Part Six

This really should be step five but i got ahead of myself.
If i had my time again i would have welded in the front crossmember before i did the kick up. It would have just made aligning everything up a bit easier. Measure, measure, measure!
Then measure some more. The front crossmember gets welded in on a 6 - 8 degree tilt back which sets the castor. I used a reproduction front crossmember and cut perfectly to size.

Everything is just tacked in place for now with a Mig. Since I'm a much better Tig welder than with a Mig I'm going to Tig everything at a later date.

Part Five

Aka the walk like an Egyptian step.
After making the chassis rails to resemble stock Model A rails i wanted to make a kick up in the front to get the front end as low as possible without looking like a hacked up frame. For me the best way was to have the front sweep up like a 32' frame does.
To do this i cut a 7 degree Egyptian pyramid just in front of where the firewall ends.Then another pyramid behind where the front crossmember will sit to bring it back level. I've heard some people refer to this as a pie cut? Not sure why that is, pies are round where I'm from.

The end result of a 7 degree Egyptian pyramid cut will give a 3 inch drop over the standard frame.
And just trust me on the 7 degrees it was a major mind fuck to work that out.

Good Things Come In Two's

I just finished the second rail to a rough stage and sat the front crossmember in to have a quick look. Theres a good chance with the spring behind axle setup I'm going for the rails in front of the crossmember will either get reworked or cut off. Time will tell.

Part Four

A.K.A the man in black step.
When i made my template i realised the full size template would be too big if i wanted to use the rolled edge of the steel so i made a template 7mm smaller so i can cut 7mm in from the edge saving the rolled edge. This means i can reduce the work needed to get a finish resembling the stock Model A chassis rail. And less working on hotrods means more time working on self improvment like exercise, meditation and maybe a little self reflection timeout. I tried to get China steel because of my half Chinese half Samoan heritage but was stuck with this crap stuff. Shit happens.
Scribe the line, cut the line

Weld the line

Walk the line.

Part Three

Aka The Dr Love patented Super Sweep 2000 or frame template for short.
Instead of forking out the going price of $400 and repairing and boxing up a rusty original Model A frame, i decided long ago i was going to fabricate my own.
Now i may be a border line cocktail lover but i draw my gayness in at a T-bucket frame. You know the ones, just two flat frame rails with an after thought crossmember.
So that being said i needed a template to mark out the shape of a Model A frame onto some 4x2 box. You can find chassis dimension drawings on the internet easy enough.
Now i work with aluminium every day so i cut a flat piece 4 inch wide and marked out the dimensions. Now the drawings don't tell you the radius of the swoop so i had to improvise a little with my patented super sweep. Here's what it looked like behind the smoke and mirrors. My patented bendy ruler technique gives a suitable radius to mark from. The actual radius in this photo looked bad when i cut it out so i started again and made a second one.


The final template is as shows. I was happy with the outcome but looking at the photo it looks a little off. Might be the angle of the photo i think.

Part Two

< If you've been round long enough you'd know about the 39' ford we pulled out of the side of a creek next to a house made of ginger bread.
Well these are the brakes, and if completely rooted had a theme song these would need a full orchestra because there fucked.
The only salvageable parts are one backing plate and hopefully the two pretty worn spindles if i can get a king pin out of the second one.
There was too much effort gone into getting these parts to not try and use something.

How To Build A Hotrod

A.K.A. Step 1- Turn this steel Slowly into

This chassis table
Ok how do i start this?

For the last two or more years I have deliberately stopped myself talking about the so called hotrod i was always going to build after listening to myself tell a friend about the hotrod i was collecting parts for.

I was having a moment in time when the words coming out of my mouth just sounded like a self professed wanker and seemed to be going against the code of- Do'ers and Gonna Do'ers.

Do'ers just shut up and build cars without all the fan fair and self promotion, whilst Gonna Do'ers just well.... shout the loudest.

So here goes. I'm going to post my exploits of building a Model A roadster both good and bad. I've never done this before, I'm just a mechanic that can weld a little, and in reality my little world was safer when i could just talk about building it instead of actually having to build it.

Don't expect updates every week but follow along at what I'm sure will be at a slow and steady pace to not having to shout anymore.

An easy way to make an adjustable leg for an uneven surface. Weld a nut to a plate and use a bolt and locking nut as the adjuster. Simple.