Yeah you get into it being an exact match for the space but that doesn’t leave any room for you to actually get it in place.
My friend just bought a '30-'31 pickup project. Chassis is almost done. Fresh flathead, Heads, 4 twos?, Mallory distributer HEI?, Inside? We need to look inside. Nice chop, body & bed sound but need work. Good fenders & lots of parts. Going to be fun!
Yeah, don't want to steal your space but I put some pictures somewhere. Trying the find some good pictures of our kind of full fendered '30-'31 pickups before he goes street rod on me.
Stance is perfect. Me likey. Not helping my "no more projects" rule as I browse Marketplace for 28-29 sedans...
@Tim_with_a_T yeah I love it I think the front will be a hair higher , it’s leaning a hair to the drivers side. If it raises to much I may use some fender tricks to put it back down visually. The back sitting just right was a big sell point of the adjustable 1/4 springs in back. I’m going to weld a bit of square tube to the axle tubes that will sit in the rear crossmember so when I mock it up it will be exactly where I want it to sit. Then I will try my best to get the springs adjusted about in the middle and hold that hight. I figure that way if I think it needs to be lower I have room and if the spring settles I can raise it back up. thankfully the springs in the 46 have settled in a way that I enjoy but the car is at least 3” lower all the way around than it was when it first got set back down on tires. Low enough that the shocks that came with the rear spring and mounts etc all together, bottom out way before the axle does. Ripped them clean off in Oklahoma last October :S
Said it in your other thread too but you have more shocks ripping off issues than anyone I've ever met lol. Floor looks good. Full shot of the car looks killer too. Nice that you have more room now and you are able to more easily get full shots for us to swoon over.
Yeah it’s a combination of the front and back springs having settled at least three inches over the years and me driving Kansas City streets at speed. You’d be shocked at how beefy some of the guys driving reeeeeaaaalll low stuff here build the chassis. in a model A related note Neal’s 4k swap meet coupe build showed his added jack points on the chassis and I keep mentally chewing on how to do that with a model A. With the fenders on you are a LONG way from the frame rail in the running board area of the frame. A lift point would be a lot handier than a tower to add to your jack like some of the 2 post lifts use on the lift pads to reach.
Beauty if a solid axle. Just jack from the front and rear in the center and do both sides at once. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're talking about. I also exclusively work off jackstands not a lift cause I'm cheap
Yeah it’s very impractical to try to put a jack stand under the frame on a fendered car. Between it being nearly impossible to have a jack reach the frame from the side of the car, and the aprons them selves blocking room to sit a jack stand that would be tall enough to reach the frame at the lifted height. But it’s worth considering options.
No update but my buddy Chris has this cool hot rod for sale and thought I’d drag some attention to his add https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/early-model-t-racer.1325662/ @Inked Monkey Looks awesome going down the road and is just covered in neat details.
Yeah it really is, with nearly zero aftermarket parts. It’s mostly old ford a little old Chevy and a bunch of sweat equity in between. He put a crazy amount of miles on it road tripping and camping at the roc weekend this month.
Really nice runabout! Hope he gets the sweat back out, it shows. You should post that pic and some more over in the Love For T thread.
Alright I’m getting back on it after getting most of my house and yard list checked off, plans made and a good amount of parts and tools rounded up for this next session. So first order of business is moving the drivetrain up and centering it. After trying to have it offset to the passenger side to clear as many stock studebakers were I realized the car is just to narrow to make that work. After studying every caddy, stude and olds powered A I could find I made a plan to move the engine up nearly 5” to clear the steering. Which while it sounds extreme is where every one of them I could put my eyes on have it located. Only sbc’s and inliners seem to be mounted as low as I have it now. I chewed on a few ideas on how to get this all mocked up and made some tape lines on what needs cut to make it all work. i stared at @Bandit Billy cradle for a long while and figured it would be a good way to get the motor at the correct height and angle in the car with out blocking motor mount locations. The only issue I came up with was I have to lift the car to even get the hoist under it. So while I chewed on that idea I started measuring and taking stuff apart. i need this back exhaust port to dump over the steering column not under it. so roughly this much taller on the block up. I measured both sides and grabbed a 4x4 and my chop saw now can replace the stack of crap with a block the size of the stack and can. This also gives me back the small pieces should I need to shim it up further etc. it seemed pretty tall but when I laid it next to the frame mount, rubber and motor mount it’s pretty damn close! I think I’m going to just tack it all in place and see how close it is after I get the thing mocked up with wood. - these are early hemi mount which are crazy close to Stude mounts so I grabbed them and will either add holes, subtract metal or add cardboard and then make a whole new mount to make it correct. My buddy who made these and the trans mount said it would make the most sense to him to just mock it up with parts and figure out what needs to be different than to try to make a brand new part from a print and have it fit. No argument from me on that idea. also the frame mount is included in the wood block stack because I intend to mount them orientated like this while the existing frame mounts are the opposite currently. on the trans side I’m going high tech again and I’m going to stick a wood block under the trans and rest it on my wishbone/ trans mount like it is now. This mount is for the ford 3 speed and will be completely removed for this drivetrain but for now it’s bracing and something to sit things on. that brings us to what needs cut inside. Right now I have the engine and trans sat with the crank level to the ground. Studebakers have the carb pad set level with the tail shaft 6 deg down. Compared to a sbc’s 3. I set the ruler on the carb pad to show just how radical that slop is even in just the distance of the carb base. so while I will have to remove the stock A center cross member to clear the end of the trans I don’t think I’m going to have to cut the subframe cross piece. And if I do I think I can turn the yoke horizontal and clear it for now. I’m also making sure that I mock this up with a fan because 6 deg is a lot when it comes to tight radiator clearance and I don’t need any surprises. I’ve also explored the option of having the engine at only 3 deg down and figuring out a carb base that’s 3 deg out from level later. Which honestly most cars on a rake with a stock engine probably sit worse. So not a huge hurdle. before leaving the shop for the day I measured the rivets on the center cross member. Inner edge of the rivet itself across to its match on the other side 28 5/16 for the front pair and 28 9/16 on the back. Because I’m sure later I won’t be able to read my hand writing . so there we go. I also removed a few things bolted to the firewall and started trying to decide if I’m pulling the engine and trans to cut the bit of firewall out of the way to lift it or just throwing a tarp over it. Stuff like that. Either way next step is cut and try to fit it again. Wash and repeat. That’s it for now. I can see a few dominoes that are going to fall after this but I think having a lose plan for them and knowing they are there while moving forward is going to be more productive than trying to address them all at the same time. While I do like taking things apart the minimum amount of times there’s just to many variables in fitment.
Almost a full year off from really putting hands on effort in, hopefully I’ll start making steady progress now. I’m going to try to have the motor out, everything trimmed and the motor and trans back in by Tuesday afternoon. Then onto whatever is next
The bonus of having the engine mounted high is lots of oil pan and exhaust clearance. And as long as you keep the distributor lower than the cowl top it will look good.
sounds like it would be easier to just run the sbc you have sitting next to it... Why are you worried about the carb level? the output on your trans should be what drives the angle of your motor in the chassis. If they corelate then your fine, but I'd hate for you to set the motor up and then have a angle problem with your driveshaft. My carb isn't perfectly flat, and it really doesn't care. Once you get the float level set, it will function fine. (as long as its not outside of adjustment but that's boat-like angles)
Exactly. Your carb doesn't know the angle. If you've never had an issue driving up a big hill, an extra couple degrees of your carb pad isn't going to make any difference.
Well the rear isn’t set yet either. I’ve always just set the carb pad flat at ride height and worked from there. With the motor level the carb is tipped forward enough for it to catch your eye from 20 feet away. I'm not building anything to suit that carb pad angle but it is something I’m keeping in consideration. Just because I’m talking about something doesn’t mean I’m “worried” about anything.
Anyhow, I remembered enough of the dance steps to snag the engine out and set about seeing g how close these early hemi motor mounts are. pretty dang close as it turns out! Just a little wide. They’ll work for mock up and then we’ll make new ones that fit 100%
while I understand the thought of having the carb base flat and the engine looking right, that doesn't change that the output should be somewhere around 3-4 degrees up-or-down / equal opposite the rearend angle. so if your motor works better at 3degrees Tail down (most do) your rearend should be around 3 degrees up. the rule of thumb i've always followed was the two numbers of the angles shouldn't be over 7-8 degrees. (3+3=6 = good) this will give you a good driveline alignment, and should help alleviate chance of vibrations and I thought this thing was gonna have a hood anyway? lol .
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