Suedes Car Club
General => Project Reports => Topic started by: Wowcars on November 21, 2012 2:43 PM
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So, you may all know that Lucky has been gracious enough to let me use his hoist over the winter to remedy many things that have bothered me about the Stude since I got her on the road. Primarily completely updating the rear suspension. I scored a pair of Roush Racing Nascar (GM Truck style) control arms off the E-bay and panhard bar for $180 shipped. I'm pretty excited. I plan on running Slam Specialties SS6 bags n the rear. All of this will require major changes to the trunk pan and rear floor, which need replacement anyways.
The next item will be front floor replacement. After re-engineering the trans mount, I'll be cutting out the floors and re-doing the driveshaft tunnel and floors. I'm pretty lucky since we have a 10ft power shear and brake here at work to be able to fabricate floor pans nicely.
After that will be fabbing up a rear crossmember to mount a hitch. We'll see if I have any time after that for anything else before the wedding. Or if Lucky and Roxy kick me out by then. But there will be lots of quality time in their garage together as Lucky builds his '29 Roadster...
First thing done, was to remove the lakes pipes. Gone for good. Evolution of a car, as Eyeball says.
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Great to see you making progress! Keep the updates comming.
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Keep the updates comming.
On both cars!!!
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Rad
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Woot Woot!!
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Well, this all came out last night. I'm pretty sure I bought NOS springs for this a while back after breaking the originals. I have no idea how ::) . Oh well, into the scrap pile. I plan on cutting down some 2x4 square tubing and hole sawing a half circle to weld to the axle housing and that will be the perch for the truck arms. We also established rough ride height, although I now realize I didn't take any pictures of it.
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Heres a couple of pics with the new arms put in place just for lateral placement ideas.
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How about a pic of the ubot situation.
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The u-bolt situation got ugly. The kid running the press evidently used the wrong die. Chris and I heated them up to barely go through the control arm. With minimal success. I went back this morning and the owner of the shop made new ones that fit beautifully in the control arms. If the weather isn't horrible tomorrow, I'll head out and try and get the arms on the axle.
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Let's see some pics when you get time.
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So last couple of weeks have had some progress. After I got new U-bolts, I mocked up the arms with the new bolts. I made this out of 2x3 rect tubing Lucky had laying around.
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/988B1E4B-677B-43A3-991F-EA68C5550E2B-13160-00000AB5FE4E1C76.jpg)
Then with the handy Chop saw....
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/F98B636D-F94E-479A-8EF5-858F57D78CBE-13160-00000AB6071CC993.jpg)
There's my pads to weld onto the axle tube. I had to modify them a bit because of the inward angle of the control arms, but will do the job nicely, I think.
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/ADE0C1B1-34F8-41E6-9A91-03C2AAD773A3-13160-00000AB62E4F8D24.jpg)
I then found that I had to cut out some of the original hanger bearing crossmember. Now, I think I'm going to cut it all out. Did I mention I REALLY like the plasma cutter?
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/0EA43D4C-3D0F-4D12-BC94-0CA291606896-13160-00000AB38E26F639.jpg)
With the crossmember opened up to clear the control arms, I was then able to drop the car back down to "aired out" height and check clearances.
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/400AAC37-EFBE-4467-9FF4-9F81E1E05480-13160-00000AB62400EECA.jpg)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/E6201DCE-8F70-4DC4-9D99-EBF213C7B38D-13160-00000AB61A656DC1.jpg)
It doesn't look like it here, but I have about 2.5" clearance between the control arm and frame aired out.
With that information I was able to contact Lucky's air suspension friend and hooked me up with bags, compressor, tank and valves tonight. So next week, I should be able to start getting that stuff in order.
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lookin good bolo...
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Wow!!! Them are some kick ass U bolts. How are you liking working under a hoist, sure beats the hell out of laying on your back, right? :)
Looks like you C the frame some time in the past.
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Yes, I love the plasma cutter AND the hoist! I did put the c-notch in the frame about 5 years ago at Driven. You can really see what the moisture in storage for 2 years did to the bottom of the car.
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/F98B636D-F94E-479A-8EF5-858F57D78CBE-13160-00000AB6071CC993.jpg)
I forgot to point out a very small tech tip in this picture. I'm sure most of you have done this, but maybe not. My axle pad was too narrow to clamp tightly into the chop saw. I've had this happen before and I always cut some scrap the same length and put it on the other end of the clamp for it to tighten against with the part to be cut also secured in place.
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^^^^^^^^^^
Yeah, a chop saw can be a wicked tool.
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Looking good sir
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I'm enjoying the progress, thanks for the update.
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So yesterday, I went back out after the holiday break and decided to tackle my rotted floors since my air suspension parts haven't shown up yet...
I'm sure most of you didn't know how bad the floors were in the Stude after all these years, but it has been bothering me since I bought it. I had also built a shoddy driveshaft tunnel years ago that I never liked. It all had to come out.
Before:
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0310.jpg)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0311.jpg)
And after some time with the plasma
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0315.jpg)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0316.jpg)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0317.jpg)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0318.jpg)
After several hours with careful cutting, I was tired enough and inhaled enough plasma fumes to call it a day. I'm going to make some patterns for the new front floors before I cut any more out.
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Ah, nothing like the smell of old sheetmetal, undercoating and whatever else has accumulated when you're cutting it. Floor it.
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Wow... looks like fun!
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If you needed those brackets, i had an extra set from when i did mine on the merc, however, yours look like they worked out just fine! looking great bolo
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Since I didn't go to Bismarck, I spent as much time (and money) as I could on the car this weekend. At work, I got two 4x8 foot sheets of cold rolled 18ga steel. Our sheet metal guy helped me form the front floor boards from the patterns I made. It is nice to have access to a nice sheet metal shop! Saturday morning I went out with the new floors and dropped the passenger into place and fit REALLY nicely. The 1" flange towards the middle is where I will spot weld the trans tunnel.
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0337.jpg)
After ensuring it was going to work, Lucky and I laid down some beads in the panel for strength and drilled for the seat mount. We then found that it needed a step to mate up with the rocker nicely. So we swapped dies on the bead roller and ran that. Test fit it a couple of more times and found everything I needed to clean up for welding it. I then drilled some 1/8" holes and used my new clecos (thanks Dad) to hold it into place. Then, one by one, opened those holes to a 3/8" hole in the floor only and plug welded the floor to the bracing underneath, firewall, rockers and cowl.
It was going so well until Lucky informed me that I still had a crossmember to cut out and a new one to fabricate under the floors. So after calling him some colorful names and cursing to myself, we got the old cross member out and figured out the steel I would need for the new ones. But because of that, the drivers side floor will have to wait a little bit.
I thought I took more pics, but evidently not. Here is with the beads laid down but before welding it in.
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0338.jpg)
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Looks like they fit great.
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I have a truck arm set from a '65 Chevy so the tech on how to make them mount to a different axle is a great help! If it is driving now, how does it work?
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Fordman, its still up on the hoist. Yesterday I got back out there and finally located the front trailing arms mounts on the new crossmember. After many hours of trying to mock up routes for exhaust, I finally said to hell with it and will run it under the rockers. Just as I was tacking in the last of the control arm mounts, we ran out of Argon, so I'll have to wait til we get more welding gas.
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That is the general consensus of the downfall of this suspension, it kills the exhaust routing!
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It would be just fine if I wasn't running bags. I could route it closer to coil springs than the bags, just don't want to get heat near them.
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Well, Tuesday night I went out and finished up the new transmission mount. I had found that my old one set the tailshaft angle way off. Now with the original floor gone, I was able to push the tailshaft up to be about 2.5 degrees. After finally getting that situated, I started to set my pinion angle. After centering the rear axle and getting everything set and ensuring everything would clear, I realized I needed to finish my forward control arm mounts. So I finish welded those up and let it cool. I left then and I'll be able to go and weld that mount into the frame maybe tomorrow night. Then set my pinion for the final time and weld the brackets to the axle tubes. My air bag mounts should be here Monday and I can start mocking up the bags and upper mounts.
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If I would've known you needed air bag mounts I could've brought you some to the christmas party.
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Of course. Not a problem, tho because I actually needed the lower mounts to raise the bag 1" over the control arm. I'll show you why when I got to deal with it. I still may need upper mounts if you have them. What do you want for them?
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I can't wait to see some pics!
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So I got back out there yesterday after Karen and I got back from a weekend in Duluth. Here are some pics:
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0375_zpsf84d9dd0.jpg)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0376_zps8c974698.jpg)
Here is the passenger bag mocked up. Note how it is about an inch up? That is because I had to get a thread adapter for the male threads on the control arm to mate up to the female threads on the bag. Thank you McMaster-Carr! The lower bag mounts that showed up yesterday will make up the gap between the two so there will be a solid surface for the bag to rest on.
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0378_zps0563d705.jpg)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0379_zps03d683af.jpg)
These are pics of the forward control arm mount. Chris had some heavy gauge C channel that worked out well for the mounts. May not be pretty, but its strong and I think will work good.
After getting everything checked, set, rechecked, tacked, and checked again, I went on to start cutting the floor out for where the crossmembers need to go for the upper bag mounts and shock mounts.
After about 5 hours of plasma cutting, cleaning undercoated off and welding, I couldn't breathe much and called it a night.
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Where are you getting your air ride stuff from?
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Lucky has a friend named Nic Trovecke who owns Crazy Talk Customs in East Bethel. Seems to be THE guy for doing bag suspension around here. I told him what I was doing and what I wanted, and he advised me of the parts to get and gave me a good deal on everything. The bag mounts I got off of Ebay.
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What the hell, now the pics are missing.
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What the hell, now the pics are missing.
Yeah.............can you fix it??
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They were there this morning. Could be the server. Try to upload them instead.
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The one is back
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Last night I got back out there and modified the lower bag mounts to perch on the arm. I notched out the mount about 5/8" so then the mating surface would be flush with the bottom of the thread adapter
Here is the McMaster-Carr thread adapter:
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0410_zps75ef9294.jpg)
End product:
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0411_zps87180066.jpg)
With bag mocked up. Looks like it is not level at all in the picture, but everything is.
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/My%20Cars/IMG_0412_zps689aa731.jpg)
Now to get my upper mounts and crossmembers in place...
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LQQKN' good Ryan.
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Well, I've been lacking updates, so here are some more
First few pics are the upper bag mounts in place. I thought I was going to have to run a crossmember to mount the upper mounts, but it was only an inch from each frame rails. So I bought some 1"x3" rectangle tubing and welded it to the inside of the rails. then welded the upper plates to that. Turned out pretty clean, I thought.
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/th_IMG_0428_zps5c2c8134.jpg) (http://s267.photobucket.com/user/wowcars1940/media/IMG_0428_zps5c2c8134.jpg.html)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/th_IMG_0429_zps34a3d941.jpg) (http://s267.photobucket.com/user/wowcars1940/media/IMG_0429_zps34a3d941.jpg.html)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/th_IMG_0430_zpsaf2ef592.jpg) (http://s267.photobucket.com/user/wowcars1940/media/IMG_0430_zpsaf2ef592.jpg.html)
Finally, I was able to go back to the floors and got the Drivers side in. Made some patterns for the trans tunnel and driveshaft. Took a couple hours out of my work day and bent these up at our metal shop. A bit of tweaking when I went to put them in, but overall, I'm happy with how the floors turned out.
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/th_IMG_0437_zpsb985273c.jpg) (http://s267.photobucket.com/user/wowcars1940/media/IMG_0437_zpsb985273c.jpg.html)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/th_IMG_0438_zps027522d3.jpg) (http://s267.photobucket.com/user/wowcars1940/media/IMG_0438_zps027522d3.jpg.html)
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/th_IMG_0439_zpse6ba365f.jpg) (http://s267.photobucket.com/user/wowcars1940/media/IMG_0439_zpse6ba365f.jpg.html)
I also started on the panhard bar. I bought this at the same time as the control arms from the same place. The drivers side arm has a beautiful adjustable mount for the panhard bar. Of course the bar was way too long for my car, so I ground out the welds that held the Heim joint and was able to salvage that. I bought two of these http://www.aa-mfg.com/pdshop/shop/item.aspx?itemid=559 (http://www.aa-mfg.com/pdshop/shop/item.aspx?itemid=559) to weld to the pass side frame for a double shear mount.
Chris helped me figure out how I was going to do a shock mount and, if I feel better tonight (caught Karens cold yesterday) I'm going to start on the shock mount crossmember.
I have 62 days....
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I think that floor looks outstanding.
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I think that floor looks outstanding.
I agree.
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I think that floor looks outstanding.
YES!!
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So I rolled it out of the garage yesterday and was finally able to get a unobstructed ground look at it. Some of you have seen this already...
Ride height:
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/IMG_0449_zps32443161.jpg)
And Aired out:
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/wowcars1940/IMG_0450_zps836d6443.jpg)
I think its PLENTY low. Especially considering I kept the original floors in the rear.
I still have to wire and plumb the air system, do exhaust, modify the seat frames and a few other small items...
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Are you going to bag the front at some point?
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Maybe. After doing the rear, I'm leaning more to doing the front, also. Only bad thing is with S-10 stuff, you have to relocate the shocks, which really limits your turning radius. Unless I pony up for shockwaves, which are a bit too much for me right now.
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I had to relocate the shocks on the 48 when I did the front on that too.
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I hear the cool kids static drop the front and bag the back. ;)
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Yep killer
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So I haven't posted much since Prime Steel, but its back on the hoist now. After building the new transmission mount, I found that I had crushed the dipstick tube on the firewall cover that I made last year. So I had to pull that off, which required, dropping the master cylinder, throttle cable, and pedal mount, replacing the tube and reassembling everything. But its done and better than it was. I also got the gas tank reinstalled, new fuel lines run. New battery box built and in place, new turn signal switch that I was having issues with at '50s last year, and lock-out wiring harness installed inside the transmission. Now I need to run new battery cables and reinstall the filler neck and I should be about ready to fire it up again. Then still have to modify the seats (which Lucky was kind enough to volunteer to do), run some kind of exhaust, run some rudimentary air management system to the front and drop some carpet in before the wedding. Not looking impossible...
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Go man go!