March 29, 2024 6:08 AM

Author Topic: Racer J's 28 roadster  (Read 79876 times)

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Offline racerjohnson

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Racer J's 28 roadster
« on: December 02, 2006 8:03 AM »
Step 1
« Last Edit: October 23, 2014 6:07 AM by racerjohnson »
The problem with having an artistic eye is that you always end up making more work for yourself. -Cleatus on the HAMB

Offline Eyeball

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Racer J's 28 roadster
« Reply #1 on: December 02, 2006 8:49 AM »
"what year were those, eyeball"

The axle and bones should be 46 or 47. The 48 axle looks a little different.


Make sure you order dropped steering arms too. Assemble the front end and then you will know how much drop you will need to get the draglink under the bones. I think the tie rod holes are tappered from both sides so you can mount the drag link on top or under the arms if you need more clearance.
soaken wet shoes and winkled fingers...
hours and hours
inch at a time...

henryj1951 HAMB

Offline Eyeball

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Racer J's 28 roadster
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2006 6:09 PM »
If I recall it was parked with the Salt Lake boys (Throttlers CC).
soaken wet shoes and winkled fingers...
hours and hours
inch at a time...

henryj1951 HAMB

Offline racerjohnson

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Racer J's 28 roadster
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2006 6:56 AM »
Notice how the tudor cowl and door is approximately 1 inch taller from the beltline to the bottom of the body than the roadster is. It's more apparent when you see how the subframes match up. It would also be more apparent if half of my door wasn't rusted away!! You may be asking yourself how I line up everything and make sure my twisted body is square when I'm missing so much sheetmetal. That's a good question. Hell if I know. It's pretty close.

I braced the heck out of the body, welding everything together, then cut the inner halves of the subframe away for the frame to go. I also straightened that driver's side frame rail in front. Twice. After cutting notches and welding them, it shrunk a little more than I predicted so it was bowed the opposite way. Damn. Cut a couple more lines with the cutoff wheel and the second time worked out better.
The problem with having an artistic eye is that you always end up making more work for yourself. -Cleatus on the HAMB

Offline racerjohnson

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Racer J's 28 roadster
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2006 7:01 AM »
I also finally worked up the balls to try to install my repair sleeves on my axle tubes. I HATE fitting interference fit parts together with heat. I always get the piston pin in 3/4 of the way on at least one piston on press fit rods. These sleeves are .002 interference fit, but the damn sleeves were a bit out of round. Heated the first one nicely, and it dropped right on. SWEET!! Heated the second one up nicely, dropped half way on. Shit. Wood block and BFH solved it. I'll have an assembled rearend in no time now. Does anybody have a HUGE impact gun? the pinion nut on my open drive center section doesn't want to come off. Thats all for now.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2014 6:13 AM by racerjohnson »
The problem with having an artistic eye is that you always end up making more work for yourself. -Cleatus on the HAMB

Offline Eyeball

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Racer J's 28 roadster
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2006 7:14 AM »
"Does anybody have a HUGE impact gun? the pinion nut on my open drive center section doesn't want to come off."

someone once said you can move the world with a big enough lever. breaker bar + 6' of pipe = loose nut :)
soaken wet shoes and winkled fingers...
hours and hours
inch at a time...

henryj1951 HAMB

Offline racerjohnson

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Racer J's 28 roadster
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2006 7:14 PM »
I'm kind of a one-man-band so I don't have a good way to hold the pinion while i pry with Bertha, my favorite 6' pipe.
The problem with having an artistic eye is that you always end up making more work for yourself. -Cleatus on the HAMB

Offline Tom

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Racer J's 28 roadster
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2006 7:27 PM »
Quote from: "racerjohnson"
. Does anybody have a HUGE impact gun? the pinion nut on my open drive center section doesn't want to come off. Thats all for now.


Sorry Pete, we live to far apart. But please keep us posted, I like your writing style. You got a sense of humor :) .
"A rat rod is a hot rod with poor workmanship". Roger S.

Offline racerjohnson

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Front suspension
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2007 7:13 AM »
Well, I'm excited with the last couple days worth of work. I now have a front frame stub with an engine sitting in it on it's own suspension. I built my spring mounts for the trailing arms to mount the spring so i could see at what height the front frame rails would sit. It worked out like this:

I wanted the frame to sit 2.5 (give or take, c'mon now) degrees nose high and the motor to be doing the same. The motor actually wants 5 degrees nose high for the carburetor to sit level, but to hell with that. It looks goofy. It just works out that setting my axle to 10 degrees positive caster and setting the frame right on top of my heim joints with the 2.5 degree frame setting gives me about 2 1/2 to 3 inches of front axle to frame clearance. Nice. Does that seem like exessive clearence?? I'm guessing here. That olds motor is heavy.

A long time ago, I measured how much the spring squatted under the weight of that beautiful olds. Squatted 2 3/4". I decided I wanted 2" of suspension clearance. Why? i dunno, I usually end up driving my cars hard and beating the crap out of them. So i put 5" worth of blocks between the axle and frame, angled the frame 2.5 degrees nose high, installed the spring, leveled the shackles parallel to the ground, centered the frame between the spindles, and made some shackle mounts for the trailing arms, welded them to the trailing arms, and mounted the spring. That process looks so easy after I typed that, why did it take 12 hours to accomplish?

As you can see, my rear transmission/motor mount will double as the bones mounting points. This moves the trailing arms closer together by about 2 inches at the heims vs. putting them directly under the frame (actually it's 4 inches because i moved the frame rails towards each other an inch on each side, so the rails are basically parallel). I'm trying to overcome the negative side effects of this splitting wishbones business. The spring and shackles being the only transverse locating device is weird, but screw putting a panhard bar in (for now). I also didn't like the pivot of the trailing arms directly under the frame nor on the outside of the frame rails because with that '47 (?) axle having such a wide bones perches at the axle, I've been told the tires will rub the trailing arms when turning. Looked like it too. So i've moved the heims as close together as possible while maintaining a sane amount of caster.
The problem with having an artistic eye is that you always end up making more work for yourself. -Cleatus on the HAMB

Offline racerjohnson

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Racer J's 28 roadster
« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2007 7:31 AM »
None of this spring mount business came without a cost though. I may have to move the tie rod out in front of the axle. My spring sits in between the axle and the tie rod. This isn't a problem until I turn the steering wheel and the tie rod moves forward and will whack the spring and shackle. damn. I'll figure something out. A tie rod doesn't have to be straight does it? Overall the spring shackle mounts on the trailing arms were what kept me up nights. Just took a few hours of cutting, grinding, fitting, grinding, fitting, grinding, measuring, grinding, fitting, grinding. . . but they turned out all right so I'm pleased. I wish someone who has done this before would come over and point out something I haven't thought of cuz i'm sure there's something.

My fan blade swings in the channel in the front crossmember. It allowed me to lower the motor in the chassis an inch or two. I like it. Until my rubber motor mounts wear out and I hit the brakes hard.

Now that all this front stub business is tack welded together, I can weld some frame rails to the front stub. I am planning on 2-3 degrees of rake for the rest of the car (ass high). I like the look of all of it. I've noticed there is no one "traditional" stance. It'll have a little rake to it and sit relatively high. The rear end is being bolted together Friday with the spring in front of the axle.
The problem with having an artistic eye is that you always end up making more work for yourself. -Cleatus on the HAMB

Offline racerjohnson

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« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2007 7:50 AM »
don't be jealous of my sexy motor mount. Shine would be jealous.

By the way, are all of these damned old cars so twisted and bent? My license plate is going to say "FUDGED" cuz the whole damn car is one big "add a little here, fudge a little there" type measuring. Not one piece of metal on the car is straight, nothing is parallel, nothing is square, and it would take weeks to straighten everything. Is 1/8" tolerence normal on most parts of these things? I'll try to locate the axle side to side and 2 out of three measurements say its centered, but one will say it isn't. And it isn't. 1/4 inch off to one side. Is that going to be a big deal?
The problem with having an artistic eye is that you always end up making more work for yourself. -Cleatus on the HAMB

Offline Tom

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Racer J's 28 roadster
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2007 3:25 PM »
Quote from: "racerjohnson"

By the way, are all of these damned old cars so twisted and bent? . Is 1/8" tolerence normal on most parts of these things?


Yes!!!

If you get with in an 1/8 of a inch you should be fine.
"A rat rod is a hot rod with poor workmanship". Roger S.

Offline racerjohnson

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« Reply #12 on: January 08, 2007 3:51 AM »
with rearend
The problem with having an artistic eye is that you always end up making more work for yourself. -Cleatus on the HAMB

Offline sko_ford

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« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2007 4:06 AM »
she startin to look like a hot rod
WANTED: Mel Tillis valve covers

Offline Eyeball

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« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2007 6:12 PM »
Wow that thing is mint.
soaken wet shoes and winkled fingers...
hours and hours
inch at a time...

henryj1951 HAMB