Folks Of Interest 1954-56 Ford front cross member

Looks like Goodell has retired and closed up shop wondering if any members might like to start fabricating them.

 

This is interesting. I have a friend who does ch***is fab stuff and I sent him a link to this, this seems exactly like the kind of thing he would make. Someone needs to be making these, they're super prone to rot, and a lack of supply would mean a lot of otherwise fixable cars might be un-fixable.

 

Interesting, I wonder how many more tools this old geezer needs to buy to make an attempt at fabbing one of these up?

 

btt

 

A 100 amp wire feed and some way to cut out the pieces is about all you should need. The originals are just sheetmetal, not the sturdiest bits which is why they rust out so easily. A 7/8" hole saw for the holes, a bit of file work to finish.

There should be a reinforcement/sleeve at the control arm holes so you don't crush the crossmember too...

 

I have most of the tools needed. Cutting out the pieces looks like the worst part of the process.

 

I tried to lay it out in CAD and some of the numbers are funky. This is presuming that the 2 angled lines are parallel, which they are not. I think it is a bit more complicated that the hand-drawn sketch shows.
It would be a piece of cake, once the numbers were proved out, using a water jet.