Hot Time in the Old Garage

I don't know what the temperature got to today, but it was hot. Probably cracked 100, but I didn't want to look and get discouraged from working in the garage. To cool things down a little bit, I threw a wet cloth over my box fan to make an improvised evaporative cooler.

Although I probably put in 8-10 hours today, between lunch, dinner, and visiting my uncle to borrow a hole saw, unfortunately, all that work doesn't translate to much visually, either in person when I showed my girlfriend tonight, or in the images below. Nevertheless, in the interest in of documenting this build for myself, and others who may be able to get helpful tips from my work, here goes:

Spent the day continuing to drill and bolt in the Tardel K-member. The instructions make it look and seem easier than I'm encountering. I think one thing is the instructions refer to it with some of the holes drilled. Mine only had the transmission mounting holes drilled. For all the others, I'm having to measure (twice), mark, center-punch, drill once with a small bit, and then drill again with a 21/64" for the 5/16 x 3/4 fine (SAE) thread Ford bolts I'm using. Drilling through isn't the easiest, either, because although I have a good drill - correction - apparently, a great drill! (Milwaukee 75th Anniversary 1/2" Magnum #0234-75), I have pipe cleaner arms, and have to really lay into the drill to get through the thick repop and Ford steel, so I oil the bit as I go, to avoid burning it.

So, all I got done today were the bolts on the top


the top two against the face of the crossmember


and installed the pedal assembly! (Yay! This was a big deal; it wasn't at all easy to measure and square up)

First, I had to drill a hole in the left leg of the K-member to allow the pedal shaft to poke through. I measured maybe once less time than I should have because, while it fit, I could have centered it better. Oh well, no one will see it, and it fits, so what's the difference. Drilling the hole was not easy, since I tried using my cheapo Chinese Harbor Freight hole saw kit and - although you probably can't see it in the image - got about halfway through the leg by the time I ground the points on the hole saw to useless nubs.


This prompted a trip to visit my uncle and borrow his American-made one, which was handed down to him by his car mentor. It went through like butter.


Once I did that, I was able to clamp and check the pedal box to ensure it is square and level in at least two axes:

Yaw


And Roll


and bolted solidly in the third (pitch). Here's what it looked like after I reassembled the pedal assembly to confirm everything fit like it should, before I finish drilling and bolting up the rest of the pedal assembly and K-member.


Here's a couple pictures with the bare transmission case installed, showing how tight everything is in these Model A frames when installing a flathead.



I'm using a '33-'34 Ford pedal assembly (probably 1933, since its part number is 40-XXXX, rather than 40A-XXXX, which is 1934), by the way, instead of the often-used '32 pedal assembly. They're easier to find, and are nearly identical. I couldn't tell you the differences, as I must confess that I had Keith Tardel modify mine to work a rear-mounted '39 master cylinder, when he built the '32 frame that will go under the Model A Roadster Pickup on my back deck (the next project!).

And, for kicks, I grabbed the '40 pickup steering column that I'll be using and mocked up the steering height. Here you can see me test fitting things (you'll have to imagine me making vroom vroom noises as I "shifted" through the gears!).


Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll finish off the pedal assembly, K-member, and start on the motor mounts.

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Frame Work

Although I spent much of the weekend helping a friend install a ceiling fan, I got out to the garage for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday. I worked more on correctly locating the motor mounts and center crossmember (Tardel K-member): measure twice, and thrice, etc., and drill once (or, as many times as you have mounting holes).

There seems to be as many opinions about where the flathead motor mounts should be located on a Model A frame as there are people building these things. Here are some of the dimensions. I'll try to flesh out this post more with additional photos and dimensions, but here's the big one: 6-1/4". That's how many inches, center to center, my Tardel flathead motor mounts are located back from the radiator mounting holes in the front crossmember. These holes are NOT in the center (front-to-back) of the crossmember, however.

For those of you building a hot rod based upon the very good book, "How to Build a Traditional Ford Hot Rod" (Mike Bishop and Vern Tardel), you're probably here looking for better measurements than those in the book. The authors have acknowledged there are a few errors in the book. For instance, they suggest using a '34 front wishbone to correctly locate the front and center crossmembers for a flathead and standard three speed transmission. Ain't gonna happen. You're going to come up about 1-1/2" too short. You need to use a '32 front wishbone, or lengthen the '34 to match the '32's dimensions (this link goes to a repost of Mike Bishop's). Another of the chassis dimension errors (and, frankly, a pretty big one), is the location of the motor mounts. They suggest 3" from the radiator mounting holes to the front face of the motor mount. This is too close to use a mechanical fan.

Mine are 4-5/8" from the radiator mounting holes to the front face, which provides me enough room to run not only the standard 4-blade fan (immediately below), with 1/4" clearance at the bottom as I discovered when I mocked it up this weekend, as this is the type of fan I'll be running, but



I also have enough clearance to run a 5-blade truck fan (which is apparently too noisy, according to my friends; I know it's too ugly - only going to use it if I have cooling problems) with about 1/8" clearance (which is pretty snug).



Other progress this weekend involved the very scary (for me) drilling and bolting in the center portion of the K-member. After pulling the radiator and mock-up block, I pulled the wheels and tires off the chassis, and jacked up the frame - allowing the spring/axle/wishbone/K-member/transmission case to "float" in relation to the frame, without interference by the block. I did this to square up the K-member to the frame left-to-right, as it was ever so slightly off.

After getting it square, I C-clamped it in place (along the the various C-clamps holding the legs the the center crossmember, and the legs to the frame rails), center-punched the location of the holes on the top of the frame rails to the center crossmember, drilled with a 3/16" bit as a pilot, then final drilled with a bit one greater than 5/16". Because the drill bits I have probably aren't great, and the metal's pretty thick, I had to really lean on the drill, and kept oiling the bit so it wouldn't burn.

Once the holes were drilled, I threw in a couple of Ford 5/16" bolts and called it a night.




My friend tells me Ford bolts are Grade 8 (maybe; they sure held everything together back then, and are still equally strong today - probably due to Henry's Vanadium Steel), and I have more than enough to assemble the whole chassis, if not the entire car, thanks to my parts-hoarding uncle. Some of them are already cadmium plated, which was apparently the restorer's standard, before it was discovered most Ford bolts were not cad-plated from the factory, and toxic concerns (at least in California) outlawed cad plating.

(The bolts I used for the front crossmember are cadmium plated)


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Many Hours, Many Tasks

Been working the hot rod "to do" list lately. Put in a 12 hour day on Saturday. Unexpectedly put in an hour or so tonight.

I'll let the pictures and captions tell the tale.

First, the previously promised picture of the Snap-On "Super Charger" 550 Battery Charger I got from the shop that recently closed up. Had to wait 'til the very end, since he was still using it. Didn't know what a workhorse this machine has been for automotive repair shops until I Googled it, looking for (successfully!) the instruction manual.


Next, just a shot to show how nicely this flathead valve lifter removal tool cleaned up with a little wire brushing.


Here is the front of the flathead after I installed the rebuilt distributor.


My working notes for "re" resetting the valve lash. I somehow got lost along the way the first time I started this (5/30/09, according to the note), so went ahead and redid them all last weekend (6/6/09). As you can see, I set the adjustable lifters (cold) with a gap of .011" iNtake, and .015" eXhaust. You can also see the way Ford numbered the cylinders on a flathead. My thumb is where the front of the motor is.


After that, I removed the dummy block (no easy task by myself), dragged it across the floor and set it on the base of the engine stand.


This cleared space for me to place the center crossmember and legs in place, and add the rubber ball (removed to avoid melting when welding on the wishbone "splices") to the wishbone yoke, and re-bolt it in place.


Next, I got out the rosebud torch and heated cherry red a bent part of the frame rail, right where one of the legs would mount, and beat it flat with a big hammer. Real blacksmith kinda stuff. Well, I kinda felt like one, especially when it was sparking as I hit it.


To further clear the mounting area inside the frame rails for the k-member legs, I had to air hammer chisel and grind and drift punch out the rivets holding the mechanical brake rod brackets below the cowl.


Since I'd removed the dummy block, which was mounted using my new Speedway flathead water pumps, I decided to take my friend's good advice to just replace them for cheap insurance. No one's going to fault the look of the front of the block to have new pumps, and I was not distracted by them on an otherwise run-as-found flathead at the West Coast Kustoms car show (pics to follow at some point).

However, replacing Ford flathead water pumps is no easy task, as can be seen in this link. As seen in my pictures below, it required a torch on both bottom bolts and "extractor" type socket heads on the rounded and rusted heads. One of these, of course, snapped off, which merited a second torch job, candle wax on the hot threads, Liquid Wrench, and finally another extractor pounded onto the remaining stud. Results: me 2, flathead 0.




After removing the water pumps, I was disgusted to discover and remove probably another 2 cups' worth of rust and flakes from the front of the water passages. Removal was facilitated by tipping the motor nose-down and using the air gun to blow the crap out from any and all angles I could use.




After getting some fresh air after breathing rust dust for an hour or so, I filed the front of the block, and the mounting surfaces of the new water pumps, and installed them with their (strange) rubber gaskets. RTV silicone sealant was not "required" but suggested, so I used it on the first one, only to have the gasket repeatedly squeeze out upon tightening the bolts down to the recommended 25 lb. ft. of torque. So, I installed the other one without RTV, had no problem, and proceeded to remove the RTV from the other side and installed the pump, tightening the bolts 'til the gasket just barely began squeezing out. Done.




Having futzed with the frame, I added the old water pumps to the dummy block (as they're also the front motor mounts), bolted the bare transmission case back on, and lowered it back into the frame (once again, a somewhat scary operation by myself) to final-adjust the motor mount and center crossmember locations. While I would prefer to do this with the actual motor (with fan) and transmission, I'm still waiting for my friend who redid the flywheel to come by and see why the starter bendix won't clear the ring gear. So rather than wait for him, I forged ahead. I'm glad I did, as tonight I discovered when I mounted the radiator for kicks that I'd BETTER use the real motor, fan and all, to ensure that once the motor mounts are bolted in place and the motor's in place, that the fan clears the radiator.



As you can see in these photos, I barely have clearance on the side and bottom (although the vertical spacing is adjustable on the fan-to-generator mounting), which might be taken up by any backward movement of the radiator while "in flight," although I've set the radiator perpendicular to the frame, as indicated by the framing square, by adjusting the radiator-to-cowl rods.



Finally, tonight I bolted in the front crossmember in anticipation of my friend coming by this week to weld up the (typical) crack across the spring bolt and clamp mounting holes. I was surprised to discover that, at least by my measurements - I might be wrong once the motor's in place with its lower double pulley, I won't have to cut away the back of the front crossmember as is often recommended when building an A-V8 (although, of course, I'm actually building a T-V8). We'll see what happens when I put the real motor in, but I'm crossing my fingers.


Until the next installment,

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