Lavron's '64 Build Thread

The Era of The Square Body Racing Comets
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Jims65cyclone
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by Jims65cyclone »

Man! It may take you a while (decade + ?) to get started, but now that you've started, you're going to town! :D
Jim
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lavron
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by lavron »

Jims65cyclone wrote:Man! It may take you a while (decade + ?) to get started, but now that you've started, you're going to town! :D
Jim
Lots of time to think and plan :roll: :P I am determined to get this suspension under this car so I can get it back down on the ground as quickly as possible.

This has given me the opportunity to check the undercarriage and besides the right front torque box (and a few rotted spots in the front floors) the underside is in really good shape, that was relief.

See Ya,
Mike
Mike's build thread
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Rocket989
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by Rocket989 »

That’s a huge relief! How bad is the torque box?
'cause Johno says you gotta have a sig pic! :)
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lavron
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by lavron »

Rocket989 wrote:How bad is the torque box?
I'll have to take a picture tomorrow, but pretty much toast, or swiss cheese, so bad it will have to be repaired. The left one needs fixed too it just isn't as bad only a couple of rusted through spots, of course they might be worse when one starts grinding and cutting on them :roll:

See Ya,
Mike
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lavron
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by lavron »

Was busy today, took all this off.

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Wasn't that bad but coil springs make me nervous, once they were out and the compressor was removed from them I felt better :roll: .

I spent some time mocking up again, I decided to get it down where I wanted it in the first place and see what consequences I would have to deal with, really it fits almost as good a little lower.

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I know I am going to be doing tub work anyway so I just as well get what I want. :P

I am digging it and hopefully I can start putting stuff on instead of taking them off soon.

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I may bring the nose down a smidgen but I have it around 2" lower now.

See Ya,
Mike
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Rocket989
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by Rocket989 »

That looks great!! :lol: :lol: How’d you mock up the front? You’d probably do this anyway but I’d leave your hood off until everything is done-done & it’s been test driven (a couple times!).

Since mine was off for almost 2-years I got used to having all 15,000 lumens of light I wired-up in the garage shining bright. The first time I needed to do stuff after putting back on drove me to putting a big ole LED flood bulb in a reflector fixture. :lol: I couldn’t see a dang thing...my up-close vision has really tanked the last couple years though... :roll:
'cause Johno says you gotta have a sig pic! :)
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by lavron »

I almost forgot I said I would take a picture of what used to be my right front torque box, I am not too worried I have seen them fixed here :P

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Also I dropped the front just a bit.

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I like it better I think.
Rocket989 wrote:How’d you mock up the front?
The tire is just sitting there so I could see how I wanted to set it, I will mock it up once I get the shock towers, etc, cut out.

See Ya,
Mike
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loman
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by loman »

Mike,
I like the stance on your mockup, it looks great! Keep up the good work.
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bigdan
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by bigdan »

Yep - rear stance looks perfect! Hard to tell in the front but IMO a level ride looks best. Looks like a little damage to the passenger fender eyebrow piece - I have a set collecting dust if you need them. Looking good!

Dan
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by lavron »

loman wrote:I like the stance on your mockup
bigdan wrote:Yep - rear stance looks perfect! Hard to tell in the front but IMO a level ride looks best.
Thanks Guys, I like the rear and the front might need to sit someplace between what it is in the picture and level (it is level in the post with the old front end parts and looks slightly high to me) problem is I only have so much adjustment with my jack stands without getting something to shim with, I will probably get it exactly where I want it after I cut the towers out and start marking it out.
bigdan wrote:Looks like a little damage to the passenger fender eyebrow piece - I have a set collecting dust if you need them.
Thanks Dan I have 2 replacements already for it (one of those times I forgot buying one already :roll: ) It has always bugged me that was broken (it was broke when I got the car 40 years ago) so I guess I went overkill on a replacement part :P

I can't figure out why the passenger torque box is so bad, the floor is not too bad on that side of the car and on the drivers side the floor is worse but the torque box just has a couple of small holes that should be easy to patch. I do have replacement toe boards already so I will probably completely remove them so I can repair the upper structure of torque boxes and then use the drivers panel I have to repair both sides (the passenger side just has a little rust right along edge where is attaches to the rocker) I need to get under my parts car and see if it has any parts left I can use on the right box but it has pretty bad floors in it.

Not looking forward to removing the shock towers and related brackets, I have read that is the worse part of the install of the M2 I probably need to contact my buddy with the plasma cutter and see if I can borrow it but he is 100 miles away and figuring out when I could go get it is another issue, I do need to go pick up a little steel to build my frame stiffeners sometime (or use the old trailer house tongue to source the steel)

See Ya,
Mike
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Groover
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by Groover »

lavron wrote:I can't figure out why the passenger torque box is so bad, the floor is not too bad on that side of the car and on the drivers side the floor is worse but the torque box just has a couple of small holes that should be easy to patch. I do have replacement toe boards already so I will probably completely remove them so I can repair the upper structure of torque boxes and then use the drivers panel I have to repair both sides (the passenger side just has a little rust right along edge where is attaches to the rocker) I need to get under my parts car and see if it has any parts left I can use on the right box but it has pretty bad floors in it.
I'd say that the weep holes in the passenger side rocker were plugged and the water that got in the inner rocker stayed and sloshed up to the torque box. or perhaps it was just parked in the weeds on that side? either way, you know what you gotta do.

Putting stuff back on instead of taking it off is like summer solstice. :D
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pugs65
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by pugs65 »

Mike she's lookin good. Keep that pace up and she'll definitely be ready for PF, Pugs.
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by Jims65cyclone »

Go, Mike, Go!! :D :D
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by lavron »

Thanks for the encouragement guys :D

Time for my somewhat daily update :roll: this might not look like much but it took a little time to accomplish and I learned a lot.

Before I start, a little bit of what prompted this days work, I was reading through the install instructions on the cross member and discovered I was from 1/4" to 3/4" too high with the top on my front frame rail for the upper arms to clear, now this could have been fixed with standard spindles instead of the 2" drop spindles but I am not about to buy another set of spindles for less than an inch of drop (it must be fated to be this ride height) so I needed to drop the rear as well, so I went out today and did so (I actually raise the ground level, the car stays it the same place :P ) I think I removed the 1/4" shim I had under the 2X12 and replaced with 1 1/2" shim. This gives me 9" from the bottom of the rocker to the ground.

I know this doesn't look much different but it is lowered quite a bit. Oh and that is the actual rear and not my duct tapped mock-up rear :roll: Hopefully I can droop the rear enough to change the rear tires :P

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I hope my front tire can turn ok, that is my main concern right now. There appears to be enough clearance but I really won't know until I start putting it together up there.

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I cut the rusty spot out of the trunk floor so I could see better, this is at ride height so certainly I am going to have to give it some more room, it is about +-2" from the floor.

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Also you can see the lower bag bracket, the bag ride height is 7" so I need a couple more inches to mount the top bracket.

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And the axle to frame clearance is only a couple of inches. The pinion is setting against the snubber as well.

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You can see the lower bars are near horizontal, which is what I want. I still need to trim the brackets to fit the 8.8 so the bars will need to be a little longer than they are right now.

It looks like I will be C-notching my frame to get everything to fit along with doing some tub work because the tires are near touching the wheel wells now.

It is a good thing I put the aluminum rear cover on because it is going to show really well when I am done :roll:

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See Ya,
Mike
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bigdan
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by bigdan »

Looking good!

You may have mentioned it, but what size tire are you running in the back? I thought I was pretty low but I have alot more floor clearance.

An observation - make sure when you're mocking up everything stays plumb and square. The lower axle bracket for the 4 link has to be installed with the shock mount bolt hole level or your shocks will lean at odd angles. This was the fun part for me for sure. I did grab several of those cheapo magnetic angle finders at the local box store before I started to make sure everything stayed put while I was jacking around on it. Keep it up and keep posting pics!

Dan
Long time search complete, 65 Cyclone project in progress!

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