1952 F1: The Garage Roommate

[Horseplay]

Back home finally and back in the garage. Pulled the two sections back together and made sure all was aligned and square. Ground a nice, even bevel on the edges and proceeded to weld it back together. First outside and then on the inside too. I ground most of the inside weld flush (left a bit of thickness on the underside of the top leg) so a plate would rest flat against the vertical rail side. Decided against reusing the old frame pieces for fish-plating the rails back together. Wanted something a bit thicker so I used some 3/16" cold rolled plate cut to size with the plasma torch. LOVING that thing. Fired up the MIG and burned it in all around. There were a number of unnecessary holes in the stock frame section that the fish-plate covered so I also did some plug welding on the other side to further mate the stuff together. Next I will be adding a boxing plate to the inside of the rail to totally enclose it and add some additional strength to the frame but before I can do that I had to weld in some nuts to the outer vertical rail section where a running board backet will mount. A couple of those bracket bolts go through the extra thickness of the plate which will only add even more rigidity to the board when stepped on.

 

[JRANGER]

damn those are some nice welds. Good Job

 

[Horseplay]

Going to try and get this thread up to date and once current posting regular updates. Its difficult enough finding the time to work on the truck but even more so to remember to take pics and make posts. Sorry. For anyone interested in this thread I apologize for leaving you in the dark so often!

If you have spent any time around here you should probably know I tend to change course on stuff a bit. Tends to slow down the progress when you're always taking those two steps back. Happy to report the decision to cut the truck in half and shorten it wasn't really one of those instances. It's all back together (albeit a tad shorter) and stronger than ever. Now back to the regularly scheduled action.



I am SO tired of filling in holes. I have welded up well over three dozen on the frame alone. Back in '52 everything was hot riveted together so when removing things like the mid-position crossmember you end up with about a dozen new holes to fill. It's a fair amount of work to grind and drill and drive them out but then to turn around and have to weld them up and grind/sand smooth just eats up the hours. I guess it doesn't have to be done but I'm not a fan of swiss cheese rails!

 

[Horseplay]

I guess I should have added that I cleaned, prepped and rust preventative treated the inside of the rails. Then top coated with Eastwood chassis black paint. Good for another 70+ years, I would expect.

 

[Horseplay]

damn those are some nice welds. Good Job

Thanks. Structural stuff. Needs to be done well. One of the reasons I used new steel for the fishplate rather than trying to reuse the old pieces. Less chance of contamination in the welds from old paint, rust, etc.

 

[Horseplay]

Got back home late last night. Bounced around pretty good for a solid hour trying to find a path into Chicago. Pretty nasty band of weather across a large swath of the heartland. Garage time again. Getting close to the fun stuff now. Today and this weekend I can finally get to the rear air ride stuff and mounting of the fuel tank. Will need to make a couple more crossmembers and bend up some DOM for various parts. Some "first time" activities involved in this next phase so looking forward to seeing how that goes. At least now I'm getting to a point where things are coming together and you can actually see the results of all the hours of work put in so far.

 

[Horseplay]

Yesterday was a good day. Fair amount of time spent in the garage. Did I get as far as I would have liked? Of course not but I did make progress. I had previously tacked the link tabs on the rear end housing. Got those welded up fully now that I have all the framework completed (at least in that area). Started mocking up the air ride components. This has been an evolving design given the basic mechanics of what is needed and the space available. The whole space thing challenge will become apparent in the next few posts. There is a lot going on that needs to fit into a small area (behind the axle so the frame shortening had no affect on this issue).


So I decided to go with a "bag over axle" set-up. This saved me a few inches of much needed room behind the axle for other stuff. I found a guy on line who could bend up some thick .125" wall 1" tube and had him provide a pair of "U"s. Another source was used for a set of flat bag plates that matched up well with the bent tubes. Both items were more cost effective to buy rather than make myself. Hell, I couldn't begin to try and bend the tubing as well or tightly as he did. My cheap Chinese bender has limits. Low limits!

Initial mock-up


The housing I am using came off an old mustang track car so it has larger than normal tubes (thicker wall) that get larger in diameter as it gets closer to the center housing. I bought a pair of lower bag mounts and had to modify the "legs" individually to get a good fit. Of the 4 legs no two needed to have the same cope. Little fab tip: I used a piece of metal rod that I bent around the housing (or other round object) to get the correct size to use as a guide for my plasma torch. Remember to allow for the offset to your torch tip.

 

[Horseplay]

You'll see in the pic above there was one remaining stock crossmember toward the rear of the frame. I had to remove this as well. Lots more rivets. Lots more grinding and drilling to remove them. I HATE rivets. Inside the rails, at the rear of the frame are some very thick, what I would describe as "I-beam" type inserts to which the bumper brackets get bolted. These were welded in at some point by a very enthusiastic gentlemen who decide to burn into this crossmember as well. So I torched it off short inside the rails. I also cut the rail back in that transition area you see so there is a straight line as it narrows a tad. I will be adding a section of more boxing plate over this area as well.


So you know what that meant. More damn holes to weld up. So tired of holes... If I didn't mention it before I will now. DO NOT BE ONE OF THOSE GUYS who simply slather POR15 over the top of rust and call it good. It's not good. It just hides the rust and I promise you it will keep doing its damage. I thought this frame was in great shape when I got the truck and I guess it really is other than the fact the previous guy POR15'd it like he did (see pic below). It takes me no time with a DA and some 120 grit to knock off the paint and rust to get to smooth metal. Like a couple minutes to do a couple feet. Why would you not do this before top coating? I've been doing the whole frame inside and out as I have gone along it's length. I will even be body working it to some degree to get it right for paint. It takes so little time and very little in material cost to do something right and get the best, lasting finish. NO SHORTCUTS! Rant over.

 

[Horseplay]

Got a little more time in the garage today. Mostly spent doing more frame boxing. Sounds so easy (and it is) other than it just takes time. Trimming plates to fit. Metal prep and painting (inside/backside). Welding and more welding. Grinding and rounding the edges. Cleaning up the mess. Ugh. Then there are all the little bits and pieces that have to be fabricated for the various components. A gusset here, a bracket there. Here's just a few of the things I've made lately.

Upper shock mount


Hydraulic clutch master mount (inside frame rail). 3/16" steel. Cut a v-channel about halfway through where bent and then welded to make solid.



Transmission mount/crossmember. There is A LOT going on with this thing. Had to fit around brake master set-up under floor. It is SOLID. Flatheads are very heavy so didn't skimp here in material or design. Heavy wall box and rectangular tubing along with some 3/16" plate. Even a bit of 1/2" plate for where I needed to have threads to bolt a bracket piece to it.


You may recall I wanted to maintain the under floor master and pedals but had to remove the stock crossmember to make room for the modern T5. This turned out to be quite a bit of work to get things just how I wanted them. There is a second little bracket that bolts to the new crossmember that ties it into the frame structure of the original pedal mount portion of the stock crossmember which I retained. I will share more pics and detail on this later. I plan on finally just pulling the cab off the frame soon to facilitate painting the chassis. Tired of laying on my damn back under it!

 

[Mach1 Driver]

You do very impressive work Terry. It would be interesting to see a video showing how you cut, shape and form those thick pieces of steel. For instance in the first picture it looks like it has a sharp inside bend line, or is it two plates welded together? In the second picture, the large hole looks like it has been punched, not drilled, and in the third picture the long slots on the cross member. Seeing the equipment, tools and techniques used would be very instructive.

 

[Horseplay]

I used to take more pics (back when building the fastback) and post stuff up more as an instructional aid but honestly, when I do get garage time I typically just get to work and forget to take pics! I will try to do better.

To answer your questions, that first pic is one of the upper shock mounting tabs that get welded to a round tubular support. I like to use cold rolled steel whenever I can. It is cleaner and stronger than hot rolled and most importantly I can avoid having to clean off mill scale. This was made from a piece of square tubing. First I used a tubing notcher and hole saw to bore a hole the same diameter as the tubular support. then I simply cut it in half and then ground it into the shape needed. I always try to find the easiest way to do stuff. I have nothing big enough to bend 3/16" thick steel. If necessary (like on the master bracket), I cut a slit in the face of the metal where it needs to bend (inside of the bend) then bend the piece and follow up by welding over the slit creating a very strong union.

The second pic is the clutch master bracket. The large hole needed to be pretty tight tolerance so as to be sure the master wouldn't move under load. I have found no matter how good the hole saw or the tool and fixtures used to make a hole, hole saws never result in true hole size. The lone exception to this is a series of hole saws made by Bosch for putting holes in thinner sheet metal. Anything with some thickness to it typical saws wobble and wander too much. A while back I got my hands on one of those Chinese hobby mills and a lathe. I've done quite a bit of work on the lathe to make it usable but the mill isn't bad for simple stuff. I did buy a few different vise set-ups for it and lot of specialized tooling. One thing I got was a boring bar kit. If you don't know what that is Google it but it is essentially used to make big holes in stuff. You can really dial in the diameter to anything you need. That's how I made the hole to mount the master cylinder.

For making slots in stuff I have two methods depending on how critical the tolerances might be and how thick the material. In stuff like 18 ga sheet I typically just use a drill of the correct diameter needed for the slot and drill a hole at the end points of where the slot is needed. Then I take a cut off wheel and just "connect the dots". What doesn't show well in the pic is on the underside of the crossmember where the bolts will enter to thread into the trans mount, I welded in a piece of 1/4" thick plate to add some beef to the bottom where the bolt heads will cinch. While I could have used the drill and cut-off wheel method doing it with something that meaty is not as easy. So, I first made the slots in that plate on the mill and then welded it onto the crossmember. Again, taking time to think stuff through and creating a plan before acting. I do that a lot. Sit and think and stare and think and stare.... No wonder I never get as much done as I want!

Promise to do better as I go forward and share more pics and such

 

[Mach1 Driver]

I understand the time and effort required to show your work. Thanks for the explanations, they make sense now (except for one) but still are a lot of set-ups and work. Kudos!
So how do you put a slit in the face of the metal before you bend it? That would take forever with a hack saw. I guess you could use a cutoff wheel if you have a steady hand (not me). You make the slit on the "back" surface, bend it "up", then weld-in the outside corner and grind it off? Ah, and thanks for the tip on using cold rolled steel, I'll keep that in mind.
BTW, what type of vice did you get for your mini? I have a screwless vice for the accuracy but it is a PITA to use.

 

[Horseplay]

If I had to bend a piece of flat stock, heavy metal I would lay it on a surface and mark the centerline of where the bend is going to be. If the bend is going to have much of an angle I need to remove some material on the inside of the bend to give room for the bend to happen. On stuff like 3/16" or thicker I use a cut-off wheel to trace that line I drew about halfway into the stock. More for a really severe bend, less for something under say 45 degrees. I then use a 2" 3M cubitron abrasive disc in my die grinder to bevel that cut line into more of a "V". Something done similar is when you kerf a piece of wood for bending. After bending I then burn in a nice weld to fill in that relief area and strengthen the piece. Hope that makes it more clear.