Thread: 34 going up on jack stands for a while

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Interior came out great, car looks SUPER!!!!!

Them FAT front tires ain't helpin any

Wow! Calling it done! I don't think I have ever owned a car that I called really done. Congratulations.

Originally Posted by Scooting

Wow! Calling it done! I don't think I have ever owned a car that I called really done. Congratulations.

What he said.
Good on ya, it's been a saga for you; but an interesting thread to follow.
Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

Them FAT front tires ain't helpin any

I no longer have a minimum toe in or a minimum caster. I increased them both a bit and it helped a lot. I'm not worried about the relatively small negative camber. The Vega box is tuned and Pitman arm is straight ahead and dead center.

I'm considering a narrower tire. That would shrink the tire patch quite a bit, but it wouldn't change the distance from the intersection of the kingpin axis at the ground to the center of the tire.

Maybe I'm not quite done . . .

those wide wheel/tires and that king pin angle transfer a lot of weight as one wheel will be pushed down and the opposite raised as you turn them. Any alignment shop that does trucks can tweeque the axle to get rid of the negative camber. You also can keep adding castor until it gets hard to turn the wheel (Manual steering?)

Jerry, It is manual steering, but it's not really hard to turn. I can't get much more caster without the tie rod rubbing on the bottom rod of the hairpin. I might get another degree or so.

One thing I have not checked is the weight distribution at all four corners because I don't have the scales.

Congrats on getting it to this point! Now to start to be able to enjoy it. I miss that about mine for sure.

I changed out the front tires today to Firestone (Coker) F560 165/R15. THey have a tread width of 4.8" compared to the 7.5" wide tires I had before. They also gave me a bit more rake. The steering is much better, but not perfect.

I have coil-overs front and rear, so I'm trying to find a place with scales so I can check the weight on all four corners. I have them adjusted to the same length, but that doesn't always tell the story.







Footnote on the Coker Firestone clones: I had them balanced on A Hunter Road Force machine, and the tech wasn't sure he could balance them. One tire had 40# of runout. After a couple of remounts, they finally go them balanced. I was surprised when I checked the sidewall. These "Firestones" are made in Ukraine.

Leave it to Cory Coker, he'd F&ck up a good thing. Them f560's used to be made in China, but nooooooooo Cory needed to save $3 per tire now he's got JUNK as usual. I've been using 145's, 155's and 165's by Nankang and they usuall balance out with less than 1 1/2 oz of weights.
Smaller tire even looks a lot better Jack.
Remember, yer drivin a Hot Rod not a Caddy

Looking good Jack. I know we have discussed this before but it is a darn shame that by law you have to have the plate on the front of the car. Will you be running side panels to hide your engine ?

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Looking good Jack. I know we have discussed this before but it is a darn shame that by law you have to have the plate on the front of the car. Will you be running side panels to hide your engine ?

Thanks, Mark. No I have no plans at the present to include hood sides. A couple of so-called hood sides came with the car, but they were so poorly made that they couldn't be made to fit. My original intent was to have an old-style hot rod with just a hood top and an open engine bay. But then, the infamous "bling monster" bit me, and I kept finding places for chrome and polished aluminum. Other than small things here and there, I don't plan on any major changes.

The plate bugged me also. I tried several different approaches, and couldn't make it work. I'll keep thinking on it, but I had to get it mounted so I could drive it. Anyhow, I figure if we get some snow in the drive, I can plow my way out.

A fellow rodder I know ordered BFG P285X70R-15's from Coker as BFG stopped making them. The tire tech could not balance either one of them. Coker made good on it, but this seems to be a problem with their some of their tires. I have those on the back of my '32 but when I change them out over the winter, I will be going to 17 inch rims so I can get a 30 inch tire from Goodyear. Not many 30 inch tire are made for passenger cars anymore--mostly all-terrain tires for trucks and SUV's.

After fighting with the Coker/Ukranian/Firestone crap/clone F560's for a while, I went back to the basics. I pulled the Cokers and gave them to a local Fox body Mustang drag racer and installed a pair of Nankang 165-80/R14's (thanks for the hint, Dan). They balanced out perfectly, down to 3 lbs on the Road Force balancer.

F Quarter.jpg

Next, I built an extension bracket to lower the Panhard bar attachment to the frame. That made a line through the frame and axle attachment points exactly level with the ground. The extension bracket isn't beautiful, but if I ever find myself giving a rat's backside about that, I'll do something about it. Maybe.

F Panhard 1.jpg

F Panhard 2.jpg

Finally, I lowered the rear end of the car so that the rear Panhard bar attachment points are within 1/16" of level with the ground.

Driving test tomorrow.

With the new front tires, panard bar adjustment, it outta be a lot better now Jack