Hot Rods "What I did over winter vacation" (Roadster Chassis Rebuild)

Yes, what I call winter vacation...
I normally run a plow truck but with the inclimate weather this winter I found myself out of work, broke, and bored... a horrible combination when you know your hotrod is broken...

Back in October, Halloween to be exact, a nice 60 degree day invited my roadster to cruise to my friend Larrys garage for a burger...
Upon leaving, Larry challenged me to burnout on his newly paved driveway...
Challenge Accepted!!

Weeelll, the ride home was a little more squirrely than usual and upon inspection the innevitable was finally visible and a little scary! The split wishbones had split again and not in a good way! A "band aid" fix at best had let go. It was now time to fix it right...



Bent and Broken!


A couple other HAMBer buddies were over at my shop and started talking about "doing it right". The plan came together in about 5 minutes and the next day the body was off, all the measurements were noted, and the cutting tools came out in force!
The amount of intrepidation I felt was immeasureable and I was having "naked at school" anxiety dreams the first few nights!

The body braced up and unbolted:


Fail Exposed!:


Now it was clear that I had alot of work ahead of me, but with the support of all involved, and the help of "a coupe" and "51box", the work started at a feverish pace!

Wishbones, rear end, driveshaft, panhard bar, and coilovers removed (along with all the wiring and lines and e brakes blah blah...)


Time to say by to the rear crossmember! I caught my shins three times before I flagged the cutoff ends!!

 

Looks like you're off to a good start. So what will the new set up be?

 

Ha! I know the feeling..

I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

 

I still have mixed feelings about buying parts from another HAMBer and friend "pompadour"...
I wanted to see his coupe come together so badly but his life had taken a turn towards fatherhood and family. But hey, I think the parts have found a new home! Thanks, Matt!

Pompadour had a 3:73 posi mustang rear end set up for spring behind axle with Pete and Jakes ladder bars and shackle hangers. That got picked up and cleaned up and diss***embled to swap out the brakes and baking plates. The spring plates were relocated and cleaned up.





What a MESS!!

 

Looks great Bill....so is that where you are right now ??? If so you better get wrenching Man. Got my motor in for the last time over the weekend. (I hope)

 

Looks like a good start...and hey! watch your shins on them stubs!

 

It was time to turn the corner and start getting the parts I needed. A good uncut crossmember came from Dr.Bob of the Sin Alley Saints.Thanks, Bob!
On one nice day I had the extra time to radius the buggy spring ends and Im glad I did! The main leaf was cracked pretty good right in the middle!
A quick call to "BlockBuster" made a sweet main leaf arrive at my shop that evening! Awesome!~thanks, Bob!

(I thought I had pictures for this segment, but I dont...)

The ch***is was then relocated for re***embly. The tape measure got a workout and things started to get straightened out...literally...this car had alignment problems that you read about in "WOW Magazine"!







Time to start adding some stock!



That guy "51box" adding a pipe notch to the frame extensions for a little more clearance!

 

So this is where the magic happens!!...
All mocked up, locked in and ready to weld...

It was like watching a prize fighter walk into the ring...
The shop door opened, he walked in...
He flung his grungy carhartt workcoat into his corner, nodded silently in acknowledgement of his friends...
The only words muttered were "all set?"
A nod of confirmation from the gathered crowd of three and the sparks were flying...

(at this point I was in awe and the camera was in my jacket pocket)

The dust and smoke cleared, the hood of the carhartt covered the New Welter Weight Champion of the Worlds head as he left the building in a triumphant jog!

Wow, I was impressed! Thank you to 30Apickup for the welding, Rob, You Rule!






WOOOO DOGGY!

 

Nice to have helpful friends. Looking great keep up the good work!

 

At this point the ch***is made it back to "Slick Willy Customs" for a fresh coat of paint and some re-re-re***embly









I had to do a little reworking with the brake lines and got creative...


I thought I scored a set of P&J shocks from General Gow but after mounting the lower shock mounts it was decided they needed to be swapped out, but this is where they are going!!

 

Double WOW Slick. You look well on yer way !!!

 

While the body was still off and in the barn I took the rear rumble seat riser pan out to rework it!



Everything was looking good so I took advantage of my family being here for Easter Sunday and had the men carry the body back to the garage and placed it "over" the ch***is.
I still needed to cut out the subrails to clear the frame rails and wanted to get it as close as possible...which I did.



I then resupported the subrails with some square tubing and welded them in solid as Sears! I also reworked the floor pan, cutting it for clearance and hammering out a new flange all aroung so that it remained at the stock height!

 

As 51box likes to say, I love my do-dads and gadgets!
My intentions are to get this car to go straight without shaking my fillings out and take it on longer road trips. So that being said, I had to do something with the cowl mounts and the lower seat cushion. Being a custom frame the mounts were never added. Now they are there.
As for the seat a pack of chair webbing and a jigsaw got it done. Comfy and sitting pretty!





For a little more peace of mind I added a sweet tachometer I got from "moose" and a speedometer to match the other gauges. Im working on retrofiting the speedo to be electric~more on that later...

 

And here is how its sitting now!
So much lower than before!
I gained three inches of rear axle travel, the confidence of an engineered rear suspension, better gearing in a posi rear, comfort, and stability.



I still need to make up the exhaust. Thats the major thing left. Small stuff like an oil change and tune should be done in a couple days. Shocks soon and speedo soon. I know Im behind schedule but I dont care. The weather hasnt been great yet.

I cant give enough thanks to all you guys that helped me out, even though a couple of you wanted nothing to do (publicly) with my disaster!

Hopefully it will be cruising in a week and I will have some "finished" pictures.
Ive got some artsy ones to download and will see how those look.

For now I just need to clean up a little!

 

Looking good Bill! Even the Solo cup air cleaners match!

 

Thanks, Brett! Im almost there!
My allergies have been kicking my ***, so I came in a wrote the thread on this ****py evening. I was going to wait till I was doing burnouts again but oh well...

 

Thanks, Scott! It sounds funny when you forget to take them off first!

 

looks great

 

Looks great! I'll be doing the same with a customers "A" coupe here in the very near future.

 

Great job Bill.I am impressed!

 

It must feel good to fix all the stuff that's been bugging you. We've been doing that on Brett's car. It's the stuff that no one else would notice.

 

I noticed it for too long! Im kinda giddy like a kid whos getting a new baseball glove! Yes, its 3 in the morning, they just announced they caught the guy in the manhunt going on a half mile from my house!

 

Whoa. Freaky..

 

Looking great! I would love to see a picture of the whole dash.

 

Bill that looks great!

 

Pretty common occurance around here living downtown and all, but still freaks ya out a bit when it happens.

 

Ive got a handful of out buildings and and a few project cars that would make great hiding spots...needless to say I didnt check those when I got home at 1am!

 

Its stock for the most part. Im running the stock tank. I might get creative next winter with the body...
this was how it looked back in the fall.

 

I love those steering wheels!!! Wouldn't change a thing! Heck, you'll be having too much fun driving it now that you've got the ch***is all tuned up to mess with it!! Nice Job!

 

Thanks everybody! Might have some pics outside with it this weekend!