And then there were 2...
- Thread starter 71ChargerRT
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71ChargerRT
Well-known member
Actually I'm not hell bent on rear disc, which is why I swapped the 11" drums on to the D44, I just want a narrower rear so I can run a correct Dodge 15X6.5 or 7" wheel on the rear. Once I get all the parts needed I'm going to swap in an 8-3/4 with a Sure Grip. Early B body 8-3/4's around here are almost as expensive as A body units, and oddly, almost as rare.
I found a ton of C bodies with 8-3/4's, once I see what it takes and costs me to narrow mine I may go collect a few more. It really can't be that hard to build a jig and do it myself. Hell, there may even be a SG or 2 in those many land barges. I can buy complete cars from this guy for about $500 each, most are 383's and 400's.
I thought about exactly what you were describing for the doors Doc.
Sausage man, those guys are hilarious! I've only watched the first one, so far, but I have a lot of down time at work...
I found a ton of C bodies with 8-3/4's, once I see what it takes and costs me to narrow mine I may go collect a few more. It really can't be that hard to build a jig and do it myself. Hell, there may even be a SG or 2 in those many land barges. I can buy complete cars from this guy for about $500 each, most are 383's and 400's.
I thought about exactly what you were describing for the doors Doc.
Sausage man, those guys are hilarious! I've only watched the first one, so far, but I have a lot of down time at work...
71ChargerRT
Well-known member
"email from doctordiff
Although the axles are the same, the Explorer brakes must use Ford housing ends.
I'm currently working on a Mustang Cobra rear disc brake kit that will bolt onto Mopar rears with a special caliper bracket. I got the prototype brackets done, and the kit will be very clean, 100% new, and relatively cheap. The rotor diameter is 11.70" and the calipers have a parking brake provision. The nice thing about this kit is it will use off the shelf late model Mustang rotors and calipers.
The calipers are even available in red (Mustang Bullit application)"
I haven't looked really hard at the 8.8 rear I have in my yard, but I'll get some comparison pics and post them up.
Although the axles are the same, the Explorer brakes must use Ford housing ends.
I'm currently working on a Mustang Cobra rear disc brake kit that will bolt onto Mopar rears with a special caliper bracket. I got the prototype brackets done, and the kit will be very clean, 100% new, and relatively cheap. The rotor diameter is 11.70" and the calipers have a parking brake provision. The nice thing about this kit is it will use off the shelf late model Mustang rotors and calipers.
The calipers are even available in red (Mustang Bullit application)"
I haven't looked really hard at the 8.8 rear I have in my yard, but I'll get some comparison pics and post them up.
TheIronSausage
Two brain cells left.. rubbing together for warmth
Actually, I found the humor to be very American. Most of the pop-culture references were from the US, especially the opening/closing sequences. Those are taken straight from the short-lived-but-hysterical "Police Squad!" TV show (the basis for the Naked Gun franchise), right down to "Rex Harrison as Abraham Lincoln", the narrator announcing a different show title than what appears on-screen, and the simulated freeze-frames during the closing credits. Even the delivery was pretty American--though I really loved the "aluminum" slam. Regardless, watching was great fun.
And that's the problem. If you have the least bit of love for fabrication in you, you'll binge-watch that shit--like I did last night. I laughed. I wept. I watched all 13 episodes and didn't accomplish a lot of things I intended to finish. It was like a train wreck, played in reverse slow motion. "I'll stop after this episode" is replaced by "I've got another half hour to kill" and the before you realize it, your whole night's shot. But holy shit, what they're doing and how they're doing it nothing short of amazing.
Damn you, BronzeBologna. Damn you to hell.
Yeah, I binge watched the entire thing too. I caught all of the police squad references, but I guess things like the dry banter and Monty Python quotes on the dry erase board stuck out in my mind.. I also dug the metric to standard conversion in the first episode "For those of you watching in black and white". I wish I had the dedicated garage space and time to build a project car for three or more years.. On the other hand, that would mean that I wouldn't get to play with as many cars as I do already.. Le Sigh.
69.5CUDA
Blah Blah Blah
thats the stuff i was told about..and that a matching front can be done using parts from the same cars
71ChargerRT
Well-known member
Has anyone modified a /6 K frame to fit a big block? I've read a few things and looked at pics, but I'm looking for firsthand experience. I already have Trans-Dapt conversion mounts.
v8440
Well-known member
Wish I had pictures of the setup my '74 duster had. There were 2 square "towers" welded vertically onto the stock /6 k frame. I think something was welded on top of the towers for the motor mount bolts that go through the engine block to go through, and that was it. It looked totally home made, and worked fine. If it was me, I'd suspend the engine where I wanted it to end up and fabricate something like was done to my car.
Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
I would cut the spool brackets off a junkyard K-member from a 400 Cordoba or such and use those. The spool mounts are infinitely better than the split-prone biscuit mounts used in the Trans-Dapt conversion kits (I have one for a small block).
Bolt the spool brackets to the mounts, which should be bolted to a block with heads and a transmission (they can be partials). Lower the engine/trans assembly into the car and bolt up the transmission mount. You're now perfectly aligned fore/aft, and can jockey the engine left to right to find the best fitment in terms of clearance (headers, etc.) with the steering column and box, and power-brake booster (if there is one) being your primary areas of concern. Obviously, having the exhaust you intend to use (headers or manifolds) is a huge boon here. Don't go so far to the RH side of the car as to affect alignment with the radiator, though... we're talking fractions of an inch of available adjustment, not inches.
It's worth noting that factory 440 A-bodies used specially-configured blocks, hence power steering was never an available option. Every factory 440 A-body I've seen was a floor-shift auto, which leaves me to believe the console was mandatory. I know the automatic was. No 4-speed M-code A-bodies were factory-built, likely due to the expense of making a short run of small-pattern Dana 60 axles. They had a powertrain warranty to consider, and didn't expect the 8.75" would last through 50,000 miles of the kind of abuse one would expect to be wrought upon such a combination. Knowing their assembly quality at the time, that was probably a prudent decision.
Bolt the spool brackets to the mounts, which should be bolted to a block with heads and a transmission (they can be partials). Lower the engine/trans assembly into the car and bolt up the transmission mount. You're now perfectly aligned fore/aft, and can jockey the engine left to right to find the best fitment in terms of clearance (headers, etc.) with the steering column and box, and power-brake booster (if there is one) being your primary areas of concern. Obviously, having the exhaust you intend to use (headers or manifolds) is a huge boon here. Don't go so far to the RH side of the car as to affect alignment with the radiator, though... we're talking fractions of an inch of available adjustment, not inches.
It's worth noting that factory 440 A-bodies used specially-configured blocks, hence power steering was never an available option. Every factory 440 A-body I've seen was a floor-shift auto, which leaves me to believe the console was mandatory. I know the automatic was. No 4-speed M-code A-bodies were factory-built, likely due to the expense of making a short run of small-pattern Dana 60 axles. They had a powertrain warranty to consider, and didn't expect the 8.75" would last through 50,000 miles of the kind of abuse one would expect to be wrought upon such a combination. Knowing their assembly quality at the time, that was probably a prudent decision.
v8440
Well-known member
71ChargerRT
Well-known member
Actually, I found the humor to be very American. Most of the pop-culture references were from the US, especially the opening/closing sequences. Those are taken straight from the short-lived-but-hysterical "Police Squad!" TV show (the basis for the Naked Gun franchise), right down to "Rex Harrison as Abraham Lincoln", the narrator announcing a different show title than what appears on-screen, and the simulated freeze-frames during the closing credits. Even the delivery was pretty American--though I really loved the "aluminum" slam. Regardless, watching was great fun.
And that's the problem. If you have the least bit of love for fabrication in you, you'll binge-watch that shit--like I did last night. I laughed. I wept. I watched all 13 episodes and didn't accomplish a lot of things I intended to finish. It was like a train wreck, played in reverse slow motion. "I'll stop after this episode" is replaced by "I've got another half hour to kill" and the before you realize it, your whole night's shot. But holy shit, what they're doing and how they're doing it nothing short of amazing.
Damn you, BronzeBologna. Damn you to hell.
I watched it all, then I watched it a second time, that build is pretty freaking sweet!
71ChargerRT
Well-known member
It is! I'm even going to order some of their swag.
71ChargerRT
Well-known member
Back to fabrication at hand. I'm going to use what I have, well, because I already have it, and I can order Poly-Loc mounts at a later date, besides at this point with a Lo-Perf 440 accompanied with skinny-ish tires they shouldn't be a problem. I'll cut the left mount for oil pump clearance and, of course, reinforce it.
Once I get the Nova rolling with the D44 and move it into the garage I'll dig out my other 440 block and one of the 727's and get to mocking up a K frame and build 2. The K's will be the same, even though I want to run coil overs on the front of the race car, because it's a race car and weight costs horsepower.
Once I get the Nova rolling with the D44 and move it into the garage I'll dig out my other 440 block and one of the 727's and get to mocking up a K frame and build 2. The K's will be the same, even though I want to run coil overs on the front of the race car, because it's a race car and weight costs horsepower.
71ChargerRT
Well-known member
71ChargerRT
Well-known member
I haven't checked yet.
I need fenders and hood one way or another. The deck lid, once the bracing and torsion bars and brackets are gone, might be good and I already decided to gut the doors and Swiss cheese the inner structure.
I'm just happy to find alternatives if necessary.
I'm also not sure on how I want to do the front rails, remove the inner fenders and run bars off the future cage or leave them intact. That 'glass front end and lack of inner fenders would make everything easy to work on...
I need fenders and hood one way or another. The deck lid, once the bracing and torsion bars and brackets are gone, might be good and I already decided to gut the doors and Swiss cheese the inner structure.
I'm just happy to find alternatives if necessary.
I'm also not sure on how I want to do the front rails, remove the inner fenders and run bars off the future cage or leave them intact. That 'glass front end and lack of inner fenders would make everything easy to work on...
69.5CUDA
Blah Blah Blah
belive me..i ran down this road once or twice with my 69 fish..and after having a glass fender in hand and the weight savings wasnt there i shitcanned the idea of the use of any glass products.....mind you that was 20 years ago...the weight vs cost just wasnt there....theres a little bit of bracing areas you can shave some weight out of in the fenders...the area just forward of the door can be drilled so can the headlight bucket area...and said bucket area wasnt in the glass fenders i was looking at so it would have had to have been added
the hood and trunk what i did was left both the latching area and hinge mount area and then sliced eveything else out..made for some pretty light units
in my weight savings i removed ALL seam sealer, wipers and motor, heater, driver air box, all sound deadner, and had been running without carpet since HS along with ABS buckets up front on stock tracks..the next step for me was to slice open the wiring harness and gut it down to only the needed wires which also allowed me to solder up all the remaining connecttors
what i was after may not be what your after..i wanted it done the way they used to do it while still being streetable and without butchering anything i couldnt replace or didnt allready have spares of....that ment not touching the inner fenders...yet....mind you there tweaked from my wall impact still
the hood and trunk what i did was left both the latching area and hinge mount area and then sliced eveything else out..made for some pretty light units
in my weight savings i removed ALL seam sealer, wipers and motor, heater, driver air box, all sound deadner, and had been running without carpet since HS along with ABS buckets up front on stock tracks..the next step for me was to slice open the wiring harness and gut it down to only the needed wires which also allowed me to solder up all the remaining connecttors
what i was after may not be what your after..i wanted it done the way they used to do it while still being streetable and without butchering anything i couldnt replace or didnt allready have spares of....that ment not touching the inner fenders...yet....mind you there tweaked from my wall impact still