Looking for Tips and Opinions on installing a 35-40 Ford X member in 1932 Ford rails. Photos would be great. My plan is to use JW Rod Shop rails with the stock X member. Guess there is a lot of room for optional locations. I'll have split bones in the front so that ball socket location doesn't matter, stock '40 pedals and master cylinder location do come into the mix. Thanks. Bob
37, a good friend of mind did many of these x members in 32 rails, in fact His roadster sits in the Henry Ford museum
I did one in my '32 rails. Fits good once trimmed. I'm even using the '40 Ford pedals and rear cross member. Body is a '29 roadster. Old pictures...
hahahahaha I even have this webpage on my site from 2011! http://www.waywardgarage.com/me/1930fordcoupe/frame/1932frame_part1.html Lots of useful pictures there. Ignore the garbage.
I put a '36 X member in my deuce rails, not hard to do. I had the tie bars in place & simply sat the X member on top & trimmed it to size. They fitted perfectly in the rails.
in the old floyd clymer v8 book from the 50's he said to use a 34 frame x member to get rid of the k member so the tranny is not trapped in there. i always like the ideal myself
My X member came out of a 1937 Ford and doesn't have as many lightening holes, are the multi hole ones earlier or later? Bob
If I can put one in a Model A set of rails doing a pair of 32's should be a little easier. Just a little wedge cut to get the tails inside the A rails. I used the stock 39 pedals and a 40 steering box with cross steer. I got the idea from remembering what a friend of my Dad's did in about 1955. I don't think he was the first one to do this.
If you are going to use a '35 to '40 x member and haven't got it yet, get a '39 or '40 they have the bolt in juice brake pedal mounts... '35 to '38 had mechanical or cable brakes...
If a guy was precise he could position them front-to-back so that the stock transmission mount would put the engine in the right spacing. Do some careful mocking up of the rails to the body, with the engine/trans on some wood blocks to find a sweet spot.
What body is going on this chassis? The V8 axle is ahead of the crossmember and the wheel well won't match the wheel. Nice work. Bob
When I did my chassis pictured above I vice clamped the X member flanges to the rails and installed my floor and toe boards. Then when I liked how the Clutch and Brake pedals matched up to the Toe Board that was the Sweet Spot for me. I didn't care where the Motor was located being I could still move mounts around if needed. As it worked out the stock location for the Trans did not need to be moved and was able to use the 39 Clutch rod in stock form. As luck would have it the Motor to Firewall was better than I could have asked. With a Ford manual fan it has 1" space to the back side of Rad. That's a 1' piece of hard board between them. Some times the Stars just fall into alignment for ya.
Well, your Right and Wrong. Ya just gotta know how to do what ya want done to make things work out. When done this will be full fendered with stock location of fenders and Stock Model A wheelbase.
This is the overall problem, getting everything to line up, and I don't have all the pieces yet. Figure on setting the rear axle in the center of the '32 rails kickup, rear crossmember is then placed were the 35-36 bones line it up. '30 Roadster body is set on the frame and V8 X member it fitted were the '40 pedals wind up feeling conformable. I'll deal with engine & transmission location later. Bob
It also has a spring in front of front Axle. Just gotta be able to read a tape measure while doing your fab work. And then what to do to get what ya want. P.S. This chassis has been covered countless time since I started it and and I've already been told it can't be. Let's just not go there again okay.
My friend Ramsay's Dad did this in '52, '30 Model A rails. '38 'X' member with 21 stud engine, '38 pedals. Ramsay traded his Dad a stock 'A' running chassis so Dad could restore, and Ramsay got the hot rod chassis. I had to fabricate brackets for a master cylinder, but rest was duck soup.
37 kid; my advice is if you don't have all the chassis parts don't start anything till you do. So you know, my rails are longer end to end to take in the extra length to locate the crossmembers new location and keep the wheel base Stock. I spliced rails from 2 different frames so I had stock front frame horns and used an AA front crossmember so I could use the stock 39 front spring. The A rear crossmember is mounted on the end of second rails to push it back needed length. This photo might help a little. By the way this project is built totally out of Customers cast off parts from many years of doing this for a full time job. It's really simple but easy to get into trouble if not well thought through.
Do some Google history on the Doane Spencer '32. Lots of photos of a V8 X member in his '32 way back when.
Here is one that Andy Kohler did with a 1940 X-member and model A cross members https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-rod-deuce-chassis.810501/page-2#post-8994476 I have this frame sitting in my barn waiting its turn. for my Victoria project.
^^^^^^^^^^^^ Looks fine to me. '31 or '32 Vicky? My Roadster is a 1962 build, will have a 9 inch Ford rear & 354 HEMI. Bob