[Spridgets] Frank's race car update!

[crusaderchuck55@aol.com]

    Seat tracks , anyone?Ok update!   The front suspension was completed yesterday with the installation of lowered front coil springs.  The springs removed were 6&3/3" tall ( free height) , the stock springs I had were 9&1/2" tall.   I installed 8" tall springs.   The suspension bushings and quite a bit of the hardware was New too.  The trunions and kingpins are greased as well.  I'm making seals for the tie rod ends since the boots were trash but the tie rod end was quite serviceable.   The New tapered roller bearings with seals were put into the hubs and are final installed.   Later today I'll be bolting the calipers on the spindles and loading pads in them as well as installing the brake hoses.   The rear axle was a SUPRISE!  Upon draining it, the first thing that came out was a GUSH of water followed by glop-glop-glop of gooey gear oil.   Turns out hurricane Katrina had parts of Toms River New Jersey under over a foot of water.  Upon inspection all the rear axle bearings had rust etching into every hardened or polished surface.That started a complete disassembly right down to changing the brake backing plates due to rusted solid brake adjusters.  A fresh 4.22 gear set has Bern installed with a New pinion seal.  Both hub bearings and seals have been replaced too.  Latest version axles ( EN17) are now in It with New hub to axle O rings.  A pair of very nice backing plates with like new adjusters (& yes I lubricated the threads with water proof grease) were put on too.  The Midget arrived without any pieces of the emergency brake.  Rods, center pivot, pins , the cable & the complete hand brake assembly were stripped to bare metal, painted and lubes accordingly and are completely installed.  It took 4 brake drums to resurface 2 useable drums. One was cracked and another was literally bent right around the hub area and could not be turned due to the drum wobbling horribly on the brake lathe at work.  The next challenge was rear axle U bolts!   Stock ones are 3/8" but the Midget had been changed to 7/16" U bolts.A spridget axle tube is 2&1/8" O.D.  and finding any premade replacement 7/16" U bolts became impossible, so getting U bolts for a 2&7/8" axle housing and recontouring the arch of the bolt fixed that.  The car had lost a wheel some time in it's history and the left U bolts had ground off ( literally at speed on a hard surface grinding & bending both bolts!)to the point about half of all 4 nuts has ground away!  Also all the rear spring bushings were dry rotted so ( I'm.about to do this next) I'm replacing all of them with urethane bushings.  I still need a set of rear brake shoes to be able to first adjust the shoes then adjust the emergency brake cable.    I must fabricate both hard brake lines for the rear axle and that will complete the brake plumbing ( yes it has 2 New wheel cylinders!) and bleed the brakes.The transmission is bolted in with the clutch slave bolted to it and a New slave push rod and pin, with a throw out bearing in the fork awaiting a motor.   Once I have a motor in the car I'll be able to bleed the clutch.  I installed NOS clutch master and slave cylinder with a New slave hose. The windshield frame is all apart awaiting a piece of lexan to be cut for a modified , much lowered windscreen.  Once I have the lexan cut and fitted I'll determine exactly where to cut the sides of the frame.  The rear shocks are all cleaned up and refinished awaiting an oil change and the 2 shock links from the parts car before installation .This car arrived basically with just front suspension parts , a steering rack, a rear axle on springs and a gas tank bolted to the trunk floor.  No calipers, wheel cylinders, brake drums, pedal assembly, brake hoses or hard lines, proportioning valve, rear brake hardware , emergency brake, and a bunch of other items!   In spite of the car missing almost everything that makes a car " a car", the Midget is well on its way to once more being a properly sorted & prepared race car.   And during all this , not one bit of body work has been started or done!   It is rust free and not "bent"!  Also it has fiberglass front fenders ( with slight damage to be fixed) and fiberglass quarter panels.  I seriously wished it had a fiberglass trunk lid and hood!   Also Frank's brother Larry cut off the tops of BOTH quarter panels down to about 1/2 way down the tail light mount area.  He was custom molding the tops of The quarters to somewhat resemble a Bugeye shape.  I'm cutting off all that neat work and removing the tops of The quarter panels from the parts car to make it a Midget again.So that's the state of Frank's race car today.Chuck
Sent from my LG Mobile


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