Setting up the New Spindles

Last night I received the new spindles from JW  Rod Garage.They are are good people to deal with,and they stand by their products. Eric in sales/tech is real easy to talk to and very helpful.Prices are fair also.Tell them the Fyin Wop sent ya.
These were Super Bell units and they said that the bushings in the  units are pre-reamed in the spindles.I ordered a new king pin kit along with the spindles.They were a super tight fit,and I knew I was going to have a problem if instsalled that way.
I pulled out a brake wheel cylinder hone,attached to a drill and some penetrating oil,and honed them out a little bit more.that did the trick and now they fit snug on the axle and spindle.They should loosen up a little bit more when the grease get moving around them.
I'll be flipping the frame over next week when some friends come over to start the engine/trans mock up.
Paisano

Set Backs are part of the game

I guess there's always a set back when doing things from scratch.Last week when I was setting up the front steering,rods,etc,I ran into the common problem of clearance  of the drag link.It was hitting the radius arms,preventing full travel.The solution to this is the famous well known,art of heating the spindle where the curve of it starts to lower it aprox.3/8 to 1/2" or so.All went well when I did this.The secret is to heat the spindle till its cherry red,but not enough for it to start that "flaking" of the metal,before it starts to seperate and melt.You have to do this process slowly and take your time.Use a long pipe to do the bending.They say to do this on a big vise, or on the axle, so I chose to do this on the axle,with all rubber and joints off.That way I didn't have to possibly over bend the spindle arm.And besides,running back and forth with heated metal and assembling for fit just wasn't in my nomanclayture.{I can't run worth a damm anymore}You have to let these pieces cool down on there own,Slowly!! is the word for this ,[not dipping on water whatsoever,belive me].Everything came out well I thought.So I figured that I would take the spindles to Bill Colman's shop and have them manafluxed.[He did all my block prep] Cheap insurance,I thought considering these pieces are what's going to tie the front wheel on eh?Before we eve started he told me that these old boys [44-48],were famous for cracking around the machined area near where the back bearing inner race seats.
Man if  he wasn't right,one had a crack in it 3/4" & the other almost a 1/2". Where I had heated it was ok.At least I didn't screw that up,which gave me some encouragement.

Anyhow,Bill charged me 20 bucks and was on my way home,after he recogmended not to use them,unless I wanted to walk home someday,and maybe in one piece if I was lucky.So I drove home accepting his exprience in these matters,and went on line to buy a new set.Here's a couple flicks of the spindles,showing where to heat them in order to modify for radius road clearance and where they are prone to hairline cracks.[My fingers point to where to heat,pic/#1,and where the cracks are#2].

Paisnao
**"I know what your thinkin'.My hands are so pretty,that I should have been a "Hand Jewelery Model",right"?**With a size 16 ring finger,these Meat Hooks can bearly make a fist anymore.

JUST LIKE "MANNA" FROM HEAVEN "Bread", I think,don't ask.

Man,I wouldn't have believed it if you told me so,or at least till I got one.Yippie,its a "Foot Pedal" for my tig.Anyhow,I been using the stupid little switch on the handle,and by getting a foot pedal has made what seems all the differance in the world.This is not a very expensive machine,its an import,{I know,I know} what you going to say or think.But that's all I can afford especially when your trying to build something on a shoe string.It's got a 5 year gaurantee [will'l see].I can control the flow of currant and it seems to wear the tunsten  rods out slower,which after a while,ain't cheap either.to me the switch on the handle is a pain in the ass,and also gets in the way,wouldn't you know.It cost able 80.00 bucks,tried to haggle with the guy,but I really coudn't unterstand what he was saying. Not from the US. It took 2 trys to get the right one for the machine,even though he was the dude that sold it to me a good while back.Don't which Chinese New Year it was.I'll have to check my calander.
I 'm making a show car,but I want to be proud of my ride,just a little better than a silk purse."That was for all you ladies out there".Don't want to get slammed thinking.  I'm Biased.I'm Italian,as the name goes-The Flyin Wop
Like I say,I 'M NOT A PROFESSIONAL WELDER AND DON'T CLAIM TO BE. JUST  A GUY TRYING TO DO A PROFESIONAL JOB,THAT'S  STRONG AND ALSO  HAS COSMETIC QUALITY  [Stacking Dimes].
Paisano-The Flyin Wop

9" Ford Housing



Waitin' For A New Home



Great Henry J at this year's Columbus Good Guy Show



 I shorted this 9" Fomoco housing many,moons ago.Its 52" from end to end.Considering that the demensions in the rear chassis is 44" that gives about 4" on each side not including the axle flanges where the rims will bolt.It is a rare housing as its tubes are thicker than the average 9".It has 7/16" axle plate holes and big bearings on them,with 31 spline axles.I am getting ready to ship the axles out and have them shorted &resplined,with new bearings & locks.Moser's is gettin' the job,as I have been given a fair price for the job."Senior Citizen Discount" I would recogned. 
It came out of an T'Bird.Paid about 50 bucks for it and it came with everything,punkin and all.I'll use use the pumpkin for mock up,etc as a couple center sections ready to go now.I used to do quite a bit of axle work,in the old days,and have just able all the set up tools I need plus.
I can't do much heavy work as I have had bad Spinal Stenosis and severe Arthritis, with 4 major operations 2 years ago.I have to rely on family & friends to help move things around  most of the time.No more sad stories,I promise!
Anyway,here are a couple flicks of it.

Paisano

Mocking Up the Front End

Well I'm starting the front end fitting.I clamped  the spring down to get the system basicly in a fairly straight line.Took some measurements and tacked up the radious rod brackets to the frame.  Then I took a measurement to see if the brackets were distanced the same from the axle and related pieces.The rods slipped in easy due to having the front axle staight and inline.I tacked up the Panhard rod bracket and took a measurement from both mounting locations,measured distance and this will be the length od the panhard rod.This is not in concrete due to I'm waiting for the Vega box bracket for a fit and clearance.I'll tack that up and see if there will be any interfrence with the drag link to radius rods.Here are some pictues of the front mock-up so far.
*Just remember to put anti-seize compound on all your threads,especially if working with premium stuff like stainless or I can gaurantee you will wish you did!
Paisano

Fitting the center cross member in

Well,this week I started to fit the center cross member system in.I had tiged this piece up a while back.Had bought the tubes about a year ago.I cut and fit it into the center.Got a pretty close cut with the  use of a Zaw-Zaw,with a by-metal cutting blade.Worked real well and only screwed up one cut,about a !/8" too much taken out.It will tig in okay.Have finished boxing in the rails.Next step will be setting the engine/trans location,&motor mounts.

New Plates being tiged into place

This is picture of back of the shop and the old boxing plates system on the frame which I hand made about 30 years ago.Cut,shaped and all welded into place.Looking back I seemed like a good idea at the time,too bad it just wasn't a bigger gauge.New pictures of the new plates.These are the new plate being welded into place after being tacked every 6-8" or so.Sometimes they had to be tacked a little closer to comform to the curve of the frame.After the tacking of both sides,I'm trying to "Stack the Dimes" in about 10" at a time alternating on each side to give a cool down to each side.I don't claim to be an expert welder,but I'm doing ok,&  for the most part happy with it especially in sections of frame that will be visable.Here's a not so well focosed picture of a short run dime stacking.It a strong weld done with a tig.I have more experience with a mig than a tig,but  for this go around on the frame I wanted to tig it and see how it comes out.

COMMENTS GOOD OR BAD OR ANYTHING ELSE IS WELCOME.I'M ALWAYS WILLING TO LEARN FROM PEOPLE WHO MIGHT KNOW MORE THAN I DO
Paisnao.

Practice makes perfect & perhaps someday it will be !
Iv'e seen worst

Start of tacking up the Boxing Plates

Well I started to tack up the boxing plates up & so far so good.Man its nice when you have a tig doing this.It makes it so much easier.Frame is starting to get heavier now,soon I'll be putting in the center cross member and motor mount locations.It should start looking like something by then,instead of a long box.
Paisano

Mistakes made in my youth

First & foremost,let me apoligize for letting this blog go so long without adding anything to it.Some important family issues takes priority over all.Now that I got that out of the way,lets get going.I had a long,long time ago,cut and welded all rivet holes,mounting locations,etc.Man,what was I thinking?I had also boxed the frame,without installing body mounting holes,had welded them up too.and hopefully my last stupid blunder was to install less than desireable thickness boxing plates on top of all this mess!Well,you know what would happen if installing a 4-link rear and a big block to it,right? Well I drilled,cut openings on the inside of the boxing plates,welded flat type welding nuts [3/8],taped everthing out to have a nice mounting for the body.

I am installing 10 gauge frame boxing plates over the old plates.I know what your thinking,why not just weld some heavier plates over critical areas and go from there.I really do not want to go that route,I rather be safe than sorry in the future.Everything is getting tiged into place.
Man what a dumb ass, I must have really taped into Mom's medicine cabinet to many tmes.

I found that the frame was off by about 5/8" in the center,so I used a porta power to bring everthing out to specs,and welded square tubing to hold temparily in place.Don't want it to move when I start welding the cross membe set up in place. I'm using an original copy of a 33-34 chassis blueprint.I have 2 differnat copies,and both are differant by about 1/16".Also,you kind of have to be careful,cause the pick-up chassis specs are also shown.Can't mix the 2 up,or else,you'll be drilling a bunch of unnecassary holes,like the ones in my head.

Here are some pics of what's going on.

Paisano

The Flyin' Wop: Canadian Street Rodding Hall of FameTags

The Flyin' Wop: Canadian Street Rodding Hall of FameTags