Quote Originally Posted by Irelands child
Nothing like being caught between the proverbial rock and the hard place as far as space. Luckily, that is not my problem. Not only do I have a 24x30 two car garage, I also have a 3rd stall in my basement (if not mistaken CA houses seldom have a basement) where I do most of my non-paint work. Painting is done in the 2 car area. Not sure that is worth the snow/weather problems we have, but....

I guess that I would have my welder repair the cracks and, if possible, either put a backer piece or fully box that whole area. The frame is 70 years old and pre WW2 roads were just not as good as they are today, even in CA.

Unless you already have them, giving up the rear discs would be a consideration. A Ford 8" or 9" with rebuilt backing plates will generally be as much brake as you will ever need on a 2800# car. It will free up $6-800 (plus another $2-300 for the e-brake lever, brackets and cables) for other goodies as well as several working days of conversion.(says I that have 4 wheel discs on an "A" roadster???) You will need to find a way to run the e-brake cables and mount the lever - a PITA.

Whatever you do - make it a safe driver. I go to several big shows a year and get down on my knees to look at the undersides. It is unbelievable the lack of safe components and how many people don't consider that aspect in the overall picture.

Enough preaching - gotta get to work on a couple of fenders so I can paint in a few weeks.

Hey Dave,

Thanks for the sermon...LOL! Just kidding! I think it'll be pretty easy to repair the cracks and perhaps scab a piece of angle iron along the top of the x for extra strength. Boxing that area would be a pain because the exhaust has to go through there as well as the brake pedal (yes I'm converting back to under the floor). My biggest reason for concern with all this is that my new engine will have a least 100 or so more HP than the old so torque on the frame will be a bit more intense. I sincerely doubt that I'll drive it hard at all but I wanna be prepared in case I can't resist the temtation. As for the rear discs, I know the drums will stop the car just fine but the new 17" rims I got have open spokes and it's much more cool to see a rotor & caliper in there than the old drum....vanity, I know..LOL! I got the Ford Motorsport style kit from a guy on ebay used with new rotors, pads, & e-brake shoes for $250. I needed to redo the drum brakes anyway so I went for the discs. On the front, I've been running the 9" Mustang II rotors for years but upgraded to the 11" with the wheel change.
So, assuming I can beef up the frame enough to hold me for a while, my next big expense will be the firewall.
Thanks again for your input and advise.
Are you painting your own car? I would love to paint my own but don't have a space to do it right now. I've painted 3 of my previous cars including this one.
Gotta get to work.
Later,
Randy