Fordor A Sedan Subframe Replacement Progress-Chops done, now bye bye wood!!

Well I got the chop about done, so time to move on to the subframe(or lack of). The Fordors have a complete wooden subframe, and all four doors are also wood framed. I am replacing all the wood in the car with steel, as the complete subframe is missing, and the door frames are pretty tired. It will be a bit time consuming but the end result will be worth it.

I built a plywood floor set at rid height, and screwed the body down to the plywood. Now the body cannot move, and is totally square. I also tack welded some angle iron braces to the rear section to keep it in shape.

Now I am starting at the back of the car and building new rear door-jams from 1x3 box tubing. I wanted the new jams to offer sliding adjustment for the rear doors, instead of one fixed position, so I built cage nuts and drilled and tapped them to the door hinge pattern. I then inserted the cage nuts into the new door jam.

In my new door jam I drilled the door hinge bolt pattern in 3/8" holes to allow lots of adjustment. Lastly I tack welded angle iron inside the new box tubing door jam to limit the cage nuts movement and prevent them from getting lost in the jam when the door is unbolted.

After clamping each door in place on the car with the hinges bolted to the new door jam, I tacked the new jams into the car, removed the doors and finished welding the new jams in. Both rear doors are now done, and swing perfectly, and have a ton of adjustability.

Next I will form a piece of tubing to go from one rear door jam to the other rear jam along the inside of the roof to tie the rear door jams together. As I work my way forward the entire new subframe I build will be tied in, so the car body will remain nice and strong. Even with the car being channeled and low, the rear doors still open half way.

Heres some progress pics, sorry for the long-winded confusing description-a writer I ain'tI'll post pics as I complete the subframe as I go

 

BICHIN
that thing is commin along real nice!

 

Maybe next time I come down to port charlotte to see the mother -inlaw. I can come check it out in person.

 

Oh yeah!

Duane

 

Thanks a bunch guys! Yeah Grinder, let me know with a few days notice or so, it'd be great to have you come by and check out my projects and bs a little. It kinda ****s here in the respect that I have ZERO friends or people that are even into cars, yet alone traditions rods. I try to explain to them what I'm doing and get the "blank-stare" hehe

 

i know the "blank stare" by heart... and also the always popular "why do you buy all old parts? dont they make this stuff out of polished aluminum like on American Fartrod?"

 

Yeah I seem to get that look alot too-so I don't bother to try to explain to my friends anymore what I am doing. Or why I bought that rusty old part. Thank god for the hamb, other people with the same sickness hehe.

 

Well a few update pics, nothing major. My visor came today, so I hadta mock it up to get an idea of what it'd look like with the roof set on, heres some pics

 

Gonna be a helluva C-Dan

 

that is a pretty rock n' roll 4 door man....

 

Let me ask a dumb question . If you channel that car that far wich would be totaly *****in will the back doors be usable or will the tires be in the way ? I thinking of snagging a fordor for the family thing.

 

Hey thanks again for the support guys! fastfrankie I'll post a pic of about how far the rear doors will open on mine. It will open about half way before it hits the tire. I just couldn't bring myself to weld the rear doors shut, I like the way they're suicided too. Heres a pic for you:

 

Dodgerrodder, please keep me posted on the progress cause I just bought one of these today ( I posted pics) I want to see what you do in the floor and subframe. Thanks

 

you know you could find some wheel wells to weld in and have them overlap the bottom rear door area thus making the back/bottom of the door rounded then the door would clear the tire,not have a random cut threw it, and still be your 4 door

looks good btw
tim

 

Totally awesome!

Hey, how did you know how wide to set the doors?

My '29 Murray 4-dr has almost no wood left and I have nothing to go by, just a big gaping space where the floor wood is supposed to be.

 

That rules.Keep us post on your progress.

 

Oh cool man, its great to see some fordor interest going on, love to see some pics. I've got a great plan for the subframe to incorporate my cowl steering, I'll keep you posted for sure. The floor/subframe will be pretty straight-forward the way I'm going. A little time consuming but worth it

 

Tim thats a cool idea, very do-able for sure. All my back doors will access is the huge kick-up hehe

 

[QUOTE='29MurrayTub]Totally awesome!

Hey, how did you know how wide to set the doors?

My '29 Murray 4-dr has almost no wood left and I have nothing to go by, just a big gaping space where the floor wood is supposed to be.[/QUOTE]

Mine was exactly the same way, no floor, no subframe. Thats why I built the plywood base. With it I was able to fasten the entire body to it once it was square and symetrical, so it will not move while I build the subframe. A 4x8 sheet of plywood fits the length and width of the body PERFECTLY. I built a frame work of 2x6's and with cross supports and screwed the plywood to the frame. I drew sharpie lines every 2" across the plywood, along with a center-line. Now checking measurements to make the body square is simple

 

Got about another week before Im ready for mockup and the 29reo will be posted for your opinion. Didnt forget ya , hope ya like the results when its up.

 

Very cool, definitely post up pics, I wanna see em'! I love getting a car all mocked up for the first time

 

Well I'm still at it, good god I can't wait til the wood is gone hehe. I'm making good progress though.

I finished fabbing the new front door jams with more formed box tubing and got it welded in, so now the front & rear door jams are DONE.

Next I made up the new inner support for the pillar between the doors. That was kind of a pain, but it came out real good, and will be strong. The picture of the support on top of the bench is whats inside the pillar. The inner support is done, but I can't weld it to the pillar itself until I get my bearclaw latches and strikers.

I started welding up the basis for the subrails themselves. They are only sitting there for now, but its coming together, and it will be so much stronger then the wood bs, which most of was gone on mine.

So I'll keep going, hopefully within a couple weeks the subframe will be done, and the doors will be re-framed in steel(I'm really starting to hate wood...) and the body will again be rigid so I can start building the frame. Heres some progress pics

 

Any idea as to how much more the body will weigh by replacing the wood with steel? I'm building a closed cab '29 truck with extended quarter panels ('29 Ford Super cab!) and using steel in place of the wood.

 

i'd be willing to guess that using thinwall tubing will add very little weight over the original wood when finished... maybe another 25-30 pounds, but thats a guess

wood aint all that light

 

That sounds like a great project, love to see pics! It will gain some weight for sure. Like Fiddy said its thin wall(1/8") tubing, but it adds up. I'll have a pretty good idea soon as I progress, as I will have a total of all materials used, as well as a chart that shows the weight of the sticks of box tubing. Body should weigh about 5,783 lbs but it'll be strong and NOT rot

 

thanks for this post!

could you post more detailed pictures of the backside of ther door jambs where the sliding captured nut trick happens, I can't picture it, but it soulnds like a good solution. It is important to be able to adjust doors later without removing all of the upholstery panels just to get back there and hold the nuts in place.

Also, more photos of the curved frame pieces before you weld them in the car so we can see how you are achieving the curves.

I have been collecting wood replacement posts for the last year or so gathering info for my 35.

 

Nice progress, keep us posted.

 

holy WOW!!!

you sure about that fifty seven hundred pound finished body weight???

it might be just me, but i dont see how that c-dan can be that heavy... my '54s total curb weight stock is a tad over 3500 from what i can remember...

PTL, as for a captured nut, thats pretty easy...
first cut a slot just oversize of the door bolt you are going to use in the doorjamb, then take a small piece of sheet metal, bend it unto a long "U" shape that is as close to the size of the backing nut you are using, hold the nut on the back side of the jamb by threading a bolt into it, then tac the piece of tin onto the jamb, and tac a piece over the bottom of the u channel to keep the nut from falling out the bottom, and there ya go

never done it myself, but have seen it and seems like a pretty straight forward process for adjustability good luck!

 

Nice work!
Excellent pictures!

I didn't realize these were narrower than 4-ft at the bottom. That 4'x8' plywood is ideal. I've been trying all week to make it to the lumber yard for my 4x8 floor jig.

 

Hehe that was my sarcastic side coming out about the 5,some lbs. Thats the idea of the adjustable door plate though. I used a piece of 3/8" plate cut to the size of the hinge, and drilled and tapped it for the bolt pattern of the hinges. I then drilled oversized holes(about 3/8") in the door jam plate where the hinge rests. It allows the door plenty of adjustment in all directions then.