Small update. Got the new perch piece welded together, I was hoping I had done enough math to just bend the sides down and weld them up, but apparently I need to use different angles next time... but its ok, it's only metal. CUT IT UP! flip and place. much better. then all that's left is welding it together. now you can compare with earlier pictures, the axle/spring is mocked up in the same place, only the perch has moved. I have a great little plate I made to weld into the top side of the perch, but I'm waiting on some acorn nuts I ordered from Fastenal. I searched all through town, nobody had 7/16 acorns. (except ACE had stainless ones they wanted $11 apiece for, I got 4 of them from Fastenal for less than that) So that will wait till monday. In the meantime I may see about pulling the frame apart this weekend to build the rear kickup.
Not much progress to report, but I did get it up on four wheels to roll it out of the shop. The shorter perch worked to get he front end off the ground. (still waiting on those pesky acorn nuts) I also had some time to mock up the idea for the rear hairpin mount. the bottom hole is too small and in the wrong place, so it will need to be filled/drilled just like the front batwings. It's hard to tell, but the setup here is a heim joint with a high clearance spacer on each side, and in double shear with two brackets. This combined with a panhard bar to control side to side motion, should be a pretty bulletproof solution. Obviously that cross member will be moved forward to where the hairpins will mount. I didn't take the frame apart, cause I was busy this weekend finalizing my frame table to weld it on . its bolted down and leveled, next I just have to put together the stringers for the top. stay tuned! .
It's looking like the easiest way will be similar to my T roadster, behind the radiator. Haha if I put the seat that far back and down, you wouldn't be able to see over the cowl! Believe me, seating has been thought of since the beginning, in part, because Dillon wants to do a healthy chop. T coupes have much more height than T roadsters, and much more legroom front to back. The top of the framerails as they sit, are even with the top of the factory subrails, and will allow him to set the seat on the floor of the car, as far back as you would want to. Without standing the seat back up at a 90 degree angle, you'll never get into the space occupied by these little short hairpins.
Finally back on this project, after a bunch of debacles getting parts and material, and a taking a roadtrip to Arizona. I started getting my head back into the space, by spending a night just sorting the stuff I needed to do out. Once I had the ideas laid out, I started laying them out in tube. I’m going to try and cut the tubing for the rear kickup so that I can just bend the top edge and weld three sides. And that’s when my plasma cutter blew threw its last electrode on another “quick project” on Friday afternoon. So I had to order the electrodes, and they should be here today. With that, I had to move on from the rear, and decided to clean up and fully weld the front crossmember so I could cut the top plate into it once I got my plasma cutter back. I got It smoothed out pretty nice. Having gotten settled in at my welding table, I decided to weld up the rear spring perch that Dillion bought from Bob bleed. I’m not a fan of round tube crossmembers, or adjustable perches, but this is a nice piece, and will give us the ability to tune the rear ride height, at least until we get the car finished. And I was able to lay some pretty good beads on it. Altogether mocked up, ready to get welded the rest of the way around. I should get some more time this week to finish welding it up, and move back to the rear kickup when my plasma consumable's come. .
Well, this is a little delayed, most of this was done last weekend, but It turned out nice. As soon as I got my plasma cutter setup and running again, I notched out the top of the front crossmember for the plate I built last time. I set it up, and leveled it to the rest of the crossmember, then v’d it out and welded it in. Once I had it welded in, I stuck the spring on it, and then found I needed to notch the top corners of the crossmember to clear the spring at full droop. Then I stuck it on the chassis and marked out the piece I needed to notch out of the framerails. All together it fit nicely, and I was able to stretch the spring out and bolt it into place. I’ve been working this week on getting some heat into the shop, and last night I got it pretty sorted. So, I should be able to get back onto this thing soon. Next up, Kickup! .
So are you implying that I should build a standard long t bucket chassis with the same front bulldog perch that thousands of cars already have? Cause .... NO. .
Had a couple hours to stick in the earplugs, and get to work. I didn't take any pictures cause I was trying to knock stuff out. but when the sparks dwindled, I had two rear framerail sections. I spent... longer than I want to think about, getting the two sides aligned and the same angle. (I also thought it would be a good idea to smooth and grind the pieces while I had them off the chassis.) but when I jigged the back of the rails, and they both fell into place, It was worth it. at this point, I can start tacking stuff together in the back, and start getting the rear perch figured out. I've been measuring, and we are really close to the decklid where the spring is sitting. hopefully we can get it snuck under there. Worse comes to worse I can ditch the adjustable perch and make a nice low-profile mount for the rear spring. we'll have to see. .
Had another few minutes in the shop last night, picking away at the frame I made sure the rear sections were still square, level, and plumb, and I made some tacks to keep them there. I then started playing around with shocks, I tried the shocks dillion had brought, but at 12" fully compressed, and 19" extended, they were gonna stick out like a trophy truck, so I went to my pile of in-stock parts, and found a short speedway shock (10 compressed, 15 extended) fit much better. I also laid out a panhard bar, and started plotting shock mounts, and where other crossmembers will go. Not the pretty part of building hot rods, but it is necessary. .
Well I cranked the heat in the shop, and started sorting the rear suspension. I've been putting of the filling and re-drilling of the rear hairpin mounts, so I grabbed a bolt to use as filler, and melted it in. I tried to keep the weld off the side I was drilling on, and mostly succeeded, I managed to use all of one bolt for all four mounts, it was a perfect bolt, it had a long shank, and messed up threads. by the end I had a pretty smooth setup, I smacked it into the hole, flush with the face, welded that side, cut off the rest of the bolt, then ground it flat and welded that side. I then drilled them all out, one after the other, through all the drillbits, ending with a step bit for a nice chamfer. and within an hour or so, four correct brackets. I then spent a bunch of time reorganizing the frame table so it the brackets would fit. I also moved the crossmember forward and trimmed it, to land at the front of the hairpins. Now I just had to measure for the tabs I needed to make. So armed with that, I drew a doodle on some scrap 3/16 plate, cut a nice bracket, drilled it out.... Too short. So I remade them. I plasma cut the rough shape, used my nice too short bracket to mark the hole, and then drilled them the same way I did the axle brackets. Another home-fab-tech-tip, I got a bolt with the right size shank, and tightened all of the tabs together, squared them up, and tightened them into the vice. I then ground them down all together with my angle grinder, sneaking up on it, so all of them match. then you pull them out, and viola! four identical tabs ready for rounding over. hopefully I can knock some more out tonight and maybe start welding stuff in. .
I've got two or three, but it would really work best on my belt grinder... . . But it has a bad bearing... So angle grinder it was. I find it easier to stick them in the vice and grind them flat that way.
Man I think right now the golden ticket in life would be a good bearing catalog with all the dimensions in it.
Man don't I wish these were what I needed. The ones I made are 3/16 plate, about 2 ½" wide and with a 5/8 hole in them. Believe me, I looked for an easier option. Unfortunately, even with a set like that, I would still have to clean them up. . like this! I got a little time last night to knock out some work after Christmas eve with the family. After grinding and sanding the tabs down, I mocked them up, and tacked them in. I also looked at some extra bracing, based off the offcuts from the frame Z and once I had the front mounts squared away, I could put together the rear axle mounts, and tack them in place too. I set the rearend at 4 degrees up on the pinion, just so I could mock it up, and once I put tires and wheels on it, and get it at ride height, then I can figure out the correct angle. I'm aiming for around 3 up. and here's the whole shebang, mocked up and ready for more bracing. I'm gonna add gussets that fit in between the double shear brackets on the crossmember, and give it more lateral strength. They will also help keep the brackets from sucking in as I weld them. . . More next time! .
Always like seeing stuff in double sheer. Think you’ll fish plate where the Z in the frame is? chassis is looking nice Joey.
Yeah those tabs used to be cheaper but even at 13 bucks for 5, thats alot of time saved. I really need to get me a little plasma table....
Thanks, I'm trying to make this thing pretty bulletproof, but I don't think I'll need to fishplate it, it's welded 2-3 passes, 360 degrees around a 3/16 thick tube, so I think it's good. Yeah definitely, I have probably 3+ hours in just those 6 tabs from plate to finished and welded in. I'd love to have some specific tabs made, so get on that. .
Got some time last night, tacked the front crossmember in, and checked a bunch of other parts, also mocked up an engine/trans in the chassis. I worked on getting a round tube crossmember for the rear trans mount, and getting a mount built up, but no pictures of that yet. .
Ok, probably boring you guys to death at this point, but this post will have some good stuff in it! Dillion showed up last Saturday, with a few parts and the rear wheels, so we could mock up the ride height and get an idea of the looks. The rear wheels are a set of 15x8 American Racing wheels, with a set of Towel City slicks on them. we did some testing with me and dillion on the front of the car, (480ish pounds) and determined that I am going to modify the front crossmember for 1 more inch of ride height. In the below photo we simulated the ride height, by looping a ratchet strap around the crossmember, and pulling the suspension down to the table. we talked about a bunch of finer details, I tried to convince him that the T crossmember I had would suit the chassis much better than his adjustable perch (due to the kickup height, it more than likely would wind up through the decklid!) I also broke the news, that I didn't think the steering was gonna work behind the rad, due to the spring behind setup, the arms (and the fore-aft swing room needed) would be extremely long, and impractical. he agreed to let me address the issues with the front steer setup, and set if I could make it look better. (we'll see if it makes a difference) first order of business, pull my ackerman line and check WHERE I can put the arms. I had previously determined that I could sneak the arms to the outside of the chevy spindle, and get a solid line to the rearend. I found that I could still stay on that line with them bent down, so the tie rod should generally disappear into the same visual line as the axle. Once I'm done with the rest of the frame, I'll grind all the sharp edges off the arms, and clean the paint off the tie rod, so I can make it look closer to a polished or chrome unit. should look as good as it can. Moving rearward, I tore out and moved the trans crossmember back a few inches, and started a trans mount to the front. (gussets yet to come) not bad for a grinder and a flap disc. I went ahead last night and welded the driveshaft hoops on, and tacked the other tubes in place. alot of it will get Tig welded together, but I've found the hoops have a coating that my tig welder doesn't like. (yes, even if you grind it down) so with that, the chassis is getting much closer to done! I sent dillion with a cardboard template for the motor mounts, hopefully his guy can cut those out and get them back to me soon. . till next time!
@BigJoeArt Please keep them coming. I don't clutter your thread with "Love it" but I'm following along closely. Question, how tall are the slicks? Side question, the front hoop isn't for the 'shaft. Tunnel? Will it allow the trans to be pulled back far enough to clear the input shaft/bellhousing for servicing?
The Jalopy Journal
