Projects Midnight Special: 1935 Chevy with a Hemi

That’s greatly appreciated, once I get to finishing off the cab frame you might be hearing from me!

Haha, Sometimes the truth hurts!

 

With my cab in storage mode, the next step for me was to pull my motor from my side yard and get it torn apart. I’d been wanting to do this for 15+ years. The #8 cylinder had a little water get in at some point so I had to break out the torch to get a couple of the flywheel bolts out since getting a wrench to them was impossible. But once the bell housing was off and I got her on the stand the rest of the motor came apart in 1 night. A week or two later I loaded up the block and heads and dropped em off at the machine shop. One mistake I made during disassembly was not keeping my lifters in order, novice error, which ultimately doesn’t matter as I got a roller cam/lifters from my guru, but a heads up for future reference, keep everything in order and labeled accordingly!

 

Next I wanted to get my rear end narrowed and ready for mock-up so I could start working on my frame. I had a ford 8.8 that my Dad had also given me long ago, so I dragged it out and knocked off all the mounts and cleaned up some of the excess metal on the pumpkin. After cutting out a 3in section from the drivers side, I machined a 1/4 sleeve for the inside, was told this was not necessary, but it gives me piece of mind. Thankfully I did have someone point out that it might not allow oil to get to the outer bearing, so I cut a slot through the bottom side and welded it back up so now there is a channel for oil to flow through and problem solved. In hindsight I probably should have made the sleeve 1/8th thick to avoid this issue altogether.

 

I had initially bought a speedway model A style axle ‘kit’ (don’t do this, you’re better off just piecing it together, trust me) and after reading some horror stories about Chinese cast axles breaking, especially ones with the holes like mine, I decided a couple hundred bucks for a original Ford forged axle was money well spent. So I hit up Andrew Koehler and had him make me a 4in dropped model A axle, and after a little paint and some assembly I was finally ready to get my measurements to start fabricating my frame.

 

Finally, time to build my frame. Thankfully since chevy rails are nice and straight I lined them up and tacked them together to be sure when I was making my cuts it would be symmetrical, and a nice easy way to make sure angles and height adjustments are accurate. Based off of my front end measurements and some research I assumed a 2 inch drop at ride height. Also by researching other pre made frames, I decided to raise the front 5in and raise the rear 7in.
The first cuts I made to sweep the front end I made a couple inches too far forward and man it was so ugly, I didn’t even take a picture I hated it so much. Long story long, after a good bit of researching I discovered that the best looking swept rails in my opinion start at the firewall, so I undid what was done and re did my cuts in the right place and it already looked better. Then did a few underside cuts to get the front end back down and ended up right on the money, 5in over stock.

 

Now onto the back. Cut-weld-grind-repeat. There was also a small kink from where the factory formed the front taper in the rails that bugged the hell out of me so 2 cuts laters I had a nice smooth radius. Starting to look like something!

 

With my rails basic shape complete, it was time to for my next favorite reason for utilizing stock rails, hidden fish plates. Once I had those cut and welded I moved onto making my boxing plates

 

Great job and craftsmanship .... real Hot Rodding ....

 

Nice work on all the cab framing and also on the frame rails. The end result should be a nice solid unflexible cab. Nice to see the old Dodge Hemi being used.

 

Thank you, I consider that a grand compliment!

Thank you! Hoping to keep this lil dodge around for a long long time, and you will be hearing from me soon, I need a set of your latches!

 

Now it was time to mount my cross members. First I put my factory rear cross member in the back since it had 8+ rivet holes that I could match up on the rails and fill with weld. Out front I lined up my cross member where I could still use a stock hood, and made sure I had enough room to use a mechanical fan and tacked it, then once I made sure my frame was square and level it got a full weld. Then I tacked all my boxing plates in place and spent quite a few nights making 3 inch welds bouncing all around so it wouldn’t warp, filling unnecessary frame holes at the same time. Then lots of grinding later I have my nicely boxed frame. I then cut a notch in the front for spring clearance. *bonus photo* We had a killer monsoon season that year and I never realized the dirt had been built up past the foundation in the back of my shop, so one night I came out after a big rain and found 1/2” of water on my floor, that was a fun day.

 

Time for a motor update: since family comes first I had plenty on the honey-do list and family life that made the inital frame construction process take 6-8 months. During that time I had been collecting motor parts as funds would allow. Have to give a huge shoutout to my good friend Kenneth Jack of Hemi’s Unlimited, him and my dad were good friends so I’ve known him since I was a youngster. He helped me source a lot of parts for this build like my 10.5:1 race tech pistons, my timing gear/chain, harmonic balancer, my roller cam and lifters, fuel pump, oil pump, pushrods, and more, the rest I got from Hot Heads.

**Fun fact, My dad, Mike McLeod, was actually the founder of Hot Heads and my parents ran the business out of our house and designed most of the aluminum parts they sell today (valve covers, alternator and ac brackets, trans adapters, intakes, and of course the heads, the list goes on) back in ‘95, then made the mistake of selling the business to the walkers in ‘98**

Once I got my motor back from the machine shop I gave it a paint job to keep anything from rusting, and had also got my valve covers back from chrome so I had to set it all together and get a glimpse of what was going to be moving my little truck down the road.

 

mmmmm ...... Hemi .....

 

Dang that's some great fab work you've done, but your I beam axle crossmember sure looks like a 32 Ford. Either or it's a good choice, it's what I have on my 33 5 window Chevy coupe. Will love to see your pick-up finished.

 

Yup you’re absolutely right. It’s been so long since I ordered it I forgot, I just knew my I beam is from a 30 model A so my brain lumped em together. Good catch!

 

That copper gold color on your Hemi looks great!

 

Some familiar names. Digging the truck so far looking forward to seeing it come along !

 

Thank you! I’ve always loved orange motors, but wanted something a little different, VHT color options did not disappoint.

Thank you!

 

With the frame looking like a blank canvas it was time to set on the body and drop in the motor, being a one man operation having a 2 post lift helps immensely. Once the body was set where I wanted it I started reworking my hurst style motor mount. To be able to use a mechanical fuel pump (I love all things mechanical) I had to cut the sides from the mount and reverse them and add some reinforcement. Which cleared my fuel pump and also lowered my mounting surface to where it would keep my mounts tucked just inside the frame rail, an added bonus since I’m trying to keep the appearance as smooth and clean as I can

 

I made my own motor mounts, because why not, and when deciding motor placement I discovered that my favorite cars had the valve covers as close to the firewall as possible (some cars even notched them into the firewall, also cool.) So I centered everything up and made sure I had my crank angle set to 3.5 degrees to account for a slight future rake and tacked em in.

 

Nice work! What steering box are you planning to use?

 

I figured I’d made it this far why not give making my own headers a try, nothing crazy just some simple straight pipes, how hard could it be…turns out, pretty hard. I think I spent 3-4 nights playing around with different pipe angles and absolutely hating all of them. You’ll see the first 2 photos were some of the rejects. and when I finally thought I had it and cut the rest of the pieces, I had to change it again, 2 steps forward 3 steps back sometimes. Finally in pic #3 I found a height/angle that looked pleasing to me, and back to the cut-weld-grind routine. Thankfully The second side went together much faster. And lastly added some brace pieces so I don’t get any shaky pipes

 

Thank you! I’ll be using a Vega steering box, it stays fairly hidden and I love the look of a drag link and tie rod both running through the hair pins

 

To add some rigidity to the frame, I made a cross member to add in the frame at the rear of the cab which will double as a driveshaft loop. I made the top half of the loop from 1x1 and will add it into the cab frame. Then I built my transmission mount to match but made it removable. I made it to need a 3/8 spacer under the rubber mount in case one day I decide to increase the rake I have wiggle room to lower the transmission to keep the engine and pinion angle at 3 degrees. Also took a little work to clear space for the manual speedo cable, but I’m pleased with the end result.

 

Nice work on your truck...and good job jumping into the HAMB with both feet!

 

Super job on your chassis ,thought about using the ford crossmember and cross spring in mine as well , but going for the full fender and hood look and more conventional for me to bolt all the original tin back on .. My wife claimed the truck after I had the 401 nailhead in it , and sold her 64 Falcon to do so .Now has 230 pontiac overhead cam motor and 2004r trans.Will have power steering and brakes .. Got to get back to the shop!!!!
Did I mention I hate house reno's..

 

Many thanks!
I tend to dive head first into most endeavors, like one of my favorite Hunter S Thompson quotes, ‘Anything worth doing, is worth doing right.’

Happy wife Happy life! I’ll be excited to give my wife her first ride in a hot rod! And I love a well done full fendered truck, or car, but for my personal vehicle it has to be open wheel. And I hear you about the house Reno, I lost ~2 months of project time because my wife wanted (me) to repaint our kitchen cabinets.. never again.

 

Now for my rear end setup. I initially wanted to use a triangulated 4 link, but the one I had purchased would not fit without some serious modifications, so for a little easier installation I choose to use a parallel 4 link with a pan hard bar.
Once I had my rear end centered and squared in the frame I tacked a couple pieces of tubing to hold it in place while I got everything else lined up without fear of bumping it out of alignment. Pro-tip: use a couple hose clamps to keep your brackets tight against the axle housing but still moveable. I had to extend my pan hard mount so nothing would bind all the way through having it bottom out on the frame and still keep it parallel at ride height. In hindsight my shocks will probably bottom out before that happens so that may have been unnecessary.
Making the coil over mounts was a fun challenge. There wasn’t room for me to use a straight bar between the rails without it hitting the pumpkin if I mounted it in front of the coilovers, or I would need to make a vertical stand on each rail if I wanted the bar behind the coilovers. But that would also block the view of my pumpkin cover which I intend to pinstripe. So I came up with this angled design, which I had initially wanted to mount low but it made my shock angle far too extreme rendering them useless. After a little work on the lathe to make some bungs and cutting out some double shear gussets, I can say with confidence these coilovers aren’t going anywhere.
As always hindsight is a b*tch, and if I wanted to do it all over again I would make new frame mounts and axle mounts for the panhard to clean up the appearance. But, I’m not trying to win the riddler with this thing, and it’ll all be under a wood floor eventually so no one will see it anyway, and if it ain’t broke.. don’t fix it.

 

Upfront I finally set her down on the leaf spring and started lining up my hairpins. Cut and turned two more bungs to fit through the frame. Spent a few nights measuring and making marks and doing my best to make everything square and symmetrical. After drilling my initial 1/8 holes in the frame, I stuck a decent length of welding rod through each side, compared to a piece of tape run between each outside hole, this will show you if you have something way off before final cutting (I had drilled my inside holes too low at first and the rods angled way down towards the tape, second times the charm). Then using a hole saw I made some big holes and tacked in the bungs. I left myself a 1/4 of adjustment at the heim just in case, but from my measurements from axle to axle, my driver side to passenger side is less than 1/32” difference, that’ll work for me until I can get a professional alignment done.
We’re almost caught up to being current with this project so I still haven’t completed my front shock mounts but all that’s left on those is boxing the top half and getting them tacked on the frame

 

With the hairpins finally mounted I could move onto getting my steering set up. I had purchased a Vega steering box a while back because I like the hidden/clean aspect of it, and the reduced risk of bump steer that I had read about with using cowl steering setups. I had to modify the mount it came with as it was made to be used with nuts and bolts, but I don’t have room to get a nut behind it anywhere so I cut down the mounts and welded on some flange nuts. Got it tacked in the frame just behind my motor mount which worked out so very nicely (AKA, I got really lucky). I know the drag link should be as close to parallel with the tie rod, but I couldn’t go any further forward and I cannot see how that slight angle I have could cause any issue. I had also bought a set of headers a while ago that I want to use to make a ‘road trip’ exhaust that’ll dump out the back, clears them too!