yeah mines sitting about the same, maybe a little lower. the motor sits back kind far on the cross member but clears the fuel pump jut hardley. kinda neat photo though tim
holy***** you got alot done in ONE month! from stuck flatty to SBC, thats impressive. Good work and good luck!
Tim.....I gotta used bullnose to take the place of the original hood ornament if ya want it. The chrome is pretty dull and the pot metal is a little pitted because it was a cheap JC Whitney piece. Yours if ya want it. I can e-mail a photo of it. Don't expect a show-piece.
front to back i did.... torched bumper gaurds way bigger rad and mounts droped the front striped al the wiring out and off the fire wall sbc/th350 and built mounts stock throtle and shifting linkage moded to work new trans tunnel ala peterbuilt stack rewire completley new mavrick rear with new seals brakes even drums-i now hate rear ends lol- drop blocks new gas tank new gas lines new brake lines pulled rear trim off trunk pulled door handles off guttd stuff i didnt think it neede out lol need to find the right bracket for the alt and a driveshaft, put the dist in right and i should be rolling after some 30 dollar u joints could be driving if i didnt have to wait 2 weeks for parts fro lazy ppl tim
i should have some "new" -to me- trim for the pass. door in the mail so ill be set there and i just have to find some clips for it and the "custom" badges. but yes big time id love the bull nose, ben kinda looking for one a little tim
so it look like the photo shop is preety close? gota save some money up i found some 16 inch stealies off a 49 then find some www and ill be rollin:>
The bull-nose is yours...save yourself about 3 million dollars and stick with 15 inch tires/wheels. BYW, I parted out a cheapy 49 many-door last year and tossed the 16inchers. I did save the genuine plastic radio delete plate if ya need that tho.
whats the plate cover? i filled the holes with my new switches. whats the million dollar coment coming from? rubber that spendy or what? tim
That ol guy that sells bias-plys at the local swapmeets always charges more for 16 inchers than 15's. Check your Coker catalogue to be sure but my 600/16s and 700/16s for the Rocky 33 damn neart bankrupted me! Of course, I hadda have wire wheel seals and tire tubes too but I never spent that much for any 15's.
Nice progress, Tim! How's it ride? Can't wait to get a digicam for more frequent updates, instead of still developing a roll-turned-CD all the time. Nice work, so far!
Here is what Rocky sent to me about flipping spindles: Originally posted by Rocky, a long time ago... "I flipped the shpindles on my 49 ford coupe simply because I couldn't afford to buy the fatman dropped units. It's the spindle supports that ya flip, anyway. I did this procedure 10 years ago but I'll try to wake up those old tired memory cells and see if I can recall what I did. BTW, carkiller said I dropped the spring pockets too..I didn't because I didn't want any suspension stuff peeking out below the car---very tacky. I jacked the fargin car up and suspended it on jack stands under the frame rails. I remember using the left one on the right side and visa versa and I'm trying to remember why....Oh, yeah.... Before I got any parts off the car, I used a penetrating oil [zep-45, crc, anything like that] to soak down the bolts and eccentrics that hold the spindles to the uprights. I then loosened the retaining bolts and left 'em in place. I removed the shocks and took the lower A-frame mount bolts and nuts loose at the crossmember with a floor jack under the lower a frame and supporting the car's weight. Let the jack down SLOWLY AND STAND OFF TO THE SIDE IN CASE THE COIL SPRING WANTS TO POP OUT. This has never happened to me but just be careful..I took 2 loops off each coil at this point and yes, I did use a torch. The heat is so localized the rest of the spring is not affected. I, then removed the spindle with it's backing plate but left the brake hose hooked up,sat it off to the side or tied it up outta the way. Did the same procedure to the other side and used the left upright on the right side so all the bolts faced the correct direction. Used the right upright on the left side too and bolted everything back together except the wheels. The camber is now way off with the tops of the tires [if they were installed] tipped out at the top. Now, here's the tricky part for the new guys. I supported the weight of the car on the outer extremes of the lower control arms but leave the stands under the frame, [under the king pins]to simulate the car sitting on the ground with the wheels on. I then slipped the ol' rosebud on the torch and sat down at the brake drum with a carpenter's square. Make sure the eccentrics are adjusted in the middle of their camber setting...no rocket science here. Heat the area of the upright below the spindle stub, where it's the longest until it's a dull red and pry behind it to bring it out. Do this until the square ,assuming you're on a level surface, is flat on the ground and flat against the flat part of the brake drum. Now, the wheel mounting surface is 90 degrees to the ground and the wheels will be close to straight up and down. That's where ya want 'em to drive the car to the alignment shop but wait! You ain't done yet. The alignment shop guy will tell you he can't get the front end "in tolerance" according to his book and that's what he's gonna go by, trust me. I've already gone throhgh this and the front end guy told me to go home and take the upper control arm [or A-frame for you old guys] loose at the mounting point on the frame. No big deal. You can reach down next to the smallblock chevy you got in there and take the two mount bolts off. You did jack the car up and get the front wheels off the ground first, right? Stands under the frame again. Now, see if I can 'splain this next step clearly... Put your favorite carbide tip in your die-grinder and attack the front mounting hole on each side. The guy told me to oblong the hole away from the engine and back at about a 45 degree angle for about 1/4 inch. This allows the kingpin to come out and back a bit so the guy can align the thang. I put the wheels on and saw the tie rods were gonna hit the bottom of the frame rails, so I removed the tie rods from the steering arms and heated the arms to a dull red and bent them down, waited till the red went away and heated the ends of the arms up [where the tie rods mount] and bent them back up, level with the ground. I installed new shocks and had the alignment guy work his magic. I ran steel radials on american 14" 5 spokes and the car drove straight and true. I tried a bias ply tire first and that was a disaster for my car. It wouldn't drive straight at all! Work safely! Next time I disclose how to mount a s.b. chevy in a shoebox without having to***** around with the center link of the steering! Stay tuned. BTW. A buddy of mine had his wife's 50 plymouth coupe in the alignment shop the same time my car was there and he had installed fatman dropped spindle supports in it. He was having to "massage" the control arm mounting points to get the thing to align like I had to." Hope that helps! TDC
Good picture of the motor mount, I am about ready to mount the SBC in my '49 and was wondering what to do about the tie rod. Now I may consider raising the mounts an inch, never considered the fuel pump being a problem, that is good to know. Would rather modify the floor than a steering component, especially since the floor needs work anyhow. What did you use for a radiator? How much "butchering" did you have to do to get it to fit? I don't have any radiator at all for mine so I am looking for one...that one that is in my '65 SS right now is pretty close, may try to find another '65 and use one of those.
rocky used a big**** caddy rad? and i used a big**** ruck rad both installed with butchering hammer techniques lol tim
in front, i dont know if you can see if but i hacked alot out and then cut and bent up the sides for it to fit- right about wre the stock horns are, and then the mounts bolt to the remaining peices of the stock suport tim
ive got a few more but havnt scaned them just like a pic of the CHROME driveshaft tunnel lol and the linkage set up if anybody wants to see them let me know thanx tuck hopefully rocky n i will roll it up to the x mas party tim hex and*****box photo shoot? lol
Did you guys bolt or weld your motor mounts to the front crossmember? Mine are supposed to bolt to it but I don't know how I am gonna snake my hand up into the crossmember to tighten down the bolts?? I couldn't get my hand into the crossmember to remove the old mounts, had to cut them off- Did you / are you guys use the stock front brakes??
im using stock brakes, and i took the old motor mounts off by taking the bolts off the bottom of the water pump and then torched them off.-the crosmember rockys mounts are welded on, and so are mine. on mine we just took some like 1.25 x1.25 tube and coppied the profile of the templates--- sat the motor were it needed to be level wise ect and made a cardboard cut out for the front and back of each mount and drilled a hole in the top. put the bolts threw onto the motor droped it back in, tacked the mounts, pulled the motor and solid welded them rocky used 6 cylinder mounts with tubing welded to the botom of it, bolt to the motor drop and tac hope that helps tim