Last week I finally ordered some of the more critical parts to get the project going, even though I haven't been able to get it over here in my garage to start disassembling it. I've had some set backs with the engine in my '57 which has prevented me from getting it out of the garage, but I'll get to that later.
I called up Chassis Engineering to order a bunch of parts but they don't offer free shipping. They said it's because they don't want to undercut their vendors, which makes sense, so I went to Ebay and found a company called JPL street rods. They sell Chassis Engineering (C.E.) parts and offer free shipping. They also included a free front sway bar and stainless steel brake hoses with their kit, plus $100 dollars off if you purchase their rear end mounting kit, which I was going to do anyway, so that worked out.
From JPL, I got the following C.E. parts:
* Mustang II hub to hub from suspension. The C.E. Mustang II front end is sold in two parts, the crossmember and everything else to go with it. JPL combines all the parts in a package they call a hub to hub kit and includes everything from shocks to brake roters and A-arms. I went with the standard ride height spindles because the customer service guy told me that their stock height spindle would still lower the car 2 inches and the 2 inch drop spindle would lower it so low it would be difficult for daily use. I'm hoping it's not too low with the "stock" height spindles, but I guess we'll find out.
* Rear leaf spring mounting kit with perches. The perches were an extra 15 dollars a piece, which is cheaper than you can buy them separately, so I went ahead and got them. I'm going to be using a Ford Explorer 8.8 rear end (approx. 59" wide, a perfect fit) from 1995-2001. These year rear ends come with disc brakes and are 32 spline rather than 28, which makes them plenty strong. I was hoping to find a 3.08 gear ratio but I found that this ratio was only offered in the earlier, pre-95 models. Because the 8.8 has tapered axle housings I'm going to have to do some modification to the perches to make them fit correctly. I'm not sure how that's going to work out but I suppose it will be another one of those bridges that will have to be crossed when I get there. At this point, I'm 90% sure that they have tapered housings. I'll find out soon enough. Either way, I'm going with this rear end because they are extremely plentiful, very strong, cheap and a near perfect fit.
* Power brake booster (7") and power brake master cylinder with pedal arm and frame mounting kit. Because there is little room under the hood of the '37 Chevies, this kit will allow the master cylinder to be located under the driver floorboard and will have a pedal arm that simply bends at a greater than 90 degree angle and comes up through the floorboard just as the original did.
* Two residual valves for the brake lines. When you mount your master cylinder low on the car as this one will be in relation to where the brake calipers will be, you need residual valves to keep the fluid from running back. This will ensure the brakes function properly at all times. Each line, the front brakes and the rear brakes, will have their own respective valve.
* Power steering flow valve. I have found from others' experience that a stock GM power steering pump puts out more psi than the rack and pinion is designed to handle. This can make the car flighty or jerky at higher speeds, so this valve will ensure the proper psi at all times allowing for safer, better feeling steering and be safer for the rack and pinion and now blow it out.
From a company called Street and Performance I got the following:
* I found a kit that allows the LS motor to be mounted to the C.E. crossmember. The C.E. kit is designed to handle a typical small block Chevy, and that makes sense because the vast majority of people who build '37 Chevies put a sbc in there. This is a pretty basic kit that will bolt between the cradle of the C.E. mounts and the LS motor and allow them all to bolt together with no welding or fabrication.
I don't have any pictures to share because I haven't made any physical progress yet that's visible, so I'll just post some pictures of a side project I've been working on. It's an air cleaner for my '57 Chevrolet. The original, non-oil bath style cleaners had a wire mesh air filter which resembled steel wool. As it ages it falls apart and it doesn't do as good of a job as the paper filter anyway. They don't make a paper filter that has a height small enough to fit into the filter housing so I got one on ebay and have cut it up and started my first welding project. I cut between 2-3 inches out of it, put it all back together, used some body filler to smooth it out and hopefully soon I'll paint it and see how bad it looks. A side note: I bought this, made all the measurements, cut it up and was ready to go and realized I'd bought a 1955-56 air filter, not a '57. 55-56 mount with a clamp around the top of the 1 barrel carb. '57 has a screw and wingnut that goes through the top into the carburetor. So, since I'd already cut it up I decided to go ahead and finish it as practice for a '57 one and hopefully can sell it to someone and get my money back. Noticed I shortened what I call the "velocity stack" inside the canister and put it back in relation to the top of the lid as it was before. I also sprayed the interior with weld through primer to protect it from condensation. The only brand available here at Carquest was 3M and it's about 30 dollars a can, so I try to go as far with it as I can. This is 24 gauge steel, so it's VERY difficult to work with. I recently acquired a Lincoln SP250 mig wilder from an estate sale. I finally have gone down to .23 wire and it's still very difficult not to burn through but still get good penetration.
