My name is Mark and I am a student at HRI, currently in the Body Fabrication class. The bulk of this thread will cover the dismantling and the complete frame build conducted during the Chassis class from April 1st to the 18th of June. The first month of the course consisted mostly of welding competencies, before we began work on our projects. Caveats - 1) I am a student with practically zero fabrication knowledge before starting classes. My mechanical knowledge was mediocre at best from working on previous vehicles that I owned since high school - 1972 GMC Sierra and 1976 International Scout. I was a helicopter mechanic for a period of time in the service, but it is nowhere close to the same thing. Before the school, I could not tell you the difference between a tie rod and a connecting rod. That being said, I am still a student, am continuing to learn, but do not have a full working knowledge of everything. Feel free to correct me (I know you will), feel free to offer input, and definitely feel free to let me know what you like. 2) While you may feel free to let me know how you think about a school that you have not attended, have no idea how it works, and have not even looked up, is worthless - I do not care to hear it. By all means post it, but your posting will go on ignored. If you have questions about the integrity of the new school, what it is doing and how it goes about doing it, so you can form an educated opinion, please feel free to ask me, or any of the other students that have posted. A search for Hot Rod Institute will lead you to them. I am more than happy to inform the masses of what I believe is a unique institution. Realize that there are KIDS at this school AS WELL AS those with life experience. Please do not assume we are all misguided high schoolers expecting free handouts on job opportunities when we finish our classes. 3) Most importantly - I will provide links to powerpoint presentations in this thread. I have done a full-on build log of everything from planning, dismantling and fabrication on what we have so far. I will provide pictures as well, but those presentations provide a GREAT deal of information, explaining in detail what is going on. If you have powerpoint, I highly recommend you check these out. That being said, on to the rat-killin'.................... Here are the presentations http://www.marketingmembers.<wbr>com/upload/files/Background.<wbr>ppt http://www.marketingmembers.<wbr>com/upload/files/FRAME_-_<wbr>Dismantling.ppt http://www.marketingmembers.<wbr>com/upload/files/FRAME_-_<wbr>Fabrication_01.ppt I do not have my presentation set yet on the Body Fab stuff, but I have provided pictures down farther in this post. And here is are some pictures in order.......... Background - Truck started as an Ebay find, a runner and a driver. 350 small block and Saginaw 3-speed. Dismantling - Your eyes do not deceive you, the frame was c-notched without reinforcement to fit the steering box..... Any thing look off to anyone else???? Fabrication - Front Frame rails Front Crossmember Frame Horn Fab Rear frame rails Bed Box Front and Rear frame rail connectors w/ exhaust ports Bolt in Transmission Crossmember Unfinished Engine Mounts Rear Spring Mounts Spring Mount Access Covers "Squirrel Killer Gussets/Radius Rod Mounts (tapped with nut on other side) Frame after powdercoat Glamor Shot 2 and shameless plug - Yes, we ended up heating the axle to account for the truck spindles on the car axle..... this straightened them out as you will see in later photos Body Work - Cut the old floor out, welded the doors together to get the correct door gaps and to help brace up the cab, and channeled the body 6 inches over the frame - leaving 6 inches of ride height New floor framework and unfinished tunnel Replacing the bottom of the panels around the cab Replacing more bottom panels This is where I am at so far. We will finish tacking in the bottom replacement panel pieces on Monday, and then weld and finsih them. From there we will be starting on chopping the top, approximately 5 inches. I will try to get some pictures in of the body framework that replaced all of the wood. The bottom panel replacement actually added some height to the cab. My ride height now sits at 5 and 1/2 inches, and will remain at that height. Throughout the entire build there has been 1 other student helping me at any given time. That person has changed every once in a while in order to let people work on different projects to get a broader working knowledge. Check out the school at www.hotrodinstitute.com And I look forward to hearing what you guys think.
Cool to see this on here. I have driven by the HHI a couple of times on my way to the mall and always wondered what kind of stuff went on there.
The only thing the instructors have done in regards to the H.A.M.B. is recommend it as a resource, to learn from the work others are doing, and to find examples to illustrate what we are learning in class. Doug is hands off on anything we do outside of classes.
Nice job. You guys corrected some really scary stuff...what a great way to learn how NOT to build things. Rat-killin'!!! It's hard to believe someone could register and drive such a vehicle on the street since it looked like an accident waiting to happen. Thanks for the detailed Powerpoints - I enjoyed reading them. Good luck with the rest of your build and please post more!!!
Just ribbing you! I keep saying I will stop by and say howdy, may have some time in the next couple weeks.
please post updates ! would like 2 see how u replaced the wood and made the patch panels also when u chop it
Wow, I need to start getting this organized with my car. Looks sweet so far. Kinda nice to see you put a thread up. So thats Pete, Kyle, and your trucks so far.
I know, the reply was more of a just in case others didn't catch the sarcasm...... By all means, stop by the shop anytime. We are all there from 8-430 every weekday. It will be about another 5 months and the school will start pumping out graduates with completed or near completed projects every 3 months or so. We will start seeing our first graduates around December. I will be here until around October of next year, as I am taking every class available to try and get my knowledge as rounded as I can. As long as I keep the fire under my ass, which should not be a problem, I will have my truck completed by July of next year, and should be driving it around over the summer while I am in the motorcycle fabrication class.
Updates will be coming in about 2-3 weeks. I will be finishing up the body class at the end of the month and I have already started setting up my powerpoint slides and getting things written down. I will post shortly after that time. At this time, all I can say is, this thing looks SICK chopped!
The Jalopy Journal
