I have been pretty busy recently making a fixture to reproduce stock '32 chassis for a customer, the plan is to run 3 chassis off to get the ball rolling. We started out with a nice original chassis which we had 3D scanned, to serve a couple of purposes 1- to ensure the chassis we start with is as good as we thought it was, and 2- to use the data to develop some additional parts the customer asked for. I shall add photos of this aspect of the build once we have our prototype dialled in. With the fixture finished, over the tail end of 2019 I got the first set of rails repaired in order to start the first build and learn my way around the job a little better. Everything on this job was a first for me, from building a fixture, to not knowing my way around the chassis to setting rivets. The first job was getting the rails looking decent before putting the chassis together with the nice original cross members. Its fair to say the original owner of these should step away from the grinder, drill and welder as they had made a right hash of modifying these to suit what ever they was building. Holes in the wrong places multiple times, hashing lumps out of the rear of the rails and managing to slightly cave the front sides of the rails in I guess when prying out the spring cut outs. 1 by joe curtis, on Flickr 3 by joe curtis, on Flickr 2 by joe curtis, on Flickr 6 by joe curtis, on Flickr 7 by joe curtis, on Flickr 9 by joe curtis, on Flickr 23 by joe curtis, on Flickr 4 by joe curtis, on Flickr 10 by joe curtis, on Flickr 11 by joe curtis, on Flickr 12 by joe curtis, on Flickr Once the rear flat sections were welded and blended, I took a template off of the stock chassis we have to get a condor of the arc in the rear of the rails. Both to mark the cut out and to roll and from the bottom section of the rail with out having to develop a blank size and room to suit. This way I can form the tape I need and cut down to suit each rail. 14 by joe curtis, on Flickr 13 by joe curtis, on Flickr 16 by joe curtis, on Flickr 15 by joe curtis, on Flickr 17 by joe curtis, on Flickr I left a good size gap to fill here, so I can clean the weld back opposed to grinding the new material back to form the radius to mimic the stock shape. I put a fillet in the rear of the rails to blend out there also. 18 by joe curtis, on Flickr 19 by joe curtis, on Flickr 20 by joe curtis, on Flickr 21 by joe curtis, on Flickr 24 by joe curtis, on Flickr
Onto the cross members, the stock rivet holes were welded and blended off, pilot drilled and ready to go into the fixture. I was a little back and forth to start with regarding the holes up which werent out of shape, in the end pretty much most stock holes got welded back up, I did how ever miss a couple in the K member which I had to measure out and drill from the rails into the member. Nothing to complex but just slows the process down if your having to try measure stuff out all the time. I shall ry and photograph these a little better next time. 1-2 by joe curtis, on Flickr 2-2 by joe curtis, on Flickr 5 by joe curtis, on Flickr
Loading the members into there machined sections on the fixture- everything is located on counter sunk bolts for repeatability and the best locations to start with. i stupidly didn't take many photos of the making of the idividual parts of the fixture so I shall grab some once the table is empty if anyones interetsed. 1 by joe curtis, on Flickr 9 by joe curtis, on Flickr 10 by joe curtis, on Flickr 4 by joe curtis, on Flickr 5 by joe curtis, on Flickr Setting the rivets with a X4 gun, and a simple jack assembly in the rear. Theres a real art to setting these, I was shocked how much the rivet can move when you start driving them in, plus how much material is needed on the stick out to form. When I do the next chassis I shall try and get a video of setting these now im a little more dialled in. The alloy block was swapped over to a steel lump, as the jack just gets pushed into the alloy, you have to get pretty inventive with chocking bits up in some places, and taking time to really nip these jacks out super tight. When you drive the rivet in the first time and the jack falls out its pretty soul destroying to set it all back up once the jack has cooled back down again. 7 by joe curtis, on Flickr 8 by joe curtis, on Flickr 9 by joe curtis, on Flickr
WIth the "easy" rivets set in the rear, I had to get a little inventive with tooling to drive the rivets that sit on the outside of the rails. The tooling can be used for all 3 positions and from side to side buy swapping the rivet seating bolt and the jacking bolts from side to side of the plate, plus the rivet seat bolt from hole to hole. Its a complete fuckery to get all of the blocks in place to jack off of the chassis whilst maintaining a decent seat on the rivet itself. 11 by joe curtis, on Flickr 10 by joe curtis, on Flickr 14 by joe curtis, on Flickr 20 by joe curtis, on Flickr 22 by joe curtis, on Flickr 17 by joe curtis, on Flickr Front and K member set with flush rivets, prior to flushing the tops off. The legs on the K to the chassis set with the smaller 1/4" rivets, these are great fun to blast in after seeing the bigger 5/16th rivets. Once set i simple drilled through the K to the rails to get the stock through holes, the customer wanted stock holes added for the front and rear shocks and fender mounts. 12 by joe curtis, on Flickr 3 by joe curtis, on Flickr 23 by joe curtis, on Flickr new 1 by joe curtis, on Flickr Finally the stock steering box location, taken off of the stock chassis I made the fixture around. Simple pilot drill jig from the plate to the chassis, before being unbolted from the table and drilled out to the correct size. 16 by joe curtis, on Flickr 18 by joe curtis, on Flickr 19 by joe curtis, on Flickr
Some final shots of the first chassis done, fixture and workshop related shots. 2 by joe curtis, on Flickr 7 by joe curtis, on Flickr 8 by joe curtis, on Flickr 6 by joe curtis, on Flickr new 5 by joe curtis, on Flickr 15 by joe curtis, on Flickr new 4 by joe curtis, on Flickr 14 by joe curtis, on Flickr
Looks killer. Did the rear of the rails draw in or move when the notch was repaired? Just wondering cause I have had em move when adding the notch even in a jig. Great work.
TopShelf craftsmanship, is that a Trump CN701 I spied in the background? I have one myself, sweet machines.
Your fab skills are outstanding! I wish you lived in Michigan, I will be following your thread, thanks for posting.
Thanx for posting, first class workmanship! Will you post a detailed procedure of the riveting process. Tom
Not at the rear no, I general over tack everything I do and move along in small stages. Im unsure if this general helps with a job like this but I take the same approach when making something from scratch too. The rails fitted into the fixture the same both before and after the repairs. One did, which I had to cut and move accordingly. I referenced from the fixture the top of the rail to the centre of the bolt holes for the shocks- from the original chassis onto the new rails. Which set my positions to clamp everything up to the fixture before setting the second time. good eyes fellow machine pervert! this is how ever a PELS asg-3, basically the same thing though. thans for the kind words Tom, I have finished the second chassis and have taken a more detailed approach to my set up, and riveting progress. there shall be a new update in a couple hours once I finish writing it all up. I hope this helps you in your projects. There is a short video to come at some stage in the coming weeks also so please check back. the coupe is my own project so that naturally takes a back shelf, will be starting with rust repair before moving onto a roof chop. I shall post a build thread for that once I get there. thanks for the interest. not in these chassis no, it is something we are wanting to expand to, to try make the chassis as original as possible. I created my user many many years ago when I was heavily into my painting. Metal took over at some stage, I really should message an admin to see if I can have my name changed thanks, know one likes a half finished job, or to get cut when installing parts. You clearly have a very good eye for details Sir Massive thank you to all that have posted kind messages, thanks Joe
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