I have been collecting a little while now, but today was the day that I started the actual build. A good buddy of mine found the body for sale in New York and was nice enough to be the go between as well as crating up the body and shipping it out to me. Thanks Nate! Here is how it looked the day I received it... (the subtitle to this pic should be... Some assembly required!") Since then, I have collected all the parts for a rolling chassis. I am using a dropped I beam with hairpins up front and a Ford 8" rear end, also with hairpins. I am also going to be using the Unisteer cross steer rack and pinion. I am going to be running Firestone wide whites on steelies from Universal Vintage Tire. I have a 331 ci Chrysler Hemi engine for it, but the car will first be built with a Chevy smallblock until I can afford to rebuild the Hemi. So today started with some time laying out some cut lines and then some pie cuts to taper the front rail. Once it was tapered I tacked on the frame horn. Then I had to make it's sister rail. After measuring out the distance that I wanted between the firewall and radiator shell, I laid out the lines for the front Z. I was able to get one of the Z's cut and tacked together before it got too dark out in the driveway. While putting it all back into the garage, I had to see how it will look on the firewall. Yes the body will be channeled the height of the frame.
So I began day 2 of the build by Z'ing the second frame rail and making sure that they matched. So then it was time to do some rearranging between the garage and the shed and then piecing together the body. Then I had to see what it looked like on the frame rails Which then led to building some first pieces of the floor structure after checking the body for square. I also added support bars across the top of the doors so that the body would be one piece. Then I pulled out the jack stands to set the frame at the intended ride height. And then of course I had to roll out a couple of the whitewalls to have fun! And then it was time to put everything away... wow, it is a tight fit, especially with the huge Hurst cheater slicks on my buddes choptop! I thought I was done for the night, but I got a call that the guy was gonna deliver the motor! It's a 4 bolt main 350 that I can use until I can afford to rebuild the 331 Hemi!
Lookin' good, keep us updated as you go, I always love to see build threads, just kind of gives me hope and ideas for mine.
Why rack and pinion. Why not the ole F-1 Box. Steers well and almost like power steering when setup right?
That body looks familiar. Oh wait i am the one that sent it to you. Hey rob anything else you need or do you want another sedan or truck body to build another rod with. Oh wait i think you need to actually work on the car. Are you done yet. lol. Maybe someday when money grows from trees you can build me my car.
The Jalopy Journal
