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No progress yesterday, I had to fix a rear end noise on my fathers 86 convertible..... Today however I got quite a bit done..... I removed the rest of the front brake lines, master cyl, steering column..... The steering column was a lot of fun to get out of the way, because of the cage dash bar I have to remove the under dash package try which causes me to have to remove the pass side speaker/kick panel and dash bracket(fun-fun-fun)..... Then I cut the bulk of the lower control mounts off the chassis, I also cut out the front strut rod cross member..... Next I spot drilled and removed all the remaining parts of the brackets off the inside of the front subframe rails..... Just need to get all the pieces off the under side of the rails, the I can start cleaning all the remaining bumps off everything.....
Here's what the interior looks like all torn apart.....
Here is the front, before cutting stuff out and then after chopping out big pieces.....
Here it is with all the brackets were taken off the inside of the frame.....
Finally had a little time after work again today..... I got the last steam port line made, polished and installed..... This one was the toughest to made due to the position of the oil pressure sensor position, but I got it in there.....
Today I removed the rest of the bracket pieces off the bottom of the front sub frame rails..... Then I removed drilled the spot welds at the bottom of the shock tower and broke the bottom loose, also drilled the spot weld in the center support of the tower and removed it.....
I have been trying to decide what I wanted to do with the towers as far as how to cut them back, I looked them over for another half hours or so and decided to remove most of them for now(I keep the radius and approximately a 1/4" of the straight panel where the towers are attached to the inner aprons).....
Last thing I did today was grind all the areas when I removed brackets smooth to get rid of the spot weld remains, I also cleaned up and deburred the edges where the towers were removed..... and I cleaned up mess from cutting and grinding.....
Here is before and after remove the rest of the brackets from under the right front frame rail(the third one is the pieces removed).....
Here is where I removed the center piece for the towers, I still can't believe how rust free this thing is where there is bare metal for all these years.....
Here it is with the towers removed.....
and these show it with all the areas ground down and cleaned up.....
I wasn't doing anything this afternoon so I went back to the shop..... I brought the k-member down and bolt it in on the belly bar bolt holes(it's what they use to align the crossmember in the chassis)..... Then took some measurments to make sure it was square in the chassis..... It was pretty damn good, with in less then an 1/8" no matter where I referenced it from.....
Here's a couple pic's of it mocked up in place.....
It's a shame we have to do that to these early fords/mercs to get a decent sized engine compartment...looks like some very good fab work going on in this build.
It's a shame we have to do that to these early fords/mercs to get a decent sized engine compartment...looks like some very good fab work going on in this build.
It sucks and is a pita that it has to be done, but you do what's necessary make it work..... and Thank you.....
Today I did quite a bit of measuring and debating on both how things are fitting and the reconstruction process..... Then I cut the bottom portion of the driver side tower off and mocked it up to give an idea of what I will be doing..... It will have a more stock appearing tower, atleast what I consider better looking then just cutting it off and welding in some flat plate..... The tower normally is approximately 1.75" inside the frame, after I get done it will be 1/2" to the over the frame, which will give 2.25" more room per side.....
After all that I went ahead and marked up the frame so I could drill it for the k-member retaining bolts..... I cut some new reinforcing through frame sleeves that fit more to my liking then what they gave me..... I drilled the top of the frame 1/2" and the bottom of the frame 3/4" so the sleeve can be inserted from the bottom and welded in place..... I chamfered the bottom of the sleeves and the 3/4" holes in the bottom of the frame so I could get good weld penetration..... Then ground the excess weld off flush with the under side of the frame.....
Last thing I cleaned up the mess under and around the car and gave it up for today.....
Here it is with the control arms mocked up.....
Here is what I cut off the bottom of the tower, and then with the tower mocked up in place(you can see how much the tower sticks through into the out wheel well area in the 4th pic which will be trimmed upon final fitting).....
Here is the process of installing the reinforcement sleeves in the frame, first installed and clamped in place, second welded and last ground flush.....
05-20-2015, 03:55 AM
