Lots of work don the ’34 this week. The firewall notch to clear the 283’s distributor is glassed in. I used a chunk of a heavy cardboard shipping tube as the core and glassed in both sides.
While I had resin mixed up I reinforced the sills in back of the doors. The body is braced with white oak, but it looked like just one layer of mat over this piece, and it was cracked and delamininating. So, I ground away all the “loose” stuff, drilled some holes in the oak for resin to penetrate, laid up three layers of mat, it looks more substantial. All went well.
The rear axle, a ’55 Chevy with 3.70 gears, is all cleaned and ready for paint. The frame is also ready for paint, as are all the rest of the chassis components. The front end has a new Posies “Super Glide” spring, this one is a reversed eye, reduced arch, and is 1/2″ shorter than the one that came with the car. It turned out to be a Speedway spring, a sort of Posies “knock-off”, which made the car set much too high in front. I have a flattened ’40 rear crossmember and a mono-leaf, which gave the car a “taildragger” stance. I flattened the front crossmember almost an inch, which along with the new spring should drop the front 3″ from where it was. I may take a leaf out of the front spring as well, but will drive it a little and let it settle before I do anything.
I made a pan hard bar for the front, using some threaded tubing from Speedway and two heim joints with studs. Because the frame is upside down, I ended up mounting it backwards, that is, the fixed end on the passenger side, and it’s supposed to be on the drivers side. So, I cut the little mount tab off and made a new one for the correct, left, side. In addition I bought some shock mount brackets that mount below the radius rod/perch bolt, and 4 5/8″ heim joints to make shock links for the Houdaille front shocks. I need to get some 5/8″ LH all thread rod to complete these.
It feels good to make progress. Next up, I’m going to get the 283 cleaned up, painted, get the dual quad intake on, and then paint the frame and chassis components. Spring is only 6 weeks away!
Cool McCool's Garage 