Introducing "Project K-Rod" - and where I've been lately...

[Brads70]

Looks like fun.    I'd consider mounting the shocks in double shear. and on those style
( Ford Torino) of upper control arms I'd suggest using serrated mounts to keep them from sliding around. http://www.ubmachine.com/serratedblocks.html  At your driving ride height you want the upper ball joint center to be higher than the upper control arm mounting point centers. They do make taller ball joints in case your spindle is not high enough.

[ViperMan]

What do you mean by "double shear" shocks, Brad?  The upper a-arms already have serrated mounts.    I have a pretty severe drop-spindle - so far everything is lining up pretty good.  It's only the rear axle right now that I'm worried about.

[Bullitt-]

   Freakin Awesome Jeff...
Looking forward to  seein your progress 

[Brads70]

What do you mean by "double shear" shocks, Brad?  The upper a-arms already have serrated mounts.    I have a pretty severe drop-spindle - so far everything is lining up pretty good.  It's only the rear axle right now that I'm worried about.

Double shear, Mounted between 2 plates instead of one. Also, check to see that you have enough stroke in the shock when your bags are deflated ( if that's how it's designed, like to be dropped at car shows etc..) you can easily damage a shock bottoming it out or hanging the suspension on it. 

[ViperMan]

Ah - crap...  I don't think there's room to double-shear the shock anyways because the upper a-arm comes so close to them...  I made sure to leave enough clearance for maximum caster adjustment but not much more than that.    Yes the shocks still have a little play left after the bags are fully deflated - I checked when I was installing them.  I had to set the location for the upper shock mount.  I wanted it to mount as closely to the upper spring cup as possible so I wouldn't have to cut a sh1t load of metal out of the fenders to clear all this new stuff.

[ViperMan]

So for those who might not follow the Carlisle forum, you haven't seen the recent pictures and progress of Project K-Rod.  Well I'm pleased to say that she's back on the ground and drivable, though she certainly has a lot of needs before she's really road worthy.  Here are a few pics from the past few months!

[ViperMan]

So here we FINALLY got the motor back into the chassis after extensive modifications to the frame itself, the motor mounts, and the custom adapters I built for those motor mounts.

Right after that was finished, we tour out the dash because, as you can see, the factory wiring was completely shot.  I knew I couldn't re-use these wires, and I knew it was now-or-never to get them all replaced.  With the dash being the central "hub" for most of the car's electronics, I took it out and replaced every single wire.

[ViperMan]

Here is the new power steering pump & bracket (I modified a bracket made for a 340 small block), and then you can see the new cross-member I built to hold the rear air bags, and how all that fit into the back of the car.  The air-bags mount to brackets on this cross-member and lower brackets welded directly to the axle.  Here you can see the new air-lines plumbed, and starting to get the rear level sensors set.

Lastly, we started hanging the original sheet metal!

[ViperMan]

Here the new column is installed along with my new wheel.  After this we had lots of little details to clean up - finishing some wiring, installing the driveshaft, finishing the rear level sensors, getting the power steering pump running, etc etc etc, and of course hanging the rest of the sheet metal.  The fourth of July was a VERY busy day!!  But the next morning I was finally able to lower the car down and get the new air-ride system calibrated.

She still has some details to iron out, and she isn't really road-worthy for Carlisle, but she'll make it there at least!

[anlauto]

In your last picture I can see why you would want to chop the top   

[ViperMan]

Yeup - exactly.  There are certain angles where the top just doesn't look right.  The rear looks really bad too, above the rear glass.  There's something like 4 inches of steel ABOVE the line of the rear glass.  It's like a backwards-receding-hairline...