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Lost in the 60s


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1947 Ford coupe project at work
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I've been getting told for 3 years that this was my "next" project....yeah right. The shop owner was in FL and wouldn't get back until noon, so I dug it out and tore it apart this morning...laughing

They took this in in '09, had it sand blasted and did a rear spring relocation conversion and then pushed it in the corner.

Couple hours later, the steering and suspension were off.

This Heidts kit has been sitting on a shelf since '10. There was so much dust and dirt on the boxes that I had to vacuum them before I could move them to my area.

Ready for the conversion.

First step was to weld plugs in 2 holes where the crossmember will weld in.

Then I had to cut out a notch and bend the frame in for spring clearance. Hmmm.. forgot to take a pic of it bent in.

Trial fit of the crossmember. I trammed it and it lines up nice. Tomorrow it will be a permanent part of the frame...thumbsup



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1967 Camaro SS/RS 350 M20
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Lost in the 60s wrote:

 

 

 

Quick work Mitch.  Amazing that it sat for 5 years.

I'll show my lack of knowledge on this era of cars... did the frame area where it's boxed come with the holes already punched, or did somebody do that for weight savings?



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Lost in the 60s


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All original, riveted together. The kit came with the plugs, so it must be Henry's idea of strength with weight savings.

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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1967 Camaro SS/RS 350 M20
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It amazes me anybody brings things to that place as everything seems to get shoved in the back.



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Chris P
East Central, Mn

66 Chevelle 300 deluxe
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67ss wrote:

It amazes me anybody brings things to that place as everything seems to get shoved in the back.

 The '65 Mustang and this '47 were sitting on the floor when I told the owner I would put them together so he could get them out of his shop. That was 3 years ago. He kept bringing in other work. I finished the '65 last May and then when I came back in November, he had that white '67 Mustang sitting in my bay. When I got that done, they brought in the '57 wagon...Imgonna



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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Nice work Mitch! Any chance we'll get to see this one through to paint?

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dashboard wrote:

Nice work Mitch! Any chance we'll get to see this one through to paint?

 Highly doubtful. I don't think I'm going back there next winter. I want to go thru the 916 auto body course over next winter.

I did some last minute clean up of the frame today and leveled the crossmember and frame for welding. Measured from 3 places on the frame to be certain it was square and tacked it on.

Then I went back to the frame divots for the springs. I made both sides a little wider to match the spring circumference better.

Then it was on to measuring and welding on the spring towers.

I welded all the way around the crossmember and towers for strength.

Assembled the suspension and steering so we can put it on the wheels and roll it around.



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1967 Camaro SS/RS 350 M20
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Awesome work Mitch!

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Scott Parkhurst wrote:

Awesome work Mitch!

 Thanks Scott....tiphat

More progress. Talked with the owner more and he wanted it to sit lower, so I swapped in 2' drop spindles. I also talked him into coil-overs for a better ride and height adjustment. The divots I made in the frame rails are now moot...rolleyes

I got an empty 200r4 case from John at MT and tried to envision a frame mod and save as much of the original as possible but decided to make more "room" and fabricate frame plates later.

I got a set of "generic" motor mounts from Chassis Engineering and proceeded to chop the $h!t out of them to fit the narrow frame.

I fit the right side first and tacked it on. Went to the left and measured the distance between them. It was 3 inches too narrow. Back to chopping and had to remove the right one and cut it down as far as possible too...angry

I then cut plates to box the frame from 1/8th" steel plate.

 



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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Thanks for posting Mitch, this is just fun to look at and watch come together. Will you have some rubber cushion or standard GM style engine mounts to absorb drivetrain vibration?

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Lost in the 60s wrote:
Scott Parkhurst wrote:

Awesome work Mitch!

 Thanks Scott....tiphat

More progress. Talked with the owner more and he wanted it to sit lower, so I swapped in 2' drop spindles. I also talked him into coil-overs for a better ride and height adjustment. The divots I made in the frame rails are now moot...rolleyes

I got a set of "generic" motor mounts from Chassis Engineering and proceeded to chop the $h!t out of them to fit the narrow frame.

I fit the right side first and tacked it on. Went to the left and measured the distance between them. It was 3 inches too narrow. Back to chopping and had to remove the right one and cut it down as far as possible too...angry

 

 

 

 You can see the rubber mount in these 2 pics.



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1967 Camaro SS/RS 350 M20
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More progress

I got the car over on my hoist to work underneath. I heavily modified the "universal" brake mount to fit the frame curve and keep it as close to the frame as possible for the exhaust to fit beside it.

2 body bolts were going to be hidden behind the frame plate and I had initially intended to cut access holes in the plate. Then I finally found weld-on cage nuts and tacked them on instead.

No need to cut those holes now.

I used the cage nuts to hold the brake bracket and crossmember too. Everything will be bolted in for removal later.

I was then ready to tack the plates in. I had been using bolts in the large holes, as seen in a previous pic, to hold the plate in place for mock up. There was no way to remove the bolts once the plate was welded in, so I made the small blocks seen welded to the inside of the rails. The top blocks are in 1/4" but the bottom rail is wider than the top. I shimmed the frame level on the hoist and then set the bottom blocks with a plumb level.

Came out nice. I sprayed the frame with rust converter and painted the back of the plate with etch primer to help prevent rust. Both sides are now tacked on and it goes on a rack tomorrow to be held square and level while welding them on solid.



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

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Got the frame on the rack this  morning.

All locked down. We had gauges on it and found the far right rear corner was too low, but it didn't affect the center of the frame where I was going to weld in the plates.

An hour and half later, they're all done. I did move around top to bottom and side to side to prevent overheating one section.

We then had to take it down to turn it around and lock it down again. Further tramming and measuring revealed the frame was high over the axle and there was a slight buckle in the rail. The body has a lot of old damage from a rear hit and it obviously pushed the frame forward too. The owner heated the buckle and pulled slightly up while straight back and it came right back to perfect !!



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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Looks like it's part Chevelle too... I think I see some cut off bushing ears on top of that 10-bolt housing. :)

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Derek Kiefer - Mantorville, MN

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Derek69SS wrote:

Looks like it's part Chevelle too... I think I see some cut off bushing ears on top of that 10-bolt housing. :)

 Casting number goes to a Nova but I can't find any stamped identification.

Sounds like it's coming out and possibly a Ford 9" going in...cool



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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Wow, haven't updated this in a long time.

More frame mods for strength.

With the frame on a continual arch the entire length there was a gap at the trans crossmember mounts.

The office manager knows a guy with a home machine shop and had these spacers made.

I enlarged the Swiss cheese holes in the frame members to accommodate the exhaust pipes.

Pretty much a straight shot from the engine bay to the rear axle.

I closed off the gap where the inner frame flange met the original.

After a couple days of cleaning up all the welds and fitting the steering brackets, it went to Farmington for powder coating last April.

 



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

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The frame came back from coating in May and in sat in their shop until I went back in November. I assembled it and ran front brake lines. It is now waiting for a 9" rear axle to be built and the engine/trans to be ordered.

Then I started rebuilding the entire lower 6" of the body. Rather short on progress pics for this stage. This is the right side rockers and floor done and I'm starting on the left rocker.

After locating where the fender cage nuts needed to be.

 



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

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What is the story on the AMX?

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"The frame came back from coating in May and in sat in their shop until I went back in November."

That's just kind of sad, unless the owner is okay with it.

Again- great work on this pal!

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Scott Parkhurst wrote:

"The frame came back from coating in May and in sat in their shop until I went back in November."

That's just kind of sad, unless the owner is okay with it.

Again- great work on this pal!

 The owner was just happy that I started on it last winter. It has been sitting at this shop since 2008...rolleyes After it came back from sand blasting and they saw how bad the body was, no one in the shop wanted to touch it. It takes a special kind of delusion to think one can rebuild a car from the ground up...laughing


The owners came in a few weeks ago and were very happy with what they saw sitting on the rack and the body work I had done at that time. I hope to have the body ready for paint by the end of April, when I again leave for the summer.

Tony, the AMX owner lost control in rain last year and slid into a ditch backward. It bent the lower valance and bumper under a little and since it is a unibody, we had to pull it back out.



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

Lifetime member of the "Cars apart Club"

1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1967 Camaro SS/RS 350 M20
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Very cool!

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Keith - Rochester, MN

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I'm seeing some pretty intricate stampings/bends/fabb'd panels - are they repops, or something you made up??

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All the body panels came from EMS automotive. Most are very nice, especially compared to the Taiwan stuff. These are made in OH.

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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

Lifetime member of the "Cars apart Club"

1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1967 Camaro SS/RS 350 M20
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