I know I'm not the most "old school" member we have and most of my stuff is a bit modern for the traditionalists movement. But my almost Father-in-law trusted me to build the frame for his 1932 Five window coupe. This is a car he bought in '62 from what I was told for about $500.00. Trust me, it's about as nice as you could hope for these days, not perfect but better than most. The build is supposed to be more mid to late fifties style. Stock frame with A crossmembers Hydraulic Lincoln brakes (from a real Lincoln!) probably a side shift Ford trans with a Wilcap adapter 1954 Chrysler 354 with home made U-Fab style intake and 6 97s 46 rear with Halibrand QC and shortened torque tube You get the jist. So I started without breaking out the camera. Had not planned on do***enting the whole build up so forgive me if there are some detail shots left out. If you want to look at all the pictures, help yourself: http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb93/ELpolacko/1932 Ford 5W PZ/ First up was repairing the rear frame horns. The stock shocks had really done some damage and the right rail had cracked completely off. Sorry, no good pictures but here is the repair. Hot Rod Ron donated a pair of rear horns from his fathers frame for us to use as patches. There was a bit of damage done to the frame from the rear axle pounding on the bumpstop. Probably after the shocks gave up. It needed some careful coercion to bring it back in line. Next up was removing the stock front crossmember and installing the best "A" crossmember we had. To make it fit well we added a slice of 1/4" stock and redrilled a few holes to line up with the 32 stuff. We leveled up the frame and decided that the stock rear shocks were going back on so I plasma cut some 10 gauge CR and Court folded them up and spot welded the new gussets over the affected area. Shot has weld through primer on it. We did this to give a bit of corrosion protection because of the nice rust sandwich we just created. But we wanted it to look authentic. I should have done rivets, maybe later. Ok, now to some of the fun stuff. I drew these up before we even started working on the frame. Bolt in rear K-member legs. I have these available for $250.00 a pair and will fit if you have a flat floor.
You probably noticed the rear crossmember was removed already. So here is the first real modification we made to the frame, boxing plates. I intend on this being the only boxing to the whole frame for a truly authentic flavor and I can already hear you boxing Nazis pressing the reply thread to tell me how dangerous it will be with an unboxed frame... well my friends, you will just have to wait to see how I pull this off. I digress, boxing the rear frame section to provide a place to attach the Model A rear crossmember... T******* the A rear to fit in it's new home. Because I'm a newb to this sort of build I did it the only way I know how and that's to mock things up. This gave me the location and angle of the rear crossmember.. Gimme a sec and I will snap some more fresh pictures to show you the gussets Cort made up to support the crossmember and the engine trans mock-up!
I really like the added legs to the K-member....those are neat! Now this is just a quick observation from looking at the pics, but did you put the front crossmember with some (backwards leaning) angle to build in some caster? If not, you may have spring bind issues unless you run adjustable spring perches. Looks great so far!
Here we go, just took these and loaded them up. So that's where we are at for now. I am working on splitting the wishbone and making some bolt on gear for it right now. Why split the bone? Because that's what he wants and that is what he and his friends did back then.
OK...sound like you've got it figured out then. I'm not an expert, but I like to set my cars up on a rake so that the rear is higher than the front, and that usually negates 3-4 degrees or so of the caster that is built into the crossmember. If the car is going to sit level, then it won't be a problem. As you said, 6 degrees is pretty close to 'just right.' Again, nice work so far!
Ok... Why the bolt in rear member ? This must not be hi-boy style with those bolts showing on the frame side rail i like it but the bolts are gonna be a hiccup showing ..????
It may or may not get fenders, that decision hasn't been made yet but if the bolts are exposed you know this is a real frame, not a repop. Besides, this is a tradional buildup and not a modern smoothie. I just knew someone would say something. If I had made them weld in, someone would have asked why not bolt it...
Nicely done LP. Last year I had some pics of my roadster up and people commented on the yellow ramps - same as on the truck in the background. Seems that several of them have collapsed in use. They'd probably be ok with a reinforcing bar or similar, but I quit using mine until I get them modified. Just out of curiosity, do you guys ever build Alston style tube frame drag cars?
Just use some ****on head cap screws and if you paint them the color of the frame you'll barely notice them. If you decide to put fenders on later............no drilling. Frank
did you model those crossmember pieces up in 'Inventor'? Neat build thus far, good to see. Cheers, Drewfus P.S. could you add a photo of your bench e-wheel to your photobucket page please?
Looks like a real piece of ****. J/K Looks great! You've got great skill and some good ideas! I'll be following this one!
I use www.alibre.com software. Pretty damn good stuff and you can get a basic version of it FREE! http://www.alibre.com/products/mechanical/alibre_cam_xpress.asp Yes, I said FREE. I use a paid up version that has a few more features and can do large number part ***emblies. Check it out. The E-wheel? You really don't want to see that close up. It really is a POS we tried to make functional. It's fine for small parts but I need to make better tool holders and more wheels.
okay like i said i like em and my running boards will hide the bolts my 3 window frame will be set kinda like yer doin .. waiting for the bxing drama now i'll shut up i was just reading about the open drive shaft conversion too so all is good.. keep posting so i can save the pics
Nice ...brings back memories of my frame oo !! Keep us posted, should be a nice ride when done !! Rat
The Jalopy Journal
