Val and Glasgow Mt, 1933 Ford 33' Plymouth

So yesterday I made the 3-1/2 hour trip to Glasgow Montana to get a 1934 Ford Frame for my new 33' Ford Pickup project.  My friend Jerry also lives there so it was a trip well worth the drive.  After I picked up the frame Jerry and I went on a hot rod  tour of Glasgow. 

We started at Jerry's where he showed me a picture of a car I was told about by my father when I was in high school.  I have been looking for this car ever since my dad told me about.  Needless to say I still haven't found it.  I was amazed to see that Jerry had a picture.

Larry Deal owned the car, that is Murk Mansel in the passenger seat.  This picture was taken in April of 1963.

Jerry has got a 70' Mustang Mach 1 that he bought new, it has 16,000 original miles on it.  The car looks brand new, it still has the original tires on it!  I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of it, it's unbelievable.

Here is a couple pics of Jerry's 33' Ford coupe I just might sell parts of my body to obtain, he fits 5 vehicles in his garage so it was a little cramped.

We cruised around town saw a couple rat rod projects and the front engine dragster seen below.

It doesn't have the engine in it right now but, it ran a 292 straight six...crazy.

This is at the Malta 1/8th mile track.

Here is another 33' Plymouth that a guy in glasgow is building.

I also met this guy Stormer, he sells rc cars on the internet and drag races.  He has some cool stuff on youtube, but here is his drag car.  It's a 4 cylinder...crazy.



1929 Willy's Whippet, Ford Model A, Mercury Flathead,Frame Fabrication, Body Channelling, Pinion Angle, Firewall Reversal

Setting up the front suspension.  I am going to make what is called a "suicide perch" for the front axle.  If it were to fail the frame hits the ground, hence suicide.

Just a shot of how I connected the rear suspension and the rear frame section that I made.  The wheelbase is longer than a Model A and on a Model A the rear spring is directly above the rear axle.

I cut the frame horns off the Model A Frame and removed the front stock cross member, both items that easily get you a couple hundred bucks on ebay.  Money toward the project!

Here I set the pinion angle at +3 degrees for suspension compression under acceleration.

Here I have the body channelled 6 inches over the frame.

You can see the first part of the front spring perch welded on.  I later add bracing to it.

A closer view of the semi-finished suicide spring perch.  I made it tall to get the car low to the ground.

I removed the firewall to reverse it and give me the engine bay clearance I need.  Reversing is just flipping it around.

Here the firewall is reversed and welded in.  The hole in the side of the cowl is for the cowl steering which I will show later.  I cut the tops of the doors off, welded the doors shut, removed the windshield sun visor, and chopped the windshield frame about 3-1/2 inches.

I have the driver side door top folded over, you can see the original height on the passenger door waiting to be done.

Chevy Coupe Frame Fabrication and Painting, Suspension

Here I added some crossmember bracing, sometimes called x-members because of their shape. 

I then added some Ford Mustang springs and Speedway Motors spring mounts. 

Here the frame is upside down for painting.  You can see the 4 link mounts that I welded up.

Tara bought me the headers for Christmas.

I just like these two black and white photos.

These last four are out of order but, they show the body channeled over the frame 6 inches and what it looked like before the channel job.

Unchanneled

Channeled

You can see why I said earlier I should have taken more out of the frame length, it looks funny.

1929 Willy's Whippet, Ford Model A, Hot Rod, Mercury Flathead

Started with a pretty bare Ford Model A Frame

I started this project about 3 years ago with the intention of taking parts I already had, putting them to together and making a rolling project that I could sell and make some coin off.

I made the rear section out of new 2x4 box tubing.  I stepped it up to get the car lower and extended it rearward to use a spring behind banjo rear differential.

I also needed something to occupy my mind that winter, so I rounded everything up and brought it to my garage in October 2009.

1949 Mercury 8CM Flathead

I had an old Ford farm truck that had this Mercury Flathead V8 in it and it still spun over so I yanked it out and started tearing it down.

1936-39 Ford Wide Five Wheels and Brake Drums

I used part of the Model A frame that I cut off to make a rear cross brace and then used c channel from another frame section to make this rear spring perch.

Here is the 1929 Whippet body as I bought it.  I sold it on ebay and I think the guy who bought it died and nobody came to pick it up.  It is a Sport Coupe, it used to have a leather top like a convertible.

1927 Chevrolet Frame Fabrication, Engine, Transmission Placement, 1931 Chevy Coupe Build, Pinion Angle

We cut a few inches off the rear and moved the crossmember forward

So my friend Josh came to Oregon to help me for a week.  He is a welder and would make sure the frame was done correctly.

The rearend was from a Caddilac limo and had this triangulated four link design already built in so it worked great.

Making the sparks fly!

We set the engine in place and the cowl to make sure everything was going to fit.

Here the Ford Model A front crossmember is installed to lower the front end.  You can see that the frame is fully boxed now too.  Always make your body mounts before boxing the frame, I failed to do that on this car.

The motor mounts and the transmission crossmember are installed.  I bought Model A to Chevy 350 motor mounts and modified them to fit the wider frame of a 27' Chevy.  I got a 40' Ford axle off ebay, some 39' Ford spindles off ebay then the rest of the frontend parts from Speedway Motors.

We made some upper shock mounts for the rear.

This is basically the progress Josh and I made for the week.  The transmission angle is -3 degrees and the rear differential pinion angle is +3 degrees so when the suspension compresses under acceleration the drive shaft is at 0 degrees.