28 Pick Up hot rod build

[ChrisS]

Well I thought I would show you guys what I have been working on since October 08, I know you guys are more into the newer stuff but thought you might like a change of pace.
So here it goes......


A bit of background first I suppose.
I have always been into Hot Rods and always wanted to build one, I started on building my dream Rod which will be a 32 3 window coupe.
But decided to build this Pick Up first to get more experience and build something quick and low budget.

So I came across this Pick Up cab locally but when I went to look at it the cab was already in pieces (was held together by wood, pic showing is before it was taken apart).


I pretty much bought the cowl, right side door, pillars and front guards.
I also got a Model A Ford pickup tray with the deal.

Plan was to run any cheap V8 I can get my hands on (was looking at running Holden 308s)
Steel wheels, L300 front end (incl brakes), Commodore diff with ford axles and whatever other parts I could get cheap.

I pretty much wanted to do all the work myself.


Anyway that’s enough talk, I will post up where I'm up to bits at a time.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to post them.

[race6.3l]

All good, good luck with it Chris

[ChrisS]

So the first part I want to start on was the Chassis (I didn't get a chassis with the cab)

I decided to make my own based on a model A ford, but a little longer and a little wider.
I was pointed to a Hot Rodders web site where he showed step by step on how to build the Chassis.
In some stage you would not be able to get full rego with a homemade chassis, but lucky for me you can in the ACT.

So I started with a cardboard template of a Model A frame horn and bought two lengths of 100x50x3 RHS.

I then traced out the frame horn and cut them out.


Then I clamped the shapes together and tacked it, making sure I don't put to much heat into the rails.(how’s my dodgy welding?)

The little extra bits you see had to be welded on to stop the rails walls from falling in.

Next up I had to curve the front of the horns around, they look a little rough but it's one of those things that have to look rough before it looks good.



For some reason I didn't get a photos of the final welding but once it was all welded up and grinded down this is what I ended up with.


With Model A frames they have a bit of a kick out so going off my Model A Chassis plans I just measured and made a simple cut with a 3mm cutting wheel...


Then bent back and welded up.


After all that this is what I ended up with.....

[nine2nine]

Sounds like a worthy project. My dad and uncle build rods for a living. Its amazing the amount of fabrication involved, making pretty much everything, purely a work of art. Love it, best of luck.

[Sucker]

OOOOOYeeeaaahhh, this place just got interesting.

Looking good so far, hurry up and finish it so we can get some shots of the 32.

[ChrisS]

Next it was time to join the rails, I was going to build a chassis jig but was told by someone who seems to know his stuff that it's not really needed unless you are boxing original rails and as long as I don't put too much heat into it at once it should be right.

I figured if I sit the rails on the garage floor it should make them sit even (which it turned out it did).
Then I got some string, my Model A frame plans and started measuring.
Ended up with this...


After everything looked level and in the right place I tacked a couple of braces to hold the frame together.
Then I measured again to make sure everything was square.


I then tacked in the middle part cross member (which has since been moved back)

[ChrisS]

All good, good luck with it Chris

Thanks mate.

Sounds like a worthy project. My dad and uncle build rods for a living. Its amazing the amount of fabrication involved, making pretty much everything, purely a work of art. Love it, best of luck.

Who's your dad and uncle? (pm me if you like)
From what I'm told building rods for a living can be tricky business but would love to give it a go.
It is true you really need to know how to be creative and make things work, even with basic Hot Rods.

OOOOOYeeeaaahhh, this place just got interesting.

Looking good so far, hurry up and finish it so we can get some shots of the 32.

Hahaha, I will try.
The 32 is waaay of, in fact I have gotten further with this project in 8 months then I have with the 32 in 12 months.
It just comes down to cost.

[ChrisS]

Next up I started mounting the front end, as mentioned before I am using a
L300 front end which I picked up incomplete and cut in half.
The idea was to narrow it so I can run wider front wheels under the guards, fast forward a month I since discovered the shock towers will in no way fit under the guards so a full length L300 front end has been fitted in the same way.

Anyway I started by removing the factory mounts as I will be welding the front end to the chassis for strength.
I then cut sections out of the cross member so I could channel the front end into the chassis to help lower it.
The chassis was set to the rack I "thought" I wanted and the cross member was set level each way
Then it was tacked in.



(note this is the narrowed front end that has since been removed, but putting the new one is pretty much went the same way)

Because at the time I didn't have all the bits for the front end that’s about as far as I could get with it.
So I moved on to mounting the diff...

[ChrisS]

As mentioned the diff is from some Commodore, not even sure what ratios it is but will worry about that later.

You will notice in the following pic's I have added a kick up to the rear of the chassis.
I forgot to take photos but it was pretty basic to make.

I put the wheels I bought off evilbay on and wheeled it into place; I then took the tape measure and measured every way possible to square it up.
I then made some mounts and tacked them to the chassis, set the pinion angle like so...


Then tacked the diff to the chassis so it wouldn't move while I make up the new mounts. (sorry about the dodgy photos)




Next it was time to start on the trailing arm mounts..

[Jim]

awesome project!

[Nitephyre]

Gotta watch this build...

[ChrisS]

Thanks for the kind words.

The trailing arm mounts are pretty basic, the angle iron bits were picked out of the scrap bin where I get all my steel front thinking I might need them one day.
The other piece was just made out of 3mm metal, drilled and bent to shape.
They will also be boxed for strength once they are fully welded in.




Which brings me to something I forgot to mention, everything on the chassis will just be tacked in until I know I'm happy with how everything is that way if I need to change anything it's just a matter of unpicking the tacks.
Also a mate and fellow Rodder will be doing all the final welding on the chassis as I really don't trust myself with my welding.


Both sides tacked in with the top plates (to box it) ready to go in.
Plus the bottom mounts fabed up and tacked in.



How it looks from the rear..(Note the boxing plates on the top mounts)

[ChrisS]

Next my attention turn back to the front end as I finally got all the bit's I needed and the standard length F/E had been tacked into place by this time also.

What I did next was made the strut rod mounts up, pretty basic in design but had to make a couple of changes to the way the rods were set up first.
Which included bending them in slightly (a couple of wacks with a big hammer did this job).
From the factory the strut rods mount towards the front but I choose to reverse that and mount them towards the rear.
Then the mounts were just made out of 3mm plate, as follows..

After a cardboard template was made it was transferred to the 3mm plate, which was then drilled and cut to shape.


While I had the cardboard template set on to the strut rod I took a reading of the angle which meant I was able to just bend the 3mm plate to shape using my angle reference.
Then it was just bent in the vice..


Finished product with the bush in place for a test fit..


Then it was just tacked into place (same thing was done for the other side)

[Tripper]

Looking good

[Dicko]

There's something unique and satisfying about building a rod from scratch that can't be replicated by tinkering with later model stuff. Have helped a few mates in the past and look forward to having the spare time to attack something like this myself in the future.

Congrats & good work.

[Jim]

what are you using to cut all the plate? just an angle grinder? (looks way too neat lol)

[ChrisS]

Dicko-so true I have worked on other cars in the past but building this pick up has been pretty satisfying to watch come together.

Jim-yes just a 4" cutting wheel.

Not long ago I bit the bullit and bought a drop saw, I only wished I bought it sooner.

The only tools I have are your normal sockets and spanners, a air compressor and a nice MIG welder (gas ofcourse).
I just bought a bench drill press but haven't used it yet.

I will post up more progress later guys.

[ALLMTR]

Awesome. That's one way to say, "I built it"

To get dead straight cuts with a 4" I clamp or tack straight bits of scrap to the metal and run the grinder along it to guide it. Works a treat as my cutting freehand is below par. Surely it's every car heads wet dream to build a car from scratch.

[Spammy]

Keep this coming...it's fantastic!!

How will this be viewed come rego time?? I thought the problem with Hot Rods was you had to prove the real age of the chassis.

[ChrisS]

Here’s a photos of the chassis from the back, you will notice the motor and box sitting there.
Well while talking to the guy I bought my front and diff off he mentioned that he had a 351 Cleveland and FMX Auto sitting in his shed that was running when it was removed from the car.
A very good deal was struck and I had my power plant.
In the photo its just sitting there out the way, I will go into mounting it soon.



In the mean time after the front strut mounts were done I started thinking of ways to mount my rear coil over’s.
The coil over’s I got are Jag, I picked them up for a 6 pack of beer.

When I made the mounts I had to do them twice because I just wasn't happy with the first lot.
Unfortunately I didn’t take pic's while making the second lot up but it was pretty basic.
Once they were made I started on the rear cross member and upper coil over mounts as will as the mount for the panhard bar (which was shortened 3 inches)
The panhard bar mount will also be box for strength at a later date.

Once again no photos of the process but you get the idea.

[Swill]

Awesome stuff. Looking at that cab I think the chassis will be the easy bit

[Tripper]

Keep this coming...it's fantastic!!

How will this be viewed come rego time?? I thought the problem with Hot Rods was you had to prove the real age of the chassis.

I recall reading something about repo chassis not 100% sure on the details but i think it was along the lines of they were ok as long as they were the same as original

[Swill]

Isnt ACT rego pretty ok with the rod rego side of things?

[ALLMTR]

Also a mate and fellow Rodder will be doing all the final welding on the chassis as I really don't trust myself with my welding.

This is a great idea. If I was doing it from scratch I would be looking at bringing someone like Rod Andrews up from Sydney for a day or two to get it right.

[ChrisS]

ALLMTR-I thought about making guides up to cut with but that would require more effort. lol
When I first started I was shocking with my cutting, but I am getting better.

Spammy-It depends on which state you are in, some you would only be able to get 'Street Rod' rego.
Or you could get front sections of the original chassis and build it from there which will still be enough to call it a original chassis base.

It can be a little tricky.

EDIT-

Swill-I'm in the middle of working on the Cab now, it does involve a lot more head scratching but it has been the best part of the build (for me) so far!
ACT only has full rego for Hot Rods also.

Tripper-That's correct, in some states.
Keep in mind you can buy repo chassis's these days, the Model A ones are made the same by a lot of places then I have made here.

[ALLMTR]

So are you consulting an engineer as you go? Do you even need an engineer to sign off on it? You could probably do this in other states as a ICV but you wouldn't get away with an old Clevo to power it and it would cost 11ty billion dollars/11ty billion hours/11ty billion heartaches

[Tripper]

Tripper-That's correct, in some states.
Keep in mind you can buy repo chassis's these days, the Model A ones are made the same by a lot of places then I have made here.

Whats required in regards to the chassis, eg welds to be xrayed, certain type of steel , signed of by a trades person etc

Also have you compared the cost's to a built chassis ?

Not that a built chassis has the satisfaction of building it yourself

[ChrisS]

Next up I tackled the middle cross member more, you will see these a lot with Hot Rod chassis as it helps with the rigidity of the chassis.
This will be pretty basic but the common rule is the more power you want to run the tougher the Xmember will need to be.
For this I just used 50x50x3mm RHS, you will notice in this pic there one piece missing.
That’s because at the time I ran out of RHS but has since been finished.



Next up the engine mounts were made, like mentioned before it’s a 351 Clevo.
Somewhere down the track I picked up a tunnel ram at a really good price and even better local!
Now if I were running petrol this would be a issue with driveability but I am going to be running straight LPG.
I was really stoked when I got this tunnel ram as I was told they are really hard to find for Clevo's.
I think it will fill the engine bay nicely.

The engine mounts were just made from bits of RHS, I'm still trying to decide if I want to keep them or not but it's up in the air.
It was pretty simple, just cutting and drilling.

[ALLMTR]

Damn, we might get burnout pics tonight???

[ChrisS]

So are you consulting an engineer as you go? Do you even need an engineer to sign off on it? You could probably do this in other states as a ICV but you wouldn't get away with an old Clevo to power it and it would cost 11ty billion dollars/11ty billion hours/11ty billion heartaches

Yes, before I even started a called up Ray Spence.
I have also had a lot of discussions with ACT Director of the ASRF (Australian Street Rod Federation) on what I want to do.
Both parties are happy with what I’m doing.
When I told Ray I was going to Use 100x50x3mm rhs for my chassis he laughed and ask if I was building a pick up or a truck (saying it was a little overkill)

The engineer needs to sign off at 3 stages.

1.Rolling/complete chassis with engine and g'box bolted in place.
In bare metal with all welds complete and not grinded down or painted over.

2.Complete driving car unpainted

3.Complete car, pretty much like a blue slip inspection

Once they have happened you then take it to the local RTA for another full inspection which can be pretty painful if you get them on a bad day.
Going the ICV route would be too painful; those poor guys go through hell!

Whats required in regards to the chassis, eg welds to be xrayed, certain type of steel , signed of by a trades person etc

Also have you compared the cost's to a built chassis ?

Not that a built chassis has the satisfaction of building it yourself

The chassis and all the bits connected with it (cross members etc) need to be at least 3mm thickness.
When you have to look at what you are building, for eg a Model A pick up needs to be at least 75x50x3mm but something bigger/heavier needs to be at least 100x50x3.

My chassis will need to go through a "twist test" after its fully welded to check its rigidity.
The engineer also likes to know who will be welding the chassis and suspension mounts up (to see if they are qualified welders or not).
So it's good to get someone that has a welder’s ticket to do it or is well known to the engineer.
But this should be conformed to your engineer first.


What I'm building is pretty basic and has been getting plenty of advice off fellow Rodders who have done this before so it has been a big help.
Without them there’s no way I would have some this far.


EDIT:LOL ...nah no burnout pic's, its not quite there yet.