Could those who have put a 30-31 coupe body on a deuse frame post some pictures of the rear area? lots of info on the front channel area but would like to see how others modified the frame ano/or rear subframe to mate the body and frame. Thanks TIm
Here are a couple of pics on mine. It's not finished(obviously),however that may help. I could take more if you'd like. I don't know how it's all going to play out, I just started cutting every thing that got in the way. Woody
These are some pics that Kennedy sent me of his car. I said I would post them for him. I think it looks good. Perhaps we can get him to show us some more. Woody
I cut all the old subrails from the rear door post back out. I sat the rear of the body where I wanted it and built the new ones with 1x1 tubing and welded it to the original subrail at the door. I'm not to good at describing how to do stuff on here if anyone has any questions just ask. Kennedy
Here's the rear end setup. 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" rear crossmember with a 1/4" "wear" pad under the springs. If need be, a spacer can be installed to bring the body rear up a bit. I'm liking the transverse rear spring. Lots more tunability as far as changing ride height and spring rates than with a coilover. Coilovers are limited in their travel as well, so I expect this car to ride much better than my coilover 32. As far as the body install goes, lots of ways to do it. From pie cutting the lower cowl sides for a mini-channel up front to cutting and re-welding the 32 frame to take the upward 2 degree swoop near the cowl out of it so the flat A body sits flat on the now flat 32 frame. The pie-cut method looks good and is one of the better ways to do it. Imo removing the 32's stock front frame kickup takes a lot of personality out of the car and you've totally lost the effect of the 32's actual as well as visually perceived lower frame. The re-pro 32 frame rails and re-pro Model A crossmember are American Stamping and were initially set up with stock 32 measurements and only one frame measurement change as outlined below. For my car - a Brookville re-pro fwiw, but they are very accurate in following the sizes etc. of the stock A's - the frame rails upper and lower horizontal sections were cut with a hand hacksaw (it's easy), spread out 3/4" each side to match the inside of the wheel well, welded and gussets added then boxed. You can see where the cut goes as well as the small piece that has to be cut out of the wheel well proper. That allows the body to settle onto the frame with about a 3/8" mini channel and the body/frame gap minimized. The gap is still there, about 1/8" or less and you can't see it unless you get down on your hands and knees. Makes for a simple way to do it. The 3rd pic shows how the car looks today. 4th pic shows how the wheel well was cut so the body could drop the final 3/4" into position. The cut area needs to be finished in this pic and fwiw, the body is three thicknesses of sheet metal here. The last pic shows how the body fits on the stock 32 measurement un-pinched frame. The body is slid into place so it fits the frame very similarly to a 32 in this area. You can see that once the hood is on it will fit as it should. The front body mount is unfinished in this pic, it gets a gusset and some grinding for smoothness. Fwiw, 32's have a 106" wheelbase. My car has a 105" wheelbase. A stock 31 hood is 31 5/8" measured down the middle of the hood top. A stock 32 hood is 32" The hood on my car is 32 3/8" long. With the 4" firewall recess and a ChryCo mid 90's van's middle two passenger seat there is plenty of leg room, even for tall guys. There's also plenty of room to run double V-belts and a mechanical fan.
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