Rollin'... Rollin'..... Rollin'.......

Tons of progess the past 2 days. I installed the new quick ratio power steering gear box.
Installed the passenger side inner & outter tie rods.

Installed the driver side inner & outter tie rods.

View of the completely overhauled steering components all put together.

Once all the steering was assembled, I was then able to easily roll the frame out into the driveway for the first time since January!

I then mounted the new master brake cylinder into place. Now I can start to run brake lines.

Tomorrow I am hoping to get the engine mocked up into place. I realized the new power steering gear box uses METRIC bolts to connect it to the frame. For WHATEVER reason, Lowes & Home Depot do NOT stock grade 5 or grade 8 metric bolts...... I used regular 10mm bolts to hold it in place so progress can continue until I hit up the bolts store later in the week.

On another note.....I hit up 2 flee markets early this morning with my neighbor. I picked up (3) brand new shocks for $10 total. They will work perfectly for the rear axle. I also picked up slightly used chrome valve covers for $8. Great find!!!

Frame Down On All 4 Tires!

Well, after 4 rearends.......... I finally settled on a 58" mounting to mounting surface, 50-60's Chevy 10 bolt with center drop out. I now have it all mocked up in place and it appears as though it should be a very close fit with only a possibility of slight modifications to the rear fenders, if any.

New idler arm is now bolted into place. Tomorrow I am hoping to get the rest of the steering installed............ and then the engine put in place.

New Gears & Exhaust Headers!

I picked up these Ram Horn headers from Dave G. in my car club for free. These should clean up nicely with a little sand blasting and ceramic paint.

I posted a wanted ad on Craigslist looking for a set of gears for the 58"wide rearend my neighbor Bill gave me. I had 3 responses..... one guy wanted $250, another guy wanted $150, and the 3rd guy had (2) sets of gears and told me I could HAVE them for FREE! So, Saturday morning Pam & I headed out and picked up the 2 sets of gears.

This set has 3.08 gears in it.

This set has 3.36 gears in it out of a 59 Corvette.

I ground off the existing mounting brackets on the rearend and wire brushed the entire thing using my grinder. I then primed it with KBS paint.

Axle Redrilling COMPLETE!

Thanks to the help of Glenn in my car club, we were able to easily redrill the 5 x 4.75 bolt pattern onto the axles. Using a bolt pattern template, looks to be dead on.

3rd Rearend....Correct Size!

Well I'm on my 3rd rearend now. This rear is a 50-60's Chevy with a center dropout much like the Ford 9" rearends. It measures 58" wide from mounting surface to mounting surface which SHOULD work perfectly with my 8" wide rear tires. The bolt pattern is 4 x 4.5 so I have to redrill the bolt pattern to match my 5 x 4.75 bolt pattern in the front. The rearend is complete, minus the dropout which I can purchase later when I find one.
To drill the 5 x 4.75 bolt pattern, I needed to remove 1 of the existing lugs and fill in the hole by welding it solid and then smoothing it out with the grinder. This will allow for proper placement of the new pattern.

The bolt hole actually filled in very nicely. Just a slight discolorization from the heat of welding. You know you penetrate the metal good when the color dispurses into the surrounding metal.

Being the computer geek that I am, what better way to lay out the new lug pattern than using the computer to create a template! This template easily slides over the 3 remaining 4 lug bolts and shows you exactly where to drill for the new 5 x 4.75 bolt pattern.
New lug pattern marked and ready to be drilled tomorrow night.

Down On 4 Wheels!

Finally got the frame back down on 4 wheels..... Rearend is now bolted into place.... however I realized I did not have the proper lug nuts for the rims so they are just sitting in place right now.

I also realized that the rearend with the 8" rims are going to be too wide to fit under the fenders. I really like the rims so I'm hoping I can keep them...... with the option of either having the current rearend shortened about 3.5" on each side...... OR finding a different narrower rearend. I still have some measuring to do to see if that will allow me to run the 8" wide tires without having to modify the fenders on the car.

ALMOST Back Down On 4 Wheels!!!

I finally bolted on the front tires and lowered it down to the ground. I quickly realized that the new lugnuts I bought were the WRONG size so I had to re-use whatever old lugnuts I could find.

Lowered the rear of the frame down and set the rearend into place. I'll bolt that in tomorrow night and bolt on the rear wheels.