[Essex_29]

Thank you for your comments!

sixball, you asked about my battery mechanism. I drew a sketch to
explain how it works. Here's the principle, same thing on the othe side of
the battery.





Obviously the battery itself is bolted to the tray.
This works, but to get the battery up, I need to use both hands and a knee, so
some kind of hook or latch thing is needed, so still in the R&D stage.

[Rattiac]

Cool ideas going on here. 
I've been wanting to build something like this to hide my radio/stereo under the dash and pop it down when it's being used.
Blueprints in my head.  Just gotta figure out how im gonna bend the sheet metal in one piece.

[Essex_29]

That's a cool idea, Rattiac. A stereo not visible, and not int he glove box either. Great idea.

I'm planning to finish up the body and get the work done to it that has to be done, before lifting it off
the frame for paint.
Paint the frame and bottom of the body, that is.
So checking off items from the to do list, I made the rear most part of the floor, there was a 2" slice
missing. Then I noticed that I hadn't remembered to make the last bit in the middle of the
Transmission tunnel.



The part required some metal shaping, that's why I hadn't done it before. I'm an expert procrastinator.

Today it's Finland's independence day, so I'm off from work. I decided to do something I've been thinking
of since I started this project, namely tidying up the front end of the frame rails.
They looked a bit wobbly, so I started by hammering the flanges with two big hammers, the bigger one
used as a makeshift dolly. The material is about ¹/₈" thick steel, so it took some
beating.



I shortened the top and bottom flanges about ⁵/₈" hoping that would give me the
 look I am going for, then capped the end of the frame with a piece of 1/8" by 1-3/8" sheetmetal, cut like
a flat bar, and bent around a pipe.
Some welding and grinding later they're done.



I still have to do the E-brake, and plan holes in the firewall for the heater hoses and ignition wires. I'm
planning on mounting the two coils inside of the firewall Then take a bunch of measurements for a
baseline ride height. It will be exciting to see if I can get the body off, without dropping it...

[sixball]

So many good ideas in play here. The battery hider is really cool. Thanks for the drawing.
 I've been doing a lot of battery lifting. I'm replacing the 12 L16 batteries for our soar system,  well over 100 pounds each.

[sammons]

I've been wanting to build something like this to hide my radio/stereo under the dash and pop it down when it's being used.
[/quote

Rattiac, i did that for my buddies 32 ford p.u.  I built a contoured tray that matched the underside dash curve that flipped down like a glove box. Worked out great, can't hardly see it when its up.

Essex, great job on the frame horns. Looks real nice.

[TFoch]

Floor came out great! Nice work!

[Essex_29]

Thank you sixball, sammons and TFoch.

Thursday evening I mocked up the fenders and a runningboard and took a pic of the result. Some photoshopping
later, here's kind of a preview of what it might look like when it's done.



Yesterday I was cleaning up some of the mess I've made over the last week or two, and decided that now is as
good time as ever to take the body off the frame. 
I unbolted the frame from the garage floor and begun removing doors, unbolting the body etcetera.
The engine hoist is useful here.




Today a buddy came and helped me move the body from the frame to a svivel wheel dolly I made
 earlier, so it has something easily moveable to stand on while I'm working on the frame.



I removed the carbs, intake and exhaust primaries...  It's surprising how small the whole thing
looks now.




When I get the engine and transmission out, I'll turn the frame over and do some final welding
that I didn't want to do upside down earlier. Then a few modifications are going to be done, to
repair at least one mistake, and a change in the plans.

[sammons]

Mock up looks great! Most people have no idea the amount of work "put it together, take it apart" we go thru to get it all to fit propper.

[Essex_29]

That's right, sammons.  Until now just a handful of bolts are tightened, not meant to come off
again. All of those are on the pedal assemblies, which themselves aren't mounted to the body. Good
thing one likes wrenching on cars.

After a couple days break, I pulled the engine and transmission from the frame. As the engine and
transmission aren't meant to work together, I had to cut a pice out of the bellhousing for the starter.



Now everything fits. Barely. I ran a feelergauge around the end of the starter, and a .010" just fit
on the underside. Good thing, I didn't have to try to get the transmission and engine fit together more
than once.

So now the frame is bare. I found a pic of the frame right before I got it sandblasted a couple years
ago, and if you look closely, you might see a difference. I'm looking forward to taking pics of the
finished frame with engine, transmission, suspension, wheels, prop shaft and exhausts.



I now have the frame standing on its side, lifted with and secured by the engine hoist. It's useful
for all kinds of lifting.

[Rattiac]

Man,  that looks cool with the fenders on. 😎

[sixball]

This is fun to follow. Quality all the way!

[Essex_29]

Thank you Rattiac, I like the fendered look, but I'm afraid it will have to sit a bit higher to
be driveable. Hopefully not a lot.
You too, sixball, thank you for the nice words!

Work on the frame now.
I finished up the engine mounts, figuring they'd be easier to weld nicely when I can move the
frame around freely. It took a piece of ¹/₈" wall water tubing and some  small pieces of the
same thickness plate, to make them ready. 
The ¹/₄" thick round shaped engine mount plate that looks like it's just welded to the boxing plate, is in
fact not round, but welded to the inside of the frame, and it also has wedges that are welded to the frame
flange under it. The box plate is molded around the mount.
I use Volvo 740 transmission mounts for both the engine and transmission.



Since I changed to bigger rear tires, I'm now in the process of lowering the front four link mounts
about 1-¹/₄" to compensate.
That's the change in plan that I mentioned earlier. As you may see, the lower frame part, that goes
 under the prop shaft is partly cut. That's the mistake I talked about. That thing sits too high, so
the prop shaft might hit it.



Later today I cut out the right hand side four link mounts and the center frame part and did a lot
of grinding to tidy things up.
Next will be to get the new frame cener piece made and finish weld everything.

[Essex_29]

Because reasons not much have been done the last week or so. I cut he parts for the new
center piece for the frame, and that's about it.



Hoping to get back at it after christmas, so here goes, greetings from my
garage building, here in Finland:

[TFoch]

Merry Christmas from New Hampshire USA.  No snow here yet!

[Essex_29]

Ooff! TFoch, we've had snow sinve October, we had an extremely early winter this year.

Back out playing in the garage today. As you may know, Christmas is celebrated mainly on
Christmas eve here in Europe, December 24th, so the 25th is almost like a normal day off.

I welded up the pices in my last post today, starting with good welds on the inside, to get
the little crossmember strong, enve when it's ground on the outside to look nice.



After completely welding and grinding it, it looked like this.



I tacked in the right hand side four link bar mount and then fully welded everything



Again lifting the frame and turning it in all different positions to make welding easier. The
frame is upside down in this pic.

Now to a little problem:
I have Moser drive shafts with C-clips. I'm wondering if this will really work, the surface
for the wheel bearing is pretty darn coarse, just like turned on a lathe. Is this normal on
a new axle shaft?



Hard to see in a small pic, but it's not at all like bearing  races usually are, almost with a
mirror finish. Would anyone of you have any experience with this kind of thing?
Here's a pic of the end of the axle, just for reference.