The Roofus Special

Flipper · April 11, 2010, 03:10:27 PM

Sitting and thinking can be a dangerous thing. I was surfing through some of my favorite sites looking for ideas for front crossmembers and may have changed the direction of my build just a little.

I was planning on setting it up right at the scrub line for that "stupid low" look. Nothing was going to hang below the frame rails. The car was going to be flat bottomed to be driveable down low. ...then last night I saw this car on Northwest Vintage Speedsters.

It has a really nice shape. I especially like the downward slope of the hood.

The car sits higher than I thought I wanted mine to sit. ...But it looks SO RIGHT! It looks like they dropped the motor down to have a lower hood line.

I think I may raise my car about 3-4 inches and lower the motor by the same amount.

39deluxe · April 12, 2010, 01:26:11 AM

It sure has the right look. I'm starting to think that you need your Jag wheel hubs laced to taller rims.

Tom

jaybee · April 12, 2010, 09:51:04 AM

That's a great look. What you're contemplating might keep it from looking too "thick", too.

Flipper · April 12, 2010, 06:53:07 PM

Quote from: "39deluxe"It sure has the right look. I'm starting to think that you need your Jag wheel hubs laced to taller rims.

Tom

Bigger wheels has been a desire all along.

....I'm just waiting to see if the car turns out to be worth spending that kind of money. I was told it would cost $600 a wheel (plus tires & tubes).

I'm hoping I can find a way to make it happen cheaper.

enjenjo · April 12, 2010, 08:36:48 PM

If you look close at that car, the engine sets much lower in the frame, with the crank about even with the bottom of the frame. Typical of cars in that era.

Flipper · April 25, 2010, 10:04:47 PM

I played with the front end some more. I thought I wanted a t-bucket type spring perch to mount the front srping and a seperate crossmember down low to mount the rack and pinion. I was planning on making a splash apron below the the spring crossmember to hide the rack.

The piece pictured was 2x4. It seeme too bulky so I grabbed a piece of 2x4 and trimmed it to fit between the frame rails. I didn't bother taking pics. It just looked wrong. The straight line going across the front of the car did not play well fith the swoop shapes.

Flipper · April 25, 2010, 10:05:27 PM

So I scrounged around the various junk piles and pulled out a 4x4 transfercase crossmember out of a WW2 era Dodge ambulance (everybody has one of those right?). It kinda looked like a model T rear spring perch, but was way bigger. I cut a piece out of the middle and tried it on for size.

It is going to span between the lower a-arms and the spring will be mounted above the crossmember.

Here it is mocked up, centered under the spring.

Flipper · April 25, 2010, 10:06:16 PM

I also tried it slid forward and rearward to see what grabbed me. (The gray piece in the pic is the 2x3 crossmember I tried. I tried it mound on top of the upper frame rails and also from the bottom side of the upper frame rails...it just looked wrong)

Forward

Rearward

I liked it best slid to the rear.

Flipper · April 25, 2010, 10:07:00 PM

So now that I had an idea of how the spring was going to be attached, I neede to sort out where everything else was going to be.

The radiator is a pretty important piece...so I threw it into the mock-up.

Just adding the radiator made it look more like a car.

...But the radiator that far back just didn't look right.

Flipper · April 25, 2010, 10:07:41 PM

I scooted the motor forward so that the radiator was right behind the leaf spring ....where it would be if I do the upright grill shell like a Rally.

Flipper · April 25, 2010, 10:08:19 PM

What do you know? The motor is back ahead of the "firewall" again. ....where it was last year!

Foot room is much nicer....again!

Just to make sure that moving the radiator closer to the spring didn't change which perch location looked best...I mocked stuff up the other ways again.

Rearward still looks best to me.

Flipper · April 25, 2010, 10:09:00 PM

So now that I know where the radiator goes. Time to try and squeeze in the rack.

The good thing about the wide spring crossmember is that I think I can hide the rack and pinion under it.

The rack needs to go 3.5 inches forward of where it is pictured here. It will pretty much be under the radiator.

proposed cut outs

from the side

Now the REALLY fun part. Trying to figure out how to put it all together where I can pull the steering back out at a later date if I have to.

The original idea was to mount the rack on its own crossmember and the bolt the spring crossmember over the rack.

Then I thought about mounting the rack to the underside of the spring crossmember and bolting both down as a unit.

Now I'm trying tofigure out how to fish the rack into the crossmember if the crossmeber was welded in (I really want to weld it so that I can gusset up to the upper framerails next to the radiator).

That's where I am for now. I still have some more thinking to do.

Flipper · April 25, 2010, 10:09:37 PM

Oops. I forgot to post the pics with the a-arms in the mock up.

and the passenger side arm turned upside down as a pretend upper a-arm

Flipper · April 25, 2010, 10:13:55 PM

And a few more "car" pics.

Flipper · May 07, 2010, 09:09:27 PM

I've had a hard time figuring out the next step. I need to figure out how to tie the spring crossmember to the upper framerails (strengthen up the whole front end, especially the mounts for the upper a-arms).

I kinda wanted to put the reinforcement behind the spring instead of in front, simply to have the spring out in the open. The only thing I can fit between the spring and the radiator would be a plate (with a strengthing rib on the top front edge), I don't think I can fit a tube of any kind in there.

Anybody think this will be strong enough? also thought about making the rib wider as it gets closer to the frame.