John McGraw... How is the Resto Rod 59 coming along???

[IH2LOSE]

Larry,

Check out these 2 pics from my album. They show the mounting plates that I fabricated.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/339303/P0001057.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/339303/P0000881.JPG

Thanks John

I have seen the pictures a hundred times and never noticed the plates,I purchased some 3/8" aluminum flat bar stock that I polished and was going to sandwitch it also,I think I may drop down to a thinner stock on the bottom of the car.

I also had to install some 3/8" aluminum plates between the mount plates and the floor reinforcements to raise the seat up just a little. I found the the seat adjuster handle was hitting on the little raised hump that the original front mount sat on top of. putting this shim under the tracks, raised it just enough.

John What did you use the bell washers for that came with the seats? Are they supposed to go between the seat tracks and the seat frames? or did you just mount the seat frames to the tracks flush?

Did you just raise the front section of the seat frame to allow the handel to clear the original rib in the floor pan (so the seat had a rake to it) or did you raise the entire seat frame (front and rear to keep it level) I had chose the 3/8 bar stock to raise me up over the rib.

Thanks again

 

[IH2LOSE]

Charles
1. Where did you get the center mounted emergency brake handle?

That is a lokar part

http://www.lokar.com/

I am using this also,I chose to use this because they make a rear cable and clips made for the C4 suspention and brake set up,I made an aluminum plate to match the tunnel and will push the plate up in from the bottom of the car and mount the set up to the plate to add some mass to the fiberglass tunnel so I dont wrip the handel out of the car when applying the brake. I am using a couple of othe lokar products,there shifter assembly with indicator,gas and brake pedal,They really have some great stuff.Order the free catolouge and youll be suprized at all of the neat stuff youll get from them.

I am purchasing all of my lokar parts thru

http://www.parrautomotive.com/welcome_to.htm

They have been a complete pleasure to deal with.


2. With the spare tire well cutout (to clear the rear suspension) that you have will you be able to remove the bolts holding the rear tie rods to the differentialarles


As for question number 2

I have had my car on ond off its frame quite a few times and this I never gave any thought to.untill I glued in the rear panel,(Call me a dummy) anyways It does not seem as though I will be able to remove the tie rod assembly,So I am going to use a part from Gulf stand that I had seen on one of our members cars that looks like it would never have to be removed or serviced

http://www.guldstrand.com/toerod.htm

I also await Johns anser to the seat question,I love to see how the seats look covered.

Good Luck

 

[John Mcgraw]

Charles,

Yep, my seats and the set you saw on billy's car were the prototype set, and rubbed slightly against the bracket. Luckily, I found out about it before my seats were covered, and reworked the back frame on the outboard side to clear. All the seats built now are the new an improved version that is built to clear.
I did not add any additional padding to the side bolsters. It would probably nice to have some additional support, but I would make it harder to enter and exit an already tight car. In any case, it is a world better than the originals.

As Larry has said, the shifter and E-brake are both Lokar.

Yes you can remove my tie rod ends and the entire rear cover with the cutout as it is, but I know that billy uses a little different setup on his chassis due to some interference at the outer end of the tie rods.
I used all stock stuff with the exception of a polished stainless tube on each side for the tie rod. Billy uses a custom bracket, alumnum tubes, and a Heim joints on both ends of the tube instead of the stock ends. My recollection is that it moves the inner pivot points down slightly, but does not move them to the rear, so removing to bolts sholud not present a problem.

Regards, John McGraw

 

[John Mcgraw]

Larry,

I don't even recall the washers you wre talking about, but if they are the standard cone shaped washers, I am guessing that I put them under the nut when I mounted the track to the seats. I am going to try and drive over to the upholstery shop today and pick up my seats, and I will post a pic of them when I get them.
I ran the 3/8" X 1 1/2" aluminum bar fore and aft,and milled out a notch on each end to allow it to sit on top of the reinforcement, but sitll lay flat on the floor. This ends up with the weight of the seat being distributed on the entire length of the aluminum and the entire length of both reinforcements. The loading on the fiberglass floor pan is a a fraction of what it was with the original mounting.
Regards, John McGraw

 

[cbernhardt]

John and Larry:

I have Billy's rear tie rod kit which uses heim joints (rod ends). His kit mounts the two inboard rod ends using two long bolts and a thick spacer. The inboard rod ends are moved down and rearward from the stock location. The outboarb rod ends have to be mounted to the bottom of the knuckle as opposed to the top like the stock setup.

Looks like Larry's Guldstrand setup uses studs with nuts to mount the inner bracket. Billy's setup comes with two long bolts, but if I switch to studs, that might solve my clearance problem. Either that or cut some more out of my tire well.

Thanks,
Charles

 

[IH2LOSE]

Thanks again John and Charles.

I am working all week end for my company so I am on a short break at home.

I will post a photo of my seat frames late to night to assure mine are the modified type as john is describing. I was going to have my seats heavly bolsterd because I did not like the looks of the "flat" C1 seats,Originally I was going to have a yellow insert installed in the seating posistion,But after being sent a link to the custom yello 59 thats been listed on ebay I am real cautious on making sure I stick to retaining the classic style of the car.And it looks like it will be solid black leather seats.

Larry

PS to all of the folks who set me back on track each time I wandered a little from keeping the classic style of the car A SINCERE THANK YOU!

 

[John Mcgraw]

Charles,

The thing to keep in mind, is you do not need to slide the long bolts all the way out. All you need to do is get them all out of the threaded engagement from the rear cover, and then the entire bracket can be dropped down out of the way.
My cutout is deeper than yours is, I figured I wasn't going to be able to get a tire in there anyway! If I had it to do over, I probably would have removed the entire spare tire well and made the trunk floor flat. This would have allowed me to tuck the exhaust up tighter, and would have let people admire the polished rearend that I spent so many hours on! LOL

Regards, John McGraw

 

[IH2LOSE]

John this is a picture of the wise guys seats I have,I know I purchased them prior to nov of 04 are they the modified seats of do I have the unmodified set

As you see in the back round that is the 67 big block hood skin I purchased for my car to mate to a 62 hood, I am still going to make it up and have it painted I just have not had the time yet.

here is a link to an online album (Ignore the first 2 photos) all the way at the end is a photo I took off line of a car called havana that is how I want my seats to look when done

http://www.clubphoto.com/_cgi-bin/app.pl/albums/large_image_view?id=3024795&link_code=sa01_17

 

[John Mcgraw]

Larry,]

From the angle of your pic it is impossible to tell for sure. I seriously doubt that you got a set that have not been modified. As far as I know, there were only 2 sets that got made before the problem was noticed. 1 set went in Billy's blue 59, and the other set was mine. I just modified the outboard side on both seats, but the factory midification is made on both sides so the seats are not side-specific.

Here are some new pics of the progress.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1219045

You will notice that I decided to paint change the color on the cluster to match the rest of the dash. I decided that I wanted everything to blend in and look as if the factory did it. Same thing on the seats, I stayed with a period-correct look on them.


Regards, John McGraw

 

[John Mcgraw]

Larry,
I finally got your album opened up and saw another view of your seats. I does appear as if your seats are some from before the modification was made. I took off the bend at the top of the outboard side and tig welded in a straight mitered piece of tubing in place of the 90 degree bend.

 

[IH2LOSE]

I love the color you picked,Its clean,not over powering,sanitary,ITS JUST PERFECT,

I really have to get some time to work on my car.

The dash looks perfect in the pictures,The upoulsty guy I am using said it was impossible to recover the dash pad with leather,or near leather with out having stitched seams.Your pictures tell a different story. It looks like you got the half track wheel Are you going to use that creme color on the wheel? it comes apart pretty easey.


LOOKS GREAT.

I am just thinking how hard you must have thought before you actually
started to scuff down the dash cluster for the color change.I never would have thought to do that, but after seeing it .Its plain to see it was a perfect idea


Your commitment to the details is to be commended,As I have said before John your a true craftsman,

 

[John Mcgraw]

Larry,

The dash has a seam in it, it is just out of focus and you don't see it.
He put a seam right down the middle of the point point of the dash and continued it right down the middle of the ends under the door caps.
I originally asked him to put the seam around the instrument and insert cove, but for some reason, he decided to do it this way. If I had my choice, I would have put the seam around the coves instead. I have seen many cars done this way, and I think it looks the best. A nice french seam gives a real handcrafted quality look to the dash. It lets you know that the dash was not stamped out of a mold.

Thanks for you comments on the color. The material is Ultra Leather. It is as durable as leather without all the downsides. About the only thing it lacks is the leather smell. It feels just like the softest glove leather you have ever felt! The upholster tried his best to convince me to use real leather, but even he is now a believer. It is a little more than a top leather, but it has less waste since it is made in 54" rolls. It runs about $65/ running yard, and is available in almost any color under the sun.
The wheel will get wrapped, but I was holding off until I was close to being through working on the car, so I don't get my greasy paw prints all over it. I bought it unwrapped, so what you are seeing is the bare plastic core and not a black wrap.

The more I thought about it the more I relalized that I did not want the cluster and center console to jump out at you and draw your attention.
I just wanted the finished product to look SMOOTH!

I finished the Stainless trans cooler lines last night and got them polished, and started fabricating the air conditioning lines.


Regards, John McGraw

 

[cbernhardt]

Lokar question

John:

Regarding your Lokar shifter:

1. What length shifter stick are you using?
2. Are you using the floor mount or transmission mount?

Charles

 

[John Mcgraw]

Charles,

I am using the floor mounted shifter with the 6" shaft length.
None of trans mounted shifters would put the shifter in the correct location.
I also bought one of their trick boot rings that has the gear indicator mounted in it. It has LED lights to indicate which gear it is in.


Regards, John McGraw

 

[IH2LOSE]

Charles

I am using the lokar trans mounted shifter, as I shared with you prior I am using a built 700r4 trans,

When I ordered my frame from Mike at SR111 I requested to move the motor back as far as possible with out having transmition tunnel clearance problems. He set my motor about a 3/8" off the fire wall seam,now that the seam is gone we are about 3/4" to 1" off the firewall (back right head clearence) and with the 700 r4 trans it puts the shifter in a perfect spot. my shifter is 6" also.but I do feel if it was about 2" shorter it would be perfect. (once the car is complete I will see if I can remanufactor the shifter handel to be lower) the perfect shifter for me would only be 2" and be all boot with just a knob and button showing.

The lokar stuff is real trick suff,beside using the led shift indicator and boot,I am using a netral saftey lock out with a back up light switch module.(I still have to figure out what back up lamps to use.(so far the ones off of a mustang seem to fit best)

Good luck

 

[IH2LOSE]

John

I now can see the stiched seam,Sometimes I am so arogant I am embarresed to be me.I dont know why I questioned the upoulstry guys knowledge.

 

[cbernhardt]

John:

I have not yet fitted my body to the frame with the engine and transmission installed, but I am anticipating that a trans mount shifter will not fit properly. The picture of the floor mount shifter on the Lokar web site does not show the linkage. Does it use a single rod like the trans mount shifter?

That shift boot indicator is slick. From the pictures on the Lokar web site it appears that the indicator requires a separate control module. How does it attach to the shifter linkage.

Charles

 

[John Mcgraw]

Charles,

Yep, just a single rod for the shifter. The position indicator sending unit is a little box that attaches to the side of the trans, and reads the position of the shift lever. The shifter comes standard with a neutral safety switch, but you will need to mount a relay to kill the starter. You would not want to run that much current through that little switch.

Regards, John McGraw