The transformation of my almost 60 year old car "back" to a daily driver begins.......
I got the front disc brake kit in place (a few weeks ago), though the hyd. lines aren't connected yet. Probably going to redo all of the lines once I'm done with everything brake install wise.
Finally got the rear axle bolted in place today. I picked it up two weeks ago, cleaned it up and painted it, and put it in the car. I didn't actually bolt it in because I ordered heavy duty shocks and a sway bar from Dave Theobault (spl ?) . While it was just sitting there. I measured for rear wheels. The fronts are Weld Draglite, 15" x 7" and the rears are also Draglites only 15" x 8". The front tires are 215-75 and the rears are 235-75.
Again, the rear disc's (and parking brake) aren't hooked up yet.
Because of the narrowing of the housing and using big Ford bearings, the "U" bolts were a real pain to install today. I put 1-1/2" lowering blocks in beacuse of the 28+" tall tire and wanting to keep the body somewhat the stock height. The new axle ends are 3" dia., while the stock axle tube is 2-3/4" ia. This made installing the "U" bolts a real pain in the butt. Some torch work, hammer work, pushing and shoving....everything is in place.
I got the dash board out the other day. Trying to unwind the Champian wire harness and ready to remove it and install a new 12 volt (smaller wires). I need to be carefull what I remove because the new harness doesn't "seem" complete/or the same as the Champ. harness...so...gotta take my time. The Commander dash is ready to go into place, once I'm ready to take my chances with the wiring...!
The Commander dash is now black with marginal chrome parts, but the black dash really seems to hide many of the blemishes in the chrome parts and bring out the cleaned and polished chrome to look better thAn it should...!
I'm using NOS gauges in a 53 type hood setup. The 53's have four seperate gauge hoods, VS. the 54 using one long gauge hood.
So far only one bucket seat is in. This makes things MUCH easier to work on the dash and later to replace a little bit of floor. The left side floor is in pretty good shape, while the right side needs about a 12" x 18" patch installed, and also removal of the stock heater and plugging that hole..!
Gonna try to get the trans. out tomorrow, though it's supposed to rain..
We'll see.
Will post more when more is done worth posting.
Mike