Projects i just want something to cruise.

LOVE the attention to detail and top quality fab work man!
Lookin real good, just as i would expect!

Tony

 

WOW!

that frame/chassis is A+++

Later

 

Nice work, but I agree with "dontlifttoshift" you will get better articulation with a johnnie joint in the center of the top link. I also think you will get a lot of pinion angle change as the suspension cycles .

Later, Mark

 

Beautiful work! Keep us posted. Thanks

 

i love that control arm design!

 

That is some damn nice frame work.LB

 

that thing is tits....awesome work!

 

first i want to say thanks for everyones positive comments, and i really appreciate everyone who took a second to look at this post.

i also thought i would get alot of pinion angle change as the suspension cycles, and i admit, i never really checked to see how much, untill tonight.

so here it is, when completely layed out, the pinion angle is 2.5 degrees with the driveshaft slanting down towards the tranny.

at full lift (9.5 inches up) it is 3.5 degrees with the driveshaft slanting up towards the tranny.

so a total of 6 degrees change over 9.5 inches of travel. sounds like alot right? so i checked it at ride height (5 inches off the ground) and its still at 2.5 degrees. so i think its plenty good. not to mention thats straight out of the box, i can adjust both the wishbone and the lower links to further dial this setup in. so im super happy with how its come out.

as for the johnny joint, i agree, it would articulate better, but lucky for me i am not building a 53 chevy rock crawler here. (although i can see where someone might get that idea, with 9.5 inches of rear travel and all... just sayin...)

 

[QUOTEas for the johnny joint, i agree, it would articulate better, but lucky for me i am not building a 53 chevy rock crawler here. (although i can see where someone might get that idea, with 9.5 inches of rear travel and all... just sayin...)[/QUOTE]

You must not plan to drive on south MS roads . I realize most of the pinion angle change will come from laying frame at rest so you should be OK.

Later, Mark

 

Nice engine. I know a farmer who could have used that six for a field truck. Oops, duck! I probably pissed off a bunch of "bomb" guys!

P.S. Pretty awesome fab work, too bad it's so low no one will ever see it! I missed this thread before and haven't read it all yet, what are your plans for coating the chassis?

 

looks like you are having fun!

i have been looking at this and trying to figure out how you adjust your front upper arms to set caster and alignment. . . am i missinng something?

 

That should cruz like a dream. Really beautiful fab, welding, and machine work. I am so amazed at the high grade talent by our H.A.M.B community. Just cool of you to take time to share with us. Rock on pal. ~sololobo~

 

freaken nice! if mine turns out a tenth as nice as yours.I'd be happy as hell..

 

thanks! i havent made my mind up yet as far as the chassis coating, probably just paint, i thought about powder coat, but im not sure if i like how permanent it is.

as for caster adjustment, you simply extend one side of the upper arm more than the other, its not 100% ideal, because it causes a slight bind in the bushings, but it works. its also not fun to align because you have to basically remove the upper a-arm each time you make an adjustment. hopefully by the grace of god and my tape measure/level/angle finder it should be pretty close.

the slotted tophat style (fatman) crossmembers are much easyer to align, and offer my more adjustability, but ive had them come loose before going down the road, or hitting a hard bump and causing the uppers to slide inwards. with this setup something has to snap before you will lose your alignment.

 

and just because i refuse to let a full page go without at least one pic,



bought the floors, made the inner rockers, and patched the rusted braces.


made these too.

 

Know it all!! hahahaha

i kid i kid! nice tin work!

 

im sorry, am i comming across as arrogant? hahah thanks tony, i cant wait to get back to the sheetmetal on this car. i better hurry up, its all starting to rust!

 

Nope, not at all!! And you're welcome man.
As far as it rusting, at least ya know how to make it all pretty again!
Go man go!

 

suicide prevention week. deadend.

 

Really enjoying this build. Your work is fantastic!

 

Freaking awesome dude.

<O</OHow do you form your tubes?

<O</OAs to your comment on coating the frame.. Good to hear.

<O</OI run a powder coating line for my "day job", around 10 yrs experience with it, and I come from a liquid coatings background before powder.

<O</OThere is nothing magic about powder coating.

<O</OPowder coating is simply a method of applying a coating. It's nice for High volume MFG because there are no solvents involved, it's dry, safe, clean, reclaimable so efficiencies can be practically 100% in some cases.... but there is nothing magic about the paint itself.

<O</OIf you really want a particular look or have a particular goal for your coating hardness, chip/abrasion resistance, corrosion resistance etc... It can be had wet or dry.

<O</OThere are many different powder coatings and methods just as there are many different wet coatings and methods. The same goals can be achieved with either pertaining to physical characteristics. It's the appearance area where liquid pulls ahead of powder.
<OPowder aint magic.
<O
Rant off lol!!

This build is pure art. I love it.<O</O

 

wow! thanks for the info dave! thats good to know! i had the frame powdercoated on a car i built years ago, and learned the hard way that i wish i had either waited till i had tested the car out before coating, or had done some kind of paintwork so i could make suspension changes when the car didnt quite do what i wanted it to!

im considering getting this 53 all together and running in bare steel/etch primer, and driving it for a good couple hundred miles to work the bugs out. then tear it down, sandblast, and decide on coatings once im confident i didnt totally screw everything up.

thanks again.

 

There wouldn't be anything wrong with that. Etch prime seems big these days with all the resto and rodder forums I visit. I'm an epoxy prime guy myself. 2k like good old DP-40 or the oodles of copy cat offerings out there that do as well in my opinion.

Epoxy primers typically have a recoat or overcoat window (timeline) for top coating without having to scuff.

No big deal if you pass that window, just scuff and topcoat or touch up from a grind/weld wound.. what ever.

epoxy is the king for keeping moisture from reaching your bare steel, but it's weak in UV resistance and weak in abrasion resistance. If you want to cover all your bases you'll end up with a multi stage coating. Basically stacking coatings appropriately with something like epoxy being the foundation. Urethanes are the most popular topcoats for your tinwork these days. But for chassis and underbody coatings where people flock to powder coating you would be better in my opinion going with a nail hard liquid coating like eastwood or POR15 products. The liquid coatings that will parallel powder coatings and or surpass powder coatings in hardness will be slowwwwww drying products, but man when they dry they are rock hard and you can repair/touch them up after cut/grind/weld mods.

Powder is neat, but most people in my opinion use it for the wrong reasons and a lot of times it is done incorrectly.

A "super durable" (double extruded TGIC polyester) powder over an autophoretic epoxy or elecro deposition epoxy and co-cured... That would be tough to beat for a frame, but you'll have a hard time finding someone that knows what that is let alone a shop that can do it.

I'm gonna shut the hell up now, I just paint nerded myself out, it's creepy.

Rock on Dude, you got big skills.

 

That would be one of the best frames i have ever seen , Killer work .

 

looking killer cant wait to see more progress on this car

 

november 5, 2010.


cheese.

anyone got any good gastank ideas? a sheet of stainless is like $400.

 

Great build so far, looking good!

 

NICE work. Gary

 

You, sir, are what we should all aspire to be. I worry for the people who "welded it up with a paperclip and my flashlight batteries" that pop up here occasionally, but then I find this post and I find redemption...

I can only tell you about my experience with gas tanks. The old plastic fuel cell in the trunk sucks. I did that in my off-topic car and won't do it again. Sainless is nice but not the only way to go. Mild steel will get the job done and consider how much rust are you planning on getting on this car?

Very nice work. Enjoy your cruizin!

 

Try a mustang tank. there are a couple of threads about the subject.....it actually works out pretty good and there are DIRT CHEAP...