mounting body to frame

im rebuilding a 34 dodge sedan. my rod isnt traditional so i wont post any pictures. but what i need to know is traditional, so hopefully that prevents me from getting skewered.

i want to know what options i have for mounting my 34 sedan body to the chassis of my choice. the chassis is square tubing.

pictures and or links to your builds would help alot, thanks everyone in advance.

 

I bought a sheet of 1/4" thick rubber and cut it into 2"x2" squares to use as insulators between the body and chassis. Simple, cheap, and similar to what was used from the factory for my 37 Buick.

 

In years past factories typically used what is generically called tire carcass. In some cases it actually was cut up old tires. I have used conveyer belt material. Like tire carcass it is reinforced, and it is available in assorted thicknesses, hardness, materials, etc.

 

I know of guys that have used hockey pucks.... probably were Canadian...

 

Why not use the usual frame webbing available from any early Ford supply house?


Some guys pop rivet it to the top of the frame to keep it from moving when setting the body. It's not expensive and it is what they actually used.

 

all these options are awesome ideas, but im referring more to the actual bolting the body to the frame. my body doesnt currently have a floor and the frame has no premade mounts. so im looking for options before i get carried away with sheetmetal on the floor.

 

I am using some body mounts that I picked up from Speedway, along with the body insulator previously mentioned on my current project. The Speedway body mounts are really cheap, although they are only intended for lightweight cars. On a previous project, a 29 Ford Tudor, I built my own mounts out of some really dense three quarter inch thick rubber.

Check out the Speedway body mounts, on their online site, under T buckets I think, and good luck!

 

I used that frame webbing. I didn't have a floor. So I just made a structure to follow my tubing frame. Lay down the webbing and bolt it where ever you like. No problems driving it this summer.

 

Some people run 3/4" or so, rectangular or square tubing across the bottom of the body, to build a sub frame for the body. Then they drill through it and bolt it to the top flange of the frame rails.

Then lay your floor sheetmetal on top of the tubing framework, but mark and drill where the frame bolts need to go through.

I kinda guess your frame rail won't be like most 34 cars with open rails. In that case, you need some sort of brackets welded to the sides of a closed frame rail, to line up with the cross tubing.

 

hockey pucks are a good idea. but they hard really hard. non traditional, like the r--rod?

 

ok thank you, thats a little more the direction i need.

i saw a vehicle Ian Rousel did, where he drilled a hole in the boxed frame and welded a nut in its place and grinded it smooth. then he ran a bolt thru the floor and into the nut in the frame. Has anyone tried this method or something along those lines???

 

You really helped they guy!!!!

 

I drilled 3/4" holes then welded threaded steel bosses into my chassis rails in about ten places, then bolted through the floor of the body into them. Mine was a glass body, so also non traditional.

 

good idea, wish i could see your photo, blocked here

 

can you see thumbnail pics?

 

Does this work?

ETA: Beaten to it.

 

That is exactly how I mounted mine to the closed frame tubing

 

yeah i can see those now, thanks. where do you get boses like that? that seems basically the same idea Ian Roussel had but his was more on the cheap side.

 

I did my "A" coupe the same as MORRISMAN did his, but I used flange nuts from hardware store, turned the nut upside down in the hole in the frame and welded it in, ran a tap in to make sure all was right with the world. Worked great

 

did you do any kind of reinforcing on the floor around the hole to prevernt future wear/cracking.

i have one spot of floor left where i believe a body mount was and it looks like they did some bead rolling around the hole to stiffin it.

 

look into Rivnut fastners,I use these on stripped out/wobbled out holes in different thickness metals work great.takes a install tool,but come in various sizes. they don't require welding,clean and neat,strong

 

I just entered this in the baileigh contest, right up your alley!

http://s1028.photobucket.com/albums/y342/goofuslives/floor braces or body bushing mounts/

 

if this is the same thing i have used in my military job to fix door closers in metal door jambs, they are nice. but you better now how to use the tool. took several hours with no instructions before i figured it out. never thought of it as an option for body mounts, thank you.

 

My body was so rusted, the floor was totally gone. I build the subframe to match the top of my frame rails then welded the subframe to the body and braced the subframe and body. The subframe then became my body mounts with 5 bolts on each rail bolting to the flange nuts in the frame. I had the webbing from an old rachet strap that laid between the subframe and the frame. When I had the body mounted to the frame I went ahead and built the rest of the floor. It all worked great. I hope this helps, I'll try to find some pics.

 

^^^^^ same tool,pretty simple to use once you get the hang of it,they work great. good luck

 

I turned 'em up on a lathe at work out of steel stock. You can probably buy something similar from that US website 'boss man' on whatever it is called.

I left a shoulder on mine to make it easier to locate them in place, and because I planned to use 1/4" rubber stripping on the frame rails.

 

Something like this: http://www.mcmaster.com/#weld-nuts/=fxdylw similar to morrisman but without the lathe work.