Hey H.A.M.B! Well I fell into a killer situation the week before last! The company that I work for decided to close for a week to save money and such by forcing their employee's to take time off. So I had to find something to occupy my time! The Wife could not take any time off and my Best Friend just happened to have some open time in his shop during this same week! So the deal was struck and I blew apart the mocked up roadster with my wife on Sunday morning and loaded up all of the parts in my truck for the long trip up to Sonora! My Best friend of all times is Mike Smith, "Owner of California Hotrods," and he and I have been messing around with building cars for quite sometime! We decided that it would be cool to use his '32 jig and fab the complete chassis for my roadster in 5 days. The Results: Starting with a set of American Stamping frame rails on Monday morning at around 6:30am we were able to finish up with a complete '32 chassis by 11:00pm Friday night. Total time = 70 hrs. Here are some pics of the whole process:
One more detail shot! I must say that after finishing this stage of the project I am Fucking Exhausted...... Mike and I worked really hard during that week and we are both super pleased with the outcome on the project! The next phase will be to finish the detail work on the chassis and fab the exhaust system. After that the body will go back on and the fitting procedures will begin. I hope to have this thing done in about 12 to 18 more months! More news soon! Later, THE-SYNDICATE
A response to some questions: To Phil: Yes Mike and I would love to build you a chassis! If you would like one PM me and we can talk! Sorry for the SPAM Ol' 55 Ply: Mike and I put those plastic pieces up their to cover the Boyd Billets that are on that truck.... Figured the customer would be pissed if we screwed up those high $$$$ wheels... Later, THE-SYNDICATE
Nice to see Mike is still ugly. Nice chasis good to see Mike again. I really like your induction. Danny
Hey Sindikate... what size tires are those in the rear??? I have 15x11" Halibrands on my Model A... and If I can't find a good sized radial for them... I'm gonna sell them and look for some 8"ers... right now I have M/T tires on them and hate the look. Those look perty wide though.... and the frame kicks ass... Sam.
Hey Sam, Glad you like the fab work!!!! Thanks! The rear tires are BFG's 345/55-16's. 31"dia 12" tread and around 14" section width. This was the answer to replacing the 31-7.50-16 Firestone Dirt Tracker with a radial tire. The bummer part is that BFG no longer makes these and if you can find them they cost mucho $$$ "i.e around $250~$300ea." I lucked out with this pair by finding them on egay.... $205 for the pair.... However in your situation with having 15X11" Halibrands I would suggest the following radial. BFG 285/75/15 31"dia, and I think around 11" tread and almost 13" section width, a good looking radial that can be ordered ASAP thru most channels. Coker did start re-popping the big Dirt Trackers in a 13/30-15??? They are pricey but would look ultra bitchen on those Halibrands.... I do agree with you on the M/T's! They never really have had the "look." The big Hoosiers are kinda better but still look a bit pro-street'ish. Hope this helps! Later, THE-SYNDICATE
Hey raven61, Yes the rear cross member is stock Model-A. After we finished fitting the boxing plates in the rear I measured about 5 or 600 times before carefully trimming the cross member so that it butts up against the boxing plates. There is one additional step that was needed to get this thing dead on.... Before blowing the car apart for this hell week I made some adjustable stands that supported the frame rails off the floor and allowed me to mess around with the stance of the overall car. Once I had this nailed down we placed an adjustable level onto the frame and rotated the little bubble until we were right on. Then while working in the jig we put the level back onto the frame in the same spot and raised up the back of the jig until we matched the reading taken from before. This allowed us to slap the quick change in the jig at set it at "0 degrees," i.e. parallel to the ground. Next we adjusted the cross member until it was exactly 90 degrees to the rear-end. Whamo! Proper rear-suspension with no spring bind... And the quicky ends up looking just right when in the car because it is parallel with the ground. The cross member ended up being tight to the upper frame lip in the back and down about 3/8" in the front when we were finished. The next thing that I will need to do is to have the rear main leaf narrowed and reversed-eyed by the spring shop down in San Leandro to fit the spring hangar brackets. Later, THE-SYNDICATE
Thanks for the info. I was toying with doing the same thing for a roaster project but had never seen anyone else do it (so I could pick their brain about it). Thanks for the info. I'll be watching for updates. r
Mr. Smith has done it again. Nice work guys. I hope to get on Mikes waiting list some day. For now I will just enjoy your pic's. chuck
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