63Galaxie2 wrote:

O/T question, whrer/what kind did you get your front coil overs?

Welcome to the forum.  Wow I am impressed you spotted that!!!  The coil over kit I bought was not listed as being for a Galaxie because the Galaxie lower control arm is not thick enough to handle the full suspension load at the shock mount however I modified my arms with a bolt on adapter that solved the issue.  Here is a thread with all the details.
 

Is your car a Big or Small block? Trying to decide on spring rate.
 

Mine is a 63 1/2. 552 Kaasie scj heads C6 PS,AC,Hydroboost deal so pretty heavy.I thought it might take 500#. Hows the R&P?
 

Made some good progress in the last week.  All I have left to do is cut the DD shaft to the correct length to go between the two u-joints and fab up the bracket for the heim joint that supports the shaft.  Then I can adjust the toe and it will be ready to test in non power steer format.  Assuming there are no further bugs to work out I will take it all apart, take the parts to the powder coater and then re install it all and plum the hydraulic lines.

Here is how the conversion bracket turned out.  I ended up welding a piece of 16 aug sheet steel over the triangle section to keep dirt and water out and I drilled a couple of drain hole in the other section.


The bracket seams to do the job quite well


The side brackets went together well and hold the rack firmly in place


Driver's side bracket


I cut where the red line is and removed about 2" of extra material.  I had left the bracket larger because I was hoping to tie the two brackets together for stability but more on that in a few pix.

Passenger's side bracket


The only thing I added to the bracket after this pic was a gusset to eliminate any flex in the bracket and add support.

As I mentioned above.  My original intent was to tie the two brackets together to eliminate flex but getting around the exhaust the bellhousing, the rack and the oil pan proved more trouble then its worth.  

The red lines showed what I had in mind but as I said there was a lot to get around.  After mounting up the rack I realized there wasn't any flex especially with the k-member tying the frame together right in front of where the brackets mount up.

So here it is, most of what you need to install a GM j-car rack in a 62 Galaxie


I slid some 1" box tubing over the tie-rod tubes and welded it in place so that I have a place to use a 1" wrench when adjusting the toe.


here is a better look at the brackets with the gusset added and the driver's side bracket trimmed.





 

Several years back I swapped out my Galaxie column for a Mustang column and used a unisteer bearing in the end so for my situation  there is nothing more to address.


EDITED 06/03/15
Decided to edit this post and quote the information from two other threads I started on this install so as to make this thread more complete.

Daze wrote:

Well that was a PITA!! R&P I was recently thinking that the R&P install in my 62 Galaxie was one of the easier fabrication projects I had done.  I got everything mounted up under the car and all was looking good until I started on the connecing steering shaft.  I have a double u-joint at the rack end and a single u-joint at the main steering shaft.  This means that the shaft had to be supported or it would flop around.  The hard part was getting it all dialed in.  To many variables.  The length of the shaft and the position of the heim joint could both be changed and the u-joints were nearly maxed out so there was not a lot of room for adjustment.  I fought it all day yesterday and couldn't get it to work without binding.  Still took me most of today to get it dialed in, but I finally got it.  All  I can say is I am sure glad to be done with this part of the project as it was a major PITA!!!
 
 

70XL wrote:

What, no pictures? Here is a great big ATTA BOY and thumbs up for your percevierence! Just imagine how much more "fun" that would have been without your lift! We're all waiting for the drive report.

Daze wrote:

here you go

Daze wrote:

 My land yacht is in dry dock to start R&P upgrade =1emBy dry test I mean put the rack through its hardest steering situation.  On my car I turned the steering wheel  lock to lock with the engine off and the full weight of the car on the suspension with the car stationary.  This should simulate the hardest steering situation the system should ever see.  I am sure glad I did!!  On my setup I finally got the steering shaft and corresponding support set up so that the steering turned smoothly.  Thought I had all the bugs worked out until the "dry test".  With that much resistance on the tires it caused my shaft support to flex and my double u-joint to move all over the place.  My support was made of a threaded sleeve welded to some 3/8" plate but I only mounted it using one bolt hole.  I then set it up with the same threaded sleeve welded to a piece of 3/8" plate that bolted to the frame in two places.  This helped a lot but there was still a little flex in the system so I am going to move the joint closer to the double u-joint which should eliminate any remaining bind.

dan_6776 wrote:

Ok... will do. Thanks for the heads up. I guess I should have done that before putting all the sheetmetal on.  Haven't had time lately to work on the car. 
Did you take any pictures of the steering shaft support you made and then modified? I am trying to visualize how you went about it?
I agree with your PITA comment in your other post.LOL. I have felt that way many times with all of the modifications I have done on mine. All of the modifications were firsts for me. I am thinking I will probably never attempt another restomod like this. My next restoration will most likely keep everything the way the engineers designed it!

dan_6776 wrote:

Dry tested today. Good news and bad news. Good news is when I turn the steering wheel, the wheels also turn. Lol. The bad news...the bracket for the rod end bolt which supports the DD shaft does demonstrate a little flex. I think it will be an easy fix, I will add a gusset plate. If that doesn't do the job, I will make a new bracket...have an idea for that also. Minor glitch!

Daze wrote:

This is what my final bracket looked like

 
This is the third incarnation of this bracket.  the second incarnation was the same but didn't have the 1" support rib.  I don't have any pix of the first bracket but it basically looked like the picture below if the red line was the edge of the bracket.  I don't know what possessed me to only mount the support from one hole.
 

 

Last edited by Daze (June 3, 2015 10:31 am)