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Topic: Chuck's '83 TBird (Read 70683 times) previous topic - next topic

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #195
This should handle those RUCA brackets...

Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #196
Anytime you can do the work yourself you automatically justify adding tools to the garage by the money you "saved"!

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #197
I dug out a RotoZip tool I had bought a while back to cut some tiles. I loaned it to my son-in-law to cut off some rusty bolts. He was dismantling the bed of a 50 Dodge pickup he wants to restore. I had never used the metal cutting disks that came with it.
When he finished with it I noticed the disks have an expiration date of 2013.
Who would have thought something like that would have an expiration date.

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #198
This is a nasty, dirty, noisy job...
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #199
So, after much cursing, getting showered in grit and sparks, and then cleaning up a big mess, I finally got the RUCA bracketry out of the way.


With those finally removed, I was able to layout and bend up the new crossbar that the new upper link mounts will be attached to.

I was able to lay it out, bend it, cut it and clean the ends in one go. It fit up there on the first try. Yay, me!

Knowing I had a certain height needed for the front mount of the RUCAs, I fit everything back in the car and mounted up one of the upper links.


You can see that the poly rod end contacts the bar, and I'm about a 1/2" lower than I need to be.

You can also see that the cross bar rests on the bosses for the rear seat belt mounts. There is about 1/2-5/8" of clearance to be had there, if I grind the raised side bits, and relocate the brakeline mount.


With a little grinding on the ends, I can also rotate the bottom of the whole thing forward at the sides. This will also allow for more clearance in front of the upper link. With these two changes, I should be able to get all of the room I need to put things where I need them.

I'm going to do all of that and verify clearances. Once I do that, everything is coming out of the car and will be going to get blasted/stripped. While that's away, I can clean up things down here, fill in holes, etc, and get the crossbrace in its proper home and ready for final welding.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #200
I love it.
One 88

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #201
Well, I crawled back under the car after work and made the adjustments to get the crossbar as high up as possible and rotated the sides as far forward as possible.

I'm still 1/4" lower than what I'd like to be.

I have three options:

1. Install a heim joint on the front end of the upper link. I don't really want to do this because I either loose the isolation of the poly rod end, or I have to buy a different poly rod end that's narrower, as the current one won't fit the axle brackets.

2. Cut out the crossbar to allow clearance for the poly rod end. This is really just more fiddly work, as I'll have to fill that section back in.

3. Say "screw it" and run it where it is.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #202
Perhaps a dumb question......What if you ran the upper control arms shorter and rotate the bracket you are going to weld on up counterclockwise in the picture?  Have you gone through the geometry to see what would happen?
1988 Thunderbird TC, 5spd
Stinger 3" single exhaust, Cone Filter, Adjustable Cam Pulley, Schneider roller cam, Walbro 255 lph, AEM Wideband O2
'93 Mustang Cobra replica wheels on 235/50R17

'21 F150 Powerboost
'17 Husqvarna TX300

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #203
Perhaps a dumb question......What if you ran the upper control arms shorter and rotate the bracket you are going to weld on up counterclockwise in the picture?  Have you gone through the geometry to see what would happen?

That's on the list of things to check, once I find my old notes from eons ago on the rear suspension.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #204
OK, well after the last post, I messed around with things, and I was able to get the height I needed (and a bit more).

Running some geometry numbers, seeing as the car sits pretty low, it was going to be beneficial to raise the front RUCA mount and (re) lower the rear RLCA mount. I previously had the Kenny Brown TracKit axle brackets on the car, and wasn't planning on using them with this new rear suspension. After looking at the suspension geometry, it looks way better to just leave them there.

Once I had that info and was happy with it, I needed to get some tabs to mount the RUCAs to.

I took some generic ones, and modded them to fit.


Then I set about to attach them to the new crossbar.



To make sure everything is lined up, I ran some all-thread through all tabs.


Now that I have these all laid out, I can pull everything apart for clean-up and coating.

I got a bunch of materials to work on the lighting/accy power upgrade, but I'll save all of that for another post when I can detail things a bit more.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #205
So I got a couple of hours in the garage this afternoon.

One of the hold-ups I was having on the H4 lighting conversion was trying to figure out how to open up the back of the light holders, to allow for clearance of the H4 bulb connectors/boots.
I knew a 3" holesaw would do it, but without any good way to hold these things, they'd just end up flying around the garage, as soon as the holesaw hit them.
On my ride home from work on Thurs, the idea on how to do it came to me.

I grabbed some s 2x4's and made a little holder jig for them.


A little cleanup and a little paint, and these are ready to go.

I got my relay box the other day



I just had it pre-built, as I cost me less than the materials were going to, and I didn't have to chase down proper wires.
The 4 big relays are for the LO-beams, HI-beams, Fogs, and Fan. The smaller relay is also for the fan, and if I decide to put AC back in this thing, it will allow for proper fan control.
There are 6 extra fused circuits, that most of them will replace a couple circuits that are there now being fed by inline fuse holders.
There's a lot of extra wire length that I'm not going to need, but it will be nice spare stuff. Any extra circuits I'm not going to use, I'll just pull the terminals out and remove the extra wires.


This is the current situation. I added that small power buss a while back, and that's going to go away.

After thinking about it, I'm also going to get another similar holder and use a couple MAXI fuses to replace those fusible links, just to clean all of that up.
Really, I'm just at the point on this project where I need to start running wiring.

I also took the time to weld up the RUCA brackets on the new crossframe.


I really need to be welding more. While the welds are more than functional, they sure look py (IMO). I may add some small gussets to these, but I really doubt that I'm going to need them.



Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #206
I really dig that relay box. Any guidance as to where I can get one like it?
It's Gumby's fault.

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #207
I posted the VENDOR a few posts back.

I did dig up a couple suppliers for the enclosure/terminal parts, but it was going to be kind of a hassle to try and get it together.

I found another vendor that does similar stuff, and I'll probably get a kit from them for the MAXI fuse box. (Have to post up those details later)

Everything is now out of the back of the car. Parts will be headed to blasting/stripping this week.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #208
Great solution for the light holders, Chuck. I took tin snips to mine, wasn't as elegant but it worked (and I filed down the edges). But what you did is so much better. That fuse solution is pretty awesome as well. Nice progress!

Re: Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #209
Yeah, the tin snips route was an option I was trying to avoid, if I could help it.

A couple of the holders had been opened up in the past, and looked a bit ratty. This wasn't the original header panel for the car, as that one was cracked, so they came with the replacement one I used when I had the car painted back in '04. (shiznit...it's been THAT long?)
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo