All Boxed in

Posted on 12th Oct 2014

After all of the tear down I sent out the chassis itself out to the media blaster to remove any rust or 80 year old debris for prep for modification. As expected it came back in great shape no signs of cancer, hits or repairs. So it was time to get down to business, I had to replace the rear crossmember with a new frame section to give some more axle clearance. There is a 3″ kick up at the axle center line, the new section of the chassis was made from 2″ x 3″ x .120″ wall steel rectangular tube. It took many miter cuts and some calculating but 11 pieces later and the rear section was ready to be grafted on. To help spread the load of the new frame section, plates were plug welded in place on the inside of the chassis tubing, this could also be done on the outside as well for strength but I wanted to keep it all hidden. Some of the welds in these pics still need to be dressed and metal finished but there is still some more modifying to do in those areas so I will take care of all of it at one time later.

The factory front crossmember was then removed to give way for a 32 style one, this will help lower the front of the car an extra inch because of it’s 1″ higher spring mount. This crossmember also has a 7 degree pitch already built into it as well keeping the suspension bind to a minimum when running the higher degree of castor angle needed to keep the light car going down the road straight and not twitchy at high speed. I then boxed in everything in between the crossmembers, a 3/16″ mild steel plate was welded to the inside of the channel of the frame creating a much more stable structure. A temporary center crossmember was then added to keep everything in line, a more permanent and substantial one will be added once I mount the motor and trans in place.