Hot Rods Had a good day today!

Been awhile since my last update, life's been getting in the way.

A buddy came over tonight and we yanked the engine & trans out of the Essex chassis. He's a slant-6 fanatic so I gave him the engine & trans to use in his next project.

It's a good thing we took the truck off the road when we did...the engine cradle was ready to fall out of the truck!

The torched part in the center of the cradle was for oil pan clearance. Note the drop on the right side where the crossmember cracked by the tower.


Here's a better shot of the crack.
Gotta love 70's back yard engineering. The engine cradle was welded to the piece of channel, which was in turn welded to the stock front crossmember. That weld broke and the whole assembly was held in by gravity and the little strip of metal between the cracks. Scary stuff!!


Cradle removed after I broke the weld by wiggling it up and down a few times.


I'm wondering if I can modify the stock Chevy crossmember to mount a Ford tranverse leaf front end to. The shape looks like it would work, and the small bolt hole in the center is lined up perfectly to center the axle under the front fenders. I'd just need to enlarge the hole a bit for the spring bolt and make provisions for the spring clamp. Any thoughts from the members?


Overall shot of the chassis sans the drivetrain.


The next step is to cut the Corvair front end out, take the running board brackets off, and send the frame out for sandblasting.