Another chassis fab thread

#41
I think it looks great! (New follower) ...is that an old kulwicki car in the back ground there?
Yes it was one of Kulwicki's older cars that became a show car. The wheels on my chassis are off of that same car. The previous owner that donated it to the school swapped them out while he had it and I ended up buying them.

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#42
Finally!!! On the stretcher and ready to head home.

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We put it on the scales before it left and as you see it it weighed 1063 pounds. Pretty happy with that for a start. 535 front and 528 rear.
 
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#44
I was looking through this and noticed in the last pick of it sitting on the floor that there are 2 bolts hanging down kind of low. They are the pitman arm and idler arm bolts for the drag link. They wont be anywhere near that low after final assembly. I didn't want to run the ny-lock nuts down onto the bolt thread until final assembly so I added washers and spacers to take up the bolt length and still be able to tighten the assembly. Simple but ugly...
 
#45
@Chain Linkin

They had 4 matching sized Hoosier's (another Kulwicki link) on them when I bought them. Show cars typically had matched sizes while the race setup was a staggered sizing. Wheels have the double valve stems for running inner liners but they didn't have inner liners. Another nod to show car use.

How I got them along with a scuffed set of new Goodyear rain tires. Plan to put the Goodyear's on a set of black wheels for the occasional show display... Unless I can find another set of chrome wheels...

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#46
Here is a Web find off of the Art Morrison website. This is in his 53 - 56 F-100 assembly instructions for your new chassis. It gives a lot of useful dimensions. It was a good reference for me on several things.

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It shows chassis set up heights with tire sizes. The rears are 28'' tall and the fronts are 26 5/8'' tall. Mine are 27 all around so there is a 1/2'' lower frame height in the rear and a 3/16'' higher frame height in the front using my tire size on his chassis. It also shows the running board ground clearance's...

The measurements on my chassis with the 27'' tire is 9 1/2'' front and 15'' rear.... So that should make mine 3 11/16'' lower in the front and 2 5/8'' lower in the rear. I like them on the ground.... These trucks have an un slightly gap between the bottom of the cab and the running boards so the plan all along has been to raise the running boards 2'' and to raise the bed 2''. The target has always been 4'' ground clearance at the front of the running boards. When you raise the bed 2'' the shine lines line up front to rear. Its obvious when you see a truck set up this way body wise verses one that has everything in the factory locations. It not even visible until they sit side by side. BUT it is a much more pleasing to the eye with the changes. And once you see the difference then every time you look you notice how distracting the stock look can be no matter how nice the truck is. And I love them stone stock...
 
#47
Way to keep after it. Coming along real good. Premier Street Rods is just up the road in town. They specialize in 47 to 54 cabs, and have done several builds including some SEMA entries. From what I gather, a new, all steel cab goes for about $7K. Everything out of their shop is beyond my budget, but if you ever need to liaise with them, I'd be glad to do some face time.
 
#48
Not an update for the chassis but... The week before I brought the chassis home I got rear-ended in my F-250 TWICE in the same day.... Direct hit on the trailer hitch both times so I felt all of the impact all the way through the frame of the truck. The other vehicles folded up and gave a cushion from the crumple zones...

Suffering has ensued. After I got the chassis home I got worse to the point that I have not gone in the shop since the chassis came home. Cant lay flat. Cant sleep in the bed. I have slept in the chair, upright for the last 5 weeks. Its getting better but its still miserable. Absolutely exhausted from lack of good sleep.

I guess if I cant get out of the house the summer is the least loss of productivity as it is the least productive time for me in the shop. Just to hot to work even half a day. Haven't cut the grass in 6 weeks.... Drives me nuts that I cant do anything.

Life's challenges.....
 
#49
Sounds like you are making slow progress. Thats good. Go easy with sharp stuff when you are sleep deprived. I was sleep deprived thru most of my working career and I got some scars to prove it.
Do what ya can, run the A/C, hire the lawn mowing.
We’re rootin for ya
 
#50
For those of you that have been following along. We started assembling Bruce's Blazer for final mock up this past week. Spent about 12 hours so far. We still have to adjust the door gaps, fender gaps and hood gaps. Record the placement of shims and then blow it apart for bodywork and paint. He has AC in his shop so at least its comfortable to work. The plan is to get all the pieces on it and roll it out in the driveway so we can get a good look at it. Make sure all the proportions are where we want them. Here is a shot still inside the shop. It is sitting at ride hieght.

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#51
We have been working on measuring actual suspension travel and then converting that to fender clearance. We discussed several option but decided that rising the top half of the inner fenders 3 1/2'' was what we had to do. So we made a pattern and started on the right fender. I cut the area out above the inner wheelhouse and started figuring out how to put it back together in a clean simple fashion. It looks like we are going to have to cut the inner fender into 3 pieces and then fill in the blank, The top half will move straight up. The front 1/4 and the rear 1/4 will stay where they always were. Then we just have to fill the 3 1/2'' gap all the while also maintaining the shape of the inner fender.

You can see the cut to the inner structure of the fender its self above the wheel opening and then the piece that we removed. Don't have a pic of it but it got cut down to just 1/4'' high above the bottom edge. We will start back next Monday and hopefully get 3 or 4 days straight to work on it. That should give us enough time to get both sides completed. There will be a few sneaky things worked in to make up the difference at the uppermost part of the wheel opening for maximum tire clearance and minimal visibility to the majority of the consumers that simply just look at the truck.

More pics next week.

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#52
We have been working on measuring actual suspension travel and then converting that to fender clearance. We discussed several option but decided that rising the top half of the inner fenders 3 1/2'' was what we had to do. So we made a pattern and started on the right fender. I cut the area out above the inner wheelhouse and started figuring out how to put it back together in a clean simple fashion. It looks like we are going to have to cut the inner fender into 3 pieces and then fill in the blank, The top half will move straight up. The front 1/4 and the rear 1/4 will stay where they always were. Then we just have to fill the 3 1/2'' gap all the while also maintaining the shape of the inner fender.

You can see the cut to the inner structure of the fender its self above the wheel opening and then the piece that we removed. Don't have a pic of it but it got cut down to just 1/4'' high above the bottom edge. We will start back next Monday and hopefully get 3 or 4 days straight to work on it. That should give us enough time to get both sides completed. There will be a few sneaky things worked in to make up the difference at the uppermost part of the wheel opening for maximum tire clearance and minimal visibility to the majority of the consumers that simply just look at the truck.

More pics next week.

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That is some complicated work there. It sure is worth it. How many machines have you seen where this modification either wasn’t done or done adequately? Lots. Great project you got there.
 
#53
That is some complicated work there. It sure is worth it. How many machines have you seen where this modification either wasn’t done or done adequately? Lots. Great project you got there.
I have seen all sorts of solutions to the problem. Some nice and some not so nice. Lots of folks take the inners out completely but that leaves everything exposed to road grim and road debris. It is a common problem when you lower these 67 - 72 C-10 trucks as far as this one has been lowered. Plus this was a 4 wheel drive Blazer to start with and they have a higher kick up in the frame rails than a 2 wheel drive. About an inch in difference.

Just one example of a fix. This is a rear inner widened and used in the front. Its a little to much size wise to me.
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This is what we built and are raising now that we have established the final ride height. Stock inner on the driver side and our version on the passenger side.
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#54
More progress today. Pics show the stock left fender and the lack of tire clearance along with the modified right fender with 3 1/2'' of tire clearance. We also cut the inner fender into 3 pieces. Now to fill in the gaps and make it all one piece again. Then we will move to the left side and match them up. The second side should take half the time of the first side...

Left side stock.
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Right side raised.
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#55
Got the upper piece fitted and welded. Started on the fillers that will transition from the raised area back to the original panel edge. The pics aren't as clear as I wish they were but you can see enough to see the progress. Used the shrinker stretcher and made the fillers fit the curve of the inner fender with a nice tight gap. Front filler is done and the rear filler is off to a good start. Still have to make the tight little corners to finish the pieces. They will be a challenge... More next week.

Top finish welded and the front filler fitted tacked.
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Inner fender bolted in to check the gaps.
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Rear filler started.
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#56
It was a good day today. Got the fender finished and hung it on the Blazer. Hung all 3 pieces of the inner fender to see what we were up against. Going to start on it in the morning. Cut pieces and fill in the gaps. Probably end up wheeling some pieces to make them fit the shapes we need. Then we have to make the other side match...

Fender metal work finished.

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The inner fender gap.

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#57
Now its getting interesting... Took the English wheel over so that we could shape pieces. Speaking of shape. I never realized how hard it is to capture a compound curve in a photo. Started shaping pieces with the hammer and sand bag. Then onto the wheel for shaping. Test fit. Shape. Test fit. Shape. Mark and trim. Shape, final fine tuning and tack it in place. We wheeled the front of the inner fender so that it would increase the amount of curve downward. Worked very well for making the filler piece transition between the upper and lower pieces. Made all 3 pieces and got them tacked in in about 8 hours. Probably way to long time wise but Its done. Once all the pieces are made, fitted and tacked we will take the inner fender out and metal work the weld areas as we weld them.

First piece made.
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First piece tacked in place.
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Second piece made.
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Second piece tacked in place.
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Third piece made.
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Third piece tacked in place.
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The third piece will be cut along the marked lines and blended into the upper edge of the inner fender after we get it on the bench. There just wasn't a practical way to fit it while bolted in as the inner needed to be worked down to meet it. So it is left long for the moment.

Over all shot from inside the inner fender looking forward.
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Overall shots from the front taken through the headlight hole in the radiator support.
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#58
Isn’t it funny how they used to stamp out pieces like this in like 5 seconds but it takes two weeks to recreate by hand? lol
Great job, that is some serious metal work!
 
#59
Isn’t it funny how they used to stamp out pieces like this in like 5 seconds but it takes two weeks to recreate by hand? lol
Great job, that is some serious metal work!
Thank you sir. Its a lot of fun to do and like most things you do you get faster with repetition. But it still takes forever to get it done. I forgot to take pictures of the pieces when they come off the bag before they go in the wheel. Will have to do that next time. Its hard to believe how bad they look and how slick they wheel out. The look is commonly referred to as a bag of walnuts. And that's pretty accurate...
 
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