GlassicAnnex
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While corresponding with Joel (who is Joel?) in mid-2009, the Annexmaster (me) commented about all of the odd parts that went to make up Glassics over the years. Here are some more hints in locating parts. Power steering reservoir was a Purolator item... the pump was from a fork lift for packaging reasons - it was very small...the wiper blades and arms were Trico or Anco -- the early vacuum motors were Scout (if the arms swung from above...) Windshield wipers below the windshield were Lucas motors, cam and arms -w/ Anco or Trico blades. Scout rear springs carried over into the early model V8's, Later were replaced by MAS springs and suspension parts then we went to Champion (I think) as a supplier of springs before we finally went to the coil springs forever...(front & rear) What STEERING BOX was used in an early 1977 with front leaf springs? (This info should also apply to the '72 to '74 cars) Joel: It will have a "tag" on the top of the box that identifies the part number... That is the best info I can come up with... Otherwise just take it to a Ford dealership and identify it as best you can visually.... the tag is the only best way I know of.... On the trailer springs in the rear.... I only suggested going to a trailer parts house to match up.... the springs we were using when the business was sold were manufactured by a spring house in Michigan (I think) named "Champion"....
The Annexmaster: What I was trying to figure out was, when you went from International based cars which was a whole chassis already put together and you basically just plopped the body on it (that’s oversimplifying) to Ford, where you had to build a new frame, get all new components, and kind of start from scratch, how did you end up not using Ford springs, with all the different parts that Ford would have to offer, it seems like it would have been much harder to go outside of Ford to find a part to fit on the car. Joel: We did that because we were duplicating the (International) Scout chassis at that time – 3 by 4 inch tubing and cutting it, and making it a five-piece, so we had to retain same type of springs, links, arch and all of that to maintain the same ride height. We started buying the axles from Minneapolis Auto Supply – and that’s when we went to the Ford king pins, Econoline spindles, brakes and all – The Annexmaster: Now, we are talking about the FRONT – Joel: right. In the back, was a 5-lug Maverick rear end, - they made a 4 lug and a 5 lug – the 4 lug was the 6 cyl. And the 5 lug was the V-8 – so we had to get springs from other sources – I think the first springs might have come from Minneapolis Auto supply – but then we went, later on, to a manufacturer of springs, which I believe was Champion. We would buy the springs by the pallet. They would be similar, but not exactly the same, so we had to rig up a deal where would put them on the ground, and load 200 pounds on them and measure the spring deflection, so we could get a matched pair for a car. The same thing happened later on with the coil springs – they were not all identical in springy-ness. The Annexmaster: So it was not really a transition from International completely to Ford completely Joel: No, it was a Ford DRIVE TRAIN – We had to get a Ford driveshaft and then we had it shortened to fit by a machine shop. The Annexmaster: So, rather than going from International to Ford, it was from International to all custom, EXCEPT for the drive train, which was mostly Ford, and even the driveshaft was not a stock component. Joel: That’s right. The Annexmaster: So, even using a Ford drive train, you couldn’t just put an engine, complete, and drop it in the car? Joel: No, the 302 engine was a "build" or a "calibration", with the carb, the manifolds and so forth, but the dress on the front of the engine, the water pump, the pulley arrangement, the harmonic balancer, the alternator bracketry and how it mounted, was mostly from a pickup truck, or a Bronco, and the radiator was from a Mustang because it would fit under the shell – the calibration on the engine was from a Maverick, because the carb and all that was from a Maverick, and what was on the front didn’t matter for calibrating the engine. Then we had to go with a stock Maverick air cleaner, which was hard to package under the hood, because it was too big, but we got it to fit, and the zip-tube and all. Annexmaster note: Remember, these were MANUFACTURED cars, which had to comply with, what, at that time, was an ever-increasing array of rules and restrictions by the government – mostly emissions and safety issues. We had to use that tube on the carb to get the air cleaner high enough to clear the master cylinder, if I remember correctly, and that’s where the EPA had a fit because we were putting the plenum underneath the air cleaner before it got to the carb. They thought it would mess up the calibration for energy efficiency. It didn’t effect it at all. The whole rear end was one assembly, just stock out of a Maverick, but the perches were in the wrong place for the width of our frame rails, so we had to add more perches to the back at a certain angle to get the pinion to feed without chipping it to death, So, the engine, transmission, rear end were all one package from Maverick, and the drive shaft was common Ford, because of the yoke and all, and we had to shorten it, I think, it was 8 inches, and it didn’t affect the balance. The steering column was a stock Saginaw with tilt. We had the gear shift at that time on the floor, and later moved it to the column to clean up the floor. And the other parts, accelerator pedal and so forth, we just picked up wherever we could. The Annexmaster: Ford? Or other sources? Joel: Ford. We tried to stick with Ford wherever we could, using that oval Ford logo; by doing that we got help and additional technical support from Ford. At this point, we spoke for a moment about how, over the years, many, many Glassics have been modified and changed – original components may have been replaced by any number of other parts that may have fit, or been acceptable substitutes for the originals. Parts on any given Glassic may well NOT match what was there when the car was built.
Joel: Going back into the car business, after we had been out of it for 33 months, we started out having to rebuild molds and so forth because the old ones had "disappeared". There was a great deal of confusion at the time the company was dissolved. Anyhow, all we had was the building and my wife’s car to work with. We had to strip it down and take that car apart to make molds from it, and in doing that, a lot of massaging was done on it, and, in rebuilding the molds, from the original maroon and black sample, there were many changes made all over the body of the car. You could not place your hands anywhere on the car without observing a change from the old car. At that time there was a concern about possible copyright issues – which never came up. These changes are not easy for the casual observer to find, but probably made the car legally "different" at that time. At this point, with Replicars, I needed to hire my "right hand man" The Annexmaster: -- I asked Joel whether the tub, or cabin area on a Phaeton, would be a match from the early Internationals, through the Glassic V-8’s and on to the Replicars. Would one top fit ANY of those years. His answer was "not likely", although his answer was vague, and it needs further study – a template I made of the back of the tub, seemed the same from a 1973 to a 1978 – but my measurements were not precise, so I can’t be sure. That discussion faded into Joel talking about issues with making the doors: Joel: One of the biggest problems we had was fitting doors – Phaeton, or Roadster. Sometimes you had to build the doors to fit the car. Somehow the doors would be a little different in the lower corner away from the hinges – how it would tuck in, or out at the corner. We had 8 or 10 doors for each side in stock and see if they would fit, and if they didn’t we would put them in a jig and, using a turnbuckle, we would bend the part in or out as needed – Then when you glued the door together (inner and outer panels), it would hold that position and fit. Also, the rumble seat was also a problem in that it had to fit both when open and closed. The Roadster hinges were temperamental, getting the iron brace to fit in the right place before welding it to the frame rail. The Roadster was more expensive to build, even though it was less material than the Phaeton. There was more fitting required, more labor. The Replicars body was patterned after a later Glassic, One of the Ford ones. The Annexmaster: You said where you got the pattern for the new Replicars Phaeton, what about the Roadster. Joel: We likely used the Phaeton rear fender area to make the Roadster since we were making them to use the big old Volkswagen tail lights. Joel did not recall the steps in getting back into Roadster production with Replicars. Rumble seats -- We went from the plywood base to the pipe frame base. That concluded the taping. THE ITEM BELOW ALSO APPEARS, AND MAY BE MORE COMPLETE, ON THE PAGE OF CHANGES BY YEAR. Not recorded, but with paper notes was the following: There are 4 "generations" of Glassics. First Generation: The International Scout based Glassics.
Second Generation: The early Ford-engined Glassics, which used a Tube Axle from Minneapolis Auto Specialties, and Econoline spindles and brakes.
Third Generation: The Replicars which used a Pinto cross member and Pinto / Mustang II spindles and disk brakes.
– the rear suspension was a Trailing arm, fabricated piece.
Fourth Generation: The fabricated front cross member 2 1/2 inches wider than generation 3, and a Fairmont rack. The "fabricated" cross member was based on the Pinto cross member.
The rear suspension was also changed for generation 4 to a 4-bar, using a Fairmont rear axle, which was wider and went with the wider front end – all of which made the wheels sit further out in the fender wells.
The changes to Fairmont parts was since Mustang II was not being continued, and parts were not going to be available for newer cars.
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