Everyone needs a good piece of Hickory! :)
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Everyone needs a good piece of Hickory! :)
Jack, I bolted a flat plate to the trunk drip rail, for the bottom, and screwed the top plate to the inner liner. Worked pretty slick.
Jack, shouldn't that be "he who shall not be named" ptuey, ptuey!! ?:D
Bob, I don't use his middle names.
Roger, Since I didn't think of that before the upholstery, I'm going to go with a 3' aluminum prop rod that will fold over flat along the back edge of the trunk.Quote:
Originally Posted by rspears
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Jack, that'll work! I started to tell you that you could do it without any problems to the interior, but then I noticed that your trunk panels are down from the lip, leaving a void between the panel and the body. I did my panels to fit out against the inside of the body panel, giving me about another foot of width and leaving the trunk gutter exposed for mounting the bottom of the folding prop from the gutter.
. . . but Texas made me. Around Dallas, they've been enforcing the two-plate rule. I hated putting a front plate on this grille, but I couldn't figure another way to do it.
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Jack, can you make a bracket that bolts on with the lower coil over bolt and mount the plate in front of the axle tube sort of? We have the same darn front plate law and I'm going to have to put mine on my fender of my 40.
I looked at that possibility, but then all of the bracketry was hanging out in view. I've got it bolted on solid this way, and that's where it's going to stay - at least for a while.
It never rains in Texas in July - apparently except when I'm taking my coupe to the shop to have the A/C purged and filled. <sigh>
Hoping it won't shrink . . .
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Nice to see you out driving it. Too bad it's raining though. It looks so awesome though!
Tell me about it! Last week, I ran a clay bar over the whole body, cleaned and polished all the chrome & aluminum and waxed everything. Oh well - rain happens.
I have to recalibrate the Vega steering box. It tried to wander like a 4-year old in a candy store.
The A/C is C.O.L.D. The guy did excellent work.
Check yer toe in first.Quote:
Originally Posted by Henry Rifle
I'll do that, Don. Thanks for the tip. I did have it set on a machine before I put it up on the jack stands, and haven't driven at all since then.
Caster = +5.7* (Pete & Jake's spec +5.0*)
Toe = +0.16" (Pete & Jakes spec +0.125")
Camber = -0.7*
The steering wheel feels overly tight when the box is centered, and I have some play in the steering that I don't like. I just need to go through the whole steering setup front to back to see if I've forgotten to tighten something.
Jack, my Vega box has some free play at the center, too, so I'll be interested in what you find. With a 13" wheel I've got about 3"-3.5" of "slop" at the center point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Henry Rifle
Roger, I didn't have any free play in the wheel. It was just that if I made a slight correction to the right, the car would to move right too quickly. I thought that might have been something loose downstream of the box. I have less than an inch of play when the wheel is centered, however, the wheel was too tight when centered.
I couldn't find anything loose downstream of the box, so I loosened up the Vega box a bit so that it's firm at center, but not overly tight. Then added a touch more of toe-in, and increased the caster a bit. I haven't had it up to interstate speeds yet, but it steers much better than before.
When I get some more time, I'll take it out for a higher speed run. Right now, I'm hot and tired and done for the day.
Jack----------you said that it was firm at the center??????? possibly the quickness comes from the steering gear going free from the tight(firm) spot-----I have found that a lot of catchy, quickness, etc in steering systems comes from tight spots (maybe just a little firm?) in everything from old Ford, Allis wide front tractors , trucks (semi also) go karts, to top fuel funny cars/dragsters---------also the front wheels need to be of a spacing that the king pin line to the ground should pass thru the center of the tire contact patch----------in the pics yours seem a little wide?
Today at noon, with the final turn of a screwdriver, it is done.
I started this project in 2003, and have NEVER taken this long on one before. But, with the car in storage for more than three years while we were moving to and returning from Italy, then time out for selling our old house and moving into a new one - not to mention a couple of time outs for my wife's health problems - here it is. Done. Completato. Fertiggestellt. Terminé.
I'll probably post a few more photos, and perhaps a video.
I also owe a lot of thanks to members - present and past - of this board for help, suggestions, and for just listening to me complain.
Thank you all.
http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/...ps31a6490b.jpg
Henry one thing that made a big difference in the handling of my coupe was to get a four wheel alinement ... i checked and rechecked putting it together and thought it was dead on, but when he put the laser lights on each wheel it was off about a 1/4'' in front and almost the same in the rear.. the sec. i drove it i could tell how much better it handled ..Quote:
Originally Posted by Henry Rifle
Wow, Jack! Declaring it D O N E !! Congrats on the milestone, and on all the fit & finish details. The car looks great, top to bottom, and now you can enjoy it. I told you once back around 2008/9 that I had captured a side shot of your car and had it as my desk top background at the office, for inspiration. It was a long time coming, but as you say with some extended "pauses" along the way that weren't planned back when you started and you kept pushing to the end. Well done, my friend, well done indeed!
One more huge attaboy Jack!!!!
Wow! I didn't think street rods were ever done! lol! Congrats on getting it finished. We all know it's a great feeling. Enjoy!!
Wayne,Quote:
Originally Posted by parkwood
I had it on a 4-wheel alignment machine, and everything checked out within tolerance. It's much better with the slightly increased caster. I may have a bit of a problem with scrub radius, but I haven't been able to measure that yet.
So you got negative camber, a wide king pin to contact patch, and only a minimum of toe in----------
Interior came out great, car looks SUPER!!!!!
Them FAT front tires ain't helpin any
Wow! Calling it done! I don't think I have ever owned a car that I called really done. Congratulations.
What he said.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scooting
Good on ya, it's been a saga for you; but an interesting thread to follow.
Thanks for sharing.
I no longer have a minimum toe in or a minimum caster. I increased them both a bit and it helped a lot. I'm not worried about the relatively small negative camber. The Vega box is tuned and Pitman arm is straight ahead and dead center.Quote:
Originally Posted by DA34GUY
I'm considering a narrower tire. That would shrink the tire patch quite a bit, but it wouldn't change the distance from the intersection of the kingpin axis at the ground to the center of the tire.
Maybe I'm not quite done . . .
those wide wheel/tires and that king pin angle transfer a lot of weight as one wheel will be pushed down and the opposite raised as you turn them. Any alignment shop that does trucks can tweeque the axle to get rid of the negative camber. You also can keep adding castor until it gets hard to turn the wheel (Manual steering?)
Jerry, It is manual steering, but it's not really hard to turn. I can't get much more caster without the tie rod rubbing on the bottom rod of the hairpin. I might get another degree or so.
One thing I have not checked is the weight distribution at all four corners because I don't have the scales.
Congrats on getting it to this point! Now to start to be able to enjoy it. I miss that about mine for sure.
I changed out the front tires today to Firestone (Coker) F560 165/R15. THey have a tread width of 4.8" compared to the 7.5" wide tires I had before. They also gave me a bit more rake. The steering is much better, but not perfect.
I have coil-overs front and rear, so I'm trying to find a place with scales so I can check the weight on all four corners. I have them adjusted to the same length, but that doesn't always tell the story.
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Footnote on the Coker Firestone clones: I had them balanced on A Hunter Road Force machine, and the tech wasn't sure he could balance them. One tire had 40# of runout. After a couple of remounts, they finally go them balanced. I was surprised when I checked the sidewall. These "Firestones" are made in Ukraine. :HMMM:
Leave it to Cory Coker, he'd F&ck up a good thing. Them f560's used to be made in China, but nooooooooo Cory needed to save $3 per tire now he's got JUNK as usual. I've been using 145's, 155's and 165's by Nankang and they usuall balance out with less than 1 1/2 oz of weights.
Smaller tire even looks a lot better Jack.
Remember, yer drivin a Hot Rod not a Caddy
Looking good Jack. I know we have discussed this before but it is a darn shame that by law you have to have the plate on the front of the car. Will you be running side panels to hide your engine ?
Thanks, Mark. No I have no plans at the present to include hood sides. A couple of so-called hood sides came with the car, but they were so poorly made that they couldn't be made to fit. My original intent was to have an old-style hot rod with just a hood top and an open engine bay. But then, the infamous "bling monster" bit me, and I kept finding places for chrome and polished aluminum. Other than small things here and there, I don't plan on any major changes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiplash23T
The plate bugged me also. I tried several different approaches, and couldn't make it work. I'll keep thinking on it, but I had to get it mounted so I could drive it. Anyhow, I figure if we get some snow in the drive, I can plow my way out.
A fellow rodder I know ordered BFG P285X70R-15's from Coker as BFG stopped making them. The tire tech could not balance either one of them. Coker made good on it, but this seems to be a problem with their some of their tires. I have those on the back of my '32 but when I change them out over the winter, I will be going to 17 inch rims so I can get a 30 inch tire from Goodyear. Not many 30 inch tire are made for passenger cars anymore--mostly all-terrain tires for trucks and SUV's. :(
After fighting with the Coker/Ukranian/Firestone crap/clone F560's for a while, I went back to the basics. I pulled the Cokers and gave them to a local Fox body Mustang drag racer and installed a pair of Nankang 165-80/R14's (thanks for the hint, Dan). They balanced out perfectly, down to 3 lbs on the Road Force balancer.
Attachment 62140
Next, I built an extension bracket to lower the Panhard bar attachment to the frame. That made a line through the frame and axle attachment points exactly level with the ground. The extension bracket isn't beautiful, but if I ever find myself giving a rat's backside about that, I'll do something about it. Maybe.
Attachment 62138
Attachment 62139
Finally, I lowered the rear end of the car so that the rear Panhard bar attachment points are within 1/16" of level with the ground.
Driving test tomorrow.
With the new front tires, panard bar adjustment, it outta be a lot better now Jack
