one's 36"...

https://www.shop.spiritcars.com/model-t-pick-up-fiberglass-bed-36-inch.html

 

Thanks for the links guys! Now I’ve got some options…

 

Still haven’t measured the back of the T to see if either one of those pickup bed options would work for the planned roll bar. It’s on the list. I have decided to go with a Turbo 350, and got one on order during the Labor Day sales. And now for the rest of the story…

It seems that you drag racers have already figured out how to space the torque converter for use with an engine plate. 1/4-inch is easy! It was recommended to wait until the engine is ready and the cam is selected to get the torque converter so it will match up with the engine’s power range.

 

The box with a new Turbo 350 showed up Wednesday. Now get this. The shipping company set up a delivery time, typical 4 hour window, between 12 and 4 pm. SWMBO and I had an appointment, fortunately at home, 10:30-11:30 am. We had just finished up, the person had just gotten out of our driveway, and the truck showed up! Usually if a company sets up a schedule for delivery, it’s been my experience that the truck shows up at 4-4:15, or so. Being early is so out of the ordinary that I can’t remember when it has happened before. I was surprised and pleased with it.

The transmission looks like a transmission, so I haven’t taken any pictures. I know you all will forgive me for that transgression…

And yesterday am, I hadn’t even gotten up yet, when my phone rang. It was the steel supply truck driver, and he had already backed up into my driveway! Okay it was after 9, so I guess I should have been up. More later… battery is low

 

To cap off my choo choo train of thought, I was saying that I should have been up already, but hey, I’m retired. From 1972 to 2020 I got up weekdays no later than 6:00 am, and typically before 5! Give me a break!

Anyway, 5 sections of 1.625x0.125 dom random length tubing. Almost 24 feet long! It doesn’t fit in my garage too well. Guess I’m going to have to light a fire under my own butt, and get it fabricated into its final shape. You may remember that I already procured a bender die for this diameter of tubing, and there’s a new tig welder just waiting for me to fire it up for serious use. So that’s on the short list now…

 

Question for anyone. What’s a good shifter for a Turbo 350 that meets NHRA requirements? Forward shift pattern, don’t want billet look if possible.

Dug out the correct stones for the kingpin hone today. Had to find the correct size mandrel for the F100 bushings. First had to find the sizing gauge. It’s a tapered wedge of steel, with lines across separating a series of numbers, each representing the next size of mandrel. Remember the big garage reshuffle mentioned a while back? Yup, so organized and everything put in the right place, that it took me about an hour or so to find it! I prevailed however, and dug out the correct one. And it was filthy, gummed up and in need of some tlc. It’s ready to hone! And that’s tomorrow…

 

At one time the B&M series 60 was pretty popular, bought one new around 1977 for the turbo 400 in my tube frame Maverick, no frills, ratchets or other doodads to break.
Have been discontinued for a long time, they can be found used at swap meets and on that auction site.

 

It’s finished! For those of you late to the theatre, and don’t want to wait for the 2nd showing to roll around, I picked up this axle about 2 years ago. It had some ugly welded to it, easily removed with a recip saw and angle grinder, a bolt boss through the left end, where the axle is bare, that required removing the piece of tubing and making plugs to weld into the holes, and the hardest part to repair, the kingpin eyes were worn oversized. That wash a horse of a different color to repair.

The first thing I did was search for oversized kingpins, but the oversized was not large enough, even if I could have gotten them. Now an interesting thing is, those spindles are Ford F1 spindles, 1948-1952. They are originally similar to 1942-1948 Ford passenger car spindles except for the size of the axle pin, which is significantly larger in diameter than the passenger car spindles at the inner bearing. However, they use the same kingpins.

Ford F100 spindles, 1953-1956 are similar to the F1 spindles, except for the size of the kingpins, which are 0.859 inch diameter instead of the passenger car kingpins at 0.815 inches. I bought sets of both kingpins and determined that I was going to have to resize the axle AND the spindles to make this work. Reaming the axle was easy, doing it by hand with an adjustable 6-blade hand reamer, finishing up by honing with an old Sunnen bushing grinder. Easy…

The spindles are another story! They needed to be reamed to fit the kingpin bushings for the F100 spindles. And old Henry certainly did use good steel for those parts! 5 thousandths at a pass, took about 40-50 passes per spindle. It may actually have been less per pass, I wasn’t measuring the change in cutting diameter between passes, just the size of the holes. Finally got that done, off to the hydraulic press, and nothing! It leaks like a sieve and I had to get more fluid. 3 or 4 weeks later…

And I was able to press the new F100 bushings into the resized F1 spindles. Now to hone the bushings to size. But first dig out some new stones for the honing mandrel. I found a box of brand new stones in my stash of old stuff for the machine, only to be disappointed a week later when I finally went to hone the bushings. Those stones are for some mandrel type I don’t have. Hey beggars can’t be choosers, it was given to me way back mid 70s!

So dig through the stash again only to find out that I really have used up all of my appropriate stones for the mandrels I use. Okay, I’m probably not going to do many more, so lets see what some of the other mandrels have in them. Found 4 decent sets, but grimy. So spend some time disassembling them and cleaning everything up. And Finally last night, success! Honed to size, and the results are in that picture at the top. I’m so pleased, I’ll put it here also:

Now to machine some pin locks up, as the V8-60 uses a different lock than I-beam axles, of course. But it sure does look good right there!

 

That's a ton of work on that axle - nice job! Your perseverance pays off.

 

Thanks. I attempted to just turn standard kingpin locks to fit. First attempt was close, but no banana! The threads were not concentric with the wedge part of the lock. I used a coupling nut to hold the lock in the 3 jaw chuck of the lathe, and it took too much off the side with the grooves. And I was using a vernier caliper for measuring. So bad and worse. Good thing I have plenty of those locks to use.

So the next attempt will be to use the 4 jaw chuck, and center the smooth part of the lock before turning. And use a micrometer and ball gauge for measuring the hole and the lock before turning. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll go with the design of locks that Jeremy made for his V8-60 axle.

 

Success! Progress! One small step forward! I remachined 2 kingpin locks today. Yes Jeremy posted the dimensions and drawings for the V8-60 unique design kingpin locks, but I was lazy. I’ve got a few I-beam locks, having saved them each time I used a fabricated tube axle over the years. Some of those locks are 50 years old or older, kept from the dirt track days, because, … well doesn’t everyone save things like that just in case?

So anyway I’m now ready to assemble the axle and fit it into the car. But first the engine needs to be pulled and the firewall assembly modified for the new Turbo 350. Then while it’s apart, I’ll have the room for the changes in the plan. More details later