A Hupmobile ???

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Very Cool, Bob. I have two farm wagons made out of old cars and neither one of them has as nice of a tongue hitch as yours. I studied that front end quite a bit because of the suspension set up, which I may eventually steal. The concept, Bob, not the axle, no, no, not for a moment did I think of stealing your axle.
You picked a really good axle to put under the Hupmobile, unique and era correct.
Keep on tinkering.
 
There's a rat rod 28 Chevy locally that has quarter elliptics on the front. His is very poorly designed such the the mounting brackets make it so the spring has no travel and there is effectively no suspension on the front.

I'm sure you'll do a lot better, Bob.
 
Snopro, I've built two roadsters with quarter elliptics in front. On this one I'll stick with the design Chevrolet provided. Just put a different axle on it.
The bolts came out fairly easily and the broken, obsolete axle is in the scrap pile. The pics are bad but you can tell there's two main leaves per side. Bottom one has a 9/16" hole and the top one has a 1" slotted hole. A shoulder bolt fastens the spring to the axle. The slot allows movement as the spring works. The bottom main leaf holds it all in alignment.
As you can see, there's heavy duty brackets holding the eleven leaf spring packs on the back end.

I do believe there will be caster change on bumps. Since the spring is fairly long, and if suspension travel in not too much, it will probably be okay. We'll see...

I don't see any provision for a shock absorber. Wondering if Chevrolet relies on the friction in the large spring pack to dampen the action.
 

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A friend came by today and made me take these Tru Spoke wheels with tires. Been sitting indoors a long time. Two 14's and two 15's. Possibly I'll use them on the Hupmobile. Or maybe not.
 

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Bob, I was over a friends place today for a visit and his son came into the shop to work and visit. The subject got around to old cars. Here's the sons car; a Hupmobile. He is putting it back together completely stock.
 

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Change of plans

Nice Hup,, Mac.

I measured the front axles in my stash and none of them will work with the splayed quarter elliptic springs. The mounting point for the springs is too wide. Way beyond the spring pads on the axles and into the area where the beam turns up.
In the interest of convenience, I've selected this '37 (I think) Chevy axle. The drums are already drilled for 4 1/2" bolt pattern. As luck would have it, the springs are the correct length to fit the mounting points on the Dodge frame.

In thinking about the other set up, it was designed 1915 and not used for many years. Maybe there's good reason.
 

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Took the leaf springs apart and cleaned the surface rust off the leaves. Dismantled the '28 Dodge steering box that came with the frame. It is a large Ross box and looks great inside. The '37 Chevy axle I got for 20 bucks from a shop that put a Mustang II in the front of the guy's coupe. The frame is about 15 inches too long. I can fix that. Here's the look I'm going for. This, or this, but not the front higher than the rear.
 

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The frame is too long so I cut it off. The rear kick up which can be seen in the third pic will be added farther forward. Son Dave came over and we put the body on what is left of the frame. The plan is this one will not be channeled. Sits really high now. Might have to "Z" the frame or sweep the front frame up. Have not decided on the rear suspension.

The right front frame horn is bent so the spring does not align with the rear mount. I'll have to heat and beat on it.
 

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After knocking out a dozen and a half rivets I have two separate rear frame rails. I like the kick up. It's pretty graceful.

In order to get the front lower The axle will be relocated to the top of the spring. I've done this before. Cut the spring pads off and weld new ones on the bottom of the axle. Hoping there's no problem with spring to tie rod interference.
 

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Wait a minute..... are you building 2 projects at the same time????

I just saw your mini muscle car in the backround of one of those pics????


I'm just doing some preliminary stuff on the Hupmobile project. The main focus is the Renault. Also, I have the Crosley (the yellow car in some background shots) to finish. It needs a set of custom length pushrods for the stroker Jeep engine and some reassembly. All the fab work is done.

I'm old and have to get these project done before I can't.

The '30 Dodge truck is waiting in the wings. My last project.
 
I'm just doing some preliminary stuff on the Hupmobile project. The main focus is the Renault. Also, I have the Crosley (the yellow car in some background shots) to finish. It needs a set of custom length pushrods for the stroker Jeep engine and some reassembly. All the fab work is done.

I'm old and have to get these project done before I can't.

The '30 Dodge truck is waiting in the wings. My last project.

Amazing working on that all at once.... can I ask how old you are? Don't have to answer that.
 
65 and 5 twelfes here. I like that twelfes LOL

You got 15 on me wowzers. God bless you with 3 projects going!

I may have mentioned..... I've worked out my whole life and competed for half and geeeze the last 2 years I have gone to ****. My shoulders hurt so much they keep me up at night and I haven't been able to workout for 2 months.

I went for a cortizone shot in my left shoulder about a month ago and I was feeling great.... that was until I had to lengthen the thread on 2 - 9/16 grade 8 bolts a week ago. Popped the good shoulder.... then the bad. Man I'm a hurting pup.

Well thanks for sharing the age.... and keep up the good work Bob!
 

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