Just to show that I haven't been slackin off too much...
This is Monday afternoon:
And this is tonight....
Been quite a week of progress (especially since I only got to work on it 3 nights) but its alot more motivating to see it back on its feet again
Ran into a few issues lately that I've been tackling... Bought a 4.10 ring and pinion for it, but of course the part number didn't actually go to this model and ended up with one for a Dana 60 instead. Looking it over and talking with a couple knowledgable guys it COULD have been made to fit... But it would have required alot of machine work ($$$) to make it fit. Then I went to a couple junkyard looking for rears, mostly at Dana 60's, and found one, but then talked it over again with some people and decided just to put the rearend that I have back together again and run it... Can always change it in the future.
The rear suspension is real funky... Homemade 2 link set-up, which was sort of ahead of its time back then, but they never really went all the way with it.. Here's some pictures to kind of show it:
When I put it in the car, the rear automatically wanted to twist and the pinion was facing way up and the tires were hitting the side bars. I knew the suspension was going to need some help but the ratchet strap is holding it in a decent position and it should be easy to take out a little more metal to get the pinion level and then weld a plate or a couple thick washers to the top of the crossmember to keep it there. Then I'll be building some radius rods out of aluminum like out of a newer stock car. Not really the most authentic, but hey I have it available and once it's painted black I doubt most will know the difference...
Also one the rearend when I decided to put it back together, I didn't really want to deal with the welded spiders on the road (especially with how big the tires are going to be on the back) so I started messing with it and found only one actualy weld was still holding it (the rest had broke) so I used a plasma cutter to cut the weld, took the spider gears apart, and then carefully took a die grinder and got rid of the welds. Not exactly the most popular/correct way to do it, but hey this ain't Nascar.
Also had to deal with the drag link... Originally they just used the stock drag link and cobbed it into the Chevy steering box with only a few threads on the end holding it and of course they were pretty stripped... Hadn't paid any attention to it when I took it apart so that was sort of a speed bump when I went to put it back together. So then my Uncle talked me into just making my own out of the aluminum I had for the radius rods. Never really worked with this stuff before, but it was pretty easy. Might have to do some adjusting with it, but the steering actually seems to go pretty good turning the wheel.
Also managed to find a transmission a couple weeks back. Been looking all over for one asking all the guys I know, and then I just happened to talk to a guy at a local cruise night and he said he had one. So he brought it with him the next week to the cruise night and I picked it up there so that worked out alright.
Hopefully soon (meaning tomorrow) I can get the engine/transmission in there for mockup.