'34 Ford Pickup Build

I'm not 100% sure. I have talked to Koz in a week or two and I keep meaning on stopping up there to check on the progress. I may just pop in one day to see how its going.

I was hoping he was going to get some pics up on some of the stuff he has been working on

 

Very cool build... was never into trucks very much, but this one looks Awesome!

 

He probably has no time to post pics... it has been great weather here in Pa lately. If I was lucky enough to have that truck, I would be out cruising and not on her either.

 

Virtually ready to head out. The most time has been spent on building and odd set of concealed flamethrowers which are way out of my comfort range and pulling the time away from other projects to do the gritty details. I probably have four or five days in this setup now. I needed to reroute the exhaust under the rear of the bed in order to make the spec for the NOS spray nozzles and relocate the Flowmasters to get the required 24" of atomization before the fuel charge hits the ignition source. Unlike most of these setups this one operates on its own fuel source pickup from the fuel tank with the electronics behind the seat and the entire system hard lined until it turns to AN off the frame and into the NOS fogger system. The dual coils are mounted off the frame with a removable set of tails when the system is to be used. I also needed to shield all of this due to the substantial amount of electronics that drive the audio system. The power amps alone take up an area of about 18"x 52" in the bed floor which is conditioned with electronic fans and ported cooling chambers. The entire ***embly is shielded through an active grounding system that will keep the noise out of the audio which would be generated by both the hot ignition, the control system and coils which are mounted underneath the dash in another shielded area,and the electronics which control and power the flamethrowers.

There's a lot more than just some braided ground straps going on here. In addition when we decided to do this the frame was already finished and I needed to rework the frame to relocate the rear track bar and still maintain my roll center. This truck has a pretty sophisticated suspension that is well engineered to make this thing handle pretty damn much like a glorified sprint car. What makes all of this difficult is the truck is built like the engine compartment of a Lexus. There is no room for anything! Everything is set up to just clear and work in harmony with everything else. Everything is on isolation pads and everything moves where it needs to move and stay where it needs to stay. Too bad I don't have a lift where I could take some pics of the underside. From up top it just looks like a somewhat typical street pickup. The engineering on this one is incredible, more like something you might see from El Polacko than the local RR crowd. This one is a real sleeper, not particularly from a performance standpoint, (it will be no slouch!), but from the fact it will drive and handle more like a road car on the highway. This has to be the most sophisticated setup in the tightest package I've ever built. In addition it sets right on PA scrubline with no bags and has 5 1/8" road clearance in a super low truck. Everything from the frame to the pedals was drafted out and template before fabrication and a bunch of stuff is very cutting edge to do so.

This came from a truck that was supposed to be a Rat Rod a year ago and the vision of a couple of guys who saw better. I make no apologies for the amount of effort that went into it. It is well worth it. I can't get any good detail shots with my El Cheapo camera. Hopefully Kess will be up over the weekend and can shoot some stuff that will post up nicely.

If anybody wants to have a look, the shops open. Just give me a heads up to make sure I'm here.

To answer above, I stillneed to work out some mechanical linkage problems to run the 2x4 of the hard rodded pedal and still clear the electronics under the dash along with filling the bodily fluids. The real test will be when the engine fires for the first time. Hopefully all is well and the roller cam does what we think it will. I trust Comp Cams to put us in the right place. This is one well built Chevy and the five speed in back of it should be able to take all it can put out. I also need to fab the new shift handle which is also a "one off" for this truck. One other thing is to make up a second set of wires for the rear with slugs welded in to take the abuse of burnouts which Kess has mandated.

Oh well back at it!

 

I've gotten' a couple bit of correspondence concerning the ch***is on this and the stance and frame details. I can maybe answer here for everyone rather than individually.

The ch***is is not a rectangular tubing frame. It was plotted and sheared and braked with the appropriate tapers of 10 ga. P&O. To get the truck this low and still get travel/clearance for everything along with the proper geometry for the road every suspension point and attachment had to be laid out before fabrication. The ch***is from the outside looks like a set of stamped rails rather than a fabrication for this reason. The front crossmember looks like the typical buy out but is a one off torsion box that drops the front end and addition 1 5/8" while maintaining the torsional strength of a deeper piece. The center of the frame is ghost channeled under the truck and maintains it's torsional stability with a combination of a "shear wall" crossmember that runs across the truck and picks up both the trans mount and a driveshaft loop as well. There are no fishplates or gussets of any kind on the outside of the frame they are all put in, along with all threaded attachment plates and the like, before the frame was boxed.

Because the footwells extend to the bottom of the frame there is no room for a K member so the shear wall works in conjunction with the structural floor of the cab which is designed to be in essence a 4ft. square X member. To transfer loads from the top of the frame to the bottom of the frame rail, the floor bolts through the top rail, through 7/8"x.156 DOM. tube spreaders into weld bungs on the bottom rail. When the critical bolts are in the frame and cab, floor, and frame are tied together, the top and bottom rails are put in tension to in essence become a monoque ch***is.

As the drivetrain sits beside your legs, it was prudent to both have an intregal driveshaft loop in the frame and some structural panels surrounding the trans/ 'bell, just in case! Remember, this is a roller cammed small block capable of some serious RPM with a steel flywheel and a stick trans. This setup will contain a grenade trans and the worst of a shredded clutch. I would have preferred a full clutch can but there was just no room. Everything on the truck works to serve multi purposes and integrate with the related systems. As weight was very much a factor, everything is worked out to do it's job without resorting to heavy plates or overkill. Just good forethought and planning.

The cowl becomes part of this structure as well because one of the requirements was that nothing be on the firewall. To do this the pedals, which are of the Ansen swing style, work through a series of bellcranks to a forward facing MC and clutch cylinder which sets beside the engine and just inside the frame behind the Vega box. Super trick! Once again, to use every inch and keep the truck from setting any higher.

I hope I answered the questions. Just post or PM if I missed something.


As to the electrical system. This truck uses a 200A. alternator. To isolate the audio system from the rest of the electrical work we needed to keep our electrically dirty power separated from our "clean power", (devoid of RF). To do this we use two ground systems, ( or more correctly, return legs). On most cars the frame/body is used as a return so you only have one wire to each device, the device being "grounded" to the car. On this one we use this return system to power the lights and the exciter coils on the alternator. The alternator has a dedicated ground that feeds the second system which is for the audio. With any luck this will take any noise out of the system.

Kess is doing the audio. I am just supplying the power and "facilities" in the truck to accommodate it. The truck has treaded inserts in the audio bay to take every piece of this equiptment. This is no afterthought. There is shielded chasework between the audio bay and the cab so that the coax and speaker lines can have a clean environment to work in.

I want to stress this is no street rod. There are no provisions for air conditioning or lawn chair hangers, It is a hot rod throughout. He just wants good tunes and a good runner on the road. This truck will not only rip *** but be reasonably comfortable on the way to the shore as well.

 

What ever happened with this? Any updates?

 

Hey Koz, what ever became of this build? I enjoy your build threads, down to earth good stuff, lots to learn.

 

Nice truck!