A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

No build thread, but thought it was finally starting to look purty.

235 6 with Carter Webers, Offenhauser intake and Williams headers. T5 Heidts MII, TCI parabolic in the rear. Hope to hear it run in the next couple of weeks. Finish up the body in the spring and get it put on the chassis. Driving by fall, maybe

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

Wow, that's slick. I love the I6 backed by a T5. Painting the fan tips like an airplane propeller is cool too.

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

Love the 2 single barrel carb setup!!

What kind of power do you think you will get out of that 6 cylinder?

Looking Great!!!

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

Nicely done, that should cruise down the road pretty good. Looks great too.

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

Thanks. Not really sure what to expect for power improvement. Engine is stock 125 psi compression across all cylinders so is pretty close to rebuild fresh.

Had a stock carb and manifold with one exhaust. Now, 2 two barrel carbs (matched to displacement) and headers with dual exhaust. Should breathe in and out easier but still limited to stock cam and head (848) limitations. The T5 OD gear is a .72 and coupled with the 3.73 rear (8.8) should cruise quite comfortably at 70. DOn’t think I am going to be burning any rubber but I would think it should not be unreasonable to expect 10-15% performance increase.

The carb was designed for 1.8 liter (+/-) engine size so two of them mounted on the offenhauser will not need progressive linkage and will handle 300 cubic inches up to 5000 RPM.

Really looking forward to driving it. SHould be fun. Gotta figure out what to do with the seat. Want to keep the stocker (????) but at 6’2” you guys know the challenge. Put a Mustang gas tank in the back so can hopefully pick up a little room that way and see about cutting down the originals a bit. Couple that will shortened pedals I might have some tolerable space between me and the steering wheel.

Anyway, should be fun

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

I think the HEI will help some too

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

as far as the seat, removing the cab tank does not provide any additional leg room. the seat hits on the inner cab panel behind the seat. that's the limiting factor. there are many different seats that guys on this forum use so do a search. ive got a 3rd row seat out of an astro van in my '49 and I like the way it sits. I did cut the mounts and lower it about 1". im 6'3 / 240#. I did shorten the brake pedal and that is a good improvement. future plans are to change the steering box and use a tilt column out of a jeep Cherokee.

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

Since I cut the original column to accommodate the rack and pinion steering, I may be able to shorten it some more but could then run in to leg interference.

Have seen that Astro van and GM truck seats work well. Still kinda like the old style but do want it to be comfortable. Will have to look around. What year range should I look for in the Astro Van?

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

I think mine is out of an '03. its a full bench with headrests. dumped the headrests. the back rest is thinner than the stock seat which gives more leg room and it does fold flat so that allows access to the area where the fuel tank was for storage, speakers, amp etc.

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

You can section the seat riser down as I did and you can make foam cushions to thin out them to give you more room.

Brian

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

That really is a purdy chassis for sure!

Brian

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

For Your seat:

Since you need extra room and would like to stay stock-- Look into throwing out the springs and convert to an expensive contoured foam rubber. I have seen a few that look really good that way and I think it narrows the footprint of the seat. You sit in the seat not on it like a park bench if that makes since.



I had a decent stock seat that I wish I would have done this to it before it went to the scrap yard :-(

I went with a nice 3rd row escalade seat and fabbed up a bracket for seat to click in and out of. I think it gives the cab a bigger feel. All of my electronics are mounted under it so that worked out good for me. The stock seats look cool but they feel like you are sitting on a bag of rags.

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

NICE! I like the rear shock setup you have - any chance you have a few photos of it? Also, where did you get the parts - or did you build them? Thanks!

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

The rear set up is a parabolic spring kit from TCI that included springs, front and rear spring hangers, shock mount bar, and shocks. Was an easy install but I did not like how far toward the middle of the upper shock mount bar located the top of the shocks. They were binding at the bottom and seemed a bit short with no load on them, and I wanted to use some lowering blocks too so I added two more upper mounting holes moving the tops of the shocks out a couple inches on each side. The fit was better, but I did have to lay over the exhaust a little toward the outside. Shocks are not at 45 degrees any more (more like 60 or 70) so that should be better. Was a little tough to find the DOM (Thick wall) steel tubing with 7/16ths ID and 3/4 OD to make the extra shock mount holes, so a friend whipped them up out of bar stock.

I think the whole set up was about 600.00 for everything and the way they put them together, it centers the rear axle in the wheel opening rather then being a little forward.

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

Looks like a great start and love that you are keeping a straight six! Is that an explorer rear axle? If so did you need to use spacers to move the wheels out? What size wheels did you go with? I have started with an explorer rear and was wondering about spacer to push the axle length back to the original 62 inches.

Thanks!

Re: A little progress on the 50 - finally
 

Yes, is the 8.8 from an Explorer. Have one in my 55 sedan that I modified (centered the pumpkin) and it has worked out great. 125 from the upull it yard and then ring and pinion, bearings and brakes (everything) for another 500. Bringing my total to 625 for essentially a brand new year end. If you cant set it up yourself adds another 3-400, but still cheaper than most others. 3.73 posi with discs. Cheap

I do have 1.5 spacers to space them out. It may end up being too wide and might have to go with 1” but the looked pretty good with the bed in place. I have 15 x 8 artillery wheels from Hod Rod Hanks the 235 wide whites from Coker. Bought the tires after made the measurements for the spacers so will see how they work with the wider wheels.

Not worried about strength. The concentric spacers are machined aluminum with good studs and since the 235 is not a huge HP motor should be fine. THink it would be OK with a healthy V8 too. Biggest thing is to keep them properly torqued