This is the start of my A frame. Hoping to one day land a coupe body to put on it, but whatever I can get my hands on will work. Following the how to build a traditional hot rod book as I've never done anything like this. The only exceptions I'm making is I am going with a suicide front end as my front cross member is pretty chewed and a dropped axle would take cash away from other parts that I need. I wanted to get the frame back close to factory so I could sit and chop it up. I've Z'd the rear of the frame and am hoping to pick up some metal to get that finished as well as a piece of pipe for the front end. Also going to price metal for boxing the rails in too. I've got a 331 hemi I plan on sticking in it as soon as I get the frame rolling (and get the motor going). Its not much right now, but it will be. Hopefully I can get some pictures up after I finish the Z and get the new crossmember in up front.
If you had cut that rear frame on the slant from rear top to front bottom you could have stepped it up and welded it in one shot. Now you have to make up all that plate jazz etc. Enjoy the build.
Like I said, going by the book and it suggested 4" back from the face of the crossmember so thats where I did it. If I had any clue as to what I was doing, I'd go for being creative but for now I will play it safe.
thats an interesting frame table you made there , looks like your work area is under a carport ? keep up the work you'll get there !
That had plants and gardening stuff on it, I liberated it for the build. The plants were dead anyway.
Got a top piece of angle steel welded in and a bottom piece on the other side. A lot more work that I thought, also purchashing a square made this a lot more easier. My welds aren't pretty but they work. Going to get the last of the pieces cut and welded in tomorrow. Also it looks like my rear crossmember was shortened, this wont cause any troubles when I go to mount a rear will it? As it looks like a hole on each side was cut in half. Going to also look into getting some steel to box it all in. What gauge should I be looking for?
you'll definitely need .125/ 1/8" steel for the boxing, also make sure you clean that steel very well before welding it helps for a better weld and penetration, no splatter,keep up the good work and can't wait for the progress shots
You might want to Vee the front bar. I did one straight worked fine until I tried to install 32 shell and grill. the grill bows out enough to hit the straight bar. I had to cut it out an make a new vee one. Looks better Too
Dude, I dont think, well I know....... Those welds are not going to hold. They didnt penetrate at all. Not clean, and not hot enough. Im not trying to piss you off, Im just trying to help. There was some welding like that on my A frame, I took it apart with a hammer, no joke. I think it would be a good idea to just tack it in place, then have an experienced welding shop weld it up. Otherwise its all for nothing, or worse if you kill yourself and take someone out with you. This kind of shit should be taken very serious. What you have there will not work.
Is that flux core wire? I wouldnt trust that weld to hold a bumper on let alone your springs. Not nit picking your work just trying to give you a heads up before you kill yourself.
To me they look like 120 volt mig flux core welds. Being a FNG I don't mean to beak off from the beginning, however that being said safety first....or somewhere in the top 3.
Good luck with your frame. I z'd my model a frame 6 inches up front and 9 inches in the rear, and boxed it all in. All i have left to do is make my new crossmembers.
Mikey502, I'd like to suggest that you grind the rust off back away from where the edge of the bead will be to minimize contamination and also will give you a reference whilst welding. Then practice/practice/practice WATCHING the puddle form, and stay with the puddle untill it fills instead of getting ahead of it. That way the metal ahead of the puddle will already be pre-heated when you get to it. You might try speeding up the wire a little, and pretend you are trying to poke the wire out the bottom of the puddle. Not literally, it's just a means to concentrate. Your flux-core machine will do just fine, but it looks like in the picture you are pushing the puddle. By the time you have finished with the boxing you will know what I'm talking about and then you will see what is wrong with the first couple of welds there. Never try a second pass without removing all of the smoke and slag. Do you know an experienced welder to look over your shoulder? That would get you on track quicker than by trial and error. Repeat after me, Watch the puddle, watch the puddle........................ until it fills up, overlapping little C's. CCCCCCCCCCCCC. If the C's don't blend in, leaving sharp little ridges along the way, it's too cold, slow down. I would also suggest to concentrate on penetration, and don't grind any weld off unless you are planning a second pass. In that case, grind it pretty deep, but narrow, more of a notch, than a flat surface. On that frame, the crown of the weld is 20% of the strength, I suggest you leave it on. You'll get the hang of it. Keep on keepin' on.
This is not a dig at you, but these other guys are right. Welds on frames and suspension components have to be 100% or people are going to die. Flux cored welders are not sufficient for welding a frame, needs to be a stick or mig.
The diff between Flux-core wire-feed and Inert-gas (MIG) wire-feed is nil. Just different way of shielding.
Exactly...We use flux core wire at work all the time for heavy plate...Mind you it's .045...Alot of guys try and push flux core and get slag intrusion...Flux core is more than enough to do a frame...It gets a bad rap because people try and weld in sheet metal with it...It can be done but isn't very pretty...Flux core in the right applications is great...I weld with it all the time at work... We even use flux core stainless quite a bit... Oh ya, just like the other guys said,clean metal and surface prep is a MUST!!!
As it is with anything, a bad rap sometimes is the result of transferring blame. With a bad weld, it's usually the doer, not the machine
You might check with your local school district to see if they offer community night classes. I took a welding class here in my town for very little money (something like $50 including supplies) I think it was six weeks one night a week, for three hours a session. learned the difference between welding rods, flux core vs gas, plasma cutter, oxy acetylene and got some serious practice time. I don't know that I could weld my way out of a paper bag even after taking the class, but it was sure helpfull in learning the basics. Please keep posting pics as you make progress. I'd love to see more of your build.
hey man,do you have any money????Ive got a deal for you[no joke]Ive got a all orginal 31 5 window[look at my album]the old man disasimbled it to restore it and health problems 10yrs ago made it impossible for him to finish it,anyway Ill sell you the car,a brand new frame,already stepped,pintched so you can channel the car,brackets and holes for body already in,and Ill throw in a miller mig machine,its a 110 unit but its perfect for you to learn on,your not far from me so Ill deliver it and [dont take this the wrong way]Ill spend some time showwing you some welding tips for ,are you ready for this deal[guys, this is to help my fla. bro out] 7800.00 firm If not interested,no harm,just offering,filling gracous tonite.
After about two days of trying to get the frame boxed in and getting the welds to hold and only have them break free, I got a lincoln stick welder and went back over everything I did. After all sorts of smashing with various implements I'm quite certain that the work I've done with the stick will work out. I can get some pics of the boxed in rails tomorrow.
Here is the frame boxed, sorry both rails aren't shown: Now my only problem is after looking at it, the drivers side rail is thrashed, it looks like it took a hit or something at the rear end and after following that forward, its twisted and that is what is causing the frame horn on that side to look crooked. I had originally thought that the horn had just been nerfed into something at one point but the more I looked at it I noticed that whole side is hosed over pretty well. I put a lot of work into that bastard too. Now I know what to look out for when/if I find another frame to start over with. Until then I have this one to go smash on with a hammer to take out my frustrations.
I've been wanting to do the same thing your doing for a while as I've never built anything from a bare frame before. My son has a friend that has a pair of stock (unmodifed) frames he wants $100 apiece for. I'll be looking at them this weekend & we'll take some pics if your interested in one. I'm located up in Deland so it's not so far if you want to meet half-ways or so.
I dont remember who, but someone on the hamb is building model A frames with a kick-up, or Z, what ever you want to call it, in the front and rear section. Looks to be good quality and strong. I think they are $800 bucks. I would go that route. It would save you tons of time and probably save your life. Found it, VAPHEAD. He sells them in the "parts for sale" classified section.
Poppaq thanks but I snagged another frame, it even has a body attached to it too! This one was a learning experience though. Wire welders didn't really work for what I was trying to do although they are great for sheet metal and tacking parts together. Stick welding is like using some sort of magic electrical wand that does all sorts of fantastic things to metal as far as making it stay together. Plus the arc is really cool sounding.
ever thought of using 2x3 tubing and then adding your crossmembers? Saves the time of boxing everything in and you would not have to worry about anything being bent.
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