The Truth
Copyright© 2015 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 12
The ‘30 Chevy sedan. Nobody wanted it. Everybody wanted 1932 Ford coupes or roadsters ... V8 if you could get it ... otherwise a Model B would do. Since the builder was going to put a Lasalle transmission, the old Model B tranny didn’t matter.
I had a Good Old Boy Network connection who had a connect to a high school senior called Balls whose dad owned a a wrecking yard: Smiley’s. For me, prices were either free, $5.00, $50.00, or $500.00. A bolt might be free but something like the 1961 Corvette was Five hundred ... complete and Balls Smiley removed and delivered.
However, I rescued a Four Square 302 cubic inch six from a wrecked M135 army truck. This engine had the bolt on bellhousing ... not that it had a bellhousing ... the M135 used a military only Hydra-Matic transmission. I used the starter, bellhousing, clutch, flywheel and four speed from a wrecked 1961 Corvette. The 302 had a four inch bore and a four inch stroke ... hence the Four Square. Using the Corvette transmission got rid of the enclosed driveshaft and allowed me to use a Ford nine inch True Trac rearend out of a wrecked 1959 Ford pickup.
The kids at the school ridiculed me for my choice of a six-banger instead of a V-8 but I was going for a sorta stock GM mix ... except for the Ford rearend. GM rear ends were shit ... fragile and expensive to buy and to repair. The axle C clips GM used couldn’t compete with the Ford bolt on ... in my opinion ... and I was building it.
The channel job sunk the body over the frame ... which equates with four inches. The Chevy semi elliptical springs had new old mounts welded up from 3 inch channel bolted outboard of the Ce-ed Chevy frame and the nine inch mounted between the springs and frame instead of axle under the springs. Hydraulic tube shocks eliminated the original friction knee shocks.
The front of the frame was vee notched top and bottom to slightly Zee the frame. I slung bent round tube between the boxed frame rails to make a radiator and shell mount. Eight new welded plate body mounts with rubber isolators helped cut down on rattle.
A new x support under the body strengthen the frame and stiffened the center to eliminate warp.