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Before I start this article, I want to say a few things about street rod parts. Most of the time, they are designed by the manufacturer to be installed in a specific orientation. Some parts are not. If the installer wants to mount something in a way not endorsed by, but also not discouraged by, the manufacturer, he (generic “human being”) should expect that the part may not work how it was intended to work. Things may not quite line up, or in this case, headlights may point heavenward … Read on…
 We’ve liked this headlight/ shock mount combo from Pete & Jakes for a long time. We didn’t think about installing another bracket, because we like the curves and gracefulness. A stock ’32 headlight (the big one) has the mounting bolt coming out of the bottom at an angle of about 30 degrees towards the back. This means that when the bracket is mounted to the frame, the headlight mounting cone has to be tilted forwards at the same angle. Pete & Jakes designed the bracket to be mounted perpendicular to the ground at ride height. I held it up there, and thought I’d like it tilted back a bit, to match the caster of the axle (about 6 degrees). What I didn’t realize I was doing was bringing the angle of the cone more towards horizontal, and when the headlights are mounted, they’re more effective as airplane landing lights. I tried to modify them to work, but came up with an easier idea. The brackets are also designed to mount perpendicular off the frame rail. Because our frame is pinched, and because I’m kind of a sucker for details, I decided to trim a bit off the back side of the tube so the bracket mounts parallel to the axle (perpendicular to the centerline of the frame). Also, because we have the front c-notched, the bracket wouldn’t go on the back side of the shock because it was right over the c-notch. All that means is that the headlights will be an inch or two ahead of where Pete & Jake meant them to be, which means there may be some tire interference.
So, all that said, these are still great looking brackets. I’d use them again. I didn’t use them as intended, so I spent more time making them work.
 Instead of grinding, grinding, grinding, I ordered two new cones from Pete & Jakes and lopped off the old ones. With the die grinder, I notched the end to accept the tapered , angled radius of the cone. I had to keep in mind that the headlight bolt couldn’t interfere with the shock which would be mounted right behind.
I know it looks screwed up. But I tacked the cone with it welded to the headlight, so I knew it was at the right angle. In this picture you can also see how much the front end needs to come down – the shock is set at ride height. Since we’re using the short shocks, and the shock mount bracket can’t come down any further on the frame, we’re going to have to figure out some other way of lowering the front end. I guess we COULD use regular shocks, but the shorties look so much… shorter. And I’ve never complained about having to go lower.
We have these monster 12″ long 5/8″ bolts around that I used to set up the other cone to the same angle as the first one.
While holding the bolt with one hand, and tacking with the other, I got it close and then tweaked them to match. You could use a threaded rod for the same effect.
It worked.
They’ll look lower when they’re off the lift. Before you finish weld anything, make sure that you can turn your wheels both ways!
Mirror Installation
Mocking the mirror
Resembling a scene from The Jungle Book, my mirror hangs precariously on the side of the door supported only by a few thin strands of masking tape. I’m using cowl mirrors from a ’40 Ford made by Bob Drake, minus the cowl attachment piece. They’re quite swoopy and I think will match nicely with the door handles.
They have a very nice contoured arm that comes to a perfect point at the back. There are no screws in the head (we can all attest to that joy) so it’s nice and clean.
Make sure you sit in the seat you’re going to use so that you know you’ll be able to see well. There’s nothing worse than having side mirrors that are completely useless.
There are two studs on either side of the threaded hole, which I’m sure will keep it from swiveling.
I transferred the holes to the door by pressing the studs and threaded hole onto a piece of paper, making indents. All I had to do then was make sure it was level (or parallel to the body line) and drill the holes!
Headlight Wiring
This is what I was making when I discovered that the tire was a great bending die for a large radius.
You can see a very slight bend on the horizontal section of tube. Basically, I wanted to give it some shape so it wasn’t straight.
The little stainless piece in the back of the headlight is a piece from the Parr headlight conduit kit. It comes with some braided hose, and two of each frame fittings and headlight fittings. I machined a shoulder on the headlight fittings and drilled them 3/8″ all the way through, for the stainless line. There are six wires in a ’32 headlight with turn signals, which *just* won’t fit in a 3/8″ tube. I took the ground from the turn signal and bolted it to the inside of the light, which is bolted to the frame. Five wires fit very snugly inside the tube, but they do fit.
Booster or No Booster?
If you can’t decide whether to run power brakes or not, or if you just want to experiment like we did, just run braided lines to the master cylinder from the frame. It’s a heck of a lot easier to lower the master cylinder – you don’t have to open the system to check levels. Just unbolt the master and presto whammo, your cylinder is as free as a duck without a leg tag.
Dear Welder Series…
Folks,
Love the welder series videos.
I will be installing my first Mustang 2 suspension in a 1954 Chevrolet 3/4 ton truck. I will be using one of your crossmember kits. My question is: How do I determine how high/low to mount the crossmember to get my desired ride height? I am concerned about welding everything in and being to low or high.
Neil!
Dear Welder Series…
Neil,
You mock up your frame at ride height and compare the frame height to the center of your tire & wheel. This will be 1/2 of the tire diameter less 1/2″ for tire flattening under load. This will also be spindle height. There is a small reference notch in our crossmember at spindle height. You relate the frame height to spindle height (which is also the crossmember reference notch) and that gives you the correct ride height.
The detailed instructions are online: click here.
Follow the worksheets and your truck will sit exactly as you want it.
Thanks for asking.
Paul Horton
From the Waterdown Swap Meet website:
We’re pleased to be commemorating the 70th Anniversary for 1940 model vehicles. Free T-Shirts, Lunch & Admission for all 1940 model attendees! Please respond (to 905.689.8104) by May 10th to register.
 Click to see the event flyer.
It’s tempting to bring the ’40 out of storage… We’ll have the ’32 in a 10′x20′ area with a whack of catalogs, ready to chat! Stop in!
Dear Welder Series…
Hi, I intend to order the frame rails and body next month, and I am sorting parts lists. One question for a coil over kit. What will the normal coil over length at ride height and what spring rate works with a Hi boy, I have a sbf and a bbf, and will open up the bbf to see if it is rebuidable soon. ? Any mfg. recommended?
Sherman
Dear Sherman…
Sherman, a good coil-over ride height is 13″. Several companies have coil-overs with an open dimension of about 14-1/2″ and a closed dimension of about 10″. It would be best to ask the coil-over people about spring rates. Some have progressive would springs, others have linear rates. An example a 200 pound linear rate is that it takes 200 lbs to compress the spring 1″ and 400 lbs to compress the spring 2″. A progressive wound rate would be that it takes 200 lbs to compress 1″ and possible 500 lbs to compress the spring 2″. The rate you will want will depend on many factors: actual weight on the rear, shock mounting angle, ride quality that you want, etc. Heidt’s, QA1, Aldan, and Total Cost Involved are good sources.
By Paul Horton (I don’t call my mom “Dorothy”):
Dorothy and I have enjoyed the National Street Rod Association’s Knoxville event for many years. Being the first weekend in May, the change in the season from our (Cambridge, Ontario) dirty, late spring to Knoxville’s early summer (well, it’s like that to us, anyway) makes the I-75 trip worthwhile. This year, we left on the Saturday before the event and travelled through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and then into Tennessee. Our fenderless, hoodless, repop Olds air cleaner on a crate motor, 32 3-window hummed along without a care in the world.
Adventure #1 took place in Bedford, PA.
We got up and were ready to be on the road at 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning to get to Virginia by about 1:30. There had been some rain overnight. The roof of the car had some water on it and the motel parking lot was damp, but no puddles. Dorothy went to check out and I would meet her at the motel office. I gave a short hit on the key and instead of the usual burst of energy from the ZZ4 small block, I heard “CHUNK!”. A second quick hit and another “CHUNK!”. A lot of you are wondering why I hit the key the second time. I wonder that, too, but…
Why was the engine seized? It hasn’t missed a beat since we fired it last August and there’s about 7,500 miles on it. My first thought, after the second “CHUNK!”, was that water was in the cylinders. For non-”engine-people”, this isn’t good. For real “engine guys”, you know how bad this can be. Personally, my engine knowledge is somewhere in the middle, but I was scared. We unpacked the trunk, got the room key back from the front desk, and got out the Wardlow tool bag with the “essential” tools. But the 5/8″ spark plug socket wasn’t there. Five of the eight plugs came out using a box end. Water poured out of 2 plug holes. Another motel guest lent me his socket and the last 3 were removed. More water drained. Cranking the spark plug-less engine blew out lots more. Then some black stuff dribbled out of #8 plug hole. The dipstick was just oil. No water. Good! The air filter was dry. I’d do a lot of thinking about how the water got into the engine.
Options now were to give up, call a flat bed and get hauled back to Canada. $$$$$. Or we could try to start it. Maybe $$$$$, but probably no more than the hauler would cost. Well, it fired right up, but idled rough(er) and one lifter ticked loudly. A call to my friend in Virginia and I went with his suggestion to change the oil & filter and see how it ran. He figured water had got into the lifter. Sounds easy enough. But, at 10:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning in Bedford, PA (and probably lots of other places, too), an oil change wasn’t happening. After exhausting the garages and “quicky” oil change places, I noticed Martz Chassis in the yellow pages. A couple of calls and Gary Martz was on the phone and he said bring it here! And he was only about 5 miles from the motel. Gary and a friend were waiting for a customer who was coming to pick up parts. Gary is a Ford engine guy and didn’t have a filter for a Chev, but his friend did and we were done. Still no trace of water in the oil.
Side note… What a shop Gary has! He makes front and rear frame clips for loads of vehicles. Check his website at www.martzchassis.net. It’s amazing how talented and driven some people (e.g. Gary) are.
Well, we were off to Virginia. The lifter quieted down within an hour and the car felt pretty good. But it still idled rough and really didn’t seem to have the power from yesterday. The answer to this is “dumber” than hitting the key after the first “CLUNK!”. In Virginia, we decided to change the plugs to see if that was the power answer. It was, sort of. I hadn’t tightened one of the plugs in the morning after getting the water out. It was just finger tight, so didn’t hold compression.
Now, how did the water get in the engine? The air filter was dry when I checked it in the morning. Turns out, it wasn’t some psycho who poured his drink into the air cleaner. (Remember, the filter was dry.) Over the winter, one of my “upgrades” was to put an internal tooth lock washer under the rocket-styled hold-down nut. I hoped this would keep the air cleaner from rotating and discourage anyone from trying to “lift” my rocket. Without the internal tooth lockwasher, the rocket seats against the top plate. With the washer, the rocket is slightly off of the plate surface and the water can drain into the carb and then into the manifold. Since Knoxville, I removed the lockwasher. The car got caught in the rain and the top of the air cleaner was like a birdbath, but didn’t drain.
Hopefully, this story has been entertaining and educational. The adventure was certainly educational for us. And, happily, didn’t cost too much.
I was going through my bookmarks and came across this library of Eaton hose literature. This includes all their Aeroquip hoses and the reduced diameter air conditioning hose I used on the ’32: click here for the article.
Eaton Product Literature Library
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