Dang, been over a month! Like so many of us, so many times, life and work get in the way. Except for a select few on here that are able to fast track this stuff, you know who you are...
We all know the expression, paint yourself into a corner...well I kind of did that on the rear batwing hangar. To be able to drop the entire rear from the bottom, I need two inches for the batwing to clear the hangars. Problem is, I only have one inch before the nose of the differential hits the chassis. Ruh Roh!. So last night I made a pot of Coffee, and had myself a job meeting with me, myself, and I. After a while (I think it was three cups of the High Test), the solution presented itself. Instead of welding the hangar tabs on, I'll drill through the tabs and tubes in two places on both sides, weld a sleeve in, and bingo, I now only need about 3/4" to be able to drop the rear suspension completely intact. One battle won! Also, I was online looking for someone that had a set of 2:59 gears for the Dana 36. As we know, the street rod guys always go with, say 3:55 and up gearing. Difficult to find them going the other way. I currently have 3:08 ring and pinion. Sooo, perusing the 'ol interwebs, I found a company in Miami that does a lot of oem work. I explained what I was doing, and he just went 0-100 with numbers. He couldn't have been using a calculator, he was just rattling the numbers off too fast! Right out of his head. Not only did he have the 2:59's in stock, but if I sent him my center section, he would do the following: Disassemble it, magnaflux the case and the carrier. Install all new bearings, seals, lap the ring and pinion on a cnc machine, install the ring and pinion. For under $500.00 dollars. What was really interesting, he calculated that with the approx. 325hp, borg warner t10 trans (no overdrive), and the 2:59 r&p, at 1800lbs. estimated, she should be good for about 153 mph. Now, we all know about the aero properties of these cars (or lack therof), so that obviously ain't going to happen with stock bodywork. But just knowing the potential is there was kind of exciting. Oh, and the r&p is rated for over 500hp, so there is no chance I'll grenade that puppy! Tomorrow I'm clearing off the acorn platen, moving the frame from the build table to the platen, and clamping her down solid so I can do a bunch of finish welding, so nothing shifts when I set her on the jack stands to mate the front cradle in place.
The other thing that looks like it will work out well, is that if I go with the Haynes nose cone, it will fit my front end properly, and only have to add some material to the bottom possibly. No widening, cutting, etc.
It is shaping up to be a good week ahead!