Hot Rods Almost Home: The Rolling Chassis

Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post:

Almost Home: The Rolling Chassis

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I remember the feeling. HRP

 

I love rolling chassis almost more than the finished car.

I remember seeing photos from some guys shop way back when the hamb was an infant... there were three hot rod chassis in various states, blown hemi, injected olds, etc etc... one had just the cab on it...

It makes you think of all of the potential... reminds you of building model cars too... I swear to god that photo is etched in my mind. I think partly because I didnt think it was possible to have that much cool in one shop... I struggled for so long just to keep what I had back then-

I had a deadline for my truck chassis- last summer third weekend in June for our local show. This year I have a new deadline for a new rolling chassis for my roadster. I think about it every day... I can't wait to see what the roadster frame will look like with the early hemi in it.

There are all these little victory's along the way... but none of them cooler than seeing them all come together with a roller. Its the mechanical dream realized... the functional no bullshit story behind the hot rod... right there in your face.

You might look good wearing fancy cloths but really its whats underneath that counts.




#yourbellyishangingoutofyourshirt

 

The best feeling ever. After looking at photos of rollers online for so long and then finally seeing mine outside the garage felt great.

 

Dave's confused pickup frame awaiting the body. HRP

 

All fine looking chassis for sure.

 

ditto. nothing better. this was mine.

 

I'll play.

 

It wasn't quite rolling, but it felt like progress at the time...




Kinda wish I'd put the nice wheels on and snapped a picture or two with the heads, intake etc. before I started to put it all back together.

 

I love chassis pics. Like Tuck said, they're kinda the upskirt for a hotrod or custom. My '36 chassis...

 

It's a great feeling. I stared at mine for what seemed like forever. Kinda like that first girl friend...... well, you know, nekid.

 

here is mine. always a good feeling to get to this stage in the build.

 

I love chassis pics! Here's the one I'm working on currently...
And the first roll out of the barn a few weeks ago.

 

It ain't rolling but it's close

 

Love the chassis pics! So much good work on the HAMB.

My two favorite days so far were getting mine rolling in bare metal and getting it back from powder coating and getting it on four wheels all over again. Hope to get the body on in the next couple of weeks.

 

Jive
The setting and black & white picture gives it the look and feel your roller was built back in the day, Nice rollers everyone,I,m in the planning stages of my next project before building a roller.

 

There was a time I took a break from my Career and went back to building houses for people. It's like a freshly framed house (no matter what size) you get all excited 'cause there's structure and shape and a little bit of that hope and promise of what's to come. But Holy shit the end is a long ways away. There's two great moments for me in this process. One is when the chassis rolls under its own equipment and the next is when you finally drive it out of the garage and set it free!

All the best,
Tim

 

My current build,
Getting it to a roller is a good part of the journey ,rolling it out if the shed the first time then sitting
back on a milk crate and checking it out from a distance is a blast.
Seeing it to the end is something special!

 

Great looking rollers guys! Nice work all.

 

Watching the pile of parts becoming a car in my little storage room workshop is fantastic. It's really a shame to have to take it all apart to clean everything up so it will roll right when the time comes.

 

Yep, I'm halfway home already!
Well, maybe halfway to halfway....

 

Ionia frame under my '29.

 

Been there a few times myself Jay,
I just dig when you can roll it and stand about 10' back, get a good eyeball on it and critique your own work. A lot of what one builds reflects on ones personality and tastes. When putting a car together one tends to think that they may hit proverbial nail on the head or missed it altogether.
A lot of the pix posted here look great and I wish that I'd taken time to shoot pix while I was building a car with a chassis one would have said "Oh No, You Didn't Buy That?" Our own Elmo Rodge found me that chassis on ePay. It was something that I worked on for days it seemed. I feel that it came out pretty nice and I'm glad that I watched the likes of P-Wood & Jake heli-arching all of those chassis during my time that I'd hang out over at their places bending their ears.
I do have a pic of the car with body as a driver so here is the chassis with the body on it,

 

Found 2 of my 1st chassis ever.
1987 in Alhambra in a patio.
A 1934 with updated stuff, cuz that's what was in the magz. I probably would have been way ahead if I'd just kept it as it was when I got it with its 39 Trans and saddle, and kept it un-boxed, but I was young and naive and did what all the older guys were doing.
It's funny, but it took me another 10 yrs to find one that was a stocker flathead.

Still pretty proud though of that 1st chassis as it was a damn good riding. steering and handling chassis. (Sorry guys, I don't know why it won't let me rotate the images).

 

Chassis basically done. Engine and trans go in next.

 

I enjoy these chassis threads!

 

I'm so close on this one, I can taste it.

 

Getting close now - will run the brakelines and then it's off for blasting and epoxy primer

 

A friend of mine's from a couple of years ago, and one he did in 1956.