Dave here new to join but been checking out the site for months. Recently took the plunge in building my first rod and bought a 1929 model a roadster or cabriolet I should say. I'll post a picture of what I got and kind of what I want the stance to be. I don't know how to figure how much I should z my frame plus channel the body, or one or the other, I just don't know what's best. Thanks for any advice.
Sounds like your leaning toward building a rodent rod,if the attached photo is what you want to end up with. HRP
Well kind of. It's going to be a mix of styles kind of my own and whatever it is, it is. I don't want to require a tet**** shot to drive but it's also not going to be a 100k show car. A driver and a fun one at that.
What you have pictured is basically going to require a serious ch***is modifications or more likely a new purpose built ch***is and likely a channel on the body too. I wouldn't say it has to be a rat rod to be that low but it's not a typical lowboy build either. I believe there were some east coast cars that were channeled and pretty low like that.
Be careful channeling too much, you risk sitting on vs sitting in. Also watch scrub line. I like my stuff low, but for static drop you need to have some limits for reasonable drivability.
Well thank you all for they reply. That being said I will still be lowering it as much as I safely can and retain some of the look I want. I am obviously reinforcing my frame and I won't be putting air bags on. How do I calculate how much I'd like to kick up the rear of the frame? I won't be doing the front as I just want to use a drop axle. I feel as if I'm over thinking it haha.
height from ground to top of rear axle (with tire and wheel) plus 3"-4" for suspension travel minus height from ground to bottom of frame. Example: 16" (top of rear axle) + 4" travel minus 6" ride height = 14" Z
You have much to learn "gr***hopper" ! Just a dropped axle will not come close to matching the drop in the rear to duplicate the picture. You just got here, spend some time searching for homebuilt A frames out of square tube. Find a local guy that has a car you like & measure his stuff. Or get some tires the size you want, set the body on the floor at the height you want and engineer the frame to suit.
redo32 is exactly right. A frame with a Z such as my example -14"- with out a heavy z in the front also will point to the moon. You talk about taildragger! I built my 27T roadster to look like what you want. As Low as Possible. I love it. It has a 4" drop axle in front. 9" Z in front. 14" Z in rear. 4" ride height in front, about 5.5" in rear. There is 4" of suspension travel room front and rear. OT suspension, but handles like a slot car.
Haha young gr***hopper. Thanks for for the reply. That is a good idea. I am confident in my welding ability as I do it frequently and a buddy of mine who it's his profession. I'm just hesitant to take on fabing my own without a frame jig or no prior frame building experience. But I can see me the begger trying to be the chooser and I may have to sacrifice.
Actually you have a Sport Coupe body, seen a lot of them made into coupsters, they don't look right to me with the straight up windshield posts. Anyway good luck with your build.
The Jalopy Journal
