I've been test fitting stuff with one of my miata seats in there and I think I'm going to get a pair for it. They are very compact, the back is really slim which helps with leg room and they are pretty comfortable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike P
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I've been test fitting stuff with one of my miata seats in there and I think I'm going to get a pair for it. They are very compact, the back is really slim which helps with leg room and they are pretty comfortable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike P
Wanted to keep the AC down low but there wasn't room with the stock bracket so I made a new bracket out of steel. It was very challenging to make, the tensioner was tricky to get right.
Also had a power steering hose made up using part of the chevy and part of the ford hose. I got a pressure reducing kit for the pump from ebay because the chevy pump has too much pressure for the ford. So the power steering is good to go.
Very nice work. I used to love to make pretty brackets when doing engine swaps. Also, I would rather make a custom bracket and run the Ford pump.
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Man that looks nice! Great Job.
Very nice work, well done too.
Nice work. I just found this thread and wanted to subscribe. Keep up the good work!
Ditto, excellent build. Your welds looks damb good to me. Very nice blend of old Stude body on the Explorer chasis. I like the engineering of the modern chasis and steering, under the cool Studebaker body. I too actually like the stock wheels of the explorer for some reason? Been dying to say this as I like puns, "Hey Stude don't bring us down" which this build certainly isn"t! Welcome to CHR too. The recent infusion of new blood has been great.
I was going to be cheeky but, damn it, okay, I will then, air conditioning, power steering, here I thought you were building a Hot Rod, what ever happened to the days of strong arm handling the steering wheel into car parks and having the widows down so one can hang your arm out on the window sill while cruising real slow down main Street checking out the ladies ? Yeah, like me, we all get a bit older and we enjoy the comforts of the luxuries of the modern automobile.
Thanks for the words of encouragement everyone.
I've had original old cars and they look cool but don't drive that well. If you have a choice of driving your old car without ac or the new car when it's 100 degrees outside guess which one you take, then the hot rod sits there unused. I like driver cars.
Yeah, I totally agree with you, there is absolutely nothing wrong in having the luxuries in a driven hot rod. I was been cheeky really as what we did in our youth just doesn't cut it any more and also I'm not sure what part of America you live or the summer temps you have to deal with so all is good.
Summer gets pretty hot here, quite a few days over 100 some over 110
".......Summer gets pretty hot here, quite a few days over 100 some over 110...."
I hear you about the same here. Every car I've built for myself over the last 25 years has had AC included in the build. The exception will be the 37 Dodge which will fall into the strictly toy category.
Very nice work on the brackets. Tech made a post on making brackets and running a Ford pump for the with the Ford racks a while back......and it makes perfect sense. Your build shows why it's not always a viable option. The Ford pumps are just so darn long placing them can be problematic at best (they usually have to be moved far enough out to clear the block). Not saying it can't be done, just sometimes the pressure reduction kits are a good alternative.
I'm really enjoying your build. I like seeing stuff that's fabricated rather somebody's kit bolted on.
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What was the procedure for templating the brackets?
For the belt to track straight, the pulley must not only be flush to center line of the belt, but also be perfectly square.
That's killer, nice job! I need to make one for my 48 to mount the A/C up high.
Ford pumps are so noisy too, you can here em coming a mile awayQuote:
Originally Posted by Mike P
My method would be hard to explain. I used a straight edge across the main crank pulley using it as a reference, it was a lot of trial and error but I feel good about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by firebird77clone
Made a trans tunnel and a relief mount area for my picknpull shifter. The shifter was from a 99 camaro and I cut off the extra stuff that I don't need and cut off the shift handle. I got one of those spring steel picker uppers from harbor freight and cut it to length and ran in down a piece of steel tubing I bent for the new shifter. I drilled out a bolt that would fit the lokar shifter knob and welded it in. I wanted it to look like an old truck manual shifter.
The finished shifter.
Very Slick looking. Nice mod and probably a heck of a lot cheaper than buying the complete lokar setup
Your shifter turned out great!
I agree. That shifter looks like a slick setup. Nice Job!
Thought I would show how I planned the frame change. I found a photo of a bare explorer frame and a photo of a clean stude. I used a free photo shop type software called gimp to superimpose the images to give me an idea of how the frame would fit with the truck. I planned to raise the bed up some to clear the frame humps so I stretched the bed sides a bit to check the look. I always thought the stude bed looked a little too low anyway.
Wow, that software is pretty neat. Thanks for sharing!
I went to picknpull and measured and measured but doing this helped make up my mind that it would work.
Now what is that saying " Let your fingers doing the walking to save the soles of your shoes " or something like that. That is an impressive software package.
You can download it free, I know photoshop is pricey. Took a little while to figure out how to use it, had to have a little help from someone younger than me.
Yea, that software looks very useful. I've got a very old version of photoshop that I use mostly to crop and resize pics. Even the old version is complicated to use.
WOW..awesome build,that gives me inspiration for my M5.,...wanna make me some headers for my Stude 259?:)...I just put my truck on an s10 shortened frame,my stock frame was a twisted mess....keep the posts coming,I love the footwell idea..can I "borrow"it?...ps, followed your build over from Truck Farmers.
regards from the PNWhttp://gallery.flybc.ca/albums/brucet/IMG_3660.jpg
Hey, very cool, glad to see another m. Feel free to steal any ideas you want. You should do a build log here. I thought about the s10 as well as dakota and ranger frames. If you were doing a chevy engine there a probably headers out there for v8 s10 swaps. Is the cab and bed all mounted?
v8nutz,
I really enjoyed going through your build page. Really nice work man.
thanks very much.
I have just dropped the cab on so so far,I want to set up the ride height(drop) so I can make sure I have clearance to run the running boards etc without:"too much" rubbing on mother earth.....the cab corners you used are they the Classic Enterprises ones?so they are crap?...if so, I'll make some jigs and make my own.I have a Stude 259 cu. I'm going to put in it...kinda funny the 4.3l that the S10 comes with is a 100cc bigger than the 259 from 50 years ago...
The corners are pretty crude, I made them work but I was sure disappointed for the price. They looked like they they they had been quickly hand hammered on a buck. they would be hard to make because of the way they curve into the bottom.
It's cool your using a stude motor.
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Haven't done much on the truck in a while but I got a new radiator for it so thought I should make some permanent mounts for the front clip. Originally it mounted by one bolt to the center of the radiator hoop but I wanted two mounts to make it a little more stable. I used some of the explorer body mounts I had. The brackets slide up and down for body adjustments.
Nice work.
Agreed with the above. nice work
Looks good !
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Did some more work on the radiator surround and have the mount almost done.
nice, do you have a plasma table? They look like very nice cuts.
