Well gang, it's been a while since my last tech post. The doctor was able to remove the wrench though, and says I should make a full recovery. Thanks for all the cards and shiny balloons guys *snif*. I lowered this 1950 Chevy Fleetline quite a bit when I put the 10 bolt rear in. As a consequence, there was only about 2" of clearance before the axle rammed into the bump stop. Every bump in the road resulted in a bone-jarring "ka-slam." Also, you could hear this "pingggg" noise when it hit. That was the shackles hitting the exhaust pipe. This picture dosn't do it justice. The pipe was only about an inch tall, plus that deep indentation from the top of the shackle. The club meeting was going to be at my place this month, so I figured I'd try and get some work out of the boys. I announced that we would be notching the frame at the next meeting. The plan was to cut out notch plates, fit them, weld them into a C-notch piece, and then weld them to the frame which would then be cut away. That way I wouldn't have to worry about anything moving around on me. A chance phone conversation with my pal Mark Quill revealed that he had some s**** 1/4" plate and some already cut 1/8" plate that would work pretty good. This was great news, because I didn't really have any materials to pull off this grand scheme. Mark, btw, is a talented fabricator and pinstriper. He was the guy striping The Heap at Autorama. I keep telling him to put an entry in the HAMB-O-DEX but I don't know if he's done it yet. Anyway, I went over to his shop and we began to make a template. With the tires off, we jacked up the axle and marked the centerline so we knew where the axle would travel in the C-notch. You have to cheat this line forward a little to account for the swing of the axle as it travels up and down. Then we measured the amount of room that was left in the wheel well (I can't cut out the tops of the wheel wells because of the way this car was chopped). Next, we got a piece of heavy paper (like a manilla envelope) and drew a template out that incorporated the thickness of the frame rail and the depth of the notch. Then we had to figure out a way to cut it out of the plate steel...
Okay, really we used Mark's plasma cutter to cut them out. The 1/8" pieces we bent with a torch. We did have to do a little tweaking and t******* to get them to fit just right and square up, but they weren't bad considering the con****uous absence of a lazer-cutter. So, Sunday rolls around and the boys showed up and we all got to work. Some of us worked on the car, and some of us worked on our social skills.
Okay, those pictures aren't fair. Everyone pitched in and we had the trunk cut out and the notches tacked in before dinner. We are lucky to have a couple really good welders in the club. Most everyone did a little time in the trunk. The notches were welded to the frame on the outside, on the inside, and through plug welds as well. The caps were finessed so they'd fit, and welded on. Then we ate and had our meeting and tried to finish off the C notches. However, my ****py little #30 tank ran out of gas before we could finish them completely, so I gotta go and do it my self now. You can see in the picture of the trunk floor that there is a body mount right at the top of the peak in the frame rail. I am going to have to re-do that, and incorporate a bump-stop up there too. Coming soon... rear suspension change and airbags!
Damn Marc your a busy guy! Looks good, nice to have buddy's that actually HELP haha...Can't wait to see it bagged, guess I better start saving my penny's for that old rear suspension!!!
Yeah, it's no good man. It was starting to crack some of the work I'd done on the body... fukt. Stay tuned!
Good post Marc...especially timely for me, we're about to notch a '54 and while I'm confident we'll be able to do it, your pics will make it that much easier. My '51 is next 'cause 1\2 of suspension travel in the back and bags in the front are killing me...it's like a flippin' see saw! Bryan
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