"Black Dahlia"

[LarrySmith]

Hello guys, I spent must of the afternoon reading all 52 pages of this thread, and I just want to thank you all for the great read. Everyone is so positive, it's great. My boring day turned better than any movie, and it didn't even cost me $9 for a ticket!

 

[tfeverfred]

Fred, I am using that radiator in my car and is does a great job of keeping my LS2 cool. I have yet to need to turn on my electric fan.

That's great! It struck with it's 3 cores and the price is good, too.

 

[tfeverfred]

Hello guys, I spent must of the afternoon reading all 52 pages of this thread, and I just want to thank you all for the great read. Everyone is so positive, it's great. My boring day turned better than any movie, and it didn't even cost me $9 for a ticket!

Thanks and welcome, but there are FAR better threads than mine. Mine is filled with mindless pondering and indecision.

 

[LarrySmith]

Thanks and welcome, but there are FAR better threads than mine. Mine is filled with mindless pondering and indecision.

Naw, that's part of the goodness. Makes it real and personal. Plus I figured that with 52 pages, there'\d be good insights, details, and progress. I wasn't disappointed.

 

[old round fart]

I love his builds. His first build Miss Behaving was just as good.

 

[tfeverfred]

I probably shouldn't have used THAT definition and used something more specific. But when you all see the tires, beauty rings and wheels together, I'm positive that you'll agree that trying to pass my T off as a "dry lakes or salt flat" car would have been a joke in the mildest sense of the word. True, some cars can pull it off and I dig seeing them, but it just wouldn't have worked for me and my car. Makes me think of the "Gasser" thread on the HAMB. It's a great look, but for a street car, that will never see the strip, it's a bad joke.

Oh.... this morning, I got sticker shock at Discount Tire. The front tires I'm using are $54 each. But they charge $16 PER tire and wheel for mounting on my rim and a balance. Maybe it's been a while since I bought new tires, but that seemed awful high. I plan on using used tires on the rear and checked a couple places I've traded at before and the sizes I was willing to go for are out of stock. One place is expecting a shipment in maybe this weekend and it sounds hopeful. But if he comes up empty, I'll be back at Discount for 2 rear tires.

As a result of this new development, I probably won't have all my tires, until next week. Yea, another slight set back.

Now, before you guys respond about using used tires, here's the skinny. One, the price. I can get them at $35 each, installed on my wheels. Two, I've gotten great deals on them in the past. The tires on my daily are used and I've gotten a couple years off of them so far. he tires on my last T were good up until the day I sold her. About 6 years of trouble free driving. AGAIN... PLEASE do not turn this thread into a "Used v/s New" debate. I've heard it all before.

 

[Spanky]

Welcome, Larry! Are you contemplating building a T-bucket?

 

[fletcherson]

I probably shouldn't have used THAT definition and used something more specific. But when you all see the tires, beauty rings and wheels together, I'm positive that you'll agree that trying to pass my T off as a "dry lakes or salt flat" car would have been a joke in the mildest sense of the word. True, some cars can pull it off and I dig seeing them, but it just wouldn't have worked for me and my car. Makes me think of the "Gasser" thread on the HAMB. It's a great look, but for a street car, that will never see the strip, it's a bad joke.

Oh.... this morning, I got sticker shock at Discount Tire. The front tires I'm using are $54 each. But they charge $16 PER tire and wheel for mounting on my rim and a balance. Maybe it's been a while since I bought new tires, but that seemed awful high. I plan on using used tires on the rear and checked a couple places I've traded at before and the sizes I was willing to go for are out of stock. One place is expecting a shipment in maybe this weekend and it sounds hopeful. But if he comes up empty, I'll be back at Discount for 2 rear tires.

As a result of this new development, I probably won't have all my tires, until next week. Yea, another slight set back.

Now, before you guys respond about using used tires, here's the skinny. One, the price. I can get them at $35 each, installed on my wheels. Two, I've gotten great deals on them in the past. The tires on my daily are used and I've gotten a couple years off of them so far. he tires on my last T were good up until the day I sold her. About 6 years of trouble free driving. AGAIN... PLEASE do not turn this thread into a "Used v/s New" debate. I've heard it all before.

There's nothing wrong with using good used tires. I do it all the time on trucks, etc. I am also in agreement on mount and balance prices, so much that I now own tire change tools and balancer.

 

[Gerry]

In the UK the tyre (UK spelling) places have to pay around $5 a piece for disposal of each old one. Put in the cost of a modern balancer and the weights...

 

[tfeverfred]

Something else I noticed today. Have you ever noticed how BIG tires are, when you actually see them not installed on a car? See, I'm used to seeing "normal" sized car tires. Say..... 195-whatever-15's, etc. You just get used to that size tire on a car. So, I'm looking to get a pair of 235/75/15's . They're 28.9" tall. That's a little shy of a 30" and was on my list of 3 possible sizes. I thought about 30"+, but don't want the ass end of my car sitting too high. So, at my first stop today, the guy only has one 235/75/15 and it's got raised white letters. Not an option. But when he pulled it from the rack, it looked HUGE for some reason. Like, I had to look and make sure he grabbed the right one!

Then, I started thinking, "Did I measure right? Am I really looking for maybe a 26" or 28" tall tire? WTF!?". I recheck my notes 3 or 4 times.... nope, I've got 235's as my first choice. Now, I start second guessing myself. Which for me ALWAYS means trouble. It took a few minutes to convince myself that this was the size I needed. Whew.....

Well, I just got back from a guy I hadn't dealt with in a LONG time. I think he sold the set of tires for Miss Behavin'. He swore he remembered me. Anyway, he says he can have two matching tires for me Friday. The kicker to that was the WAY he said it. Kinda like, someone's gonna be missing a set of tires in a couple days! I REALLY hope that's not the case.

 

[tfeverfred]

In the UK the tyre (UK spelling) places have to pay around $5 a piece for disposal of each old one. Put in the cost of a modern balancer and the weights...

Yea, they do that here, too. It's like no one has come up with an economical way to dispose of tires. Which seems odd in 2017.

 

[LarrySmith]

Hey, I liked those 235/60R15s on Miss Behavin', I've used that size on several of my own builds. I'm not a fan of 235/75s on 8s, but 235/70s can sometimes pass, and simpletire.com can get you Chinese ones for $81 each, delivered to Houston. I refuse to pay more than $5 per tire for mounting, and $5 per for balancing. I bought my own Chinese mounting machine a few years ago for $65, and it's paid for itself several times over, but I'm getting tired of the manual labor involved.
Out here in farm country, farmers avoid tire disposal fees by using them to secure giant tarps over their corn pits every winter. Or turn them into tire swings, or planters, or fountains, or ...
I never did find a 215/85R15, as Fred noted earlier.

 

[LarrySmith]

Welcome, Larry! Are you contemplating building a T-bucket?

Not to jack Fred's thread, I just posted about the possibility, I titled it Salvage Yard donors?

 

[tfeverfred]

I never did find a 215/85R15, as Fred noted earlier.

Where? In the Miss Behavin'" thread?

 

[tfeverfred]

Procrastination......I just measured and considering how tall that tire looked, I'm gonna drop my rear shocks to the lowest setting. About 1.5" lower. I have the clearance for the rear end housing and it will lower my car a bit, which is what I really want. Plus, I'll sleep better tonight.

 

[fletcherson]

In the UK the tyre (UK spelling) places have to pay around $5 a piece for disposal of each old one. Put in the cost of a modern balancer and the weights...

They charge disposal fees in addition to mount and balance charges here. Also, they dispose of them by cutting them into three pieces and dumping them in a demolition landfill...no kidding. The only reason they are prohibited to throw them into a dump whole is because they hold ground water. I was shocked to learn this. Some places do recycle them into pot ash for cement plants, and some for road beds, etc.., but most are simply wasted. Unbelievable that we can't find a reasonable way to recycle all of them them. Also, I acquired a piece of real estate with a huge tire pile left behind. I tried to dispose of them the "right way", it was rediculous how much red tape and expense is involved. Sorry Fred, didn't mean to go off track!

 

[Intrepid]

In Ontario we use to have that $5 fee as well.
What happened was no one was paying the fee at the tire shops and taking the tires to the dump, that led to allot tires piled up at dumps and eventually you would some how get a tire fire that burned for two days.
Now the $5 recycle fee is charged on the purchase of new tires and the tire shops have to take the old ones in for free, and have them properly recycled.
Apparently allot of them get mixed into asphalt at different concentrations for different purposes.
I went for a jog on a running track made of this stuff once and it was like running on sponges.

 

[tfeverfred]

I lowered my coil overs last night and I think it's going to give me the look I want, even after it's complete. I took a guess and accounted for the additional weight of engine, trans, body, etc. If it pans out, my frame should be some what level. Then, going with the 25" tall tires in front and the 28.9"s in the rear, I'm hoping I'll achieve the slight rake I'm visualizing for the completed car. My goal is for the "big and little's" to do their job.

Another thing I want to eliminate is that "break" that a lot of T Buckets have. By that I mean, how the radiator and engine are some what level, then right where the firewall is, the rest of the car seems to CRANK up a few degrees, looking like the car is broken or something. It's like the rake is being "forced", using the body as a sight line. I want the line/rake to be set by the frame angle and the wheel/tire combo.

So, my idea was to find out what initiates the break and it seemed to be the radiator. In the blue prints I've looked at (Total Performance, CCR and Speedway), the radiator mount, engine mount and trans mount are set at a 3 degree angle. Which forces that break. My plan was to mount the radiator almost level. I think that will force your eyes to concentrate on the frame and tire/wheel rake, rather than that break at the fire wall because it will no longer exist. Of course, the radiator will lean slightly forward, but that's to be expected. Think of it like this:

Remember when some of us first got started into cars? One of the popular things to do, was to jack up the ass end to fit larger tires in the rear. But we didn't level out the front end of the car, right? Same thing here. Just not as radical a rear lift.

 

[tfeverfred]

Got my tires and they're mounted on wheels, ready to go. But.... my land lord has a couple cars blocking my car in, so it'll be a while before I can mount them on my car. I can wait. The rear tires cost me a tad more than what I wanted to pay for used, but for some reason the size I wanted was scarce. Most places didn't have them and one place that did, only had one.

I had just about given up and was heading home, trying to figure what two new ones would set me back. Then, out the corner of my eye, I spotted a mechanic shop, with a home made "Used Tires for Sale" sign. I slammed on the brakes, literally, and whipped in. I told the guy what I wanted and he said I was lucky. He not only had two, but they matched and had a great amount of thread on them. SOLD!

I had gotten the two front tires from Discount Tire and had them mount them. Amazingly, they balanced with no weights needed. I was watching and the guy ran it twice with the same results. Sweet. The rears required a "normal" amount of weight, which doesn't bother me. But with that, I hate the look of weights on a custom wheel. Even the thin stick on type. So, the beauty rings will serve another purpose other than looking pretty. They'll cover those gray weights!

All in all, it was a nice morning. I can't believe I'll have a roller soon. I seriously need the motivation and having my project in roller status will have me feeling good. Thanks everyone for hanging in there with me. I'm 1/4 there!

 

[tfeverfred]

Here's how I came to choose the sizes I went with.

Here's that T Bucket with a CCR stretched body, like I'll be using. The front tires are 195/60/15 (24.2"). The rears are 275/60/15 (28"). That's difference of 3.8". Notice how subtle the rake is? That's what I'm looking for. My tires are 165/80/15 (25.4") and 235/75/15 (28.9"). a difference of 3.5". I'm hoping my frame and body sit a little lower in the rear. If it does, I think I'm well into the ball park, profile wise.