'26 Modified

[oj]

I just gathered this body up last week and have been stashing stuff away for a while in preparation of building a modified. The body was a '26-27 touring car with the rear seat removed and the back panel brought up like a roadster pickup, the engine is a twincam 6cyl Jag XKE from the sixties.
I am in the design process and will soon start on the frame, i am unsure if i'll modify a model 'a' frame or make my own - i'll figure that out today or tomorrow and should have it roughed out by next weekend.
Thanks for looking, oj

[HillbillySailor2]

Nice! Even better, you're not using a cookie-cutter Chevy V-8...

[oj]

An anchor-clankor? Whatcha doin witha cornbinder emblem? Check out the shop truck - all bone stock original (kinda), that thing runs like a top!

[HillbillySailor2]

Nice shop truck! I saw one of those crusing the back roads of Missouri last December. I wanted to geta closer look, but the two farm dogs gave me the feeling that it wasn't such a good idea. LOL I'm going to restify an old 47 KB-2 when I retire, hence the binder emblem!

What transmission are you going to run in that modified?

[rightpedal]

Sweet engine choice. I always thought these would make a neat rod mill. Define "modified"? Like dirt track?

Steve

[Brian Lohnes]

Neato project!

The Jag engine is cool and they really SING. One of the coolest sounding motors out there, and when plugged into something that weighs next to nothing like your rig will, it'll shove it along pretty good, too!

[oj]

A 'Modified'? Barebone badassed little cars with attitude, originally raced at county fairs on the flat track after the horse races. They evolved into 3/4 midgets. Clarke built the '999' with a 2300cc pinto motor and reputidley built it for $1500 (yup, just 2 zeros) it was recently sold for an undisclosed sum to a guy in Florida; Pete built this one, i believe it is a caddy motor - Petes' car is what i am designing my chassis after and hes' providing me with a lot of info.
Mine will have the Jag motor with 3X2 sidedrafts (i have solexs' but want webers) and open dual exhaust running past teh driver and exit in front of the rear tire (like an early british sports/race car); the body has extreme setback and i'll have to make about a 40" long hood, not sure of what the radiator shell will be; front axle model 'a' drilled and dropped, suicide style (out in front of radiator); rear axle will be V8 Ford banjo '40ish era, with model 'a' spring mounts so the spring is stacked on top, gas tank is '30 chrysler oval; wheel hubs are wide 5 machined to adapt buick aluminum brake drums and wide 5 wheels (the '999' has wide 5), i'll cut the rear wheel apart and add another 1 1/2", but even still all 4 tires will be 'skinny' compared to what you guys are using.
Right now i am in the frame design stage. I'll take some pics and put together another post, a big problem is getting the seat low enough, i want the seat bottom below the top of the frame rail.

[Caveman Tony]

sweet. Can't wait to see your progress.. I love this style.

What's the Jag tranny?

And what's your plan for a steering box?

[oj]

The tranny? I'll mate it up to a toploader (space is very tight in those things and the toploader shifter is in a perfect spot as opposed to a muncie) and likely use a 5spd from a mustang.
The steering box will be cowl steer, i am looking for an old sprint car manual box - they had one that looks just like a mini-quickchange rear end, those are a touch salty. I have reversed regular steering boxes to use for cowl steer so plan 'b' is a vega box i have layin around.
Right now i am doing some body work to it and figuring how to cut the 'a' frame in a way that isn't entirely obvious and set the '26 subframe down over the frame rails - kinda channeled, but what that entalis is making the 'a' frame wider and changing the angles to where it joins the firewall. Doing this will let the seat bottom drop below the top of the frame rail and i'll have gain an extra couple inches. I need to get low enough in the car to be under the windshield. It looks like the top of the windshield is going to be about 34 inches. Try this: sit on the floor with your back to a wall and stick a yardstick up beside you on the wall and see where 34" is! And remember, 34" in the car includes ground clearance as well where your back to the wall measurement didn't!
I'll share the engineering with you guys and maybe we'll have some fun.

[ford141]

This sounds like a really cool project. I'll definitely be following along. I like the engineering info along with the build. This is the kind of stuff that can make or break a project - the small details that require a lot of thought and ingenuity but pay off to a greater end product.

[oj]

This is probably what we'll do. The pics show the subframe for the body, i have it laying on its' back to you can see the channel. The next pic is the subframe sitting on the modal 'a' frame and you can see the model 'a' frame is inside the body. What i think will work is to cut apart and widen the model 'a' frame so that the body subframe sits down over the framerails then the seat can go below the top of the frame rails and drop down another couple inches.
Dwayne is grinding and cutting the brackets etc off the model 'a' frame. Maybe by tomorrow i'll have some plans drawn up and we'll get to work on the frame and i'd like to have a body on the frame by friday.

Don't pay attention to the laterals (the channels running across the subframe), they will disappear, it is the outside longetudinal channels we have to worry about.

[oj]

I been swamped lately and unable to get anything done. The steel was delivered to build the jig so i went to work. The next pic is a work fixture that i wasn't using so we'll make the jig/buck on it. I am using a 27" tire so i made a pair of uprights to situate the rear end with an axle centerline at 13 1/2", the left rail of the fixture is the one that i'll use to square against. The work fixture will be ground height.
The 2nd pic is locating and tack welding the rear crossmember. I'm not savvy enough to download the drawings but this crossmember needs to be 12 1/2" ahead of axle centerline. The ground clearance needs to be 6". What i have done is weld 2 pieces of box tube to get my 6", the crossmember support fixture has stops and a locator built into it so the frame can removed and replaced without haveing to resquare everything.

[oj]

With the rearend and crossmember located i set the body where it needs to go and make a rough outline of the perimeter on the fixture. I then made up a bunch of box tubing with a 3" wide surface area and 6" tall that followed the body outline. The next pic shows inprogress check. I need to do this so i can reshape the model 'a' frame rails and have them conform to the outline of teh '27 (i figured out it is a '27 T). The 2nd pic is the perimeter completed and the body located. Again, the work fixture is ground height and the top of the perimeter is the bottom of the frame.
The 3rd pic shows where i used primer paint to define the outside of the body. I will weld angle iron onto the top of the perimeter and use them to pull the model 'a' frame to match the shape of the body. When i have that done i can remove the original model 't' body subframe and the sheetmetal will then fit right over the modified model 'a' rails and by doing this the area where the seats go will be wide open.
The inside area is in design, it will be very trick in a subtle way. The 'trans tunnel' will become structural, think of a corvette, except that there will be no 'tunnel' because the transmission etc will be exposed. So all this structural stuff has to be hidden or concealed in plain sight.

[HEMI]

Look'in good.

[oj]

Thanks Hemi.
Once the perimeter was defined i cut a mess of 1X3 and tack welded them to the shape of the body, the frame rails need to match up to them. The 1st pic shows the 1X3's and the 2nd pic is a frame rail sitting there so you can gage how much bending is required. I can clamp and pull the framerail somewhat to the 1X3's but the framerail needs to sit there without tension, so the 3rd pic i have the rail in the press and it took three passes to get it to the 4th pic.