Thread: Project "Left Overs" is back alive !

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Jim, that's good info about the Ace hardware trailer plates. I just am not sure if the bolt pattern would have been the same as the Total Performance perch I used, but worth checking out, that's for sure.

You are right about 8 inch stuff being a lot more expensive than 9 inch stuff. I don't know if it is because of availabilty or what, but it costs a lot more for everything. I'm not too worried about hurting it, as I rarely get on my cars hard, even my 27. I drive like an old man.............oh wait, I AM an old man. Don has an 8 incher in his T bucket, with only something like 2:79 gears, non posi, and he does push his harder than I do, and it has held up well.

I was going to buy him another center section with deeper gears for Xmas sometime, but that ratio seems to work great with his light weight, 3000 stall convertor, and good HP. When I am following him in my 27 and he leaves a light I have to push it a little just to keep up with him............for high gears it launches hard. If I remember correctly, I think the rear Kurt gave me has a similar ratio and that will be nice because I want this rpu to be the car I drive on the interstate to distance events. The 4:30's in my 27 make it very unpleasant at anything over 50 mph.

As you can see by this picture, Don has a somewhat heavy foot.

Don

Don - a place that most overlook is the lowly Pinto. Although they have 4 lug axles many, not all, have the standard everyday 8". I found a very nice 3.40 ratio punkin that I ended up using in my 'bucket

Oh really, I didn't know they had 8 inchers in them. Problem is, you never see a Pinto anymore, or a Vega either. I'd love to have one of either to make a little drag car, but they have all been gobbled up, or are so pricey these days.

Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Oh really, I didn't know they had 8 inchers in them. Problem is, you never see a Pinto anymore, or a Vega either. I'd love to have one of either to make a little drag car, but they have all been gobbled up, or are so pricey these days.

Don

The ones in the rust belt ended up at the crusher quickly but there are still a few left in back woods salvage yards - if you can get in to do a wander. And that was only some of them that had the 8's. Guess I shouldn't have put my last two out for the trash collector last summer

Today's project was to get the rear wishbone mounts made and welded on. Sometimes an easy task doesn't end up so easy, and Dan sure put in a lot of work today to get this job done.

What complicated it was that the Speedway wishbones were a couple of inches too long to tuck neatly in front of the kickup. I would have had to extend the frame out a couple of inches more to use them as is, and that would have looked disproportionate, I think. So what we did was shorten the wishbones by two inches.

We could have just hacked two inches off the ends and ordered new bungs to weld in, but that would take another week from Speedway, so we cut out the welds and salvaged the original bungs. Dan got those welded back in place and now the wishbones are 2 inches shorter. The mounts set inboard a little so the tie rod ends tuck up nice and tight to the frame. I should have no interferance with the steering arm this way.

We also removed all the leaves from the front spring except for the main leaf, to get an idea where the car should sit when the engine and body are on it. This week I will order my tie rod from Speedway, bolt some hubs onto the spindles, put the tires and wheels on, and then install the engine and body temporarily to see how everything is fitting.

Here are some pictures of what we got done today.

Don