Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[Itoldyouso]

Don - Tow car??!!! Tell Don Jr. I had about 300 miles total on my coupe when I left here for Indiana two years ago. We made a 2400 mile loop through western Tenn, Indiana, the Carolinas, and back home with only one minor incident (ignition wire came off the coil in Alabama). Ya gotta have faith in your work!

I know what you mean, Jim, but Dan and I talked him out of towing his car last year and it ended up eating that valve enroute. If we would have not given him a hard time about it he could have towed it there and at least driven it around town a little. The valve would have eventually broken because of the too long pushrods, but he could have probably gotten the weekend at TR out of it before it died.

After some of the problems we had early on with his T, he is just starting to regain confidence in it. The engine seems fine now, and TCI looks like they got this new transmission right. But it is so important for Don to drive his car around Daytona this year there is no way Dan and I will "advise" him not to tow it.

Here are pictures of just a few of the "bugs" we had to work out of his car.

Don

[Bob Parmenter]

Uncle Bob has been mysteriously silent recently. I guess this thread hasn't "inspired" him like yours did, Don.

Been pretty deep in a remodel project the past few months Jim, so time online has been reduced. Or maybe I'm just mellowing in my dotage.

[Dave Severson]

Have a good trip with the new car! Should be a fun one, hope the car (and everyone else) behaves along the way!!!!

[OFT]

"I get to ride my motorcycle and drive my hotrod year-round... Yes, I'll be posting pictures all along the way until it is finished and on the road."


Jim,
I drive year round also (except sold the Harley few years ago). Just need to dress a little warmer. Went with a new Hot Rod Air ac/heat unit. Used to have Vintage Air unit. Heater core broke and just as cheap to go with new inside unit. Have yet to connect the A/C part. Only had it in for 8 years. Maybe this time around I will get A/C hooked up. Like the hot rod air connections on top. That is reason I went that way.

Hot-Humid---YUK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hot is in the 80's. Humid around hear is above 30%. And you can keep the "tropical storm" part. I used to be a claims rep. for State Farm Fire Ins., (for 17 years). Had to handle a lot of the storm/disaster claims, so no thank you.

Earl

[Itoldyouso]

One thing about our 200 percent humidity, it sure give a car patina in a hurry. You can't buy that kind of aging!!

Don

[OFT]

One thing about our 200 percent humidity, it sure give a car patina in a hurry. You can't buy that kind of aging!!

Don

You got me :

Earl

[J. Robinson]

Don - I had forgotten how serious Don Jr's breakdown was. I was remembering the problem with the Pittman arm... I don't blame him for being a little "gun shy". Although I only had a few hundred miles on my coupe when we left on our midwestern loop, I had been driving it intermittently for about a year and had already discovered (and fixed) a couple of problems.

Bob - Glad to see you're still here. Your lack of visibility had us concerned... I don't think I'll ever forget the picture of Rosie O'Donnell with a hairy chest. Every time I see her on TV I think of that image. I guess I am permanently brain-damaged now...

Earl - I'm originally from Indiana. Up there my friends still put their motorcycles and hotrods in storage in late October and don't bring 'em out until May. The weather is just too unpredictable. I've never been sorry for leaving there. 80 degrees is mildly pleasant here; it's not hot until it gets above 92. Anything below 60 is freezing!

Don is right about instant patina; grind a piece of steel until it shines and leave it. Come back the next day and it will have an orange look to it - surface rust has already set in. Whenever ya do grinding or sandblasting here, you need to keep a primer gun ready so you can coat the bare metal immediately!

[J. Robinson]

OK. Back to work! I've been a bit distracted the last couple of weeks with Biketoberfest and then the Daytona Dream Cruise, but I did manage to get about an hour of work in on the roadster Sunday evening. In my last update I had been finish-welding on the frame and some other components. I did not, however, get around to finishing the rear end bracketry. Everything has been solidly tacked in place for months, but not finished...

I began by marking the weld areas off in increments of just over an inch which divided each of the welds into eight sections. I began by welding the back inch of each outer weld area (welds closer to the ends of the housing). Then I rolled the housing over and did the front inch. Next I did the bottom inch of each, then the top. Then the lower back, upper front, lower front and upper back. This way I was always welding 180 degrees from the previous weld to minimize warpage of the rear end housing. When the outer welds were complete, I began the process again with the inner welds (closest to the center). By strapping the radius rod brackets to the rear housing this way, they are super strong and the welds go all the way around the housing which equalizes and minimizes warpage.

[firebird77clone]

metal has the irritating habit of moving when you weld it, regardless of how careful you place the beads. Do you send the rear ends to a shop ( with a 20 ton press ) for inspection after welding, just in case it did warp?

[J. Robinson]

Yes, metal (especially steel) does have that nasty little tendency... But, no, I don't send them out; I don't know of any place in this area who has such equipment. I check them with a straight-edge and if they are badly warped, I have my own way of dealing with it. In short, I use the tendency of metal to "draw" when it's welded to bring them back into tolerance. For a better explanation with pictures, look back at page 8 of this thread.

[firebird77clone]

I do remember that page. You just lay some weld on the side that needs to draw. BUT.. just how close does close have to be?

[J. Robinson]

.. just how close does close have to be?

I don't know, really. Everything on an automobile is built "within tolerance". I don't know what the + or - tolerance is on a rear axle housing when it's manufactured. I can tell you this: the farther from the center of the axle housing that the warpage takes place, the less effect it will have on the misalignment of the wheels. Also, the wider the rear end, the less effect warpage has on alignment. For example, if I have a rear end that is 60 inches wide and it is warped 1/4 inch forward (that's pretty extreme) as measured from the center to the end (30 in.), that pulls the wheels into a toe-in situation of about 2 degrees per side. The same warpage on a narrowed rear end of only 30 inches in width (1/4" over a 15 in. distance) would amount to almost 4 degrees of misalignment.

For me, I check the axle housing with a straight edge from the center to the end. If it's within 1/10th of an inch (.100"), that's good enough. The misalignment of the wheels would be less than 1/2 degree and that will never make a discernable influence on handling or tire wear.

[Dave Severson]

I check mine with a fixture...consisting of a center section with a pair of .750 thick aluminum "donuts" replacing the carrier bearings and the correct sized aluminum "donut" on the wheel bearing end and a long rod going all the way through. The housing is quite easy to straigten by using a weld to draw the housing, or when complete putting the entire housing in press to make it straight again.... We used to play a bit with camber and lead on the dirt track housings...with mixed results.......

[firebird77clone]

I hadn't even considered wheel misalignment. Iwas thinking in terms of .001 on the gears and bearings.

[J. Robinson]

Generally there is enough clearance in the splines of the axles & spider gears that they can run misaligned a few degrees with no problem. The carrier bearings and ring & pinion gears are not affected. The outer axle bearing may suffer slightly if misalignment is severe enough.

Dave Severson (above) mentioned playing with rear camber and lead on dirt tracks. Back in my stock car days, we did some of the same stuff on asphalt. We tried bending the right end of the rear axle housing up and running a slightly larger tire on the right rear. The net effect was to get a couple of degrees of negative camber on the right rear wheel for improved bite in the corners - it didn't help much, if any, but it didn't hurt the gears or bearings.