Late Tech, for the ladies, how to build a hot rod

This is a post for how my lady built her hot rod.

Now bear in mind she had never picked up grinder or welder, but she wanted to learn, so I showed her what to do. So anyone can do this, we don't have a shop or even a garage, it just takes determination and a little know how, which is here on the hamb.

here is what she found to start with




first off she wanted to chop it, so she braced the body and bolted it to a stock model A frame. and started laying out the chop, which was 5".
I told her to add up the tape to 5", as in one piece of 3" tape and two 1" pieces, it seems to make a parrallel line even if you are not straight.





this is a trick I actually saw on the hamb, spray paint the tape and then peal it off, that way when you cut the tape doesn't come off while cutting. Works great.


Here she goes at it. she is very concerned with safety as she works at the hospital, so she had on all her gear.

 

Here is the "roof Off" manditory shot





And the roof back on



Now I figured the chop would be a good place to learn how to weld, well it is not that easy on old rusty metal but she learned alot along the way.


she had some late night help from her girlfriends.

these are the releif cuts needed to bring the two parts together. And some cool HF clamps.

here is our "workshop" got to clean up some day

 

Good stuff

 

Now we started mocking up the front end with the stock frame to see how
much she wanted to drop it. she was pretty set on the rear tire coming up to the bead on the body,

so the next step was to draw the frame full size from the side and above.
I used some cardboard from a sheet of plywood, sorry no pic but you can figure it out even if you draw it on the drive way.

then she started building the frame, by the time she was done with the chop
she was decent with the welder, and I watched what she was doing.




I told her to stack the frame rails to keep them the same and clamped together on a big I beam I have.

then we pie cut them to create the narrowing of the frame as it goes forward.
this frame was actually made to fit the subrail as you will see later.

 

Dude,that prety cool.I thought my GF was cool,but yours takes the cake.BTW,you live in HotRod Heaven.

 

the rails were clamped together, again side by side on the I beam and that way the angles would match and the frame would be symetrical.




then with a couple of I beams on saw horses and shim to level with each other and not twisted, she attached the new frame to the original model A
frame horns. this way all you see is the orig frame from the fire wall forward, or at least that was the plan.

 

Awesome!!!!!!!!!

 

Here is the pile of parts soon to be a chassis,

there is a 9", that she went to pick and pull and pull out of a ford truck.

and a 40 ford front end with old drop axle.



and the first mock up, sorry for the late night pic, we had a few beers while putting the body on.



look like we put the mock up motor in



next up the channel

 

More!more!

 

Here is the subrail, she cut it out right at the verticle part just in from the door it drops down.



My idea was we would just make a verticle piece right where she cut it and put the subrail back in.





here you can see she just used a piece of tubing clamped to the verticle piece and sitting on the frame as a spacer to set the height.
the body is sitting on pieces welded to the bottom of the frame sticking out
so the bottom of the body is flush with the bottom of the frame.



Here is the sub rail trimmed down and put back it place

 

Right on! Man, I wish my wife was into it like that. She's very supportive, but never wants to help or get dirty

 

That's pretty cool. But if she is really concerned about safety let her know she shouldn't wear gloves while grinding.

 

sHe bought a wood kit for it, and started putting it in.



and started making a piece to connect the visor to the side panel, normally they nail to the wood, but she didn't like that.



Here it is welded in, she actually is pretty good with the hammer and dolly for a newbie.



then with some help from some freinds we took the body off and turned it so she could weld the channel from below.


next on to the chassis with the body off.

 

Thats a sharp body too!The car I mean.....

 

I agree about the gloves, but she didn't like the sparks hitting her and they were welding gloves, she made it out safe.

She will be happy to hear your guys responce.

back to the build.

since she wanted the car so low, there is a kick up in the front.
but even with the dropped axle it was not enough to have travel.

So we mounted the spring off of the bones.



this is just mocked up, I welded it both inside and out. this is one of the few things I welded, and that was cuz she wanted me to do it.



you can see it that first pic she made a flat cross member out of some tubing
with the bottom cut out.
that ended up being to much, as the spring would hit the frame with travel and she didn't want to notch the frame.

I should tell you that we moved the crossmember back so the wheel base stayed the same.

so now we jump ahead in the pics as I was working alot while she did the chassis and she didn't take pics.

but basically you can see in this pic the chassis done.
she wanted the coil overs in the back for a softer ride and the adjustability, as she has had back problems. my hot rod is too stiff for her so she build her own.








A little more info on the chassis, she used ladder bars that are actually curtis style hairpins modified. and the steering box is a gemmer, exactly like an F1 ford truck, but reversed. I think it was in a fork lift. any how it makes the pit man arm go up, which worked out well.

I should also point out the front crossmember, we lowered it and that c notch in it is for the lower radiator hose. it is
heavy wall tubing, so I am not worried. the xmember is actually behind the radiator, since the spring is behind but the
axle is in the stock location front to back.

 

Man, you better hang onto her. Not may ladies want to work on old cars, much less build one.

 

Now this is one thing I did on the car, while she was at work.

the motor is a yblock,292 and as some of you know, it is the ford with
the dizzy in the back.

so some interference with the fire wall and getting the dizzy in and out let alone turn to adjust.

well at first we thought just reverse the fire wall, but as some of you know
you lose about 4" from where it was to where it will be when reversed.

so with the fire wall out, I cut off the flat that has the holes where it screws
in to the tank. and then reversed it.

well we can't stop there, I wanted the beads to face forward as they should
and I thought is has kind of a duece feel as far as depth.



after this was welded, I bolted that flange i cut off back into the body, reversed. I wish I had a pick of this. but it was just the flat part reversed on the cowl,

then i welded the new reversed fire wall in front of that, so you end up with
only a couple of inches of reverse.

here is apic of it with the hole car sorry I don't have a better pic. but it worked out good, you can still unbolt the tank.

 

Great project.
Nice documentation.
Excellent post!

.

 

I am in awe........how cool.

 

here it is with the grill cut down to fit.

man she did a lot of welding sectioning that thing.



and here is from the rear



here is the new motor in,

it is a 292 bored .40 over, with a clay smith cam, these are solid lifte motors.

she actually made motor mounts twice cuz the first one didn't leave room for the generator, it was my fault, but she tried again
and made some side mounts

actually this pic is before they were done, there are some gussets added.
and then she had to notch the frame for the generator.
the front of the frame is step boxed, so the notch does not cut into the boxing.



She put a 4 speed t-10 behind the yblock, because "I don't want an automatic, people will just think it is a girls car" hahaha
god I love this woman

 

Really great post,........ nice work!

 

Enjoyed the hell out of that! Will be keeping an eye on your progress, thanks for posting. The best part is yet to come, the feeling of accomplishment you get on that first trip around the block in a car you built with your own two hands.

 

She started on this thing last november and wanted to drive it to paso,

so in the end we had to help her some, i wired and plumbed the thing.



In the end we left a day late, but she made it to paso and back, with no problems except the old tires on the back splitting, but coker was there
and she had to buy new ones.

here she is driving it





and here is how it sits now at the asphault inv.


I have to admit I am very proud of her, she put in alot of long hours, rain or shine out in the yard and under that car port. she wanted to say she built and she did.

and now we are going to drive our hot rods to bonneville next week.
thanks to all of the hamb, as she looks on here and learned a lot.

she especially studied leadsledmercs build up of his sedan.

I know I have learned alot of what I taught her from this place, so I hope this post helps someone else build a hot rod.

 

wow...just wow.

 

Thats so rad, good looking car!

 

Thanks for the post. Great pics, and tips.

Damn, I'd trade three women who can dechrome a bumper for one that can chop a top.

 

That's fantastic! She should be proud of herself..........but I don't think this is a tech just for the LADIES, I think encompasses anyone who's ever thought about building a hotrod, but was unsure of their skill and knowledge.

 

What a kick ass ride, She should be proud!!!

 

i agree. awesome tech and great pics. now all we need is a youtube video with her doing a big ol' burnout or something.