[americanLT1]

I'm in the beginning stages of my hot rod and plan on building the chassis myself. I have a mustang II front and a 9" ford rear I'm planning a 4 link in back. I talked to a couple of local people who do chassis work and ended up purchasing 2x4x .125 wall rectangular tubing for the frame rails. I don't have access to a bender so I'll have to cut and weld to get my angles. I'm planning a minimum of a 8 point cage for support. Does anyone have experience in this area that they would like to share? thanks Ed.

[crazy larry]

sorry, no experience to share, but I would like to make a request.
please photo document it? as i'm gonna one day do what your talking about, though i might use a frame i have in the back yard as a starting point, but everything else is as you planned. Good luck.

[sodas38]

Hey there is a project on this board somewhere where a guy built a custom 2x4 frame, I'll see if I can find it otherwise search the projects. I too would like to see pictures and progress!!

O.K. I found it. It's a 1950 Studebaker Champion under the project journals by 1950bulletnose. Awesome job!! It's on page 17 I believe. Hope this helps!!

[powderbill]

You are correct in your choice of a 2 x 4 x 0.125 wall rectangular tubing for the main frame rails (for a street rod...2 x 3 is more commonly used for drag cars.) A good spot to "window-shop" and compare notes on designs, etc. is art morrison enterprises. By the way, he also offers reasonably priced pre-formed roll cages, if you decide not to tackle making those bends yourself.

It is indeed possible and practical to cut and weld your tubing to obtain the rear frame kick-up that provides rear axle clearance. What I have done is to cut templates from lightweight cardboard or posterboard to get the angles correct. A chop-saw does a fine job of cutting rectangular tubing, better in my opinion than all but premium quality bandsaws.

I'm assuming that you have a mig welder with adequate power for 0.125" stock.

There's almost too many aspects to making a frame from scratch to know exactly where to begin giving advice or comments, but if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask here or by email, and I'll be happy to at least share the approaches that I've taken on past projects. (One of these days, I plan to post some pictures of my current project, which includes building fiberglass molds of body parts, but right now I have to little spare time available to do so.)

Good luck on your project, and let me know if I can provide any information.

[americanLT1]

Powderbill, Thanks for the reply. I do have a 225 amp mig welder, but I need a lot more practice before I'll be comfortable welding a chassis. I want it to look good and be strong. I've checked out Art Morrisons site plus many others to get ideas. No one has a ready made roll cage for a 59 rambler american, and most race cages are too restrictive for a street rod. I'm considering building my own hydraulic tubing bender so I can build it here in my garage. I like to do everything I can myself. I've been mocking up the front of the car the last couple of weeks and it is going to be quite a challenge to fit everything I want in such a small car. I would like to post pictures in a journal, but I'm not sure how to do that, just typing a post is high tech computer work for me. I do have a chop saw just not a very good one, but I do have a milling machine and plan on machining all my angles for a good fit. Thanks for the input.... Ed.

[62slantsix]

Here is a tip....

When you make an angled join such as for the kick up in your frame, cut out some pieces of 0.125" sheet to fit inside the rails so it spans the joint and is the same on each side.

Drill holes through the rails (3 in a triangular pattern) and weld up the holes so that the sheet is attached to the inside of the rail. Now slide the next piece of rail over the joint. Drill holes in this and then weld these.

Now weld the seam between the two rails. This will add a heap of strength to the joints when compared to just butt welding.

Oh yeah one other tip. At the but joint of each peice bevell the joining edges 45 degrees so that when joined the pieces make a V and then weld. This will also provide a much stronger joint.

It takes extra time but its worth it.

Let me know if this makes sense

[americanLT1]

62slantsix, Thanks for the tip. At least I get constructive input from these posts. When I told my car buddies I was going to build my own chassis to put 383 fuel injected LT1 into a 59 rambler, they looked at me like I had my brain removed. Anyway, I considered fitting pieces inside the frame rails but didn't know of anyone who had done so. It does make perfect sense though, and it should ad considerable strength. I'm more concerned about strength in the front because I have to do about a 5" to 6" kick up to get the ride height I want. The rear rails are going to be supported by the roll cage I'm only planning a 8 point cage at this time but that may change before I actually start to build this chassis. Any experience with 4 link setups with poly bushings? That is what I have planned for the rear suspension.....Thanks again 62slantsix....My the force be with me...Ed.

[62slantsix]

No worries.

By joining in the method i described above, you shouldn't have a worry with the front rails. Plus you will have a few crossmembers up there so that will add strength.

I installed a four link with poly bushings - triangulated. What did you want to know?? Big help for that was a level with a magnetic base. You could put it on each bar to make sure they were level.

[Ric0cheT]

"I installed a four link with poly bushings - triangulated. What did you want to know?? Big help for that was a level with a magnetic base."

Helps a lot, cept when you hit it with your welding hood, sit it down where you were grinding (doesn't stick very good with that crap all over it), and then loose it. Course it only got lost b/c i got sidetracked and sat it somewhere. Boy I hate those times where your looking for something thats right in your face.

Good luck on your chassis build, I hear the front is the hardest to build, Hadn't tried one myself, but I have done a parrallel (or in the process of) 4 bar setup. Its pretty simple, main thing is just to keep checking behind yourself a couple times to make sure nothing moved and everything is as close as you can get it to being square.
def post some pics!

[americanLT1]

I guess what I need to know is, did you use a kit or build your own, and how is the ride quality? It may be better to use a triangular setup, because I wont have to use a panhard bar. Also, is anyone out there using air bags in the rear with limited space between the frame rails I'll have the bags fairly close together because I'll be using 12" wide tires in back... How do I upload photos to a project journal? I'm dangerous with a computer... Thanks for your help..

[Super Streeter]

You can add stiffness to it by not making long straight sections of framerail.Make your framerails under the floor a little wider then at the back of the car,then end the rails at the rear kick up using a pre bent crossmember like a ladder bar crossmember,the put your rear kick up rails to the crossmember at the desired width,then use small pieces of .134" wall 1 5/8 round tube to make gussets to trianglulate your corners.where the mail rails met the crossemember and where the kick up rails come down.You can taper the mail rails inward toward the front of the car to fit the pinto front end,but you need at least 1 rigid crossmember and preferably some gussets to tie in the crossmember closer to the front of the car.You could build a chassis that would go together without any roll bar if you support it right but a roll bar will help.Good luck.

[Kevin45]

I'm in the beginning stages of my hot rod and plan on building the chassis myself. I have a mustang II front and a 9" ford rear I'm planning a 4 link in back. I talked to a couple of local people who do chassis work and ended up purchasing 2x4x .125 wall rectangular tubing for the frame rails. I don't have access to a bender so I'll have to cut and weld to get my angles. I'm planning a minimum of a 8 point cage for support. Does anyone have experience in this area that they would like to share? thanks Ed.

Look at AstroRacers post. He is making a frame jig right now and I imagine will have quite a bit of input. http://hotrodders.com/forums/journal...52&action=view

[Rally Shinoda]

I'm a beginner building a chassis frame at the first time. I hope my English make sense to you.

I live in Japan and all I had was the books and magazines I could find on the net which are available anywhere in the U.S. Those were good for desiging
and considering the plans.

Regarding to the actual work, especially for the bending the tubes ( for both
frame rails and cages ) an instructional video was a big help. The title of the
video is " Working with Tubing " which is produced by Ron Covell and available from http://www.covell.biz/. Other videos such as Working with
Steel is a good learning source as well.

The video shows how to bend and wel the rectangular tubing using the gas
welder and other useful know hows to build the cage with round tubing.
Also, I could know a lot with the Chassis & Suspension Handbook by HP Books.

Before having those books and videos, I was taking the harder way. For example, I didn't know how to bend the rectangular tubing and so what I
did was cutting the tubing in pieces with angles and welded those one by
one, just like the complicated hand welded one off headers made with round tubing. It took me months to make one side with this way but after having the Ron Covell video, I could make the other side of the frame rail in weeks.

How I did the work was; first, draw the 1/5 scale drawing and then, copied
the full scale 1/1 drawing ( upper view ) on the ply wood board. I made the
same ply woodboard drawing of the sideview for reference as well. I used
the thick plu wood boards as a semi-jig, too.

What I am making is a Ford-A frame, so it is simple. My friend who is the
first time challenger is building a Deuce frame with the same way and it is
taking time ( because we are the complete beginners ) but so far, doing well.
I hope my English made sense.

[skband]

Me and my 14 yr old son are currently working on our first rod. A 1930 p/u that I traded a RC Airplane for. Who ever had it did not know anything about welding and all but destroyed the rails. So I purchased the 2 x 4 tubing, found a web site with original plans for the chassis and dug out the old chop saw. Not having or wanting to build a jig for the frame I done the next best thing. I laid the plans out on the garage floor. I also poured the concrete floor so I was pretty sure that it was level enough to work off of, If in doubt please check the level because if can really affect your finished product. First I chalked a center line to work off of. Then squared off where the front would be and chalked that line, measured back to the first bend marked and continued on until I had the whole blue print laid out on the floor. Then it was only a matter of matching the tubing to the lines I chalked on the floor, cutting and welding. I also wanted to lower the rear some more so I put a 7 inch Z bend in the rear, I will just weld reinforcing plates over my weld joints and grind smooth, Wer'e not building a show car but a weekend ride. I bought an old 74 Mustang II donor car for the front end, after many hours of cutting, trimming, cleaning and grafting i finally got it all to fit, Next time I will just buy after market and forget it, I didn't photo document as much as I should have but do have a few pics somewhere, I will try to post a few if I can figure out how. Oh yea... I think I'll install the old 454 out of the work truck and really pressure test the frame.

[28AV8]

I have a project in the works that has the chassis just about complete, and it worked out well.
It was a '28 Model A frame that had the rear cut off and modified. I bought a Jeep frame that had a minor hit in the front, and cut out all the cross members. This left two side rails that were 2-1/2 X 4, with a kick-up for the rear axle. The Jeep rails are rectangular, not channel. I used these to complete the rear of the model A chassis.
When I talked to Art Morrison, he said they would sell rectangular tubing bent to my dimensions, but I had already started with the Jeep sections. They can bend it either on the 4in. side, or the 2in side. At the time he charged for the material, plus some amount for each bend.