28 Pick Up hot rod build

[carcrazy]

Amazing work mate.. Cant wait to see this going.

[ChrisS]

I then started on mounting the front window frame, the original window folds out and I wanted to keep it that way as I think they are ultra cool.

The piano hinge just screws into the window frame and originally screwed into the wooden frame on the body but I decided to just weld each hole...for no real reason.

This was mounted to a piece of 50x50x3mm rhs, it was a bit of a guessing game but seem to have worked out well.
The wipers will be mounted to that piece of rhs also.

Front window frame mounted to the A pillars with the sheet metal in place, also mounted a lower section (20x20x1.6 rhs) just below the front window frame.



Pic with the lower fill in panel 'test fitted'


I got pretty existed at this point as it was coming together really well!


I then mounted the B pillars, what a pain they were every time I thought I got the level I wanted and tacked them into place they would move.
You will also notice I started on the roof frame.(pics taken at night, I was up late that night...lol)

[ChrisS]

Next up I started on the B-pillars.

First of all because I decided to but use the lower seals below the doors (read above) it meant I have to remove a part of the lower section of the B-pillars to keep them in line with everything else.
They didn't originally have a fold over lip along the bottom as they were just nailed into a wooden frame (note all the little holes along the bottom) so I decided to make the cut a little long and then create a lip.
It also meant I could get rid of some rust at the same time..



Same was done for the other side.


Then I had to round off the rear bottom corners of the cab's frame, so I just trimmed off the corners and made up some rounded edges to weld in.




A bit of welding and hammering and it's all done, I just did the same for the other side.


After everything was welded up, I checked the lower B-pillar for fit and it was spot on.

[ChrisS]

More frame work done on the cab, made up to roof frame and test fitted the B-pillars


Then the mid section of the rear frame work, the rear corners had to be rounded off to follow the curves of the rear of the cab (just like the rear corners of the floor frame and roof frame).


Upper and lower sections of the B-pillars trial fitted.



Then the cross bracing was made up and put in.




More to come soon.

[Gammaboy]

Don't think you'll have to worry about a rollcage with all that 50x50x3!

[bigmuz]

Okay firstly- awesome project and kudos to you.

Now, get rid of all the duragal shit you have lying around. It is basically unweldable. Your welder mate will have a heart attack when he sees gal rhs in the chassis..

And those lobsterback things like you made for the tailshaft loop are a disaster. Weld is not made to fill gaps. It is made to fuse two pieces of steel that are closely fitted together. That procedure is fine for a door frame but not even close to good enough for a chassis..

[ALLMTR]

Tuff love from the Muz-ster

[ChrisS]

Gammaboy- that’s for sure!

bigmuz- funny you say that, when I bought the pieces of gal RHS I soon after thought shit I might not be able to use this.
So I called Andrew (the guy who will be welding my chassis up) and asked if I can use it on my chassis and he said as long as you grind away the galvanize shit you can weld it.
I only bought it by mistake so that’s all you will see on the chassis.

With the tailshaft loop, as soon as I strip the chassis down again its history and will be replaced with something else.


Will post more of the build tonight, wait to you see what I was up to yesterday!

[Kaiser]

Christ, it looks like you'll be finished by Wednesday at this rate!

[ChrisS]

OK so at this point I was pretty happy with how the cab was looking, I spent a week looking at photos of it at work and talking to other people about it all the time thinking do I really want that roof that high.

I mentioned to a few fellow rodders that I was thinking of taking a few inches off the roof to give it that real Hot Rod look and they all agreed (exact comment was "it's about time!")
after getting a couple of photo copies of the above pics and doing a rough roof chop on paper I was sold.


But at the same time I didn't want to get the classic "Rodders hump back" from having a roof to low.

First of all I sat on a spare wheel in the cab (same height as a car seat) to see where I would look out of the front window and also worked out head room (taking into account if I need to wear a helmet).

I figured 5 inches off would be a good starting point to determine how low I want to go so I got the good old tape measure and masking tape out to see it looks and how I fit in it.
Worked out well, plenty of head room and leg room plus vision out the front window are also fine without having to duck my head down.

The front tape mark is for the windscreen and side is for roof height.

I decided to start with the front window frame, this was pretty easy as the top of the window frame unscrews from the rest of the frame


Then it was just a matter getting the correct angle and cutting it down 5 inches with the drop saw.

Then I just did the same for the other side.



Next up I had to re drill the two holes that hold the rest of the window frame to the top section.




Next I tested it for fit...



I can do with a little adjusting but other than that it fits good, next up is the roof.

[ChrisS]

Next I started on lowering the roof, to ensure it all works out even I measured from the bottom up 39" then a further 5 inches for that 5" off the height.


After all measurements were checked (remember measure twice, cut once) I made the cuts and removed the top sections of the pillars along with the roof.



Then I cut off the 5inches from the roof section, pretty straight forward.


After a bit of grinding to smooth things out I placed the roof section back on to test fit.


Then I just tacked the whole lot back on...


Next up I trimmed down the A and B pillars, the A-pillars were pretty straight forward (forgot to take a pic); B-pillars were just as easy.



Then all pillars were re-fitted, looks pretty good I think.


Before


After




So thats pretty much where I'm up to now, I did a bit of work to it over the weekend but will post up details what that part is finished.


I have been pretty slack lately but hopefully more will get done in the coming weeks.

[HoonBoy]

That looks sooo much better

[CT]

Awesome to see it progress. I have learnt much about metal work from your photos - keep the updates coming

[Crais]

thread of win.

awesome work.. wish I had the abilities to attack something like this one day

[buzz]

How do you plan to run the windscreen wipers with a hinged windscreen?

[tut]

How do you plan to run the windscreen wipers with a hinged windscreen?

windscreen wiper motor on the top center of the windscreen? like they all do?

[ChrisS]

How do you plan to run the windscreen wipers with a hinged windscreen?

windscreen wiper motor on the top center of the windscreen? like they all do?

Correct tut, the wiper will be mounted along the top and covered with a sun visor.

They will just fold out with the windscreen.

[Nitephyre]

Looking fantastic mate!

[RotaUte]

Thread well worth bumping. Makes me feel slack using a HQ as a donor for mine.

[ChrisS]

Thats RotaUte.

I should have a small update to post by tomorrow night to.

[ChrisS]

Here is a bit of an update, well more like "redoing" something.


Now that the cab was fixed to the Chassis I test fitted a rear tray sides to find it wasn't fitting the way I liked it to.
Basically the rear wheel wasn't centred to the "swinge lines"



Which I really hate seeing so one of two things was going to fix this.
Either shorted the tray (which is already 6" shorter then factory, and would be the easy way out)
OR pull the whole rear suspension out and move it back.

Moving the diff back would brings benefits like extending the wheel base which will help with handling and will also allow to the fix the way I mounted the shocks to the chassis.

PLUS it will give the whole car a nice proportion.

So it was decided to do the later and move the diff back.

First of all I had to work out how far I needed to move it back, so I just got a sharpie pen and drew followed around the tyre with the pen and a piece of small box tube (to reach) and ended up with this.


Then I found the middle of where I wanted the wheel to sit and measured the center of the line I just traced from the tyre.
Then half it, measured the distance between that mark and the mark I made in the centre of the "swinge lines" which gave me 6 1/2 inches.

Did I explain that right? lol
Not sure if there was an easier way of doing it but seemed to work.

So 6 1/2 inches it is!

[ChrisS]

So first of all I dropped the diff out, and then removed the entire kick up assembly in one piece.
This is why we just tack everything until you know it’s all going to work, it made it so much easier to remove.

Here a couple of pic's..

Diff unbolted and kick up removed...


And the rear kick up, removed in one piece....

I won't bother trying to modify this, I will be making a whole new one!



I went and bought two 1.2 meter lengths of 75x50x3 RHS and started at the kick up end.
I pretty much just copied what I did before, but this time I took pics.

I took reference to the angle I used before, cut a section out and allowed a piece to bend down..


I tried to allow extra on the bit that I folded down but it clearly wasn't enough so I will just fill it in later.
That little piece of box tube was just tacked on there so I could clamp that bit down.


Then it was tack together...


Then welded up...



X2, the 2nd rail I did I allowed another 10mm to try and fill that gap I got from the first rail when I did the kick up angle.
Still a slight gap but much better, I will have to try and remember to remove 10 from the first rail.


Both rails with the welds grinded down...

[ChrisS]

Then I moved on to the chassis now that I have the basic replacement rails ready to go.

I originally had the rear kick up taper back in but I decided to reverse that as I want to try and run the shocks more vertical as they work better that way.
The cut was just tacked so I just unpicked the tacks and straightened, like so...


I did weld it up but my welder was really playing up like a bitch so I didn't take any pic's.


Next up I clamped the new rear rails into place..


Then both were tacked into place...

[ChrisS]

Then the lower trailing arm mounts were just moved back 6 1/2 inches, and the diff was bolted back into place..


Now I decided to make new upper trailing arm mounts and do it a little different to before by just adding a piece of 50x50x3 RHS across the chassis and making new mounts also out of 50x50x3.
I for some unknown reason didn't take any photos but it was fairly basic, check out the last pic I post for a look.

Once I had the trailing arms mounted I moved on to making a new rear cross member to hang the coil over’s on.
I wanted to change how I had them hanging on the rear cross member by mounted them directly to it.
The rear cross member is 50x50x6, 6mm just to make sure it will hold everything into place under load.


I drill a 1/2 inch hold to allow a crush tube to fit, has to do a bit of work with a die grinder and file to get it to fix as the hole wasn't big enough.


I already had a 1/2 drill bit but it just didn't want to drill all the way, I had to do a quick up to Bunning’s for a new one and it went through it in the drill press like butter.
I love new drill bits!

Crush tube test fitted...


The crush tube will stick out on one side by about 8mm, the other side will sit flush.

The flush side welded in...



The ground smooth..




Then it was fitted to the rails after all levels were checked...




And that’s pretty much where I'm at for now, I test fitted the tray side again and it fits perfect so I will take a pic next chance I get.

Next up I will hang the panhard bar again..



Enjoy.

[ALLMTR]

Thread well worth bumping. Makes me feel slack using a HQ as a donor for mine.

You won't feel slack come rego time

[Dicko]

You won't feel slack come rego time

Wouldn't it be the opposite ?

Using a tonner chassis means it will be forever registered as a '76 or whatever year one tonner. No matter what it looks like. You'd also have to jump through all the engineers hoops showing how you've changed the cab etc and modified a tonner to look like a 1928 Ford.

If/When you get pulled up the by the local plod, rego check is going show it as a holden one tonner. Non understanding cops will send you through more hoops.

Making a 'replica' of the original 1928 chassis is perfectly legal, you still have the engineering checks up front, but it will be registered as a 1928 ford and will raise less eyebrows down the track.

Also, using a tonner chassis, the whole vehicle has to be compliant with the ADR's of the year of the chassis, whilst mid 70's ADR's aren't overly restrictive, the ADR's if registered as a pre '48 vehicle are even easier to comply with....

[HoonBoy]

Rotaute's chassis was nothing like the original.

[Dicko]

Rotaute's chassis was nothing like the original.

From his thread, he say's he's now using a tonner chassis

Bought a new donor vehicle the other day. The chassis under it would mean rego'ing it as a ICV, but with a HQ chassis it'll be a re-bodied vehicle.

Body is kinda shagged, but the chassis is mint, runs and drives 202 4 speed. Can be upgraded later.

[HoonBoy]

The chassis that came with his car originally was custom from RHS and nothing like the original. It would be a case of remake as per this thread, register as an ICV or replace with a different chassis. It's a common thing to use a newer chassis in rods, Nissan 720 utes are even used for a donor.

[Dicko]

The chassis that came with his car originally was custom from RHS and nothing like the original. It would be a case of remake as per this thread, register as an ICV or replace with a different chassis. It's a common thing to use a newer chassis in rods, Nissan 720 utes are even used for a donor.

I know it's common, just saying I reckon it's easier & tidier for rego purposes to make your own up and have it registered under the pre '48 rod rules than going the ICV or modified nissan/tonner route.