Folks that know me know that I'm not a negative person. In fact I go out of my way to see the good in everything and everybody. However, I do have my limits. When something threatens the life of folks I have to draw the line. This visually apealling car HAD a chassis that was a piece of SHIT. It was not built by the owner, but rather a small shop in Bracken, Tx. Like so many others that got screwed by this shop, here is another horrible example of this place's work. To make this positive, I thought I show a few pics of the No-no's so that others don't make these life threatening mistakes. First a picture of the car. It is a fantastic interpretation of Big Daddy Roth's "Jewel" from the 60's. The styling was on point so that will stay the same, but the chassis was a piece of SHIT.
The car was built with Merc Flathead and 3-speed OD tranny. Looking underneath, the first thing you notice is that the pitman arm is way below the scrub-line. You don't want anything below the scrub line, but have a steering or brake component under the scrub line IS the definition of a DEATH TRAP. It should be written in Webster that way.
So rolling the car from one bay to the other bay, I turned the wheel all the way left and guess what???? The steering box fell on the ground. I know some of you are saying, he must not have used grade 8 bolts, or he must have forgotten to tighten up the bolts. I wish that was the case......the fricken welds on the steering box mounts broke away from the painted frame!!!!!! If you can't weld, DO NOT weld anything as critical as steering or brake components. Find someone who can do this for you. If this car had ever been driven, it would have certainly ended in death. If you look closely at the pic with the motor mount, you can see where the box mount was attached. You can also see the boxing plates pulling apart from the frame. Either zero weld penetration, or he grounded all of the weld away or both.
In fact when I blow the picture up I notice the cotter key that someone did slip in there has a poor excuse of a bend to it - heck they never bothered to even "splay" the ends of that cotter key.I wonder what other mysteries are in that car? Gary 4T950 Chevy Guy
Holy Moly Batman! They should rename that shop "The little shop of horrors" "If you can't kill youirself we can" Gary 4T950 Chevy Guy
This has to be one of the most eye opening posts in a long time, proof that even though the person has a shop (professional). Does not mean they are at all good at their job, or should be trusted...sight unseen. I am glad there are enough good shops that care more about the customer, then the customers wallet. I would really like more info on the shop that did the poor work, and hopefully the hamb can get the word spread to be weary of shops like this. Thanks for the post on this...makes me sick. Just like the hack tattoo shops here in parts of texas...
So crawling under the rear of the car, I noticed that the tranny is two inches off center to the driver side. Why off center the engine and tranny to the drivers side. I'd never seen that before. Well, it turns out that the engine was centered in the front, but the trany was not. Why you ask? Well the passenger side header was up against the frame. So he moved the tailshaft to the left to give that header some room. He even had to build a custom tranny mount to make that clever idea work. Clever?? NOT!! You have to look close at this pic since I shot it from the left. Look at the distance between the ladder bar bolts and you can see the offset.
That's insane. The scrub line thing I could see, but the steering box broke completely off the frame? Unreal. And such a pretty car too, the thing looks fantastic. Did the shop that did the chassis do the rest of the car? I'd be surprised if they did.
And you can see he still didn't get the header clearance he wanted.....followed by the neat all steel tranny mount that gave the offset. Hmmm....all steel tranny mount and rubber engine mounts. It won't take long for the bubblegum welds to break.
my helper welds better then the crappy beads that i can see and i dont let him weld anything that is important
A guy doing Tech inspections on roll cages in Race Cars once told me " A nice looking weld might be a bad weld, A crappy looking weld is ALWAYS a bad weld..."
I'm glad that steering box came off when you were just rolling it around.. That could have been a real serious situation... Some guy's honestly shouldn't be doing his stuff.. They don't realise that when they drive thier creation's, or sell them to someone else who might not have the knowledge, they are basically playing fate..someone could get hurt or killed..
And take a look at the rear suspension....you thing this will ever work? And by the way, the spring mounts on the rear are bubblegum welded to the former parrallel leafspring pads. I've never seen that trick before. Oh, and the heated springs....you mean we still do that? And by the way, at ride height, the frame IS resting on the rear end.
This is the last negative post. I could go on and on, but I don't want to chew up too much bandwidth. This is what not to do to a set of pedals....especially when they are the rare and expensive '39 ford pedals. Yet another way to die. The pedals had been heated and bent...which is ok if done properly. They were also cut and butt welded back together....again with bubble gum welds. I know I'd snap 'em off in no time. And check out the clutch linkage. The weakest link is a 1/4" bolt that is butt welded to a piece of flat stock.....and it was set up to push the clutch???? Man-o-man...not to mention the custom fab'd frame mount.
This car belongs to friend of mine. He's a great car guy and it pisses me off that he was burned like this. When you see this car again, pat him on the back for enduring this trauma and bringing this car to life the right way. We are building a new chassis for the car and hopefully we'll have it ready for the Roundup. The next time you see the car it will be a real "Jewel". Stay tuned for progress pics....but until then, here's a teaser.
Dang, Reggie...those pictures make my eyeballs hurt. You deserve a pat on the back as well for helping out your buddy and potentially saving his life by not letting him drive in a car with that chassis. PS...it was good to see you at Big Ric's.
Wow, and he paid for this?? Edit: Not that I meant he was dumb to do so, but I mean like a "professional" did this work? By the way, if that commerical shell hanging on the wall starts bothering you, send it on up here
You should post a pic of the split wishbone job they did, that sounded like some scary shit when you were talking about it. Even the worst guy in my class at Wyotech 6 years ago did 100 times better than that shit. How'd that front tire hold up on the ride home this weekend?
Bass/Rodney, it was good seeing you guys too. I made it back with no problem. Man were there a lot of deer out. I drove about 25 miles at 40 mph thinking that one would dart out at any minute.
So, Are you going to tell us who was the creator of this fabulous POS ? I think you owe it to the people on this board and everyone else who might be lurking to put the name out in the public realm. Who knows, you just might save a life. At the least you'll keep someone from throwing away their money. Frank
How about this: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61018&&showall=1 and this: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74940&&showall=1
Bad welds? Bracken? Stole rides from Rik? Is his hair kinda greazy? I may know this dude! If Im not mistaken, your friend was at a serious disadvantage on this one? Wasn't he actually living out of state? The work probably looked great from his house.
that Sedan along with the original 2 versions of the Lil jewel (red and green) have been inspiration for my sedan. Glad to see it will finally get on the road thanks for sharing what not to do.
In this day and age with all the technical resources and pictures to look at for how things are done right could any one cobble up a piece of shit and pedal it out to the public? I am glad you and your friend found all of this before the first ride. I hope the other unknowing customers find the problems before they find them. You should take that pedal assembly down to the shop it came from and throw it through the front window. Maybe it will hit someone inside.
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