I hate to be the one to put the fly in the ointment, but the only time that you would want to weld a steering hairpin together (arrow) is if you want to die young and leave a "Cool" memory. Second fly. Quarter eliptic suspension systems have been tried on rods before but are almost never kept for very long. The mounting brackets tend to twist (circle with arrow), metal fatigue, and break and/or the area where the bracket is welded to the frame, (second arrow) tends to metal fatigue and break. Another potential for a crash and burn. Just something to think about before the build gets too far along. pigpen
Beautiful little modified you have going together there! I see a familiar looking orange and cream modified under cover in the background...I think I know you Ron. I don't know if you remember but you drove up to me a couple years ago at Bonneville and asked something like "whach'a reading loner", I said "a book"...you caught me off guard. I was reading the book above. Kinda fits with the one man roadster theme. -Jeff
Pigpen....Why can't you weld a steering arm? They come welded from speedway and the rest of the manufactures. Clark
if you can't weld you probably should'nt but if you know what your doing i don't see a problem with it. alot of people do THINK they can weld but less REALy understand the process.
The speedway hairpin has the tapered bung welded to the rod that the hairpin is made from; the rod itself is not pieced together. Any time you weld/heat/cool a piece of steel, you take the chance of changing the hardness, possibly making it brittle, thereby more susceptible to metal fatigue and failure. I myself would think twice about even using the speedway hairpin. I like the flame cut design better but it still bolts to the spindle, which is another problem area. If it screws on, it can screw off! I like to use the original forged Ford spindles and a crosslink setup, like a stock '35-'48 steering system. Bulletproof. pigpen
As I've read through this thread, I can't help but ask...I met a pinstripper years ago from St. Louis named RottonRon... great style...excellent work...you the same guy? J.
Pigpen sorry I sorta disagree with you. Sure it's not the best thing in the world to do but it can be done and done safely. When i have extended these arms I put a gusset in the middle to add strength. I'm sure Ron will too. I agree with KB this isn't a job for novice welders. Steering is very important especially at highway speeds. Clark
Those are very valid concerns pigpen. As far as the welding goes, that's been addressed by others here, so I won't comment. As far as the stress concerns, I think that problem can be minimized by using a swivel shackle like the one that posies sells. They should relieve a lot of the twist in the spring.http://www.posiesrodsandcustoms.com/category/posies-product-releases/ BTW, rottonron, are you my evil twin? roddinron
I wasn't talking about that type of twist. As the quarter eliptic spring works up and down, it tends to twist the mounting bracket and the part of the frame rail that it's welded to, fore and aft in an arc, because it has no second half of the spring, to mount to a second point on the frame, to relieve the rotational stress. Quarter eliptics have to have extremely beefy mount points to hold up. I have never seen the quarter eliptic suspension system used on a factory car, only hot rods that are looking for extreme lowness and looks. It's simply a bad design. pigpen
[. I have never seen the quarter eliptic suspension system used on a factory car, only hot rods that are looking for extreme lowness and looks. It's simply a bad design. pigpen [/quote] Oh contrare---A H Sprite
ya gotta show more pics of the BAT..... from the start....and details..the clutch on one side of the trany and the offset brake cylinder...maybe a hand throtle? wow..lots work.. very cool....keep the pics coming.
Nice build so far Chev used quarter elliptic on their cars up to '24 in '25 they changed to parallel leaf suspension. Willys Overland also used a quarter elliptic setup.
Just awsome, Ron! Yer a true inspiration to us lazy nogoods ta git back out there and do some grindin' and ****.
as mentioned there where examples of quarter elliptics on factory cars in the early days. i'm not saying it's the "best" design out there but it can and will hold up if properly designed and built. i would'nt go as far as to say that you'd get 250,000 miles out of it before it needed some "maintenance" but i think it is perfectly suitable for small light weight rods such as this. ...but hey. if you want to be extra cautious and not run such a suspension on your ride then by all means, don't.
I've seen 1/4 'lip-tics mounted inside the ch***is rails (completely boxed in) for secure mounting. I just can't remember whether it was on an 'old' old rod/racer or a 'repro', if you will? With any side forces applied to the axle (front or rear axle) 1/4 springs mounted similairly to Ron's would tend to twist around their centre line axis. Not the perfect suspension arrangement, Ford/GM/ et al still haven't found that, but if competently installed should be safe and useable. As for the steering 'loop' welding? Ron's arrangement seems to be at a particularly stressful steering linkage position for welding. Not that I'm saying Ron isn't a top notch welder fabricator either. The work obviously isn't finished yet! If that's tubing being used for the steering arm it should be internally plugged with solid bar stock and plug welded for maximum security. If it's solid bar being used then gusset plating is a must to provide top strength. I think if I were to go for the 'hooped' steering arm arrangement I'd want it 'fabbed' from a single length of very heavy duty circular bar stock with gusseting for added strength. I don't profess to be an expert here, just exercising a little common & caution. Koops.....
The new owner has about 3000 miles on this set up and said it rides great,handles like a go cart. Fred
My background is in military jet aircraft. One of my functions was that of quality ***urance inspector. A couple things that you learn when you mess with jets: Murphy's law will always prevail, and "There's no such thing as being too cautious". I let my guard down once on the flight deck of the Kitty Hawk, and almost got ****ed down the intake of an A7. I owe my *** to a cautious safety observer. Did you know that when someone gets ****ed down a jet that they bury the whole engine. Not many large body parts left, just some slimy stuff on the rotor blades. pigpen
The grill is a37 chevy ( I think) cut,narrowed etc .I,m going to braise abr*** welding rod grill. add more bronzy flavor to windshield and bronze gas cap . I like the Zero (Jap bike builder) look! He mixes materials for The Aged is good effect! The spring mounting plates arebraced internally and gusseted underneath. I,m not going to drive cross country ! This is for crusing Wendover ,Utah ! I built this so I don,t go crazy I like the challenge and the history of the one man modified Great examples Bo Jones, Steve Grimes (columbus), Dayton Wire Wheels ad etc.ART ! Speedway Museum has a couple great examples of the real thing! I,m going to use an ansencross-flow head with an Isky cam I think ??
AWESOME Ron. i too LOVE the ZERO Chopper style. i've been trying to infuse a little of that style into my BSA build and my little brother's 29 Ford (2man) modified build.
That is bad***. Now I just gotta find a few big hoods and start cutting and welding. Right? Once again, great job.
That is a work of Art. Man the creativity to see body parts in other objects is amazing. That is waaaay too cool.
The McMullen 32,Hot Rod Magazine test bed for many years used quarter elliptical springs for rear suspension.That car was as cool a traditonal rods as ever was built.After all the hammering that that car went thru the rear susspension stayed the same. They could of used any combo that they wanted, it being the magazines test bed.What worked then should work now.
Thanks! I never knew that about the McMullen car, now I'll have to search for a photo of that setup. For what it's worth just about every Bugatti built used quater elliptical rear springs, sorry for the poor GP car photo. I'll shoot some photos later today of a 1923 Overland that had them on all four corners.
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