Projects T-Pain's Build: 28 Tudor

OK so it's been a few months of planning and living on the Hamb in my recliner. Took some vacation and got up to Moultre GA Swap Meet for some goodies to help me start the build and had a CL find to hunt down on the way up to may car. (Car is at dads place in Illinois...somewhere in between I picked up the following.
- 32 Dearborne rails w/c noch
- 32 shell & rear stainless trim ring
- A jig table made of 4x4 1/4 sq tube (Nice)
- A chromed out new alt from speedway
- Some rectangle tube metal stock for the rear crossmember
- some bung material for the coil overs to mount thur the rear crossmember
- Some tube for some k mbr action
- Repop front crossmember
- set of 32 backing plates
- Tri rear 4 link w/ bracketry
- odds n ends
- Couldnt control myself...had to buy some rear tail lights (promised myself only to buy essential stuff)
- Got a new wood kit for $125....new kit retails for $400
Here's some goodies

Met some very fine people buying this stuff. Mike Voog, you are a class act! thanks

This build is dedicated our son Tyler who was taken from his mother and I far too early. RIP TCJ 12/28/08. His silly nickname was T-Pain... I still don't know what it meant but thought he would like me to use it for the build.

So I got the truck unloaded. Got the jig table in place and decided to get some common references established. Centerline and the rear axle. While establishing the centerline was simple, the 32 for a model A diagram aided us in setting the rear axle center point on the table and then we market the rail c notch c/p.


Marking the center point of the c notch and aligning it with the table mark set for the axle.



the diagram showed it should be 28" from the end of the frame and we agreed with what we could see.



Tomorrow we are going to notch the rails at the point where the go from flat and begin to arch up...and pull em flat for the A. Decided that as the floor is good I'd rather have the car set flat than a light channel dropping the body 1 1/4 below the rail.

Here's the gap we're gonna kill...about the size of a dime.


This is a personal preference thing.

So we're going to pullem (rails) down and pinch them. We will do the pull down first.

(Admin note) I will be delayed in responding as this computer connection is not available at my dads... I will be looking at the thread via my smart phone...SOOOO if you see something silly...I'll be checking...if you ask a Q I'll try to make sure I answer when I get back to this for updates. Today was church and eating with the family..so not much progress, sorry for the slow start.

 

Day Two:

Started with building some temp crossmembers at the front and rear to get the rails in a more manageable condition. Simple tube stock and some plates bolted to the existing holes did the trick. later well add some pivot points at the middles of these and place the frame on the rotissree for the weld up.


We were lucky to have a frame dimemtional reference, albeit it was a Wescotts diagram...we are using the Dearborne rails so we made it work for us. Lots of careful study of measurements/crosschecks....as the Wescots diagram associate c/l references with "THEIR" holes... the Dearborne holes are different. I'm guessing the Wescott body is a glass one with imbedded tublar so they could place their hold where they damn well pleased. With the f & R crossmembers in place and the centerlines measured and checked we moved to flatteening the rails for the model A.






As this is our first time, initally we were worried that the indention would distort as we pulled the rail down...but it was fine...will dress up nicely. All flat now!

For the pinch we were scratching our heads. We needed to pull a template from the car to give us an idea where the pinch would start...so I set the body on the cardboard and went to town.


One Big thing we needed to establish was a reference for the axle on the template inorder to set/align the template on the frame. So we mocked up a fender on one side and added a tire/rim to check that....




Well the indentation did not line up on that indentation so we had to go another route to create a reference. We eventually spaced the tire/rim in the fender and shot a reference from the middle of the hub and pulled a measurement from the aft/last/bottom fender bolt hole. This got the axle reference mark we needed for the template.

We got the cuts welded up and all is flat...I'll post those pics and more tomorrow.

 

Third installment of this build and no reply...I may have the wrong forum. I'm perplexed!


Rails are now flat and partially welded up , we left the cut at the top of the rail to aid during pinching of the rails.

I cut some pulling points for use with the come along that we welded into the frame where we needed to pinch to occur.


Using the frame table as an anchor point...we heated the desired pinch point on the passenger side first and pulled it in so that it follows the shadow of the upper cowl. We had initially planned to heat both sides and pull them at the same time but we decided we would have better control of the pinch if only ne side was moving at a time. To prevent the rails from "drooping" as they got hot we supported the underside of the rail foth fwd and aft of the heated pinch area.


Here's the results.





Now pinched we braced it all off so that it can cool and "set"

Tadaaaa

So far my dad and I have around 20hrs in this mod.

So how does it look??? Mic check... 1, 2, 3, anybody??
Boxcar

 

More please!

 

I'll do a better play by play when I get back home to my own computer. Tomorrow weve got to make a run for some metal. Projects ahead are tieing the back tails of the rails and creating a shelf to aid in carrying the back of body and a k member...anybody got a link to some well thought out plans? May get the front boxing plates in so we can mount the fwd crossmember.....will be streaching the 32 rail wheel base to 108" to allow some additional space in the engine compartment.
Boxcar

 

Si Señor, MORE!! Sometimes the HAMB can be a little strange as to what's "happenin'"... I'm doing one of these next (after I'm done with current projects), so POST AWAY!

 

Looking good!

 

My only concern is with how you flattened the top of the rails....I'm thinking this little wedge fill will result in the front end sitting a couple inches higher. Maybe no biggie with your own plans?

 

looking good to me. will be watching this one

 

Jeem

I'm using the model a crossmember in the 32 rails. As the front now is the same as an A (width wise) and has the lower setting Model A crossmember...I don't quite understand.

 

See ya'll tomorrow evening, gotta shut this down till later.
Boxcar

 

Are you planning to add more "kick" upward forward of where you flattened the frame to get back your front axle clearance?

Steve

 

We're here and we're watching. Looking good! I'm nearly done on a 28 tudor build, so I'm taking an interest in this.

 

clean build, be watching

 

Hemisteve

No more kick, this is it. Car will not be to low. I may be missing something but I don't see the issue...please explain. I don't see this frame any differently that any other flat rail (front) out there. I'm looking to achieve 6"-8" from the ground at the front hub....
Boxcar

 

good job on the build so far i like it ,

 

cool hot rod

 

Because you added a little wedge to kill some of the sweep in the top of the rail, you've effectively lowered the front of the rails a bit at the front (a couple of inches, I would guesstimate) which of course will raise the front by that much. You're using an A crossmember so you'll be back at what a deuce frame offers in the first place. You said it will not be real low, so all this is moot. Just trying to explain the comments. I love 28-9 sedans on '32 rails....I envy you!

 

Yes, what Jeem said - you lose the original clearance that a '32 frame would have.

Steve

 

Jeem / Hemisteve
I think it'll work out in the end. I'm going for an all weather driver with legs to go to some far off shows. I just returned from my dads shop yesterday (my car is now 12 hrs away) so I'm fighting off depression and planning my next trip back to it.

On the planning board is the following:
1. Complete the rear crossmember. Will be equipped with mounting points for coilovers and will have a ledge to aid in carrying some of the rear weight of the body.
2. Install front boxing plates so we can set the front crossmember. Will push the front crossmember fwd 2-3" so expect a 108 to 109 wb model A in the near future. My hope is to limit the need for a firewall setback.
3. K member fab, dad did a fine job on his 33 so we'll make another. Just undecided if I want to drop the battery in it like he did or if I want it inside by the gas tank.
4. Mild tub in the back
5. Mild chop...thinking 2-3"

Thanks for all the comments
Stay tuned
Boxcar

 

Cool build! Gettin' ideas, I am gonna do a Tudor myself.

 

I like the build so far..... Keep up the nice work.

 

Nice job on the frame.

 

Sweet build! Keep up the good work and share the enthusiasm even though it's 12hrs away.

 

this thing is looking great, keep it up

 

cool build,if you have a problem with the front being to high you can always flatten out your front crossmember to make it sit lower. good luck

 

Here's an update on the Tudors progress.
Trying to do the best with a 4 day weekend. Dad has did a mild tub in the wheelwell to allow the tires to tuck-in abit. I was not there for this project so I can only present the results. He cut the old ww about 1/2 back from where it folds under and replace with new steel..smoothing things out.

the inside with the reinforced square tube at the cut out.

the rear windows will now have less than 100% of it travel...we're thinking we'll get 50 to 70% of the travel with the 3 in chop we did.

the window rest at the bottom will need to be repositioned as the bottom travel has changed..that'll be another day.
NOW FOR A QUESTION...
We've got the new wood in place and with regards to the ....lets call it the "Front metal wood cap piece"??? When in place it shows about 1/4 inch of the wood...see in the pic. Is this typical? Or do we need to take the wood plane to the leading edge of the front header and cut it back???

NOW...it may be just as it was. The metal cap has ends that do not appear to allow for a perfect fit. What I mean here is that there appears to be a natural standoff within the design of the metal cap that may prevent a a flush fit between the cap and the body.

Moving on to the chop.
We had some 3 inch tape but dad wanted a line to cut by vs a piece of tape. Soooooooo using a laser levil we marked the points and cut a 3 in strip of metal flashing and scribed the line. Pretty straight forward...having the laser was a plus.

The top cut went well...took it slow. Dad is one of those that likes to "SAVE THE LINE" so he can see it for reference during the trim up... That did make the chop harder as that now you can't use the line for the cut...you have to dial into an imaginary 1/16 that hovers below the line...an overall pain in the ass but it's what dad wants...so I comply.

A great cut for my first chop...very little dress-up required

This was a good day!!!!




Back together...man 3in chop does wonders for the looks.

Some of the piller welds.
It all lined up well. We first welded up the rear window edges, then the body seam beads l/r, then the rear window rear edges...leaving the slices at the body edge for another day. later we moved forward with the b pillers and the last was the a pillers these were abit more sporty as they needed more work that the rest. Great results overall....I do do say.

 

Some of the detail pics





Time for a beer>>>>

I'll be away from the computer for replies or comments for the next couple of days...I'll check back in when able. See yall later.

 

Chop looks good. This ain't your first rodeo.

 

Awesome build, looks great.