The Rambler needs help rambling :(

[Gambler]

Okay, here's the deal:

I had been working on the Rambler Wagon at a friends fathers autoshop where he (was) employed. Due to a stupidly large amount of much needed snow here in SW CO this winter, the project got delayed pretty badly. About a month ago, he parted ways with family employment (old addage..never work for family, unless you're one tight nuclear unit.. I think we've all been there, right?). That leaves me in a bind. His father did say we could drag the mig out there, but welding on 50 ft of contracters extension cord..yeah. I NEED to get this car out of there in the next few weeks TOPS, and this is where I'm at:

We made two L brackets to weld to the exposed frame in front of the wheel wheels. Tack welding 3 times proved NOT to work, the weight of the wagon broke them each time we lowered the car down. So the rearend is just sitting under the car, arms on the ground. The only option I can think of, is to use a high speed drill with a good bit (I made the brackets out of 1/4" angle iron) drill out two holes for each bracket, drill through the frame, and bolt it all in. Sound like a plan? This is in order for the car to be a roller, so I can get it on a flatbed and drop $100 to have it towed 30 miles. *sighs*. After alot of thinking, its the only option I can come up with. The driveshaft and tranny are not hooked up, so besides the arms, and the springs seating to the body above, I have no other linkage done.

What do you guys think? I've gotten some AWESOME info from everyone, and learned some hard lessons about building (well..about relying on other people) out of this..

Good News: Had a beautiful baby daughter Rowan enter our lives Feb 24th, shes great (firstborn) and also picked up a running 1968 Jeep J3000 4x4 with a strong running AMC/Kaiser 327 in it.

TIA-Ryan

[MrMopar64]

First off CONGRATS on the baby!!!!!  :b-d:

You don't have the torq tube in the car any more?
Is there any factory holes in the frame you can use temporally till you can do what you want?

MM64  

[Gambler]

First off CONGRATS on the baby!!!!!  :b-d:

You don't have the torq tube in the car any more?
Is there any factory holes in the frame you can use temporally till you can do what you want?

MM64  

Nope, the TT rear end is all ripped out, and there arent any factory holes for where the arms/brackets reach.

It looked great until the welds broke  The only 'good' thing is that the brackets didnt totally break off, so I can just c-clamp them to where we had them lined up (although..that wasnt done right either, we measured off the tire to the fender, when we should have measured from the front spindles to the center of the rear axle/brake drum? to get correct squareness.. I can either do that correctly when I bolt them in, or just get it close enough and fix it later.

I dont even want to try to tow it backwards, I've heard too many places that its impossible to get the wheel tied down tight enough to prevent waggling on the road, and with no brakes/cheesy rearend I cant towstrap it, so flatbed is the only idea I have.

Hopefully, I score a good deal on a used MIG when all is said and done, and have a welder come over and help me out (and learn how to weld myself) so much for my Fine Arts Degree hahahaha

[MrMopar64]

Can't you have a sling truck pick it up from the back and put the front end on their dollies if they have to?
Then you could save all the temp work

MM64  

[Gambler]

Can't you have a sling truck pick it up from the back and put the front end on their dollies if they have to?
Then you could save all the temp work

MM64  

Thanks for the congrats, btw, missed that the first time,

I suppose I could, that would work if it'd be cheaper than getting a flatbed..or at least close to it.

Lol..I wonder if I can con AAA into towing it..doubtful...

I'm not shooting for a show quality rod here..do you think I could bolt it up like I mentioned, and mig it later around the edges? I need to trim some extra meat off them anyways down the road for the real install..gah..if this wasnt such a cool car with potential, I'd sell it.

[MrMopar64]

Lol..I wonder if I can con AAA into towing it..doubtful...

You could just tell them you were driving it and the rearend just fell out  

What you want to do should prob work as long as you use suitable material

MM64  

[Gambler]

Lol..I wonder if I can con AAA into towing it..doubtful...

You could just tell them you were driving it and the rearend just fell out  

What you want to do should prob work as long as you use suitable material

MM64  

I was figuring some highgrade bolts (grade 8?), locktite and some heavy wrenchwork. Shouldnt take that long, but it sure burns my * that we didnt get it way past this point a long time ago.  Ah well, live and learn. Hows your panel conversion coming along?

If I remember right, you converted your oil bath to to a regular air filter, was that hard? (I imagine you just plugged up the oil return hose, I want to do the same thing to the Kaiser built AMC engine in my 68 Gladiator 327)

[MrMopar64]

I was figuring some highgrade bolts (grade 8?), locktite and some heavy wrenchwork. Shouldnt take that long, but it sure burns my * that we didnt get it way past this point a long time ago.  Ah well, live and learn. Hows your panel conversion coming along?

If I remember right, you converted your oil bath to to a regular air filter, was that hard? (I imagine you just plugged up the oil return hose, I want to do the same thing to the Kaiser built AMC engine in my 68 Gladiator 327)

It's comming along........ I got the electric doors set up this week.. Keyless remote outside and push button inside

Had no oil hose on mine...... Went to the muffler shop had them make a piece of tubing to fit the neck of the carb then welded 2 nuts to the side to put set screws in to hold it on the carb then attached that to the new air cleaner

MM64