Dad's A990 clone

[m880cummins]

So, motivation strikes like waves and in the last few weeks of my time as a student at Penn College for Restoration I wanted to take full advantage of the facilities we had. Dad has had a 65 Coronet completely taken apart since I was 3 years old. Last sunday we had a guy come dustless blast the shell and monday it was in PPG DP epoxy primer. Over the course of the week the unibody was measured old school (tram gauges and self centering gauges) and measured with a laser measuring system to confirm the body is in good condition and straight.

I acquired a footwell section from a fellow member (Thanks Ed!) in New Jersey and Dad went to see Kramer and bought an AMD floor pan and aluminum door hinges. Our subframe connectors go through the floor and are made of 2x3 box steel .120 wall. The firewall was drilled off and a better section will be installed. Also deleted all cowl related items and hand fabricated new pieces to match the left side.

Taking it home this coming week and doing inboard SS leaf springs, getting the suspension under so it rolls and moving onto other metal work and installing fiberglass to check fitment. Then it will be installing the 400 block and hemi 4 speed box for test fitment.

DAD!

 

[m880cummins]

My teacher demonstrating the Laser measuring system

Before I cut the torsion bar x member for connectors:

Dropping them in!

Me working:

Doors are on and aligned with the Aluminum hinges. Soon doors will be replaced with fiberglass ones... Dad was visiting me today and two classmates were helping.

HOW IS THAT FOR 1 WEEK!!!!!

Charlie

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

Very NICE!!! Will it be mini tubbed?? You'll be able to fit a nice size tire if you do.

 

[m880cummins]

Very NICE!!! Will it be mini tubbed?? You'll be able to fit a nice size tire if you do.

Yes, minitubbed, inboard leaves, Dana 60 4.56 Power Lock. Looking to do a 29-30' tire and anything from 10.5 (NSS class) up to 12.50

 

[Riverdawg]

Going to be an awesome car. Your doing some great work. Good luck.

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

If you stay with leafsprings,you might want to do right to Caltrack. Their entire system with the spring,bar and sliders. Buy DA shocks also.I went with Viking as I felt it was a good product for the money.Do it right the first time around!

 

[64HEMI330SEDAN]

If you stay with leafsprings,you might want to do right to Caltrack. Their entire system with the spring,bar and sliders. Buy DA shocks also.I went with Viking as I felt it was a good product for the money.Do it right the first time around!

View attachment 334417 View attachment 334418

do you think the sliders are worth the effort ?. I have never asked anyone who has added them if it was any gain or not.

 

[m880cummins]

do you think the sliders are worth the effort ?. I have never asked anyone who has added them if it was any gain or not.

I'm considering trying them on the rear. I'm not sure if I want to fully commit to welding something onto the subframe so I may fabricate a bracket where I can bolt them on or modify them off the car to change angles and position or go back to a traditional shackle

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

do you think the sliders are worth the effort ?. I have never asked anyone who has added them if it was any gain or not.

I had good results.Car felt better at high speed.I bought the Afco sliders that come with bushings for s/s springs.I had to buy the proper bushing kit from Caltrak,so just get the whole deal from them except the shocks.It also helped to lower the rear over an inch.

 

[aldal]

Great job, please keep us updated.

 

[65NUTCASE]

Nice gift for your Father. I had the pleasure of visiting Penn Collage Last year and got to see the restoration shop . Very nice facility. My son graduates from the construction engineering class next year . Keep the posts coming..

 

[2059]

Awesome car! It's great that you can take advantage of that kind of resource! keep us posted and keep pluggin' away!!

 

[eric383]

That is an awesome weeks worth of work!

 

[dartforforty]

Car is looking good Charlie.
Glad the foot well section worked for you.
Good luck with the project.
Ed

 

[m880cummins]

So today I began welding the floor pan in. Have around 350 plug welds to do between the pan, footwells and along the subframe connectors. sigh...

Scribed a line using a needle file while pan was resting on frame connectors. Cut the slots, did some tweaking and welded on some L shaped brackets that are plug welded the length of the slot and will be plug welded to the frame connector. I don't want a full weld because there needs to be a slight amount of flexibility possible. These cars were meant to twist under load and adding too much stiffness could cause rapid fatigue.

Since the top of the torsion bar x member was cut out to fit the connector, I wanted to reestablish the top lip of the x member to maintain the web (cutting out a web on an x member is like cutting the top or bottom off an I beam). Did this out of 14ga and plug welded it to the connector and butt welded the edges.

Welded in and cleaned up:

Pan fully drilled and sprayed with Weld Thru where needed. Used SEM Copper coat

Pan in place:

Moving along nicely. Have to finish a final paper tonight for the semester so fully welding the pan will have to wait until class tomorrow.

Charlie

 

[dvw]

do you think the sliders are worth the effort ?. I have never asked anyone who has added them if it was any gain or not.

Buy the sliders at Speedway Automotive, cheap. Easy to install. They work well.
Doug

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

The bushings that come with the Speedways do not fit the Caltrac spring,that's why I suggested the Caltrac deal.

 

[m880cummins]

So the car has left school and is coming home tomorrow! Extremely happy with the work I accomplished with the help of a classmate since it was hauled up two weeks ago. Today, I installed the cowl delete panel and upper firewall. Did not plug weld the upper firewall to the upper cowl since it has to be drilled off for rust repair. Sanded all of the metal down that was installed and rolled it into the paint booth and sprayed more black epoxy. Need to do the underside yet. Planning to throw the suspension and wheels/tires under it in the next couple weeks so it can be a roller!

Lotsa plug welds!

Using a spot welder to join the floor to the firewall

Slotted the footwells and they fit nicely:

Both pans had these sheetmetal brackets I made welded on. These are plug welded to the sides of the frame connectors:

Installed:

Off the bench:

In the booth:

Time for seam seal!

Charlie