06/20/2022 UPDATE:
It's been a few weeks since I last posted. Several things good and bad.
Headliner: The good, I cut and glued in a 1/2 inch thick Felt headliner. I ordered an 10' x 8' rug pad. Cheap. The roxor had a aftermarket metal roof which had a 1/2" thick padding, like felt, not sure exactly what it was. It worked great keeping heat off the head and upper body.
The bad: After a long day at the front end alignment place, the car sat for 5 hours out in the sun. 102 degrees when I left the shop at 1:15 pm. The headliner had started to detach. Errrrrrr. I pounded it back several times on the way home. I finally had to just pull over because it had dropped down across the rear window and I could not see out back. I pulled over and ripped the S H I T out completely. Errrrrr. I will research a heat resistant glue. Do not use 3M spray 77 in a hot area.
Now the front end alignment.
Everyone in the area says, Take It To Garland Safety Lane. The place has been there since 1954. I was told they open at 7:00 so get there a little early because it's first come first serve. So I show up at 7:05 and I am the 14th car in line. Crap!
So I patiently wait my turn as one after another car goes on the rack and stays on the rack. An example is an F-250 rolls on a rack and a guy jumps underneath while someone else inside turns the steering left and right. They call out a few commands and immediately call the owner and tell him this and that and this and that is wrong and it'll be this much. I'm thinking oh my gosh this is a scam place.
Turns out it costs a guy about 350 bucks to have all of his tie rod ends replaced, a shock put on the steering rod and grease the entire front end. Front end alignment. I'd say it's a hell of a lot cheaper than the Ford dealer would have charged.
So as I said this place has been there since 1954 and I don't think it has been cleaned but maybe once in 60 something years. I'll post a few pictures of the shop it's like a time capsule of the past.
I finally got my car in and the guy does the front end alignment manually, with old school stick to the wheel fixtures and some kind of a bubble gauge thingamajig. He makes some adjustments and then goes and drives the car. He comes back says it's not quite right and he makes more adjustments. Oh yes I forgot I had to go in under the car with him and help lift it up so he could get his bottle jack under it to make his adjustments.
After the third drive he had it where he wanted it. After returning home the car does drive wonderful. I bumped up to 120 miles per hour with no issues and handling. Once home I open the hood and noticed how much adjustment he had made on the upper a-arms. Most of the adjustment on one slot was inboard and the other was outboard. Meaning that he moved the upper a arm about 2 inches aft at the spindle.
So that was the good, now here's the bad. Because he moved the upper arm aft by about 2 inches, there was a tire rub on the rear side of the fender opening. So I found where the rub was I reworked the flares and the fender opening and did some welding and some chopping. The only problem now is the wheel is not in the center of the wheel opening, I repeat, IS NOT IN THE CENTER OF THE WHEEL OPENING.
That makes me very glad that I never painted the car. But it irritates the hell out of me because I can't stand stuff that is crooked or not centered. Most people won't notice it but I will. The only solution is to buy new pop fenders for $300 or $400 or cut the flares out completely and start over with the same fender which will be a pain in the ass.
So for now I'm going to drive the car un painted and see what kind of comments I get and see who notices. It looks a lot better after I reworked it and I don't have any clearance issues but damn it!
I hit another cars and coffee on Sunday and everyone still loves a car and no one noticed the wheel not centered in the front wheel wells. I told several people about it they looked at me like I was crazy so maybe I'll just live with it. Lolol.
THE LESSON: I have never built a car before. When we did the front suspension we set it up basically centered on the adjustments thinking we were worried more about camber, being the angle that the wheel tips in or out at the top versus the bottom, not caster which is the axis that the spindle rotates on, example like tipping the top of the spindle aft for more caster or tipping the spindle at the top forward for less caster.
I don't know all the different setups for front end adjustments. I know a lot of cars use shims. With this one, it just uses slots and two bolts. And I will post a picture of what the car looked like as we built it and what it looked like after the front end alignment and you will see the positioning difference. Now figure that upper a arm being rotated on an axis at the point where it is tied in and figuring it's about 8 inches to where the spindle attaches and you will see how much movement the top half of the wheel made aft.
So never figure your wheel opening sizes for clearance, flares or any opening treatments until after you've had the front end on the vehicle aligned properly.
It will be in the hundreds all week so I don't know how much I'm going to get done on the car. But if I don't reinstall the felt I will use some of the foam insulation that has a shiny side on one surface as a heat barrier and see if that works better. It's damn sure a bit lighter than the felt so maybe it won't fall down.
BDRAG