Arnt the hubs built into the wheels on that one? Ive only ever worked on a 26. Had a completly different straight 6 in it. Generator was run on a chain, and carb was on the bottom. They have a few sites that still sell new parts for those engines.
Arnt the hubs built into the wheels on that one? Ive only ever worked on a 26. Had a completly different straight 6 in it. Generator was run on a chain, and carb was on the bottom. They have a few sites that still sell new parts for those engines.
In reply to Jaxmadine:
With the wooden wheels, the hubs are indeed built into the wheel. To change tire, you have to un-bolt the rim from the spokes. The straight 6 in the picture is from a 1935, because this is the first year that Mopar sort of starting to standardize. Before that year, they made important changes almost every year. It makes finding the right part a real archaeological enterprise, especially when like Plymouth there is also the differences between the American and Canadian built models. But I don't care too much about authenticity.
This thread is quite a deviation from what Im typically drawn to, but Im actually terribly anxious to see the next update! Please keep us posted, this is pretty damn cool!
I thought about sharing the article that inspired my for my build. I want to make something similar to the car in the article. If the powers think it's not OK for here, I'll take it out.
I just thought it was too neat not to share.
Here's a dumb question from the uninformed (me):
Why do racers of this style (body style, era, etc...) have positive camber on the front?
They generally have a beam axle and have no provision for adjustment without a hot-wrench.
Right, but the factory beam axles seem to be straight up and down while the racers look to have positive camber. You'd also be able to adjust caster by rotating the whole assembly it seems, so I wonder what is ideal with this sort of thing?
Well we have to remember that a lot of what we know about wheel alignment and the best way to manage the grip of a tire was develop by Miliken mostly after WW2. Before that, a lot of the technology was through experimentation.
But what I've been told is that the positive camber was for reducing the steering effort by keeping the kingpin as close to vertical as possible while reducing the scrub radius.
The_Jed wrote: Here's a dumb question from the uninformed (me): Why do racers of this style (body style, era, etc...) have positive camber on the front?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camber_angle
Off-road vehicles such as agricultural tractors generally use positive camber. In such vehicles, the positive camber angle helps to achieve a lower steering effort.
camber in either direction lowers steering effort; i.e. positive camber would make it easier to turn the wheel, so would negative (...although caster would have an even bigger effect on this.)
My guess is that negative camber (easier to adjust than caster) was created on early cars to reduce steering difficulty. Back then, the chassis were often very flexible/wobbly....generally enough that the grip differences between positive and negative may not have been readily apparent.
Now you have me thinking on building something like this someday...
Apexcarver wrote: Now you have me thinking on building something like this someday...
http://www.cyclekartclub.com/
On positive camber from that era, most of those cars were running what were essentially bigass bicycle tires, more often than not on dirt roads, both cases where a few degrees camber isn't really going to effect much anyways.
Have you seen this pdf? http://www.nwvs.org/Technical/MTFCA/Articles/2504HellCat.pdf
fanfoy wrote: Re wheels777: You have mail.
Forgot to mention, I also have a Stude flathead 6 with a 3 speed OD trans. The engine has a new head gasket, water pump and ignition parts. Also, the engine has a rebuilt carb and starter.
4cylndrfury wrote: This thread is quite a deviation from what Im typically drawn to, but Im actually terribly anxious to see the next update!
I know, frickin' awesome isn't it?
Every now and then for like the past 30 years I've thought of doing this (i.e., building an old skool roadster) using an '60s-'70s pickup truck frame with a 6-cylinder motor. This is way better, much more elegant.
So I went to Andrew Nelson's (wheels777) place to pick-up the rebuild Plymouth engine he had. Ended-up coming back with two Plymouth engines (one in parts), a Studebaker inline six and a lot of misc. parts. 
And there is another engine on my trailer (no picture). You can see the rebuild Plymouth short-block in the second picture, and the complete Studebaker six in the first picture. So the first step will be to inventory everything, but I think I will now have everything I need.
It was 10 hours each way to drive to Andrew Nelson's house, but it was totally worth it. Super nice guy, lovely wife, TONS of really cool stuff to see. I think I learned more about SBC's, drag racing and land speed racing in one morning with him, than in the last ten years. He's got soooo much stuff going on that I sort of feel inadequate.
On the frame side, I'm almost done boxing the frame. I'll post picture when it's done.
fanfoy wrote: I think I learned more about SBC's, drag racing and land speed racing in one morning with him, than in the last ten years. He's got soooo much stuff going on that I sort of feel inadequate.
I was fortunate enough to meet Andy one evening while he was in town for work, and I concur with these statements 100%!
petegossett wrote:fanfoy wrote: I think I learned more about SBC's, drag racing and land speed racing in one morning with him, than in the last ten years. He's got soooo much stuff going on that I sort of feel inadequate.I was fortunate enough to meet Andy one evening while he was in town for work, and I concur with these statements 100%!
+100 I have said several times that the magazine I REALLY want to read would be named GRM: What's happening in Andy Nelson's Garage
fanfoy wrote: So I went to Andrew Nelson's (wheels777) place to pick-up the rebuild Plymouth engine he had. Ended-up coming back with two Plymouth engines (one in parts), a Studebaker inline six and a lot of misc. parts.
In reply to mike53: any updates ???
Just came back from Lemons this week-end. Great fun. Time for a little update.
I finished boxing the frame rails.
With that done, I could located the engine and fabricate the rear engine mount/crossmember. This was a very tedious task with measuring, re-measuring, cutting, checking, grinding, re-checking, etc...
The frame is upside down in the above pick. Mopar used a special mounting method for the engine. The engine/trans combo has it's mount on the bellhousing in the rear, and the other mount is high up in front of the engine so that the engine is supported along its centerline. They called it "Floating Power".
I love those old marketing names. They just sound silly to me.
On the engine front, I mounted the engine on its stand and started to gather all the parts that came in a bunch of boxes.
I confirmed that all the parts are there (even the coolant distribution tube in the block).
Now I'm woundering if I should paint the engine before or after assembly. Back in the day, they used to paint it after assembly, but there are advantages to painting it before. What do you guys think?
I also started to fabricated the underslung floor. After much debate with myself, I decided to make it a bolt-on structure.
That's all for now.
Now I'm woundering if I should paint the engine before or after assembly. Back in the day, they used to paint it after assembly, but there are advantages to painting it before. What do you guys think?
I almost always paint the engine with every thing that is engine color assembled. It saves a lot of time and I see no disadvantage unless you are doing a maximum point show car which wasn't done that way at the factory.
Little update.
I started assembling the engine. I decided to paint the parts before assembly. It's going a lot slower than I would like because I'm always looking for the parts through the boxes.
Rant: I tried using POR15 engine enamel for this engine, and it's pure crap. I wanted to give it a try because I had great results with normal POR15, but this is E36 M3. Brush marks, hard to brush, runs, doesn't cover well, etc... At least, it makes it look a little more vintage-y
I also made my dropped floor supporting cross-members. I'm ending up with a 10" ride height. which should be a nice compromise between low, but not too low.
The piece of wood was to check for prop-shaft clearance. I wanted to use the top shifting transmission in the picture, but I hadn't realized that the shifter ends up above the bellhousing, which means in front of the firewall. So I guess I'll have to make a remote shifter.
But what I've been told is that the positive camber was for reducing the steering effort by keeping the kingpin as close to vertical as possible while reducing the scrub radius.
That makes complete sense. As mentioned, camber wouldnt do much with those tires anyway.. But you may very well need a little help sawing the wheel into countersteer. 
You'll need to log in to post.
