Toppers Tuesday

Painting a car or having one painted is probably the most important aspect of building a car.  You need to decide on a color for the car and components.  I like to stick to a theme throughout the car but I try not to use more than 3 colors.  I am partial to a black car with silver and maroon on various components like axles and transmissions.  The motor color sometimes needs to be subdued in order not to take away from the car’s important features, such as the accessories.  I painted the engine in my 48 convert Hugger Orange and the wife made me redo it in maroon.  Unless you want the engine color to be the focus, stick to a more appealing color such as the body color.  Black is my favorite.

I have been looking at some new rear springs for Ruby and found that there are many different types available.  TCI, CE, Posies and several others offer new springs.  The rear springs provide the ride in a big car.  If your rear springs are too stiff the car will bounce around on the highway, especially on the overpasses.  It might take several adjustments to get it right but parallel rear springs provide an excellent ride and most late model cars are equipped with this type of suspension.

I am running late for Toppers….

Stay Tooned!

Lynn

Walt chose to do his engine and accessories in black powdercoat with a black engine and silver coated exhaust.  Note how the maroon firewall stands out against the black.  The whole engine bay looks very clean and uncluttered.  Careful planning is necessary to pull this off in a large engine compartment.

Nick kept the stock colors in his Mercury convertible.  A smaller compartment makes routing of wires and hoses more critical.  Black components help keep you focused on what the builder wants you to see.

Dan really captured the look of the early days with his flatty.  In this case the motor is the focus not the firewall.

You don’t need all the bling to have a nice looked open hood flat motor.  A very clean unit with lots of detail.  Nice!

Roy has the look down pat.  He coordinates the engine compartment to keep you looking while the hood is open.  Again the black components with the little red accent against the white firewall has the look I like.  Very clean.

This classic engine compartment draws you to the motor and the “Hugger Orange” SBC look.  If the motor was painted black you would not have the stolen from a Corvette look.  The generator is a nice touch.  I wonder if Chip did this one?

The 41-48 Ford chassis usually is updated with parallel rear springs such as these CE units.  The springs are 2 1/2 inches wide and provide a very nice ride.  They make different arches so you can obtain the ride height you desire without blocks.  All you need is a 3/8 drill and 9/16 inch wrench to install.  Posie uses a 1 3/4 inch wide spring with more leafs.  They also offers different arches and these springs provide an excellent ride.  The spring length is 47 1/2 inches for the CE units and 43 1/2 inches for the Posie units.

Roy installs the Heidts front suspension on most cars he builds.  This is a Woody he did not too long ago.  The TCI unit is similar in design except for sway bar.

This is a TCI unit installed in a 40 pickup.  Note that only three leafs and lowering blocks are used to obtain ride height. The clamps keep the springs from moving around.  I don’t like lowering blocks and prefer moving the spring up into the frame for the proper stance.  Air shocks are installed to help with the 3 leaf spring set up and loads in the pickup box.

Today’s Sedan Delivery….dreaming!

Steve sent in some photos of his delivery.  I have seen it around but did not know where the car resided.  He is really working on the car and making improvements while he drives it.  I really like the wheels on the car and I will find a set for Andre.  Andre is jealous.