1928 FORD MODEL A SEDAN- belly pan.

Nice as hell! Some great ideas there, particularly the square tube bending stuff, I'll use myself.

-Steve

then, some careful measuring, and the other brackets are fitted around this first one, like so. the lower links sit to the outside under the chassis rail, then the uppers sit inside the chassis, so no possibility of clearance problems.
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youll notice that they only tacked so far, 3 tacks per piece. ive also slipped in the bushings for the ends of the suspension links and bolted them in to check everything fits nicely. I need to refit all the shafts and diff (again) before seaming them up, or ile end up with a banana shaped axle casing! and I need to but the bracing tubes in the centre holes on each bracket too. also, notice that the lhs upper bracket clears the axle breather by about 1/8". sometimes, these things are just down to dumb luck

then, I needed to get it down of the 2 foot high trestles it been on for months, as I needed to move it slightly to move some stuff around in the workshop before I put my lathe in on sunday. as it had no rear axle on (i need to get some new hub seals before I can reassemble it, oh and I got some new brakes too, pics of them next time). so I made up a little 4 wheel trolley that sits on the chassis rails and holds the back end 1" above ride height, so itll be just high enough to have the wheels on when the axle is back on.
me and my (un)able assistant mike started lowering the back end down bit by bit using jacks, boards and a wheel or two as a jacking platform, but the front beam started to slip backwards off the trestle it was stood on, so I decided to fit the front wheels to it and just let it fall off the trestle onto it wheels- a drop of about a foot- a good test for the new front suspension setup! it all sounds a bit dodgy but in reality it was the safest way to do it really as it meant neither of us had to be under or near the car ass it fell off the trestle.

anyway, sat back down on the trolley and its front wheels, I took some pics after we'd tidied up a bit. I have to say, I think its starting to look like something now!
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Man, that looks awesome

Agreed - it's little details like that which make all the difference

youre kinda half right matt

the pic itself is deceptive, as the way the wheel is laid it makes it look like the wheel sits level with the swage- which it doesnt as it is, its actually 1" lower when the wheel is sat straigh ton the axle. so when its dropped 1", it sits dead on, plus the car is then totally level, as at the mo it has 1" rake, which is actually quite noticable, amd i don't like it.
so yeah, the detail is already accounted for, and it need to be 1" down!

on another note, i should get the entire front suspension and steering finished within the week- watch this space for a huge update!!

but ive also been working at the other end.

the big break here came with a chance purchase at the southern swapmeet the other weekend. I was walking back to my car with kevfromwales for him to grab a set of wheels, when a mate of his grabbed him and the barrow he was pushing along to help move a f-king huge (easily a foot diameter!) piston he had bought. so I followed them back to his stall, where I found he had a pair of chrome aftermarket dropped steering arms. £20 later and they were mine- bargain!! I wasnt sure if they would have quite enough drop to clear all the bits of my suspension, but at that price, they could be modded 'til they did!

I forgot to take any proper pics of them before I bolted them on (which neccessitated a trip to suffolk fasteners to get the right length hi-tensile UNF bolts to hold them on), but heres one bolted in place on the back of the spindle-
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once id fiddled with the right bolts and lock washers, I need to fit the trackrod and ends to see if they cleared the chassis and spring. I got my pair of trackrod ends and gave them a good degrease and knotwheel up, and they came up sparkly, as did the castle nuts, so I wont bother replacing them as they're genuine ford parts- ile just stick some new rubbers on them. I then dug out my old trackrod, which was the f100 one, and rather bent, to say the least! I opted not to use it and instead made a new one from scratch, as id bought a length of tubing the correct I.D./O.D. to do so, and all the appropriate tapes and dies- left hand and right hand thread.
so I mocked it up with the old bent 'rod to see how long it needed to be, then cut a fresh length of tube-
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that the new length at the bottom with the old bent one on top. you can just about make out where id radiused the ends on the new one.

then, you have to drill the ID to the right size for the tap. the thread of a ford trackrod end is 11/16"-20 UNF, which neccessitates a 16.1mm bore. I drilled it to 16mm as it was the closest size I had below that. I measured the length of the threaded portion on the trackrod end, and made sure I drilled just deeper than that, so it would screw all the way in if needs be.
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then, I tapped both ends- first, second and plug. one end is done right hand thread and the other left hand, so it can be adjusted in-situ.
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then, I bolted it up.
good news- it clears the spring!
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bad news- not by enough!
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if I really bounce on the front end hard, I can just get the trackrod to touch the spring as the spring changes shape/length as it is compressed, and the shackles swing down to allow for this = not good. which means I'm going to have to get the oxy torch on the steering arms and add about another 1/4-3/8" of drop for clearance. not too much of a job really, and certainly easier than making the arms from scratch as I had planned!

plus, ive also got the steering box drop-arm finished! havent I been busy?!!

here's where it was left last time id worked on it, and I had to stop cos of late night noise restrictions-
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so first I ground the profile shape up even-
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then put a fresh coat of white primer on it to aid marking out.
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I then marked the centrelines on all 4 sides, as as was going to take the corners off each side to round its profile, and the centrelines meant id do it evenly. this bit involved lots and lots of grinding!
partway through-
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then, about shaped, bar for a few little bits. hung on the car to check what it looks like-
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then, I marked its position relative to the centre splined section off the old arm so it would sit right on the splines, then removed both bits and ground a heavy chamfer on both, for the weld to sit into. it was then laid face down on a flat surface (as the splined section was slightly thicker, and I wanted it to stick out the back not the front side) and some seriously heavy welds laid on both sides-
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I then smoothed the weld on the front side only for cosmetic reasons, I left the one on the backside for strength. and then bolted it up. all done except for reaming the bottom hole for the trackrod taper, which I'm waiting on a taper reamer for me to be able to do it. apart from that, finished!
I'm really happy with how its turned out, its a pretty damn nice looking bit of kit I recon

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cheers pauls!

I spent most of monday morning getting lost in south east london, on my way to pick up a model a rear spring, shackles, clamps and crossmember. got there eventually though and had a nice chat with a guy called dave about 'rods, as ya do.
its all in far better nick than the last one I tried to buy that was knackered, and ive got a spare genuine crossmember to flog on too. the shackles and clamps are old chromed items(I'm pretty sure they're genuine), not in bad nick really. the spring is de arched, probably by way more than I need it to be cos I planned for a full height spring with my rear crossmember height, plus its reversed eyed and has had the top 3 leaves removed (a common mod), so its gunna be a lot lower than planned for, but this just means taller mounts. its on mint condition, no wear at all- I even think one or two leaves may be remanufactured.
heres the pile of bits i bought-


so I spent yesterday evening scaring the sh1t out of myself stretching the rear spring out to fit stock perch dimensions and measure its true dimensions. you have to stretch it out so its about 6" wider than when its not fitted, the reasons behind this are pretty complicated, and if youre interested in them youre probably best off reading THIS THREAD on the HAMB with explains it quite well. basically model A springs run a crazy amount of preload which means stretching them out to fit the mounts, which is quite scary because of the massive amount of stored force in them.

but, ive stretched out just my main leaf to fit stock perch dimensions, which was a bit easier- just took one 19 stone bloke standing on it with it clamped in the vice- and it turns out its about 5" lower than stock!!
it nothing that cant be compensated for , but it means my rear axle brackets are gunna be a bit mad!!