fatman fab. vs. rod factory for my 54

Waltons Fabrication in Upland Ca, has a nice one, thats where I bought my motor mounts... but I think you could make your own and save yourself some money...not much to it really...

 

yea i planned on building the trans x member up in the frame a bit. Also making my own motor mounts because then they would have to be higher. But I have seen cars lay nice with waltons stuff.

 

Well let me know if you need any help or have any questions, just pm me...good luck..

 

Thanks for the info. I'll let ya know.

 

I put a Fatman in my 54 and have had no problems with it, went cross country with it last summer and it rode great.

 

Yes installed 1 in my 36 with there 2 inch drop crossmember and 2 inch drop spindles, and 1 in my 52 F1 truck, Absolutely no problems, dont bother with the delux crossmember though, they need a lot more pre paint prep. The quality of the welds on the econo crossmember are worth showing. you do need to weld in the lower wishbone support tubes to the Speedway unit, there done for you on the TCI

Also installed the TCI version in a buddies 35, rides like a new car..

wouldnt touch a fat man dont like how there crossmember mounts on the underside of the rails only, the others spread the load into the depth of the frame with more weld area.

 

That's one of my beefs too. That, and the FM c/m is 5/16" wall. You're welding that to something that is between 1/8" and 3/16" on most cars. Kinda like trying to weld the hull of a battleship to a gum wrapper.

Attaching the c/m to both the horizontal and vertical planes of the frame rails drastically increases the torsional rigidity of the frame.

I looked at the TCI piece, and it is nicely done (as far as I can tell), but it still mounts the inner pivot of the lower A-arms too far below the frame. You have to use dropped spindles to get the car low ("driver low" for coil springs), but then the bottom of the crossmember is at or below the bottom of your 15" rims. So now you have scrubline issues.

A lot of companies also play a little too much with the distance between the upper arm pivot and the lower arm pivot in the name of ease-of-installation or ease-of-manufacture. This messes up the geometry and creates other issues.

On my last car, I used a stock Ford MII c/m. Major pain to install, but if I can't find a better solution, I might do it again on the car I'm building.

 

How are your welding skills I see alot of bad welding on here ?
Ch***is engineering makes some really nice bolt in front end kits.. Pat

 

I have installed several Rod Factory kits with zero problems.

 

I worked for Rod Factory for 8 years of my life and I did the initial design of the crossmember kit back in 1989. The "Slam" kit is one of my ideas used on my 1946 Ford that the owner decided was a good idea.

I cannot vouch for current designs or quality in the last 15 years since I left but Rod Factory has been around since 1975 and still kicking with the original owner.

As a function of design, welding dissimilar thickness materials always poses a problem. That problem increaces with a less skilled welder. Knowing that most OE frames are made from 11 gauge high carbon steel, very similar to Cold Rolled. I can only think of one manufacter that uses material even close to this. Next you need to support your frame rail from twisting, you have anywhere between 1000 to 5000+ pounds of torque from the spring trying to twist the frame. You don't have to be an engineer to know what those loads can do to a shoddy install.

think

 

Has anyone used Progressive? Corvette based kits?
http://www.progressiveautomotive.com/street.htm
http://www.progressiveautomotive.com/sweet.htm

 

like El P, I also worked for the rod factory, only more recently. there are some products there which I would not recomend, however the MII crossmembers and components are high quality, and at a good price. My only issue for you would be your desire to run airbags. The kit offered by the rod factory leaves much to be desired if you are looking for a complete quality airbag kit. they use airlift, and nobody now working there has ever worked on an air ride vehicle, so they will not be of much help beyond sending you the parts you specify.

 

I was looking at those recently. I like how they tell you the measurement of where the spindle will be in relation to the bottom of the frame rail. I haven't ruled Progressive out, but I'd definitely hafta save up longer to get to their price.

 

I am a Fatman guy. Have not installed bags on their front end yet as the fronts have sat lower the rear when I got done installing. (my 53 wagon had the ultra low crossmember and dropped spindles. it was low). My 48 dodge sits so low I am probably going to have to take the dropped spindles off to raise it some. (with bags, I will fit ground before bottoming the bags out ( it may lay while sitting on a 2x4)

 

so you mean their airbags aren't as good of quality as there other kits, because of the airbags they use? as I suspected I was going to hear pros and cons to both kits, but thats why I started this thread, so keep um comin' fellas

 

I should be okay on the bag set-up itself cuz i've done a couple times in the past, but I guess it would help if a co. knew what they were selling.

 

Listen to ElP. He knows his ****.

 

anyone have pics of a rod factory clip installed?

 

Worse comes to worse do it the cool lowbudget way!!.. I thought this way pretty cool, my friends 54' was done like this by his local shop and he was happy with it.. anyone else ever done it this way ???..
here's the link: http://www.lowridermagazine.com/tech/0603lrm_cheap_air_bag_suspension/index.html

-Anthony

 

I also worked for Rod Factory about 14 years ago (!) and when El P did the first slammer kit, on his 46 (possibly the first "rat rod" resurgant car) that car drove excellent. El P is the man regarding ch***is.
-this message paid for by the El Polacko for President Campaign.

 

we use fatman here, 1, they put up with all my stupid question,

2. i see(fatman( them at shows , never see the guys from az (to good to come east or???)

3. the best thing about fatman , which i hated at first was there handbook the made me read before i ordered a frame , to me there hand book made start to think about what i reaaly wanted before i ordered, and they built it, and now noregrets or wish i hada done this

4. they buy ems parts

 

I went down to no limit engineering the other day, outlaw52 told me about em. I seen there parts being made, and they also had a 54 chevy ch***is with the crossmember welded in. Looks like good stuff, plus there right up the street. I may go with them, cool people too. Anyone ever run one of their clips?

 

what kind of arrogant BS is this, seriously

 

This was a great thread. What ever happened?