Projects Tomcat’s Crazy '31 Model A Build Thread (2010-?)

I reread the entire thread...and am so impressed with everything you have persevered through.
Thank you for the level of detail in your photo posts!
Your vision and execution to date is of a master craftsman...I am a hack...
I know mechanical brakes so no help with what's going on with that parking brake linkage....oh, its mechanical...
looks like the iron termites worked it over...that that part was acceptable to use in an assembly....hard to accept
Think about how far you have come and what you have accomplished...
Larry

 

@winduptoy Thank you for the kind words and all the likes Larry. It's been a long road and quite the challenge at times, but I'm hell bent on driving this thing. Oh, and I'm sure you are no hack! Keep the shinny side up!
Tom

 

Good morning everyone. Here's the latest on my project. Been working on a number of small, boring, but important details. A lot of time spent hand fabricating small brackets and things and just figuring where on the chassis these things will fit and function.

The Yukon bearing retainers came in a while back and they are a much better part. Blanchard ground flat, plated and with proper 3/8" holes.


A small tab to mount the speedometer cable and keep it from rubbing on things like the brake pedal arm. Space is tight everywhere and an 1/8" here or there makes a difference.






Rear Axle housing drilled and tapped for the vent and brake hose mounting.


Using the Rock Auto parts catalog I found a rear brake hose for a '68 F100 that is a good fit. The Pete & Jakes brake hose tab got shortened and tacked in place.


Suspension travel at full compression to check for any interference with the floor.


Next was to figure a way to finish routing the parking brake cables so they don't hit the drive shaft. This took quite a bit of time to work out. I finally came up with this bracket and it should do the trick.














Here again, the suspension and drive shaft are raised to the highest possible position to make sure the cables clear absolutely everything before trimming the cables to the final length.


Next up was rear axle bump stops. I found these front lower control arm bumpers that were used on pre-1962 Chevrolets. The first set of bumper brackets got trashed after realizing the axle was not quite squared up and would not hit the center of the axle tube. The axle also moves forward about a 1/4" at the contact point.

I'm guessing if the axle ever hit's the bumpers they will compress maybe a 1/2"? Once again space it at a premium, too short and the housing hits the floor and too long limits the compression travel.

Here is the second set of brackets with some 1/4" thick SST spacers to extend the length.




In between all that, I managed to remove the rust from these brake parts by soaking them in a mixture of hot water and wood bleach (Oxalic Acid).


After marinating them for a few hours the grooves from years of wear got filled with weld rod then metal finished. I have a little plastic blast cabinet that Western Auto used to sell. Remember them? After blasting they got shot with some 20+ year old Dupli-Color High Temp paint that I found in my stash. This stuff is still good!


That's all for now, happy Hot Rodding

 

Pretty slick fab work Tom. If I didn't know better I would say you must have an engineering background what with all the attention to details of every item. Impressive stuff.

 

Thanks @vtwhead. Yeah, I think sweating the details is the key to success. I did work at a National Lab for 39 years in the Science & Engineering field. I learned a lot along the way from people way smarter than me. Over the years I tried to apply what had learned to my racing endeavors to give me a bit of an edge. Racing has always been my true passion. Now, I'm just taking the same approach here. Hard to break old habits I guess.

 

As a detail-oriented engineer, you're doing great work. It's a pleasure to see your solutions to problems that arise.

 

Thanks for following along @05snopro440. Yep, lots of problems have cropped up along the way. Sometimes I brush off the seemingly simple things only to find out later they are a bit more challenging. The main problem always seems to be how to package everything into such a small car.

P.S. If you see something I missed or screwed up, don't be shy. let me know. Cheers.

 

So here's another update. I decided to go ahead and mock up the last two rear body mounts. That required removing a couple square nuts that were welded inside the frame and that's when another can of worms broke open. In any case I was not happy with the rear frame horns due to the shoddy fabrication from the previous builder along with several other issues as you will see.

Nuts removed.



Removing the nut revealed holes that are larger than I would like.


I made this spot face tool to clean up the surface around the holes. The 3/8" I.D. sleeves I welded in the sub- rails served as a guide while driving it with a socket and impact gun. It worked quite well but ended up being a waste of time.


Rear body mounts installed. That night I decided I could not live with these crappy rear frame horns. As you can see here, one of the issues is there is no clearance between the frame and the rear body crossmember.


A couple years ago I had bought a couple new horns knowing I might need them.




Amputation complete. Now the "fun" part begins.




Here are some of the other issues and why they just needed to go.


First step for the new horns was to narrow the top edge.


Next was to plot where the body mounts would land and trim any excess material. Then think long and hard about where to notch and bend them so they come out at the right dimension and are parallel for the stainless steel spreader bar.


This miss-match will also need to be addressed.


Also thinking about how short to make them and how to clear the body.


I ended up cutting notches in the horns to clear the body.


Two bends in each horn were needed to make this come out right. A little tricky and one step at time trying not to screw this up!


Once I had this all figured, I shortened the horns, drilled new holes for the spreader bar, and then made some "L" shaped filler pieces for the notches.


Still more work to do on these but it's slowly getting there.....

 

You are a reconstructive surgeon... Dr.Tomcat

 

Love your attention to details cool build

 

Thanks winduptoy! Unfortunately it is one hell of a long operation!

@continentaljohn Thank you sir!