41-48 Original MII Crossmember Installation

In the mid 1980's I installed a stock Muatang II crossmember in my 39 Deluxe Ford. This was done after I had driven the car about 10 years. I did not want to tear the car apart, I had access to a frame machine, so the body shop forman and I installed the crossmember on a weekend. Mind you the engine was in the car, all we did was to pull the denders and hood off of the car. This was way too much work. I liked the results, but would not use one even on a first time build. The 42 Chevy I am building I used a kit from JW Rod garage. The kit went in very easily, I was impressed with it.

 

My frame is pretty stout on the bottom. I just set up a basic bracket with a gusset. Should be on the road pretty soon!

 

What's a frame machine?

 

I would suggest that EOD is not a career path for you.....

 

Think of it as a fixture that you can put a car on, to repair a frame or make pulls on the body to repair it from an accident. There are many different type of frame machines, so this will give you a general idea.

 

Kind of like a giant rotisserie?

 

Rotisserie's are fixtures that allow you to turn the vehicle; which I haven't seen that feature on frame machines.

Here are some images of frame machines:
https://www.google.com/search?q="fr...lM4XAigKyzYCwDA&ved=0CE0QsAQ&biw=1098&bih=687

Look at a frame machine (or rack) as a place you can drive (or place) a car/truck on to repair frame of body damage. Once the vehicle is on the machine, then it is tied down; which allows you to make pulls on damaged areas to correct misalignment conditions.

 

Wow, that's pretty cool! I've never heard of anything like that before.

 

Does anybody have any advice on installing stock mustang II disc brake calipers? They are way different from GM calipers, I'm looking at all the pieces scratching my head. I have gotten as far as placing the calipers in place, but I'm not sure how it locks in place.

 

I'm just going to sell the original MII brakes and buy GM calipers with 11 rotors, and make it easy on myself. Also, I ended up with fender well headers to clear the steering.

 

Very wise move on the brakes!

 

A frame machine is used to straighten frame damage caused by accidents. I used it because I needed to modify the frame to accept the Mustang II crossmember. Like I said, I would never do that again, way too much work