I'm building a frame up hot rod of a 1956 Ford F-100 P/U riding on a 1985 C4 Corvette suspension. I haven't yet decided on the powerplant. I have my main build log on codeblooded.com, but I thought I'd post some photos over here showing my progress. I originally tried to cut these frame parts out by hand using a template and my plasma cutter. I wasn't happy with the results. This time I drew the F100 frame in TurboCAD and sent the file off to a local steel company to have the parts cut out with their laser cutter. I'm much happier with the results.
Cab Mount Bracket: I'm not comfortable with my drafting skills to try to produce the cab mount as 1 piece, so I made it up as a weldable kit.
very nice ! we are doing an aluminum 32 frame and also had everything lazered and are triangular gusseting the inside just as you are before we box it !
Rear Cab Bracket I made 3 versions of this one. A weldable kit, a full version. The full version I wasn't sure I could get the bends just right to line up the body mount hole, so I made one that I'd bend up and just drill the body mount hole.
Once you have the c-channel shape and add the triangular gusseting (or truss structure as I was calling it), how did you attach the boxing plate to the gusseting? Or did you not worry about this? On my frame, I drilled 1/4 inch holes that follow along the triangular shape, that way I can weld the boxing plate to the c-channel as well as to the internal gussets. I'll post a picture of that later.
Rear Frame Section Here I welded the rear frame section to the front section via a "fishmouth" intersection. Using the running board bracket holes I measure for length and diagonally to ensure I'm lined up straight, and tack the two pieces together before moving on to the top and bottom pieces as well as a bit more gussets. One "finished" frame rail. I haven't welded the perimeter yet. I'm going to wait until I get it into the ch***is jig with the support crossmembers to help prevent it from warping from the welding.
Frame Template Not sure these pictures will come out well at 800x600, but what I've done is I traced out the frame onto a sheet a 1/4 plywood. Center punched a bunch of the holes, and took measurements from the tracing that I could reproduce in TurboCAD.
Previous Progress: Here's some photos from where I was in August. I had reached the point where the next step was to weld the front crossmember to the frame but I just wasn't happy with the frame I built. It was bent and I just couldn't get it to shape up. I just don't have the skills I guess to straighten the frame I built. It took me a couple of months of just staring at it before finally deciding to build a new frame. This time I was going to laser cut the parts. Frame Rails C4 Corvette Rear end Rear End Jig Front Crossmember Jig Front Crossmember Rear End The project as it sits now. I'm going to keep it as a driver for as long as possible.
Over the weekend I finished tacking up the 2nd frame rail. My brother came to the shop to visit and while he was there he helped move the old frame out of the jig and moved the new frame rails into place. Here's a few pictures showing the progress. This coming weekend I'll need to make some more frame jigs for the ch***is table. I'm going to make one that bolts to the front bumper mounts, the rear bumper mounts and the two running board mounts. I'm hoping that gives me enough points to keep the frame from warping as I weld it up.
The Jalopy Journal
