Thanks! That's a really good idea. I thought about making one, but I have no way to cut the necessary keyway that it needs. Pinning the threaded portion on is a great alternative and makes a ton of sense.
You know a ton about these little machines! Do you know where one could find a tailstock leadscrew that's in good shape for one of these Craftsman 12" lathes. It's hard to tell from photos on ebay if the threads on a used piece are worth a crap.
I picked my first lathe up a couple years ago. It's one of the older Craftsman 12x36 models. The photo below is from when I finished dissembling and cleaning it up really well after I bought it. I've since picked up an overseas 6" 3-jaw chuck and it works great for everything I've needed it for...
I like the idea of starting with good used stuff. Though I don't have kids myself, my neighbor spent a ton of money on a motorcross bike, pads, helmet, etc. for his kid. In less than a year, his son was over it and had moved on to his next hobby.
When my '66 had a midplate, the rigid dipstick tube cleared fine. Here's the one I used:
Allstar Performance ALL69121 Allstar Performance Locking Transmission Dipsticks | Summit Racing
Thanks! My trunk looked like crap, so I covered it up. Good enough for a hotrod. Yours is coming along nicely! Your progress is keeping me motivated too. Keep it up! Here are some older shots:
I like that idea too! I need to go out and look at the mechanism on my ratchet shifter and see if I can make it work with one of the unused microswitch spots. Lots of great ideas here!
That makes sense. I'd love to see photos if you remember. I fought the issue on my trunk pan and had to do some shrinking to cure it. It was a quite aggravating.
For my build, I was recommended something in the 260's @ .050 and around 0.650" lift, so similar to yours. I've got a Victor 383 intake and a few 4150 carbs to choose from (2 different 950's and an old school Holley 4781 850).
Access holes are the only way to go in my opinion. That's the route I went on my '66 Dart. I also went with socket cap bolts on those top two to make it easier to feed the bolts through. Makes taking the transmission out a whole lot easier, especially in an early A body.
Let's not forget that as the cost of production goes up (labor, regulatory compliance, etc), the profit margins get thinner and thinner. Costs end up getting cut somewhere. It gets really easy to see why a lot of this **** gets outsourced oversees.