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MY FIRST EVER FRAME BUILD- pic heavy!

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by dezaster, Aug 15, 2007.

  1. dezaster
    Joined: Oct 21, 2005
    Posts: 162

    dezaster
    Member
    from u.k.

    so, i see a lot of people asking loads of questions about building a frame on here. hopefully this thread showing you how i'm building mine will help a few other people building for the first time. i wouldn't go as far as saying its a simpletons guide, but i will try to keep it as basic as possible!!

    what i am building is a fairly typical model A frame. after a lot of measuring, reading up on all the good info on here, headscratching, and drawing out designs, the basic dimensions i came up with are a 112" wheelbase, a 4" front step and a 13" rear kick. the rear rails taper from 4" to 3" after the kickup, and the front taper goes from 5" at the firewall down to 3" at the front X-member. the entire thing is made from 4"x2" 1/8" wall box section, with some original front horns and front and rear X-member.

    i started with 2 12.5 foot lengths of box, and set about making the 2 main rails. first, i did the front step. i decided to hide the step inside the cowl. my distance from the front of the front X-member to the firewall is 34", so i cut the front sections at 39" to allow a 5" overlap.the sections that run from the firewall to the start of the rear kickup are 57".
    i then clamped these 2 sections together, checked they were in line, and welded them together. i am using a small engineers table to do this, approx 1'x2.5', solid steel 1" frame, with a 1/4" plate top drilled and pegged to it.

    [​IMG]

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    obviously, i did this twice.
    then, i set about doing the front tapers. these taper from 5" at the firewall, down to 3" at the front X-member.
    as im using 4x2 tubing, this means removing some from the front section of the tube, and adding a section to the rear. this is how i removed the front bit.
    i marked a line 3/8" in from the edge of the tubing, and then marked my tubing at 3" minus 3/8" and drew a line between here and my 5" mark at the firewall. i then took a long thin piecut out of each side of the tubing, bent the edge piece in, checked it was straight and square, and tacked it in place before seaming it up in short sections alternating side-for-side to prevent distortion. i cut the tubing this way as it keeps the curved edge profile of the tubing there, and all your welds are easier to grind down as they're on the flat section of tube, not the curve/corner.
    [​IMG]

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    again, i did this twice.


    as a sidenote, i do all my marking out with a thin permanent marker (sharpie), a tape, a square, and a 4ft stainless straightedge, all my cutting using superslim stainless grade 1mm cutting discs in a angle grinder, and all my weld finishing/grinding using 40 grit zirconium flap discs in an angle grinder.
     
  2. chaddilac
    Joined: Mar 21, 2006
    Posts: 14,021

    chaddilac
    Member

  3. GrantH
    Joined: Aug 10, 2006
    Posts: 523

    GrantH
    Member

    what went from 5 to 3? i'm thinking the over all height of the rails, but you said that you used 4x2? maybe im confused. It looks good so far though!
     
  4. dezaster
    Joined: Oct 21, 2005
    Posts: 162

    dezaster
    Member
    from u.k.

    to add the lower section of the front taper, i cut a 17-5/8" section of tubing ( which was the distance from the end of the firewall step to where the taper on the main rail finishes), then marked out a long thin wedge on it that tapers from 1" at one end, out to nothing at the other. with the tube being 4" deep, i easily got a piece for each side out of the one length of tubing. this was then ground down slightly at the thin end to get it fitting nicely so the taper was consistant and straight, and the section was then welded onto the bottom of the framerail, and the welds ground back( they're not fully finished in the pic, i still hadn't ground down the welds on the thin end).
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    again, rinse and repeat, even though i havent actually welded the second one on yet.


    next, i moved on to making the rear kickup sections. my kickup starts 22" forward of the rear axle centreline. (i forgot to say, this chassis is going under a '28 tudor sedan). it raises 13", and raises at 60deg. so its fairly steep, but this gives a good mounting surface for my 4-bar.
    the way ive cut the kickup sections means the main rails kinda 'socket' into the raiser by 2",m giving me maximum weld area- 16" per rail in total (2+2+4+2+4+2).
    this picture describes it a bit better-
    [​IMG]

    you should be able to work out the dimensions used from that pic, but if not ile put up a drawing later. obviously, you need to cut 2 of these.
    then, you need to cut 2 of these-
    [​IMG]
    i made them slightly over long (about 3/4" too long) at 14" for a little insurance, i can always trim them down once the X-member is in.

    they have a 2" section at the front that isn't tapered to meet up with the raiser section, then they taper form 4" to 3" over a 12" length, and they were constructed using the same method as i used for the front tapers.


    i will be finishing welding all this bits ive cut together tomorrow, then i will update with pics of the completed basic rails.
     

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