im looking for some opinions/advice on wheelbase for my model A sedan. this is more a Q for the guys who build frames regularly. im trying not to jump in too quick with the frame build, and doing a lot of reading up on the subject. tonight ive been mocking and measuring up, and ive drawn out a diagram of what my intended frame will look like. the car will be very low, and as such needs to be quite long. ive figured on a 13" kick at the back, and at the front, sweep the rails 6deg. (so i can weld the X-member in staight and itll set my castor correctly) by my calculations 6 deg gives 3" over a length of 31". the front rails will also taper from 4" to 2". distance from cowl lip to centre of front X-memeber will be 31", thats 29" for the motor, plus 1" for half the X-member plus 1" for clearance. the firewall will be recessed 2" which give me a full 31" for the motor. what will give me most of my drop on the front is mounting the spring to the hairpins, like on jimmy shines truck.(as well as a 4" drop beam) it will also stretch the front end 6". 6"(spring/hairpins) +4"(beam) +3"(Sweep) =13" same as the back. this will give me a total wheelbase of 113", 9-1/2" longer than stock. im trying to keep the motor 'tight' up to the body, and the rad above the X-member, so the car doesnt look all 'gangily' and out of proportion, and then the grille dropped down in fornt of the x-member with the axle across in front of it. i know the longer the wheelbase the worse the turning circle, but will 113" generally be ok?
That sounds like its within reason the late 30's fords were 112" if I'm not mistaken. On my truck it measures 30 inches from the firewall to back side of radiator with 1" fan clearence(SBC) so your 31" seems about right (you didnt state what engine your running)
I just did a frame/rolling chassis for "leaky pipes", here on the HAMB. His w.b. came in at 113 1/2". 29 sedan with a sbc engine. I left him a bit of room in the engine bay so the dizzy wasn't touching the firewall. Radiator over the x-mem. 14" rear step and 4" in the front. 4" channel. It has about 6" ground clearance at the front of the cowl. Try to PM him and see if he has the body on the frame yet. Maybe he'll shoot ya a few pix.....Mike.
113" seems awfully short if you're running the axle out in front. The two we've built with spring behind the axle came in about 117" each. The car in the pic is a shortened 29 sedan body, i think there's about 4" out of the rear quarters. It actually could have used about another inch or so of wheelbase, everything in the front suspension was kinda compacted together. Edit: After reading your post again, I see you're not planning much stretch in the engine area. We usually put about an extra 3" in there so we don't have to recess the firewall.
i will be running a 455 olds/th400 with an offy 360 twinplane. i got the dimensions from here- http://carnut.com/specs/engdim.html but i also measured myself, and the bottom pulley is 2" further back than the front, so 31" should be fine. i also forgot to mention the 4" channel, but that shouldnt make any difference to how the frame goes together. hillbilly hell, thats the kinda look im going for with the front end, with regards to axle location.
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