I think you could move the tower out and completely remove the recessed section where the upper bolts in. Then replace that section with flat plate and re-drill your upper a-frame bolt holes. That would move the tower out and move the a-frame back in some. Kind of splitting the difference. I kind of thought about doing that, saw it on another post someplace of a 460 Maverick, but it's not true to 1970 pro stock design that I'm wanting to follow (because I'm odd, OK?!?!?). This car won't get tons of miles, mostly shows and some light cruising, maybe a fun night at the drags. I have other toys to cruise in that will get a lot better mileage. Keep thinking, SPark
What the 65-66 Mustang Super Stock guys did was use 68-69 shock towers to clear a cleveland. I don't know how close they are to a Maverick but if they are that could be an option.
Getting a little slow with visable work. Got the old rearend out (a '91 T-Bird 8.8 disc brake) and ready to put the new 9" in. Last Thursday I run up to Ames, Iowa to Quick Performance and dropped off the axles and brake drums to my '62 unibody (getting the bolt pattern changed from 5 on 5.5 truck to 5 on 4.5 car) and decided to start fresh with the rearend on the Maverick after talking with Doug (the owner). Today I got all my measurements and ordered a new 9" with 1/4" wall tubes in a small web center, axles, bearings, retainers, studs, t-bolts, etc. Should be ready for me by the end of the week (or first of next week at the latest). Custom 55" width with no mounts so I can set the pinion angle where I want it before welding on the leaf spring mounts. Picked up the mounts last week while up there, so I could reduce the locating bolt hole from 5/8" (stock in the aftermarket spring saddle) to 1/2" (to fit the Maverick spring seat locating bolt). Welded in a piece of 1/2" ID x 5/8" OD tubing to reduce the hole size so it's a nice snug fit on the locating bolt. At this point it appears I will be able to get the M/T 29/12.50x15 tires on the 11" wide Fenton Gyro wheels right where I want them visually without moving the springs or any major cutting on the inner fenders. I've removed the bump stops and placed the tire 1/2" from the leaf spring and it sits just right under the fender lip with about 1.25 to 1.5" of tire outside the fender lip (well within the 1970 Pro Stock rule or 2.5"). If the tire sidewall sits too close to the spring, I will resort to the old racer's trick of narrowing the leaf spring slightly. Don't worry, it used to be common and doesn't effect anything seriously. The car has a few dents in the bottom of the rockers where people have jacked against them. These dents in turn pushed the sides of the rockers out of line with the rest of the sides of the rockers. I have an appointment next wek to get it on a frame machine to pull those back in place before I tackle the frame connectors and roll bar. Want the rockers/floors in the correct position before welding anything to them. Also removed about an inch of putty from the "C" pillars where there were cracks from a past owner replacing the LR 1/4. There were 14 little spot welds holding the 1/4 in place along the "C" pillar (3 of which were only holding metal on 1 side and not connecting the 2 pieces). The 1/4 has also been pushed in at some point in it's life and popped back out. I cleaned the 1/4 (found almost an inch of mud in the lower portion on the 1/4, look at the spider web cracked area in the pics below), shrunk the oil-canned areas, hammer and dollied the dents and have it about 80% ready. Spent more time working the lower 1/4 since these pics were taken. They also put the wheel lip in about 1/2" too far and I have cut that loose and moved the wheelwell lip out where it belongs. Hard to see or picture but it took 2 days work! Got the radiator mounted and throttle linkage made. Will keep you posted when the rear is in!. SPark
Picked up the new rearend yesterday. 55.5" wide, 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern, new style big bearing billet housing ends, 1/4" wall tubes, 3" studs, all new bearings and retainers, 31 spline axles and all the required bolts. Got it in the car today. I have the exact same spacing from the leaf spring to the housing end and the back of the tire on each side but......the right side tire is out between 5/8 and 3/4" further on the body than the left side. Measured several places but kept coming up with the same answer. No brake drums on it yet and planning on a set of 1/2" wheel spacers on each side to start with. That should give me good clearance on the leafs. Also have 1 small spot at the front of each inner wheelwell that needs a little massaging. Also had to modify the traction bars a bit to clear the parking brake bumps on the backing plates. Will probably cut them straight next time they are off the car. Will also need to trim the front edge of the wheelwells for a bit more clearance. Next stop is the frame machine to pull the dented rockers back in place before putting in the sub frame connectors and roll bar. If you look closely at the above pic, you can see a dent in the rocker right below the rear corner of the door. Also torn on the bottom side so I thought it would be best to fix that before doing any structural work. Later, SPark
Spark,just a word from experience,weld small plates,1/8ths in. thick on the rear of your perches on the rear end housing.If you don`t do this they will eventually begin to roll up under hard shifts causing problems later on.
To John Holden,If you were to run an NHRA event they will not allow you to modify your bellhousing according to the rules in the book.Some tracks might let you slide.
The spring pads aren't even tacked down yet. So far everything is just clamped until I get the tires centered under the body. Right tire sticks out 3/4" further than left tire. Not a lot but it would be noticeable when standing behind the car and looking at the outer tread vs body lines. Gotta figure a way to move the rearend back left, keep the rearend centered under the springs, clearance around the springs, etc before welding it. We used to race a leaf spring dirt late model. I ran what was called anti-rotation plates on it. Same thing you are talking about. Thanks, SPark
Couple pics of the whole car. Headed to the frame machine tomorrow morning to pull the "puckers" out of the rockers before I put the subframe connectors and roll bar in it, then cut the spring towers. SPark
This is a great build! I love the big slots on the back. I am going to put slots on mine eventually. Your car is going to have a great stance. And I love the aluminum trailer.
Front wheels will eventually be 15x3.5 Fenton Gryo wheels to match the 15x11 back Fentons. Figured I could use these front wheels to roll it around since they were already on the shelf. This is the final tires for the car. SPark
Your project is looking great Spark,I wish I could work on mine but my friends shop is tied up right now and we can`t get it inside.We are painting a Honda right now and it has been raining every day.All that is left to do on the Honda is wet sand it and paint and the customer will pick it up right away.However with the humidity staying above 60% it`s not going to happen.Oh well,I`ll just keep collecting parts.Good luck on yours,you are making better progress than I am
Got the 450 Holley carbs bought and on the way here. The ones in the pic are for my '62 390 low riser dual quad setup and were just used for mock-up. Also got the car back in the shop after getting the rockers pulled back down where they belong. I'm also building a '62 Ford Unibody F100 at the same time. Got the front clip delivered to the blasters and stripped all the original steering/suspension out of it and got an Industrial Chassis Dodge Dakota crossmember kit installed in that one. Will keep you posted SPark
Finally got some time to work on the car! Who would have thought being retired would take so much time? Attacked the tranny tunnel. The PO had put a 1x2" piece of tubing in the tunnel to tie everything together when the put the large tunnel in it, but it was majorly in the way of my shifter rods. I cut until I had shifter clearance, and enough room to remove things to do repairs/work, and settled on a plan to tie things back together. Been looking at this for several days while I worked on the '62 unibody. Here's the hole I started with. The piece I made to tie the 1x2 back together. It fit so tight it didn't even move once in place. Made it real easy to weld, considering some of the areas needing welded. Then I made the top plate. It's a copy of a Hurst Super Boot base plate with an eight of an inch added to each side. That gave me a target for the rest of the sheetmetal. After that was in I shaped 3 pieces (area in front of the shifter, area at the lf corner and left side of the shifter and a third piece to close the back side in). These are now tacked in and ready for final welding. I think it came out looking pretty good considering all the angles, curves and gaps to fill with metal. I also removed all the metal that was inside this new enclosure between the shifter and the side to gain more room to remove shift rods in the future. When the tranny is back out, I will trim a bit more of the stock tranny tunnel metal from the back side of the enclosure right behind the shifter. I have also been doing a lot of measuring, looking at old pictures and scheming on the cuts needed for the spring towers. I think I have settled on these as cuts. This moves the inner edge of the tower in line with the edge of the frame rail. That buys a ton of room around the headers and valve cover area. I also think I can retain the stock frame mounts for the engine with a little careful cutting and plating. To correct the lower a-frame length once the top is moved out, I'm buying new lowers and splicing a piece of the old lower in and plating them across the splice area. This is a 2-1/2" change to the track width on each side so that's what would be needed as an extension on the lower a-frame. I'll still be able to use the stock tie rod ends (with a longer sleeve if needed) and it should have very little effect on bump steer and Ackerman. Will need to get the engine back out, springs removed and do some playing before cutting things loose. Just received my 450 Holley carbs and bought a different tunnel ram (one with individual runners and a base plate for the lifter valley instead of the more solid one I have). Should have that next week to finalize fuel line and throttle linkage routing. That's it for today. SPark
