Projects 348 powered 40 Ford sedan

Some of the rust that was concerning me

 

Decided to cut the inner rail just before it joins the rear chassis behind the X member, and added some additional bracing to keep it all in place. 15 rivets later, and it’s out..

 

Pretty crusty in there…

 

that is fairly typical but you seem to have a good plan!

 

Tough project. You should sleep better knowing you fixed it right!

 

Many have walked in your shoes and successfully repaired their frames. Your bracing is above average and you have a good plan. I like the idea of using rivets to reinstall the repaired sections. These frames are pretty flexible even without the rust damage; I wouldn't start welding cross members until i had a solid "table" to hold the main rails in place. Good luck.

 

Small update, but I’m happy with how it’s going. I had the rear crossmember and inner frame section blasted and epoxied, and then set about blasting the inside of the chassis myself. I setup a very make shift booth to try and contain the blast media and set to it.
I was using a pretty course black oxide which I thought would eat through the rust, but it took about 4 hours to almost finish, but the moisture trap that came with the blaster isn’t great, which I think resulted in the media getting damp and blocking the exit from
The tank, that and as you use the media, it degrades, so I also think that I didn’t have enough in the pot to feed.

 

Trying to get the same media wasn’t easy, so I went for 60 grade aluminium oxide, which is much finer than the previous media, and I was very doubtful that it would do the job, that and with a couple of days passing, all the work I’d done was already rusting again. But, this stuff ripped through it, super impressed, though it was very dusty, it degraded at about the same rate as the old stuff, and cost twice as much, but well worth it

 

This area was then epoxied, and the rust repaired. I made a metal hammer form and used some heat to make the repair section for the bottom of the kickup, and used a nice big piece of box section I had to brace the chassis rail while I welded it in. I was very suprised how much the back moved when I welded the plate in by the friction shock mount, it bowed 10 mm, just under half an inch. A bit of heat got it back, but I didn’t think pulling the tail up if it shrunk when I welded the bottom corner repair piece in would be particularly easy, so I tried to stop it happening

 

And that worked really well. Now I had to put the inner structure back in having epoxied the repairs. I bolted the frame back to the box section to keep it in place, tapped the inner structure in, made sure everything lined up, then bolted on the other 3 braces to help hold it all square. I rigged the cut at the front, then it was rivet time..

 

Now it’s all epoxied, I was worried about using heat to do the rivets, and had looked at a couple of ideas, using welding mat with a little hole in to shield the frame from the torch, and used a really small gas torch to focus the heat. Kind of worked, but not great. Next idea was to use a small induction coil, I’ve seen bigger versions used to heat metal to bright red to forge it, and I know you can get small versions to heat seized nuts and bolts, but work is tight at the moment, and I couldn’t afford to buy one.
Bit of reading, and found that gem and ford set chassis rivets cold, so I looked into this, and found after a few test tries that it worked really well. Now I had to figure out how to hold the river while I whacked it. I went with this home made contraption..

 

It’s an old acrow, used to support walls/ floors in buildings when you remove a bit of wall to hold up what’s above it. I went for that because it’s adjustable height wise and strong. I then took a big bolt and nut, shaped a drill bit tip to be the same radius as the river head, and drilled the side of the bolt head. This formed my ‘buck’. I then welded the nut to the side of the arrow, and braced it, makeund sure the bolt sat in top of the arrow for max support. This let me rotate the bolt to get the right angle for the river heads as I moved along the frame. The lock nut in the back stopped the bolt rotating while I was striking the rivet. I had to make a few adjustments, such as adding the lock nut, and adding another hole for the pin in the acrow to get the height I needed for one rivet, but this worked really well, and I’m more than happy with how they’ve pulled down and secured the pieces.

 

The rivets on the top of the frame were hammered flat by Ford, no domes, so I did the same. The first pic , all black, is Henry’s, the second mine, the third from underneath.
I’ve decided to bolt the bottom in for now to secure it, then take out the other side, blast and prime, repair if necessary, and replace, then spin the whole thing over to river the bottom.

 

Nice job and I know that pulling the inner frame rails out to repair the outer rails was a ton of work.
I used a larger tip on the torch along with a slightly oxidizing flame. My thought was to heat the end of the rivet quickly and form it before all the heat transferred into the surrounding metal. I only had to heat the rivet about 30 sec to 1 minute before hitting it with a air hammer. The rivet head cools fast with contact to the forming tool, so on 5/16 and 3/8 rivets I had to heat at least twice.
You're going to have a good ,solid frame.

 

Slight delay on work here, just got too cold, not US cold, only a high of -1, but not warm enough to work in a big shed.
Anyway, I’ve now removed, cleaned, epoxied and replaced the other side, just rivets to finish this week.
Having mini tubbed the inner rear fenders, the rear body mounts needed trimming, and although I’d done this already before finishing the bottom edge of the inner fender, I now realised they were super tight on the body, making the refit hard, and also a moisture/dirt trap, so I have modified those, using 3mm steel, before and after shots.
Also repaired the exhaust cut out in the frame after it had been gas axed at some point in it’s past.
All small stuff, but it’s moving along
I hope to have the frame at Royal Kustoms in early Jan for the rest end fit.

 

Repairing the " why did they do that" situations always bothered me more than what time and weather did. I know a lot of stuff was done when these cars were just old used cars and seemed to be not worth much, but it still bothers me. You're getting there; keep it up.

 

Done! Finally got both inner skins back in after blasting and epoxy priming, and another of rust repair. Tig welded the back in at the x member, then all rivets redone.
I found some pretty bad rust on the chassis by one if the body mounts, (all the crosses are holes) so I’ve removed the mount to repair it, and I’ll make a new panel to repair the chassis, and ask Royal Kustoms to section it in, so I know the chassis will stay straight. So it should be off to Royal Kustoms this month to have the rear axle installed etc.

 

Those body mounts are/ were available from Joe's Antique Auto. I know it's costly shipping for you, but you may call/ email them. Good service. phone 1 800 508 3980 ; email [email protected]. I got a lot of frame repair pieces for my pickup frame from them.

 

Thanks for that Joel, just emailed him. Drakes do them as well, but only as a kit of four from what i can make out

 

Those body mounts worked out at about £200, so I made one. Started with a bit of 3mm wall box, and went from there. I also made a repair section for the chassis rail, and hot riveted the two together , before adding the outside face of the mount to allow access to the rivets. I've handed the chassis and 'patch panel' over to Royal Kustoms, as they have a frame table to hold it all straight when the panel is sectioned in. They're also fitting the narrowed banjo they've built for me with Hot Rod Works internals, probably with 36 bones and a new front bone mount and torque arms, and narrowed A spring. Might be a while tho, they've also got two crashed ford coupe classic rally cars to fix for the Alaska to Mexico Rally, in 2 months

Rally car carnage - these cars were immaculate before.

 

And Dave at Rough Diamond Racing got the 348 back together, new Isky cam tucked in for good measure, with a little scribbling in the motor plate and oil filter can by Neil Melliard.
still to add are the colour detailed Offy rocker covers and surfer scoops

 

Really nice work on the frame repair pieces and great finish on the W motor.

 

Thanks Joel, starting to feel like i'm turning the corner towards the home straight

 

Great work Neil, as always.

 

Great work as usual Neil!
I'm curious.....wy are there dimples in that body mount? clearance for a bolt or rivet?
Keep it up!

 

Thanks Tom.

Not a clue, there's nothing that I can see on the body, maybe a hangover form an earlier model, I think these are the same from 35 on

 

thanks. Did you sell yours? And is the coupe the new project?

 

I did sell off all my 409 and 348 inventory and let the 64 go as well. It rides around now up in northern Maine. Only thing I have left is my 31 project which seems to be keeping me busy enough!

 

A little update, chassis is at Royal Kustoms, rear axle narrowed, 36 bones mocked up waiting for narrower A main leaf, new chassis section and body mount welded in. I need to get the gearbox to them now so they can setup the pinion angle.

 

While the chassis has been there, I’ve been working on the floor. Although the seat riser was solid, it had a fair bit of surface rust. As the rest of the floor is now new. I decided it would be quicker to replace it than try to de rust it, so that’s what I’ve been doing