Updating the Super Street Mopar

[ckessel]

I borrowed a stud from a friend, fits 60's/70's GM trucks, to see if my theory is correct. Should be fine. I'm going to grab another type tomorrow potentially to check them out too. In the first picture, then end of the ruler is about where the stud will go. Will weld it on. In addition to those, my old boss is going to let me borrow a fuel tank from an early stang being worked on. Will have that for a little while to check fit and get that in the fab mix. I let the car off the blocks in the rear and it's sitting on the diff now somewhat loading the springs. Somewhat because the trunk lid is off, no fuel tank with fuel etc to add additional loaded weight. Looks like I'll need to address the shackles making them a 1/2"-3/4" longer to give a little more room between the rear spring eye and the frame. Since there is less load plus the springs have not settled, need to be ahead of the game. Another thing I noticed after a BFO [blinding flash of the obvious] moment is since the springs are further in now to the center, I have less travel on the shock left for loading, movement etc. I'm already thinking of a fix there. Will cut above the stud on the lower plate, add a piece in to space it down. I felt through the shock boot and it seems like there is 2" or so till it's bottomed out.
This is the kind of stuff you have to allow for when disrupting the existing Feng Shui. No biggie.
I want to get much of the diff/spring/sway bar stuff figured out before I drop it all out for welding/painting etc. When that bunch of items are out I'll start cutting the wheel tubs as the instructions were correct there. Way more room to work when they are not in the way.

 

[ckessel]

Been plugging away at the sway bar link mounting the last couple of days. I got 4 shock mounting studs in as my theory worked out. Cut one threaded end off two of them so I could weld them to a small piece of 1/4" strap. The flange on the studs is 1/2" wide, add on the 1/4" piece and that gets me spaced out 3/4" which is how much the spring boxes hang out from the inner wall of the rails. Got them tacked in then I cut the links and measured how much lengthening they would need. 3" on the first bar hole and another 1/4" on that to the third bar hole. I picked up some coupling nuts and jamb nuts. Threaded the cut links then tacked 3 coupling nuts together to be used as an adjuster and spacer. On full droop of the suspension I adjusted one unit to length then set it down on the diff to check for clearance. Everything works like I want it to. Next week I'll cut the other link, thread it and purchase two more coupler nuts so I can make the unit for the other side. I used the coupler nuts for the adjustability and I couldn't find any 5/8" id tubing to use instead. Since I don't own a lathe this was my solution. I could've had a solid piece made up to do the same thing but I didn't want to hassle with finding a source for it.

 

[ckessel]

More shots. Coupling nuts got fully welded once I made sure all was groovy. 1st pic is suspension loaded, 2nd is full droop.

 

[ckessel]

Was able to spend some time in the garage today. After cutting the other link, then threading the two halves with my die[ can't find it after setting it somewhere. Getting old!], the arms were a little tired and sore[ rh arm]. Big stuff takes some effort. I welded the coupler nuts together today, then assembled the unit and got both sides hung to check clearances when loaded and drooped. All good there. Pulling one at a time I removed the sway bar bushing mount units to trim for shock clearance, chamfer for welding and remove some of the powder coat from the weld areas. Got them tacked in after checking clearances. The diff stuff, spring mounts and sway bar mounts, will get fully welded when I drop the diff and springs back out. But before that happens I'll do a trial fit and mock up of the Stang fuel tank. That way I can address any tank to diff/springs/shocks/sway bar issues. As I was buttoning things up for the day, I heard some flapping noise that took some time to figure out the origin. Turns out there was a Hummingbird was up at one of the high windows. Had to remove a couple of the window screens and then coax the little dude out. All good now, poor little guy was pretty stressed out. We get quite a few here depending on the time of year. Have 4 feeders out for them.

 

[ckessel]

I remembered that I had a new set of the DC offset shackles so I am using those for the longer units. I cut off the offset portions and am mating them up with the 1/4x1.5" strap sections I cut for the purpose. Using these gives me the recess on the inner areas to clear the mushroom shaped ends of the bushings.

 

[ckessel]

Shackles welded up, will be on the grind list soon. I started fitting the fuel tank up but need to help my honey go over some documents for the upcoming arbitration hearing which is mid April.

 

[ckessel]

I got the tank up in the general area to see if my idea would work. Should be fine from what I saw. There is room to move it forward or back but to the back I'll need to make sure there is room between the tank and shackles. Dropped the tank out then removed the sway bar, diff and springs. With those removed, I'll have more room[ like the instructions said. duh!] to do the tubs. I went through my castle nut stash and found a pair of ball joint nuts, the tri lobe style, that I can put on the front spring eye after I put a pin hole through the bolt. A little extra safety there.

 

[ckessel]

I got the diff off of the trans jack using the crossbeam of the lift as a hoist. Keeps me from moving stuff around for the picker or finding a neighbor to help. Spent some time with the grinder knocking welds down on the shackles and sway bar link adjusters. Tomorrow I need to work on the inner areas of the shackles, using a carbide cutter, to remove weld from the cupped areas of the units. After that I'll get the diff moved so I can cut the old spring perches off. Since I can't get the weld gun into some of the areas to weld the new one, old ones are in the way, I need to remove them

 

[ckessel]

Today I was able to get more done. I took a carbide cutter to the shackles and radiused the bushing pockets, so they are good to go now for some paint. On the diff I removed the unused and in the way spring perches. After they were gone I rolled the diff and cart into the garage to fully weld the spring and sway bar perches. Tomorrow is a day off, going to Famosa for the March Meets.

 

[ckessel]

Nothing sexy today. I welded the sway bar link upper stud mounts today before I swapped out the .035 wire for .030. After that, did some cleaning and putting stuff away. That was a twofold deal as I somehow lost my 5/8-11 Craftsman HSS die after I used it on the links. Was hoping to find it in the maze, no luck so far.

 

[ckessel]

No pictures since its boring stuff. Got the bulk of the undercoating scraped off of the areas where cuts will happen for moving the tubs. Tomorrow I'll get back inside to finish there with removing undercoat/paint/seam sealer. Then drill out some spot welds, back the trunk lid springs off, mark out where cuts will happen then start cutting.

 

[ckessel]

Yesterday after getting some feedback from the FBBO brethren about getting the trunk lid t-bars backed off and the high potential for damage to the human body, I took the hot wrench to them in several spots to kill the torsion. I'm glad I have that unit. Only use it like once a year and just for the heating up of large items. Due to that, the tanks will last me many years since I do no welding or cutting with them. Only have the small weld tip anyway. I tried my Knipex bolt cutters after they cooled, working at the heat damaged areas, but no go. So out came the Sawzall. Got them out in 4 pieces. 493Mike and some others gave me info on gas strut conversions so I'll be doing that in the future. I continued drilling spot welds on the rh side t-bar area. The two pieces looked like they would give me grief when I try to separate them so I just took the saw across the area of the lower section since thats the one provided in the USCT package for repositioning the t-bar mount. When I drop the inner half of the wheelhouse out after cutting it loose I should have more room to separate the mount from the tub and the other section from what stays. I was initially think my propane torch may be enough but figured no. Since I had the truck out of the stall, took the dogs to the beach, I could extract the torch set from the back corner. Had to move several items to get at them. Before I put them back, I put the trans jack away and vacuumed the floor in those areas. Put stuff back then vacuumed out the rest of the bay. It's good to keep on top of the little rocks/dirt/bunnies etc.

 

[ckessel]

I got quite a bit of cutting done today. Tomorrow I'll hit some more spot welds and get through whatever is left holding it in.

 

[ckessel]

Finished the cutting today plus some spot welds. I was able to get the rh unit out. Will do fitting and trimming soon.

 

[ckessel]

I was able to get the unit trimmed of excess pieces today, lots of spot welds. Going to tune it up some with the hammer and dolly, get areas cleaned off for welding etc.

 

[ckessel]

So far today I was able to tune up the weld edge of the wheelhouse with the hammer and dolly. Got that done then treated the new filler pieces with some Ospho so that they have some protection prior to welding. After I get done with lunch, will start on the cut edge where I separated the two houses to get it straight/flat/cleaned off prior to putting new one in.

 

[ckessel]

Today I got most of the future weld area for the tub spacer prepped. I need to work one area where there is still a brace attached with spot welds, going to get between it and the outer tub. This should allow the USCT piece to slide between. On the trunk lid t-bar support that I cut, I was trying to separate the welded portions after drilling the spot welds. It didn't want to easily separate so I decided to just cut off the one remaining portion instead. The new piece fits over it and gets welded to it after the tub goes back in. I cleared off the paint from that general area for upcoming welding. So far the rh side is slow going so far with all of the prep work before cuts happen and even the cutting/drilling. Will see if on the lh side I pick up speed since I know what needs to happen. For those who would have to farm this work out, it's going to be expensive. I would venture to say there is a solid week of labor just getting to where I am now. And it's not done yet. It's somewhat straightforward but the instructions are still vague. I'm very lucky as I don't have any rust issues to deal with. Clean metal to work with once all of the seam sealer and undercoating is out of the way in the areas to be cut. If this kind of work is not your forte, you can still save a good chunk of dough by taking care of all the brainless stuff like the seam sealer and undercoating removal, getting the interior out etc. Same goes for a lot of other work.

 

[ckessel]

Today I worked the welded in bracket that the trunk lid hinge fastens to. I got in there and trimmed it up to the spot welded portion using a cut off wheel on the air grinder. This gives me a little area to at least get some weld on by that bracket, maybe even to it. You can see it between the blue tape areas. I marked the filler piece and trimmed where it would meet at that area, all looks good there. Up on the front end, the portion below the floor needed a piece added on so it could mate up with the existing flange. I didn't' want to try and butt weld in, wanted to somewhat duplicate how it was. The way it is right now, it would just butt up. I'm going to see how far I get in the next few days with all of this. Going to be flying out to Pensacola Fl. to give my BIL and assist as he will just be getting home from back surgery. Going to be there about two weeks but should make it back in time for Spring Fling.

 

[ckessel]

Welded the piece on today, knocked welds down, tuned it up with hammer and dolly then put it in its place. Will work out better having something to weld to.

 

[ckessel]

I got the filler piece in place. Set it in with some screws. Tomorrow I'm going to make some cuts on the floor and frame rail to set the original unit in place.