Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Don---I used a 1985 S10 rearend when I built the roadster pickup. I used a set of "no-name" coils from a swapmeet, built my own coil-cups, brackets, and Panhard rod. It works excellent, and if you want, I have some very good pictures I can post. I didn't want to do a lot of welding on the axle tubes, so I used the leaf spring mount that was welded to the axle tubes in the "factory" and built my brackets off them. The only thing to watch for if you do that, is that the S10 had a really ignorant angle on their spring-pads. I had to build 11 degree angular wedges to get my brackets in the correct aspect to give the proper pinion angle.---Brian

Brian: I think posting the pix would be a great idea. I'm kind of locked into the model a rear spring I have, but I'll bet alot of guys could use this info. Sounds like it is pretty straightforward, too.


Don

Okay Guys---This is a 1985 S10 rearend installed in a boxed model A frame---it is the perfect width for a full fendered model A of any year with no modification.. I didn't want to weld too much onto the axle tubes, for fear of warping them, so I welded nearly all of my bracketry onto the S10 leaf spring mount. NOTE---the S10 mount is at a weird angle in relationship to the pinion angle, so to get everything at the correct rotational aspect, I had to build some "wedge plates" with an angle of about 11 or 13 degrees (can't remember which) to get my pinion angle correct. This rear suspension rides great (I built my own 4-bar setup for it) The shocks are "bayonet" type with a threaded stud on both ends, and fit inside the coil springs. (in the picture I have peices of threaded rod through the position that the coil spring and shock absorber would normally go).

And here are 2 more

And the last one

And here is the last of them---In the close-up of the rearend assembly, you can see the wedge plates I was talking about in the lower right hand corner of the picture.

Nice work there Brian.
Update coming this week on mine guy's- I've made some progress sooooo...

Made just a little progress today on Project $ 3K. Finally got the tubing I bought a few weeks ago down out of the rack and started measuring the old frame (the one we decided not to use) to see how much kickup we would have to put in the rear to get it in the weeds. I want this frame to sit about 5 inches off the ground in the front, and 7 in the rear.

We used some 2 x 4 lumber and built a kickup onto the old frame and held it in place with C-clamps, and eyeballed it until we had one that looked good and would get us down there. It ended up at a 14 inch rear kickup. We also wanted the kickup to sort of be in the same plane as the rear curvature of the '23 body, so we dialed in an 80 degree angle to it and cut the tubing so it would lay in that position.

Rather than just weld the seams together, we decided to make little "backing plates" out of 1 and 1/4 inch x 1/8 inch flat stock, and slip these into the cut off tubing so that we could leave a little bigger gap and turn up the mig for a really good joint. These backers are first clamped to one side of the cut off tubing and plug welded into place through a 2 holes drilled in the tubing. Then, when we slip the other piece of tubing over the backers it will give us an additional thickness of steel to weld to. I can't take credit for this trick, my Son told me about it, and he used it when he built his frame. It not only gives you a stronger joint, but a flatter, nicer looking weld too.

The pictures show the backers ( I had to cut and shape 16 of them). I did the first one on a grinder, and then set up a jig in the bandsaw so that I could cut 2 at a time. Went alot quicker that way.

We also used a 2 and 3/4 inch hole saw and punched a hole in each side tube so that we could insert the Total Performance round front crossmember into it. We will then cut and weld the front of each side tube to wrap around the front of the front crossmember, which should give it a cleaner look.

I dug a model A Ford rear crossmember out and we are probably going to cut it to size and use it for a rear crossmember. I have always liked the looks of these on a modified.

The pictures below show the siderails with the 14 inch kickup, and also the little "backers" I made to slip into each tube. The picture with the vicegrips holding it in place gives you an idea of how it will look when we finally weld it with two plug welds just to hold it until it is assembled and fully welded.

Another day of work should put us pretty far along and I will post more pictures as we start assembling the frame.


Now it is time for a cold beer and shower. It must have been 95 degrees today in the shop.


Don

Darn.......here are the pictures.


The last picture is how I jigged the short pieces of flat stock into the bandsaw to cut the point on the one end, so it will slip into the inside of the tubing.

The two little holes in the tubing are where we will temporarily plug weld the little backer to hold them until finally welded when we finish the joint.


Don

You must be determined to work on that. Or did you get your welder problem solved? We were in the mid 90s here in MI also. Not to much shop time in today.

Yeah, we got the welder fixed. It was the regulator. Thanks for asking and for the replys you guys gave this am.

I went to the shop and hooked up the extra bottle that we have that is almost empty, and it still pegged the needle. On a hunch that they would be open, I went to Northern and they carry the same regulator we had, so I bought one, and it immediately started working.

I guess just a coincidence that it died at the same time we put the new bottle on.

Thanks again to all who helped.


Don

It was over 90 degrees F here in central Ontario today---gorgeous day. I ran out of engineering work at noon, so took a bunch of my fancy new brochures advertising "Rupnow Machine and Automation Design" and drove up to Orillia in the roadster pickup and went around to about 15 factories handing them out. People didn't care whether they seen me or not, but everybody came out and fussed over the roadster pickup!!! The kickup looks good. I am attaching a pic of the chassis I built for my 27 roadster about 11 years ago---the kickup on what I built looks a lot like what you are doing.(I used 2" x 6" rectangular tubing, and shaped it to replicate a 32 frame from the firewall foreward)

Really nice frame Brian, and it doesn't look like it will ever break.

Made just a little progress today on the frame. I went over to the shop about 1 am the other morning and worked until about 5. It was nice and cool (if there is such a thing as cool in SW Florida) But at least I got the front part of the frame cut out for the tubing crossmember. There are several ways to do it, but I have always liked the method of punching an appropriately sized hole saw through the inner wall of the frame, and then leaving material on the outside in the shape of the tubing. I think it gives you more to weld to, and a stronger joint.

Here are a couple pictures showing that joint. After it is welded, we will bend down the flaps in the front around the tube, and weld the entire assembly together.

Don

Today I worked on the kickup portion in the rear. I had previously cut out little backing plates made of 1 1/4" x 1/8" flat stock, and today I mig welded them into place, to hold them until the final joints are completely welded. I learned a few things today:

1) In addition to all my other bodily functions starting to go away, my math skills are also not so hot. I labored over making 16 backing plates last week, and today I discovered I only needed 8. How I did that I will never know.

2) Self darkening welding helmets shut off after a few minutes. I flashed myself pretty good when I struck the 2nd arc and the mask didn't darken. Still seeing little yellow spots in front of my eyes. May have to use that potato in the eye trick someone suggested in another post, if it gets worse tonight.

3) The 1/4 inch holes I drilled to do my plug welding through were too small to get good penetration into the backer plates. This doesn't have to be a super strong weld, but they shouldn't just fall off like my first attempt did.

The pictures down below give some idea of the concept of the backers. They form a tongue and groove sort of affair, and when you slip them inside the other tube it allows you to leave a bigger gap to weld. This, coupled with the extra metal of the backer allow you to crank up the welder and get a deep, but flush weld joint.

None of this is new to most of you, but I thought it would be helpful to those just beginning to do this stuff.

My Kid is out of town for the weekend, but when he gets back we plan to clamp the rails to the jig and start final welding. Hope none of this is boring any of you, hopefully when the frame gets welded we will really begin to move along.

Thanks for looking,


Don

For you younguns out there, drilling a hole and welding through it is called a rosette.

Thanks for the ongoing progress reports Don....nice work