Hot Rods Opinions on assembling a 32 frame from original parts.

Call Dennis Lesky at the Ionia Hot Rod Shop, they have done this several times using original style ford rivets.
They have a web page with photos. Hope this helps.

Geoffrey

 

Call me when you want help with the bucking bar bro!

 

Kinda depends on the style of car you want to wind up with.

 

Two other resources...some good riveting discussions on FordBarn A, and Marco Tahatras site covers assembling a NOS Model A frame from separate NOS parts.
Big Flats rivet has a film.
But...what are you up to here? What's going on top?

 

If you weld all the crossmembers in a unboxed frame eventually it's going to tear from twisting , I believe the rivits and location of them allows all the pieces to work and move slightly

 

Remember that they made two different rear crossmember for the frame depending on whether the reinforcements
were missing, on the outside or on the inside of the frame. Sorry I don't have the dimensions. Unless you are doing a restoration you don't need to worry about changes to the front cross member.

Charlie Stepnens

 

Rivet it up!

 

As stated above, what is your design plan? If you want the original look on a hiboy where the rivets show then do the rivets. I have done a few with rivets but they looked poor. Bolts just don't look right to me in a traditional build although almost all of my early builds had a bolted/welded front model - A crossmember. I have also used button heads to resemble rivets. Here are some photos of various attempts. Good luck!


Here is a stock frame that has been tacked in place during riveting procedure.

You can see the bolts on the inside of this assembly. You can use button heads then weld up the hole.

Here is the rear showing rivets

Here is the front crossmember. Note the top rail rivets are countersunk for fenders. You could use allen heads for these and weld up the holes.

 

I'd bolt it together, then clamp/tack it in a jig to prevent movement during the re-riveting. If you are going to box it, or smooth it, forget the rivets and just weld it up when it's in the jig.

My brother recently did a simplified method of jigging a fairly straight original frame on his project car. Placed it on really-heavy-duty steel sawhorses under the front and rear axle areas, made those absolutely level with steel plates under the legs, then clamped and weighted everything down. He used a blueprint of measurements and made legs that bolted into the various holes on the tops and bottoms of the rails to keep the correct widths of the various locations. We did LOTS of measurements from a center string, and diagonally, during all welding operations. It came out really nicely, and is actually much straighter than when he began.

I wouldn't do this on loose rails, but if you have a nice stock K member to put in there, you could do it this way as well.

 

This one was done with a combination flathead and button head bolts, along with some welding, the button heads were filled. BTW the work was done by HAMB Member MAD 034.

 

I,ve done a few with rivets and have had good results.I build very traditional stuff.Flatheads,early ford transmissions and banjo rears so the rivets look "right" at least to me.If i were building big horsepower cars with alot of torque i would use a different approach.The riveting process is not difficult if you have the right tools.The last one i did (current 32 5 window project) i bought the bucking bars that attach to an air hammer and it was easy enough that i did the job without any help . The expense for the tools was
minimal.

 

I thought you had a 33 tudor sedan hiboy that was going together? What happened to that project? My mistake.

 

I riveted mine. It went really well.

 

@Pewsplace That was Rob Fortier's (R andC) wasn't it? Being built at Circle City Hotrods?

 

Another vote for rivets only.

When you guys are ready - I'm in. I might be able to borrow the correct bucking bars - already broken in on a 32 frame! Give me a heads up and I'll try and track them down........

 

I'm redoing my 46 Olds and using button heads in lieu of rivets as it's too hard to get into boxed sections with what I've done to the frame to date. When done all I need to do is weld up the heads and give them a quick linish and no one will know.

 

Let me know!!!

 

Where did you source your bucking bars from?

 

Big Flats rivet in upstate NY. He also has a mini screw jack for holding the rivet head inside a channel that i found very handy

 

Thanks!

 

I was doing flush rivets this morning. Turned out great. I found the 1.5xd rule too much for the front cross rivets . 1/4×9/16" filled the countersink nice.

 

Could you please post a pic of it.?