Fabbing brackets for AC compressor and alternator

While there are several types of brackets out there for mounting the AC compressor (this is Texas, after all), seems they all involve using head bolts. We prefer to not use head bolts this way. We prefer they stand alone. In line with this thinking, we will be mounting a bypass oil filter remotely, perhaps on the firewall, to avoid head bolts.

On the driver's side there is the old rear mounting boss for the generator. We used those 2 holes and the 2 holes for the motor mount to attach a 1/4" 6x6 steel plate. Accordingly, we drilled out the spot welds on the motor mount and moved the hole 1/4" inboard from where it was, since the new 6x6 plate would space it back out that same 1/4". This gave us 4 good mounting holes, and did not interfere with the motor mount. We cut off the front generator mounting hole, it was in the way.

The claw compressor bracket is commercially available and we welded that to the 6x6 plate. We got ours from Old Air, Ft. Worth PN 40-607. The claw comes with a wide variety of spacers. We like the claw since it gives us 4-point mounting for the comp. Some brackets only give a 2-pt mounting, and since the comp is aluminum, we wanted the extra strength. At the top of the claw bracket we welded on a 3/8 coupling nut running along the axis of the engine to be able to attach the claw to the yoke we made for the water pump. This provides stability at the top of the claw.

We also fabbed a mount for the alternator, as pictured.  We are using a Delco 10 SI 3-wire alternator, available from O'Reilly as PN  R111621A  which has a lifetime warranty. We are using a Sanden 508 compressor, which draws very little HP from the motor. The crank pulley will drive the water pump and AC comp. The alternator will be driven from the Sanden. Given that the crank pulley is of special design involving the balancer, we could not come up with other options. A two-sheave crank pulley would have been ideal. The 508 pictured is a dead comp we borrowed just for mock-up. The brackets have only been tack welded at this point. The swing arm needs to be shortened.

We wanted to get this fabbing done before we begin to tear the motor down.
 Miles continues to finesse body filler on the cab, making maximum use of the stud gun first. More on that later.

Rear cab rot repair #1

The cab and all were dustless blasted, and sprayed down with phosphoric acid, a passivating agent. Any panels so treated will remain rust-free for years if stored inside.

The frame was blasted, epoxy primed, and polyurethane topcoated.

 The rot at the rear of the cab has been cut away in preparation for welding in a strip of 17ga metal. This inner rot must be repaired before the stamped exterior patch panel is welded in. The sheet metal in this area forms a square tubing running the width of the cab and offers strength to the rear of the cab. Classic Enterprises makes the inner and outer cab corners as well as the lower middle panel. Their panels fit very well. The outside cab corners have already been repaired.

The left hand pinch weld radius has been repaired, and we are now ready for the stamped center patch panel. We used to use weld-thru primer to back-prime pieces to be welded in. However, those cans/nozzles clog way too easily. A body shop buddy told me he is now using UPOL Acid Etch #8, so we switched. That is the grey color seen on that long strip. My nephew is way better at exterior patch panels than I, so he is the one to attack the CE stamped panel.

Update #1 on Tilt Nose Design

 
1) the hood hinges have been fitted to the tiltnose and the hood has been test fitted and all is well.

2) The OEM core support was seemingly the entire OEM strength-supplying feature of the nose. That was shortened and is no longer attached on the bottom by the single bolt. It remains however as the support for all the tin work up front. Pix show how brackets were attached to it for support at what is now 2 hinges.

Thus a new core support for the radiator has been fabbed.The radiator, an aluminum Champion 1210, fits inside this new support, which in turn fits inside the OEM support. The condenser will attach to the front of the Champion. Gussets will be added to new support. Pix also show inner fenders have been sectioned.
 
3) the front bumper must now tilt with the nose. Pix show how the bumper brackets were shortened, newly drilled (using a masonry bit), and attached to a fabbed pad welded to the hinge mechanism. As seen, it will support the weight of a 180# person. I am not sure I would want to hit anything with it, tho!
 
4) the rearmost 3 bolts of the front fender now need support, since they will never again be bolted to the A pillar. So, we had 1/4" A572-50 steel cut by water jet into curved brackets which follow the profile of the last 6 bolts of the fenders. Thus the rearmost 6 bolt holes of the fenders are reinforced by these brackets. These curved brackets add considerable strength to the fenders. We will use a quick release pin or similar at the last bolthole to lock onto the A pillar.

 

The beginning of the 1947 Studebaker M5 Tilt Nose Project

                                              Our truck will be baby blue with a visor

Issues and goals: to design and fab a tilt nose

1. Much of the sheet metal in the nose is a very thin 22 ga. 

2. Many edges were not hemmed by Stude. The hood trailing edge is, but little else. 

3. Thus many edges are weak. Panels now need to be able to stand on their own. We plug welded on strips of 1/8” or 1/16” strap to bolster edges. This is especially true for the hood side panels. In many cases where the trailing edge of those panels bolt onto the bracket PN 648788, the thin metal has fatigued and split, another reason to reinforce the edges. Right angle bracket PN 648788 is no longer useable in a tiltnose situation so we removed it. 

4. Once that bracket is gone, there is nothing to support the trailing edge of the side panels, which also have the weight of the fenders on them, especially if tilted. We fashioned a 'rack' system from 2 horizontal sections of 1” square tubing. Once fitted, there are 2 bolts each end to attach and stabilize the side panels. We will use 5/16 gr 8 bolts, with gr 8 nuts welded to the rack. In the case of the lower 'rail' of the rack we embedded a coupling nut into the sq. tubing to receive the bolts. The top 'rail' rests on the large shelf formed into the firewall. 

5. The trailing edge of the fenders no longer have any support. The challenge is they sweep back over the A pillar. We are having a 1/4" plate arch plasma cut to match the fender arch for the last six bolt holes; this will support the rear of the fender. The alloy is A-572-50. I can make that auto-CAD file available if there is any interest. 

6. The forward hole of the bumper bracket was the starting point for the hinge system. The bottom of the core support was cut off and boxed in. Special lateral brackets were fabbed, which are not yet fully welded in, to extend strength from the core support to the hinge area. We changed the lower bolt to the core to 7/16 for strength. Again will be all gr 8 when done. The radiator will have its own support fabbed to live just rear of the core support. The condenser will attach to the front of the radiator and live inside the core support but not be connected to it. New bumper brackets will be fabbed that will attach to the hinge system. 

7. The inner fenders were sectioned, as they will ride with the tilt system. 

8. The hood will open in the usual manner 

9. We have vast experience MIG welding sheet metal. Anywhere we welded on the truck ('47) we felt that the steel was 'dirty', even the frame, as it spit and popped quite a bit on the usual 75-25 mix. I can only assume that the jumbled mess of various steels from the scrap drive during the war produced steel like this. The war department prolly did not care since they must have figured the life expectancy of military equipment was prolly 3 months as a pure guess. I assume these steels were left over from the war. Never have I welded dirtier steel. We did some research and learned that straight CO2 would be a better choice for dirty steel, and made the switch. WoW! What a difference, and it makes for cooler welding; once we switched we had no more burn thru on the thin 22 ga metal. We are using .023 Easy Grind wire. 

10. The truck had taken a hit to the R front fender and A pillar long before we got it. The repair method of choice for that owner was 1" thick bondo, no exaggeration. All that had to be metal repaired in a proper workmanlike manner before we could even start. 

11. None of this will show from the outside. 

12. We retain the stock 170 in-line 6. We are warming it up per DiggerDave's suggestions, and we got an OD tranny from Ted. Have gotten some goodies from Vern, Gary, and Jim Wood. We are not building anything radical, but want to be able to jump on the highway and do some serious touring. Wheels will be stock with bias-looking WW radials. Brakes are converted to '63 Champ and will be behind modern vacuum master. Tube shocks. Grill will be chromed to resemble the Deluxe version of 1941. After dustless blasting and epoxy primer, color to be Baril baby blue with 3 coats of PPG 2021 clear on top, and lavender pinstripe. Visor will be installed. 

13. We do all our own work here, and there are a great many more details to be worked out. At this point after many weeks we estimate so far 500 hrs in design, fab, and labor. We are also sure there are other ways to accomplish all this! 

14. We will use linear actuators to do the tilting.

15. Our overriding concerns all along have not only been functionality, but to have the whole deal stay together when bouncing down the road on the USA infrastructure!