Thanks again for the replies. The motor and trans is going into a '32 Ford truck. A friend of mine gave me this model of the truck. after looking at it and measuring it to see what would have to be done I decided to build it. It is stretched 6 inches in front of the cowl. I thought it would look funny with a V8 flathead and since the V12 is about 6" longer than a V8 it would fill the engine compartment nicely. My dad was a sheet metal guy his whole life. He worked for a company that made stainless steel sinks for hospitals. When I was growing up he would bring home blank stamping from the holes in the sink. I would pretend it was money. In the evenings and week ends he would build SS parrot cages that were truly amazing in the details. So I decided to build a show car in memory of him, using as much stainless steel as possible. I duplicated a '32 frame, bells for a quick change, front and rear leaf springs, wish bones front and rear, I bought a stainless front axle, spindles, steering arms, and am making rotors and calipers and exact copy of a stock fire wall out of stainless. The chassis is almost finished, the axle tubes are done and the springs have been heat treated and polished. So that's about where I am.
Sure I take lots of photo's. This is the beginning of the frame. I had it lazar cut, each frame rail is made out of 12 pieces then welded together and hand filed to look like it is one piece. It took 3 months to complete the rails.
Hey Ken fancy seeing you here, Its looking beautiful, Its Steve Lang here, Hope you are well, its been a while since we last had contact, Hows the stainless frame coming on ???
Steve, Nice to here from you. Yes, I have been working on it but most of my time is devoted to the '32 sedan It is almost done then back to the stainless build. I looked up your build, wow, it is coming along nicely. I just heard from Don. Really nice to hear from you guys. Ken
I thought I would show more of how the frame was made and how I got the front and rear spring done.This is how it looked when I got it back from the lazar cutter. The second one is what it looked like as I started grinding and filing. The next is how the springs were made. After finding a spring company that would even talk to me I know now you can make any configuration you need. You can have any spring rate you want and any dimension you need, it really is a way to tailor your quality of ride. First I got a piece of flat bar stainless 1/4"X 4" and had it sheared it at 1 3/4 wide for the front spring so it left 2 1/4 width for the rear spring. Then took it to the spring shop and he cut and bent it to the configuration I needed. He did it while I waited. From there I went to the heat treated. When I picked them up the next day the were purple from the heat treatment. I took them back and polished them the best I could before I sent the to a real polisher. Now I had no idea on how or if this would work, I was referred to a spring company in Fresno Ca. His company makes SS coil springs. I told him what I wanted to do and he told me what type of material to use and what the heat treating should be, all I really did was go shop to shop and to get it done.
Just beautiful! Can you share some details about what's in the engine? I'm getting ready to start a V12 build and need all the help I can get! Mark
Great stuff Ken and glad to catch up with you, I will shoot you a pm when I get a chance, look after yourself buddy . Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
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