UPDATED JULY 13TH, 2008.

2008 CROSLEY NATIONALS, WAUSEON, OHIO

THE CROSLEY-DAVIDSON PROJECT

I Know A Lot Of You Will Disagree With What I Am Doing But, I Feel That When Done, It Will Be A Tribute To 3 Great Icons Of The Motoring World...Powel Crosley & Harley-Davidson. I Present To You, The CROSLEY-DAVIDSON!

I bought the car in Belleville, Mi. & drove it home 40 miles. A new frame came with the car and I have already transfered the front end over, rerouted the front & rear brake lines and modified the brake pivot shaft to fit with my design. I am going to use a GM 700R4 automatic transmission and a Harley-Davidson 1340cc V-Twin engine to power the car. I have not decided yet if it will be a direct drive or if I am going to need to have a belt drive. I am waiting for the trans to be rebuilt before I can set it up in the frame and check the height clearance. I am also going to use a Ford 8" rear axle and have Currie Engineering cut the housing & axle shafts to fit under the body. That will give me 9" Ford drum brakes in the rear to go with the stock Crosley fronts. They will also drill the axle shafts to the 4 bolt Crosley pattern so I can use the stock wheels.

So, here are the pictures. I guess that I spent more time working on the car then taking pictures so some of the events may seem out of order. I get busy on a section of the rebuild and don't think about shooting photos. More to follow.

Here is a video of my first drive when I bought the car.

Here are the latest pictures as of Dec. 15th. I cut the stock cross member and dropped it 4" to give me clearance for the trans oil pan. I also cut out the stock master cylinder bracket to allow for the new Pinto dual master cylinder. I have to get a piece of 1/4" steel to weld in so I can bolt the master cylinder to it. The next step is to design the mounting plate for the trans & engine and decide if it will be a direct drive or go with a 1 1/2" belt from the engine to the trans. I have room to drop the engine the 4" to mate up to the trans but I'm not sure of how it will look that low in the frame. Have to do some mock ups to see which way to go...

I also have to move the brake lever to the left to clear the oil pan and redo the bracket for the pivot shaft so it will bolt to the bottom of the trans pan. Once the drivetrain is in, I'll have to redo the floor to allow clearance for the trand bell housing.

December 25th, 2006. We did our Xmas on Saturday so I had time to do some more work on the car today. I had the problem of locating the trans and clearing the front shock mounts and the Pinto dual master cylinder, so, I moved the brakes to the firewall. This allows me to move the trans forward the 2" I need to clear the shock mount. Here are a few pictures of the mounting of the master cylinder. I had to cut the firewall bracing beads but I welded them shut and with the reenforcing plate on the inside, I feel it is stronger then it was when I started. I made a bracket to bolt to the 1966 Mustang brake support bracket and pedal assmy. It bolts to the door jam on the left and to the steering column support on the bottom of the dash. When I replace the flooring and firewall, the whole thing will lock together nicely... The brake pedal lines up over the original clutch location and the throttle pedal will be floor mounted and be where the original brake pedal was. I'm going to be using a pressure switch for the brake lights so the firewall mounted electric switch is gone.

I also had time to cut in the new radio and the engine oil temp. & volt meters. I'm waiting for the tach to come so I can mount it on the other side of the dash cluster. I'm going to use the Crosley speedo, oil pressure & fuel gauges. Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the trans crossmember and the mounting plate to locate the trans and engine.

March 11th, 2007. I sent the left half of the Harley crankshaft to Doc Fang's Engineering to have it machined so that the GM flexplate will bolt to it. I already have the 1 1/2 belt drive pulleys and they look like they will line up where I had planned. I also got the exhaust head pipes Friday on EBay. Here are a few shots of the engine in the frame with the exhaust hooked up. I'm going to the muffler shop tomorrow to get two 1 3/4 pipes bent at a ninety to hook to the head pipes and shoot the exhaust to the rear. I plan on running two 1 3/4 pipes out the back. Should look and sound good... I mounted the tach in the dash and now have to decide if I am going to refinish the dash because of all the extra holes in it or just cover it with leather. I sanded and sand blasted the hood and primed it today and also ran the brake pipes and brake light pressure switches. I'm going to tackle the doors next and plan on replacing all the glass. I also need to mount the 39 Ford teardrop taillights and decide if I'm going to keep the backup lights or cover up the holes in the tailgate. The B&M floor shifter has a switch for the B/U lighs but I don't like the way they look. Money, money, money...

Well, March 26th & I'm still waiting for the machined crank half so, I decided to tackle the floor on the car. What a mess! I cut out the drivers side rear floor, just to get a look. Took it a step further and whacked the front drivers side out. Still ugly... Cut out the sill, after welding in angle iron supports and made new L brackets and welded in the new sill. It came out real nice. Yankee Crosley Parts did a great job making the sills & floor pans. I also stripped the dash of all the paint, filled in 3 holes that I'm not going to use and smoothed it all out with some duraglaze. I hope to cut out the floor on ther pass. side soon and replace the sill there too. Next will be cutting off the front fenders, replacing the bad sections of the firewall, making new rear floor pans, (I bought a beeder/Flanger and a Spot Welder) and stripping the cowl and priming all the bare metal. Here are the shots of the floor, sill and dash...

April 3rd, I had time over the weekend to work some more on the car. I cut out the rest of the floor pans and started to install the right side rocker. For some reason, it didn't want to line up. I guess I should of welded the angle iron brace across the door opening to hold it all straight. Not a problem. Measure 3 times, cut once... Next step will be to remove the bad firewall, rebuild the center "Hump" to allow clearance for the GM trans, cut the front floor pans to fit and bead up and install the rear floor pans. I'm glad I bought the spot welder. It will come in handy when I install the new firewall, floor pans & Hump.

Easter weekend & I hit it hard Friday to Monday... Cut out the rest of the floor, made a new firewall & tackled the right rear quarter panel. I also cut in the 39 Ford teardrop taillights, way cool!!! I need to cut off the bottom of the wheel well and make a new extention so that I can attach the quarter panel to it. I don't want the fenders wavin' in the breeze. The best thing that I've bought so far to work on this project is the spot welder from Harbour Freight. I also bought a sheet metal hole punch for puddle welding panels & a flanger/beader. I don't think I could of done this without them.

April 16th, Spent the weekend working on the rest of the right rear quarter panel. I also had to rebuild the lower portion of the wheelwell. I reattached it to the quarter panel to keep it from flappin' in the breeze. You can see in one of the pictures that I downloaded a picture of a 51 wagon to see the angles of the wheel opening. I got it close with what I had. No 100 pointer here... I got my tires and wheels!!! 12" aluminum 5 spoke wheels with 480X12 tires. I got a great deal from trailer tires & wheels.com (http://www.trailertiresandwheels.com). They are in Ohio and they said that they will try to make it to the Nationals in July. Call them and tell Scott and Sara Barry sent ya. I was sent a picture of the car when it was sold with 200,000 miles on it from the son of the owner. I found out where the extra holes in the hood came from. A MACK truck bulldog hood ornament... I'm going to Dearborn this week to pick up the front fenders. I was told that other than a small rust hole in the battery box, they are spotless. Just scuff them up, prime them and they are ready for paint!