Kyle242GT's 1959 PV544

[745 TurboGreasel]

Early Tempests used a wire rope driveshaft, has anyone put one in a steering coulmn?
Or Hondas have a zizzag inside the car.

[kyle242gt]

Oh hai neupage!

Didja know I had a 62 ropeshaft Tempest. Neat car. One of many on the long train, basically sold off for the rust work needed, unobtainium interior bits, and Naderesque handling. Course 205's on 4" wheels didn't help.

The driver side universal will be inside the firewall. One of the significant upsides to the collapsible column is the leeway with the endpoint. But given the location of the block, frame rails, pedals, I don't have a terrible lot of options.

Frankly, I'm hopeful that it will all just sorta shake out in the end. As long as it handles reasonably well, stops straight, and goes where it's pointed at full boil, the rest of the ergonomics kinda fade out. It's turning into something of a test bed for a Factory Five project, or a full-on Kool Kal Kustom, or me hanging up my wrenching bits and calling it a day. Given that my previous bragging rights build was a trans-raised and narrowed lowered 64 Bug, I'm makin bacon on this thing no matter what. Worst case, I'm out 5K or so. Watch it burn.

[kyle242gt]

At this rate I should finish this project roughly by the year 3,000.

It's taking a while because everything depends on everything else, so it's hard to know where to put components without mocking up a bunch of other pieces.

Got the first column mount figured out, spotwelded for now. The upper mounts will be to the dash. Still playing around with the left/right up/down specifics there... nice to move the column more central to the seat, but then it takes on a notable twist. Very little room around the clutch quadrant and gas pedal.

Big news today was building the universal shaft. The upper end is from the Mustang, the lower end from the Subaru, and the middle is more sprint car tubing. Ground down the DD Ford end to fit inside, the Subaru end fit already. Did my best to get it more or less straight, then welded it up.

So now the steering wheel turns the wheels!

[kyle242gt]

Motor mounts!

Not really a big deal, just had to get the engine situated, make sure there was clearance for the steering shaft (hence the early focus on the steering, pedals, and column).

The mounts actually rest on each other, instead of the bolts.

Wound up with about 3/8 clearance between the bottom of the front sump and the crossmember. Hopefully that will be enough, otherwise it'll be some more surgery.

Have the bottoms welded in, will finish the tops a little later.

Will also add some sort of bracing for the rear end of the mounts, was planning to bolt in to preserve that aspect of the front suspension... but the way the mounts fit in, I don't think the crossmember would be droppable anyway, so I may just weld them to the frame rail. Thanks for any advice on that.

Not sure what I'm doing next, tax season is starting up, so I'll have a lot less time and energy for a few months. So much left to do, I don't really know where to start.

[Lord_Athlon]

Be careful, we dont need another Ayrton with a welded column.

[RedFridge]

FANTASTIC THREAD.

Great work!
Love it.