Thread: Tech1, Parking Brake?

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A simpler solution may be to drill some holes in the angle iron crossmember, route the E-brake cables through those holes with some rubber grommets to protect the cable sheathing, then the adel clamps to the floor.......

Here's one way to do a drive shaft loop.

The loop is from Chris Alston Chassisworks.
Mandrel bent from 1 x 2" x .120 wall rectangular tubing.

In fact, the crossmembers you see are also made from 1 x 2" x .120 rectangular tubing.
Commonly available at steel supply houses.

The 31 started out to be a dry lakes/Bonneville car, but I decided to put it on the street instead.

You can find a lot of easily adaptable, well-made stuff from the drag racing chassis guys.
Some of it you may have to alter a bit to use on your car, but most times it fits right in.

The 31 has a rear driveshaft loop as well.

This one a necessity to allow the driveshaft a straight shot at the rear end since the crossmember was in the way.

This loop is also a Chris Alston Chassisworks piece - good outfit to deal with by the way.

It was a complete oval when received, but had to be cut down for use in my car.

Not necessary for the street unless you set up the crossmembers like I did.

For the sake of the folks who like to look under the frame I will replace the eyebolts with 1/2" Adel clips tomorrow. I found a guy at the Ashland Car Quest who is the most knowledgeable so far and he ordered a pack of 6 1/2" clips for the princely sum of $3.50 so I can use the same holes as the eyebolts and gain about 1/2" additional height over the drive shaft. I was mainly concerned about the side strength when the brake cable are taunt. As Dave says I had considered grommets but they only would allow a 90 degree turn and I think a gentle angle will avoid cutting the cable cover. To change the subject slightly I would rate the "rodder helpfullness" factor in my area as:

1. Car Quest
2. Auto Zone
3. Advanced Auto
4. NAPA

Maybe this is because the Car Quest guy has a Chevy street rod and one of his employees has a "built/restored" Mustang fastback. Auto Zone has the nice feature of loaning tools for a refundable deposit. Here NAPA seems to be only a supplier of standard parts and not much help on special problems. Maybe the Car Quest would only be parts except for the fact that the guys have their own rods. Advanced Auto has standard aftermarket stuff, but not many special parts.

I am inclined to forget the driveshaft loop. I have never had a universal fail under normal to heavy acceleration on a number of cars and as long as I don't plan to run at a strip I think I can get away without a loop. The worst I have ever encountered is the usual "clank" when you go into reverse with a worn u-joint and I would surely replace the u-joint as soon as that becomes evident. I will also look into some of the references C9 gives but I would not favor the massive one I got from Speedway. It looked like it was intended for use with an X-crossmember which makes sense for a lot of cars but I don't have an X-member. Do I have to have a u-joint for an NSRA inspection? I will read the one Tech1 linked to but I believe it is optional for the street. Thanks all for many helpful suggestions.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

DennyW's right in that a driveshaft loop is not required for street use.

Running with or without a locker, a light car even with some reasonable to serious horsepower is going to spin the tires before it breaks anything.

My 32 has a little over 520# torque and around 400 HP.
It runs a Ford 9" rear end with 28 spline axles, 3.70 gears and 30 1/2" tall x 8" wide tires that are fairly soft.
Has an open differential as well.
It launches pretty good all things considered.

HD U-joints are in use both ends.

No doubt I am under some peer pressure here, but even I don't like the looks of the 1" angle iron so I decided to use the rectangular tubing I bought recently for an added crossmember. It is 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" with 1/8" wall and I found a former student who took my course many years ago who now has a superb machine shop to cut the tubing at a slight angle on each end. For $7 of tubing and a $14 U-tube from Chassis Engineering I will go to a welded crossmember and remount the cables using Adel clips and holes tapped into the bottom of the crossmember. This much stronger crossmember will "look" much better and may function as a reference corner for a roll bar and maybe also for muffler support. Anyway the pictures from C9 show a high quality setup and I certainly don't want my underside to look cobbled so a neat welded-in crossmember should look a lot better. I'll post another picture when the weld-in safety loop is completed. In the world of hype maybe my car will look faster with a safety loop, but I doubt if the car will ever make it into the 12s at a strip unless the engine is beefed up a lot more. As a side note I remember when the AMBR No. 1 '29 roadster on essex rails with a full flathead was tested and found to run something like a 15 in the 1/4 mile, so what would have been the ultimate car in the 1950s as a "dream car" to me would not make it into the 12.99 cutoff which requires a safety loop. So if the chassis looks better and the loop makes it look faster that is worth $21 in materials and who knows maybe someday I will upgrade the motor. Well the pictures from C9 are amazing so I at least want my chassis to "look" good.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally posted by Don Shillady
I decided to use the rectangular tubing I bought recently for an added crossmember. It is 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" with 1/8" wall

but I doubt if the car will ever make it into the 12s at a strip unless the engine is beefed up a lot more.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

The rectangular tubing will add a lot of strength to the frame . . . and get you away from "roadster pinch."
Theat's where you rest your left arm on the left quarter and door, enter a driveway at an angle, the body flexes, the door and quarter come together and pinch the underside of your arm.


More than likely your car will make it into the 12's.
Especially if you have some sticky tires - or slicks.

I saw two different 32 highboys at Famoso (Bakersfield drag strip) running mildly built 327 SBC's , T-350, Ford 9" and slicks run high 12's at 112 mph.

Your car shouldn't be too different even with fenders....

C9, thanks for the encouragement. It certainly would be good to avoid the arm-pinch effect if possible. I just had to work my way up to the better solution. I think I will be pleased with the added crossmember just knowing it looks more professional and not cobbled plus using tapped holes for the Adel clips will look better for the cable support. It will also be located just under the end of the flat steel (4" wide) plates in the interior floor of the Bebops body. At this point I am just waiting for the Chassis Engineering U-tube which I ordered from a shop in Md. I should have it by Wednesday and maybe get the whole thing welded in, smoothed out and painted by next Friday? So far I don't have any point of reference for the SBC-in-a-light-body feeling. I can only recall a Chevelle with a 350 my Dad bought new and I was AMAZED at it's performance. Actually the flat iron bar I added across the back of the rumble seat mounts is bolted to the square tubing of the framework inside of the rear quarter panels so maybe I will have a chance for enough rigidity to actually avoid the arm-pinch flex. I have horrific memories of clutch chatter in my '47 convert which produced a door flex of at least 1/4". Despite all the nostalgia and romantic stories of flathead Fords a lost memory swept under the rug was the horrible chatter in reverse and that was especially bad in convertibles; so bad that I avoided using reverse unless abolutely necessary. Of course a new clutch and throwout bearing would help for a while but after a few "bucking sessions" the whole drive line would loosen up. The only way to avoid the "bucking" was to get the clutch all the way out and then quickly put it back in so you didn't have a rear collision. Well thanks for the inspiration to a higher quality build!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

C9/Tech1 In the picture above it looks like a butt weld to hold the square tubing U-tube to the crossmember. My Chassis Engineering U came today and it is round 1" diameter tubing with what looks like 1/8" wall. Ideally I would want 1" holes and put the tubing up through before welding, but maybe a butt weld is enough? Is it necessary to embedd the U into the crossmember or just butt weld it to the bottom of the crossmember?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Butt weld it to the crossmember and forget it.

As promised here is a picture of the safety loop and the new crossmember welded in. The paint is a bit sloppy but I am running low on enthusiasm and I need to just hang in there and keep working on this. Right now I feel like this is step 946 out of 20,000 steps to a finished car. Anyway the weld seems good and the loop has a nice "ring" to it when tapped and C9 assures me the extra crossmember will stiffen the frame. It is about right where the rear of the passenger seat will be so that helps the fiberglass floor handle the weight of the seat and I can hang mufflers or pipe from the crossmember as well. I also changed over to the Adel clamps for the parking brake cable supports. The sagging cable from the left rear will be supported with another Adel clamp attached to the underside of the floor when the body is mounted. I didn't dress the weld, just sprayed black over it after mild sanding and I do not plan to make a show car of this, but now of course I might be eligible to run 1/8 or 1/4 mile tests, although all I am interested in is the 0-60 mph time. Thanks to Tech1, Bob and C9 for a lot of help.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally posted by Don Shillady
Right now I feel like this is step 946 out of 20,000 steps to a finished car.

Yep!! Remember, it's like eating an elephant................focus on one bite at a time, not the whole of the beast (speaking execution not planning).