Thread: Low-budget/T-Bucket Pickup

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I am back home for a few days, and I got some work done on the bucket.

The first mission of the day was to get my torches working. I hadn't used them in about twelve years. So I drove the twenty minutes to a welding supply shop in Clearwater, and bought an oxygen and an acetylene tank. I got home, went to connect everything, and found that the stupid rats in my shed had chewed a hole through one of the hoses! Back to the welding shop to get some new hoses. I got back home and tried to assemble then. The new hoses had the wrong size fittings. Back to the welding shop a third time. This time everything worked out.

I am going to use transverse mounted leaf springs for the front and rear suspension on this car.

I made a paper template for the front spring perch side brackets. I then transferred it to a piece of 1/4 inch steel plate using a magic marker. I cut the brackets out with the torch, and then clamped the two brackets together so I could grind them both to the same shape. I did most of the rough grinding and shaping with my bench grinder, then did the final sanding/smoothing with my handy dandy Harbor Freight belt sander. I also cut out the square center bracket, and drilled out the five mounting holes in it.

I then clamped both of the brackets to the front cross member, and measured them a bunch of times to make sure I had them centered and square. I tack welded them in place, and then measured them again to make sure everything was square and centered. I then flipped the frame upside down and tack welded the center bracket on. I am not going to finish welding this bracket on until I have the front axle all mocked up, and I am absolutely sure that everything fits correctly.