Started building my '34 Chevy's chassis

I finally managed to get started on the ch***is for my '34 Chevy hot rod. Last weekend I only cut a few pieces but this weekend was very productive. I finished cutting all the pieces on Friday and yesterday I started tack welding everything together. For a first time I'm quite happy with the outcome.

The first 6 pics are just the layout of all the pieces. The cross-member you see in the K member is the actually the trans mount but it still needs to get the cut-out to clear the trans. The reason why the K-member is extended back so far is because the 4-link will mount to the back-end of it.

In the 7th pic are the 2 side "box" sections of the K member. They are held together by to pieces of angle iron to keep them parallel and correctly spaced.

In the 8th pic the rear halve is tacked together with a 10.1" kick-up.

The next 2 shows the front frame rails tacked on and the front pieces of the K member just put in place. I must first do a complete weld and grind of the leading corners of the box section before I can weld the angled pieces in otherwise I won't get enough penetration on those corners. Most of the cutting has been done on the transmission's cut-out in the cross-member apart from the top. I'm leaving that for now as it will give some extra rigidity while I have to move the ch***is around. Once the cut-out is done I will close it up with some flat bar. The lip channel you see across the front is also to keep the front rails correctly aligned until I can eventually weld the front round tube cross-member in place.

The next pic shows the frame horns which give a slight kickup (I don't like the look of a Z) and I cut them to tape from 4" at the back to 3" at the front where the tube sits.

The last 2 pics shows the tube cross-member sitting in place but I can't tack it just yet. I'm waiting on a job order from a local profiling company a****st which is the front spring perch and headlight stands. The tube sticks out past the frame rails by 2.362" and the reason for that is that the headlights stands will be mounted there. I'll close up the ends of the tube with domed post covers.

The other parts I'm waiting on from the profiling company include stuff like the 4-link mounting brackets, engine mountings, radiator support, grill shell front panel, parts to make a coil cover with, etc.

 

Somehow my attachments didn't get attached. Let's try again:

 

Here are some screenshots of some parts I'm waiting for.

 

Here are some screenshots of some parts I'm waiting for.

1. Headlight stands. Each side gets 2 uprights and the small bracvket goes on top for mounting and adjusting the light. The 4 intermediate holes will get small tubes running between the 2 uprights.

2. Engine mount arms from the engine to the ch***is. 2 on each side with tubes running between them in the four holes.

3. The 4-link axle mounts. 2 uprights on each side with the square piece on the back side for extra support.

4. 4-link axle mounts. 2 on each side with tubes running between them in the 2 intermediate holes.

What do you guys think?

As soon as I've got the actual stuff I'll post the pics. Quite obviously they'll go onto the ch***is quite quickly. I must still turn the inner and outer sleeves for all the bushes though but that will take a few hours as I need 7 inners and 7 outers, 4 for the 4-link, one for the panhard and 2 for the engine mounts.

 

What's up with the attachments not loading????

 

I worked on the ch***is all day yesterday although you might not thinks so. That is if you didn't know the ch***is was only tack welded. I managed to get all the welding done except for 2 edges. I also got most of it ground smooth. I've calculated that I'm 84% done with the welding and grinding of the welds that can be ground.

What is noticable though is that I welded in the front round tube cross member with the spring perch plates sitting in place. They still need to be squared and leveled etc. before they can be welded and obviously the spring mounting plate must also be welded in. Why 3 uprights and not 2? Just to be different.

I also tacked the rear 4-link ch***is mounts in place. I've sourced a 1.5" OD, .156 wall tube from a local supplier which I must pick up tomorrow. With that I'll be making the 4-link arms so that I can mount the rear axle.

 

"Home made" ignition coil cover:

The first pic shows the 12 rings and top plate I had laser cut from 3mm aluminium. 2 of the 12 have extra tabs on to mount it to the firewall. All of these pieces however have to be spaced 10mm apart.
The second pic shows the 48 spacers I cut using 8mm fuel tubing and a little pipe cutter.
The third pic shows the 4 pieces of threaded rod I cut to hold the whole story together.

 

"Home made" ignition coil cover pt2:

The first pic shows it being ***embled. There you can see the use of the spacers between the pieces.
The second pic shows it together with the Accel Super Coil I'll be using. This is the point where the coil must be inserted into the cover. The main body of the coil just fits through the holes in the plates.
The third pic shows the coil inside the cover. Here you can also see the top lip of the coil sitting on top of the plate

 

"Home made" ignition coil cover pt3:

In the first pic the next plate was installed and you can see how it cover the lip of the coil.
In the second pic you can see the minute gap between the coil's lip and the upper plate. There is a similar small gap at the bottom of the coil. I'll use some sort of gasket material to take up that play and stop it from rattling.

 

"Home made" ignition coil cover pt4:

Here is the ***embled coil cover with the coil now inside it.
The first pic shows the cover in the upright position with the coil upside down inside it.
In the second pic you can see that the coil's still quite accessible from the bottom.
In the third pic I just wanted to show what you see from the side.
This is NOT the final look of it though. The edges of the aluminium will be nicely polished while the rest of it will be painted black. I'll most probably paint the coil red for accent.

 

Here are just a few small items I collected for this project.
The first is a pewter belt buckle. I'm going to cut off the buckle attachments on the back side and use it as a mascot on the front of the grill shell.
The second is a banjo style steering which aparently is from a Morris Minor. As you can see it will need some covering on the ring as all the stock stuff has disintegrated over the years. Here I've got one of two options of which one is to make a mold for the ring and cast a new ring using resin or to do it with wood.
The third is a set of semaphores / trafficators. As luck would have it they are also from a Morris Minor. These will be fitted into the sides of the grill shell and used as front turn signals. I'll make a slight change to the wiring to allow the bulbs to flash when opened instead of a static glow.

 

I didn't take too many detailed photo's of how I put the 4-link brackets onto the diff as I got a bit too busy to remember that. I basically set the ch***is on jack stands to get the correct ride height and the diff was already at ride height due to the wheel stands. I centered and squared the diff and got the pinion 2 degrees up. Then, in line with the 4-link's ch***is brackets, I "marked" the axle where the axle brackets had to go as can be seen in the first pic below. The two plates go on the outside of the two pieces of tape and so will be 70mm apart.

I then proceeded to weld the brackets to the axle. The second pic shows them all welded up and the diff fitted to the ch***is. Just behind the 4-link brackets on the axle you can see the beginnings of the coil-spring "cup". After all this work I sprayed all the work black with a can to stop it from getting rusty like the frame did. Next thing on the list is to weld up the threaded fittings at the front of the 4-link arms where the go into the tubes. Then I also need to fabricate a panhard bar to stop the diff from moving sideways.

The last pic just shows where the stock bump-stop on the axle sits in it's stock location. This is pure luck / coincidence that it happened to sit directly below the frame as I didn't take that into consideration whatsoever when I built the frame. The idea was actually to install "custom" bump-stops and quite obviously this saves me from having to do that.

 

Looking good,especially being a Chevy.Thanks for the photos.

 

I finally managed to start on the front suspension.

The whole theme of the build called for an I-beam axle with transverse leaf spring. Some people have tried to convince me otherwise. It's all about the look of an old-school hot rod and not a modern day street rod.

The front suspension setup comes off a 1938 Ford. The first photo shows the axle with wishbones but with the spring removed from between the front ends of the wishbones. I forgot to take photos of it before removing the spring. In the mean time I sent it in to have it shortened so I could mount it behind the axle.

Next, I split the wishbones by cutting of the swivel ball at the rear end. It was cut at this point to have the wishbones as long as possible.

 

My next mission was to get the perch pins, holding the wishbones to the axle, out so that I could remove the wishbones from the axle. When doing some research I came across a few different stories. One was that sometimes using just a 50 ton press doesn't help as the pressure cause the pin to expand and sit tighter. Another option, with apparently good results, was to heat the pin boss on the axle itself. Once it's nearly red hot you dip it in water to cool it down quickly. You repeat this a few times and the heating and cooling breaks the corrosion. Eventually it's quite easy to just hammer them out.

The next two photos just show the axle and wishbones separated from each other.

 

Next on the list was to make perches on the wishbones for the spring. I started off by printing my design on self-adhesive paper which I cut out and stuck to a 5mm plate.

I then used a Sharpie marker to outline all the edges for cutting as can be seen in the last two pics.

 

Pic 1: I proceeded by drilling pilot holes in each of the holes to be cut in the brackets to allow the plasma cutter to get a little easier start.

Pic 2: Here are the four brackets after cutting.

Pic 3: Here they are on the wishbone after cleaning up and final t*******. The bush sleeve will go through the larger holes while the smaller holes will hold a smaller tube just for looks.

 

nice project, i am starting to build a ch***is for my 36 chevy p/u but i have to aquire some parts first, we seam to share some similar ideas.

keep it coming!

 

Thanks and you're welcome.

There will be many more pics where these are coming from.

The two "major" components I still need is a radiator (most probably custom made) and a drive shaft. The motor I've got is a 350 SBC with a TH-350. I've also got most of the engine rebuild parts as well as a B&M shift improver kit and an adjustable modulator for the trans.

 

Thats a start, nice work

 

That's a heck of a nice piece of work you've got going there.

 

Thanks guys. I'll do my best to keep it up.

 

Front suspension continued

I re-installed the wishbones and I also installed the spring. I then tack welded the shackle perches to the wishbones in line with the spring.

I then made up a set of "test" shackles and two "test" bushes. The test shackles were off-cut pieces of 25mm x 3mm flat-bar with the eye centres 52mm apart. The test bushes tubes with washers welded on the ends. Once I'm happy with the perches and shackle I'll make the actual shackle and weld in the perch bush sleeves.

At last the ch***is is now suspended in front. As I said above, the shackles must still be replaced and the rest must be fully welded up including the main spring perch.

 

Front wheel dollies

The whole idea with this build is to be able to easily move the ch***is around once the suspension was mounted. I have already got two dollies bolted onto the rear axle in place of wheels and with the front suspension mounted it was now time to get the front dollies mounted.

The problem however is that I don't have front hubs yet onto which the dollies can be bolted. So, I decided to make some kind of adapter plate to allow them to be bolted directly to the front spindles. Again I use pieces of leftover plate for this purpose. This now allows me to move the ch***is to where I want to work on it.

The grease on the spindle is just to stop it from rusting up while I wait for hubs.

 

Rear suspension continued

On to the rear suspension again. This time to do the shock absorber mountings.

First I needed to cut the upper shock / coil spring plates. For this I used 3mm plate. I cut them to size and also cut the hole for the shock bush with my plasma cutter.

I then proceeded to cut a hole in the shock / coil spring plates already tack welded to the rear axle, again with the plasma cutter (what a wonderful piece of equipment).

In the last picture I've got the upper plates welded to the upper rear corners of the ch***is and I also test fitted an old shock absorber.

On the underside of the upper plates, along the edges, I still need to weld some 5mm flat-bar to stop them from flexing. Then I also need to add coil spring retaining rings to keep the springs in place but I'll do that at a later stage.

 

Rear suspension continued

Here I took two pieces of square tubing and basically made two "ride height bars". I drilled them so that they could be bolted on in place of shock absorbers to allow the ch***is to always sit at the aimed ride height while working on it.

The other two photos just show the ch***is fully suspended and able to be moved around. The last photo doesn't show it too well but the ch***is actually has a 3 degree forward rake for a nice stance.

 

Great Job Mr NEO! Mike

 

Do you plan on re-using the front axle? Your method of heating the axle boss red hot and then quenching it with water may allow you to remove the perch bolts, but it has probably chrystalized the dendritic structure of the axle, which will lead to catastrophic failure (as in broken axle)---which is not a good thing. This is the same as the post from the fellow who heated his steering arms cherry red to bend them, then threw them into a pail of cold water to "temper" them---Ya just can't do that **** and get away with it!!!!

 

I was going to yes. What, if I can ask, is the "dendritic structure"? I've never heard of the term and tried to google it but come up with results that are Greek to me. All the results, from what I can tell, seems to be medically related too.

Yes, as I said, I did heat up the axle but not to the point where it even seemed to be wanting to turn red. To me it seemed as if I was just burn the old paint off. The reason why I trusted that it won't be an issue is that apparently it won't get brittle due to the very low carbon content in the metal. Or am I wrong?

 

See Below
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<!-- start content -->For other uses of "dendrite", see dendrite (disambiguation).
Ice dendrite formation on a snowflake


A dendrite in metallurgy is a characteristic tree-like structure of crystals growing as molten metal freezes, the shape produced by faster growth along energetically favourable crystallographic directions. This dendritic growth has large consequences in regards to material properties.
Dendrites usually form in multiphase alloys. The requirement is that the molten metal is supercooled below the freezing point of the metal. At slow cooling rates, the solidification front will be planar and stable. But, at increased cooling rates, the solidification may be so rapid that the alloy concentration at the solidification front will be different from the overall concentration. The increased concentration results in an increased melting point impeding solidification near the front. Solidification also releases energy, thus impeding solidification even more. A small distance away from the solidification front, the concentration is more favourable for solidification as well as the temperature is lower. This fact increases the solidification rate at the most protruding points, thus resulting in dendrite formation. Note also that a curved interface is less energetically favourable, thus limiting the sharpness of the dendrites.
If the metal is cooled slowly, nucleation of new crystals will be less than at large undercooling. The dendritic growth will result in dendrites of a large size. Conversely, a rapid cooling cycle with a large undercooling will increase the number of nuclei and thus reduce the size of the resulting dendrites(and often lead to small grains).
Smaller dendrites generally lead to higher ductility of the product. One application where dendritic growth and resulting material properties can be seen is the process of welding. The dendrites are also common in cast products, where they may become visible by etching of a polished specimen.
Dendrites also form during the freezing of many nonmetallic substances such as ice.
Dendrites usually form under non-equilibrium conditions.
Common dendritic metal material is nickel carbonyl, where the particles have a cl***ical "spiky" morphology.
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