Thread: New guy with unfortunate project

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I'm starting to rebuild this 34 Ford. (I'll take a shot at posing a picture!)

I don't yet know what it's going to be, I guess it depends on what type of body I come across.

My father started building this car in '79. In 2004 he had an accident in it, and he is blind & paralyzed as a result.

alright! The picture worked on the first try!

Wow. So sorry to hear about your Dad. Was it some mechanical malfunction, or just a traffic accident?

Whatever you do, scrutinize every component on the car very carefully before reusing any of them. You don't want history to repeat itself. It looks in the picture like the frame is bent, is that just the picture, or is it?

Just be very selective in what you reuse, and if a part looks even slightly suspect, dump it.

Again, really sorry to hear of this tragedy. Wish him well.


Don

I've taken the whole car apart. No mechanical failures. Eye witness says it looks like he may have blacked out & fell off the road. Low speed accident, but the car offered no protection.

Frame looks good, but I need a front end. I want to do IFS with nice big brakes & performance tires. I like the traditional look much better, but I'm going for safety with this car!

I'm currently looking for opinions on IFS if you have one. You can find my post here: http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23896

what happened to the rest of the body? also next car I build (32 ford 5window) I plan to put a roll cage in it to offer some kind of saftey because I want to build a daily driver.

It was pretty much all broken to bits. The low nose of the car dug into the ground, and the car flipped up and hit a big thick tree. From the body, I was able to salvage one fender, two running boards and the gas tank cover.

Minimum, I would put the frame on an alignment rack or frame jig and make sure it is straight. Funny things happen in even low speed wrecks, and if the frame is tweaked, nothing will line up, ever.

JMO,


Don

Sounds like good advice. Are these things easy to straighten?

it depends. If this were a regular passenger car, a body or frame shop would put it on a frame alignment machine, chain it down, and start using factory diagrams of what the frame should spec out at, and then pull the frame with big hydraulic pullers and jacks to get it straight.

On a custom frame like this, the procedure will probably be more specialized, and your local body shop wouldn't have a clue how to do it, or even want to do it. So, you can either take it to a rod builder in your area, who can put it on his jig, or, if you feel capable, you can do a pretty good job of checking it yourself.

What this would entail is laying the bare frame on an absolutely flat, level surface, leveling the frame in all directions, then taking measurements in every direction to see if it is not tweaked and square. It would be a two person job, one on each end of the tape measure and string, and triangulating the frame in every direction to see if it is dead on. It isn't a terribly tough job, just takes some common sense and math skills.

Not trying to be an alarmist on this issue, but anytime a car is involved in any kind of wreck, especially one with injuries like your Dad sustained, the frame is automatically suspect.

Then, once you determine it is ok, you can start putting on the new stuff you plan to add.


JMO,

Don