Technical Who does their own chassis blue prints?

View attachment 5894022 View attachment 5894022 Most the time I do a concept drawing first. Then a 1/8" = 1" scale drawing. On this one I even drew in the steering U-joints. I drew it up at 107" wheelbase. I drew in a ghost and discovered I would have to shorten my legs from my knee to my foot. Not an option so I built the car at 110? W B. #25. [ Now #525 ] My concept drawing. This is another trick I use. Worked with the copy shop until we obtained scale of Geo Montgomerys 100" W B. His chop 4". My chop 5.5" in back. 5" in front. Moved the tubs up 2" and forward 2". Run the car lower in back than this drawing. . View attachment 5894021 View attachment 5894022

 

I did some drafting for Almost Funny.



I even drew a scale slick to see if I could get it into the trunk with the chassis design I had.

 

WOW. All I can say is you are no Squillel when it comes to drafting!

 

This is as close as I come to drafting, however it does hold records at Bonneville and El Mirage.

 

I make sketches of subassemblies, and a future project is on the drawing board now. It's a redo of the chassis and suspension from the 54 modified from 1976, updated to use dom instead of black iron pipe. I don't have bending dies for pipe...

 

old Brianangus post
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/how-to-build-an-early-hotrod-frame.150434/

 

I use pencils and pixels.




The dots lead to this



I use my trusty AutoCad97 LT (I have to keep an XP/32 bit machine for it these days) to draw.



It's handy for those pesky dimensions.



It's nice to help visualize too.



Lately I have been working on a cut file so I can curve my rails. I've decided to fab parts of the rails to fit the body and spring pads. I have a homemade CNC torch.



I have used 2D cad to make all sorts of shit.



I started drafting in Jr High. Through High School and 2 years of Community College. Just in time for early CAD to appear. I took Hewlett Packard CAD on DOS machines (my torch is DOS), just in time for the first AutoCad to come out. I gave up. I was sick of school. Back in the day, I used MAC CAD on a IICi to draw RC boats. Years later, an employer gave me the 97LT and I trained myself, it was worth it for him, he sent the other two to school. It will work forever on my old stuff. Mike

 

I have on several things although not a car chassis yet. I model pretty much everything I make in CAD then pull prints from that. If I ever build a complete chassis, that would be my quickest way to make sure everything works.

 

I did them when we built a frame for my son’s ‘38 Dodge

 

I used some DOS CAD programs 30 some years ago...it was limited in what it could do, but was still useful, I used it to design a frame for a 39 Studebaker. I don't think I have any of the drawings left, but I did see the car that was made from them, a couple months ago.

I really like the 2D mockup. I've done stuff like that too

 

Wow, I can’t draw straight line with a rule. My plans are usually just in my head.

 

I use a china marker and draw on the floor. Over a few days my skunk works drawings are erased by foot traffic. Finding a relatively non-chipped area on the concrete in my shop is becoming a larger problem though as years pass.

Lynn

 

^^^ this ^^^

Drew out my model A frame on my shop floor.

Took a chalk box and made a line on the floor, this was my center line of the frame, all measurements were taken from this line.

I made a white line that ran left to right, these lines showed where I wanted certain width measurements. Then I just made the cuts in the rails and bent them until the bends matched the outline on the floor and the measurements at the white lines matched up.

Here a Pic but I had about worn the blue line away at this point...

 

Next time, go to Home Depot and get some clear spray can enamel. After you set your chalk line, just run a coat of clear over it. Dries fast and lasts a long time. That's how I lay out guidelines for my walk behind concrete saw.

 

You could use red or black.... they are more resistant to wipe out.... some are even waterproof....

LynnW

 

bttt

 

Dennis, you should write a book, with all the cars you built for people like Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace ! Maybe not HAMB friendly, but certainly historic.

 

Went through my build thread and dug up a few pics of my drawings. Couldn’t imagine building anything without some sort of sketch/drawing.

 

this is what I tell the robotics students all the time....if you can't draw it, then you probably can't build it.

 

Jim, that's probably true in most cases, but not in our family. My 3 brothers and I built at least 150 vehicles of all types, Dune Buggies, Sand Dragsters, all kinds of Drag machines, up to Funny Cars. Then on to Truck and Tractor Pullers, Oval Track and Land Speed, without ever making a scaled drawing. My oldest Brother Jerry used to say, "I can't draw it, but I can build it" ! This is one of 2 of these that he build around 1990, and it is still on the circuit today. It's 29 feet tall, built on a Sherman Tank chassis, with a 10 ton turntable.
https://www.google.com/search?q=meg...ate=ive&vld=cid:fc13a334,vid:jly7YOOcWJY,st:0

 

People with experience building things can build them without being able to draw them. But when you're working with kids who've never done anything remotely related to designing and building a machine, you have to start somewhere. I like to start by getting them to make a sketch, and yes, it does take a while before they figure out how to do this.

the point is that if something can't be drawn (by even a skilled draftsman), it's not likely that it can be built.

 

More A S A cars. Darrel Waltrip and Alan Kulwicki. NASCAR S W Tour 1987 champ, Roman Calzinski. And I think NASCAR N W tour champ 1987, Don Dowdy. Car featured in Stock Car Racing magazine.

 

The chalk lines on the floor work. We used masking tape which lasted pretty well.

Having some of the problems worked out on paper helps prevent expensive mistakes to me and not add to the scrap pile. We had to do plans for projects when I took metal fab in high school in the ‘60s, so it seems normal to me.

 

38 Dodge. What GREAT drawings!!! My 1944 Chevy truck.

 

bttt

 

I couldn't imagine making such a detailed drawing, that is suitable for framing !

 

Nice thread!

 

GM guys working on the design of a car, circa late 1950s....

 

Yup, I'm the same way. I can make a drawing of what I want, but it's never straight or in scale. I can see it in my head though.

 

So you guys as old as or older than me, do you remember drafting classes long before the advent of the pc? For me it was late 60s, and I wish I had the final project from one of the years. It was done on linen. In India Ink. Half the year's grade. And when you got it back, you could wash it in your mother's washing machine and have a drawing on a handkerchief. Big handkerchief. At least I think it was called linen. If anyone remembers what it was, and I'm wrong, let us know. Not that I'll ever do a drawing that detailed again...