Very interesting John, and since you brought up "tin-sided" V8-60s let
me tell the group what the V-8 Album has to say. The '37 60 was
introduced into production with the sheet metal sidewalls, "welded" the
book says, but of course this would be steel brazed onto cast iron.
Many were made that way, but by Service Letter 116 of April '37, this
was eliminated in favor of
conventional one-piece block construction. So any tin-sided 60 blocks
out there must be early '37 production.
One imagines that this would be a great deal of extra complication in
manufacturing the blocks, and wonders why they did it in the first
place, but, there must have been a good solid reason, because it was
said Henry Ford never spent five cents in production without need.
Sure, I remember the handsome tubular "60" front axles on the hot rods
in the '50s. On my own repro '32 roadster, Flatlanders of Norfolk put
one of their fabricated tubular axles, comprising a 2" by 1/4" steel
central tube welded to forged ends.
This V-8 Album of the Early Ford V-8 Club of America is a goldmine of
info. Cheers Bill
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