Thread: whose Chassis does everyone like?

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...... Yep, I'm also VERY happy with my Pete & Jakes Chassis! Bill

Originally Posted by Ralph Moore

The ball is forged as part of the pitman arm. Yea, my last resort will be to make a part, maybe I should just search the junkyards.

Ralph,

Not sure how your project is going - you need to pick up Mike Bishop's book, "How to Build a Traditional Ford Hot Rod" from your local bookstore or Amazon. You can also buy it from Vern Tardel at www.verntardel.com.

You don't need to box the front portion of the rails for motor mounts. If you use passenger car waterpumps the motor mount 'tabs' will be just behind the front crossmember. Plenty of places to weld to.

If you can, try to find a F1 box, '48-52, they are a little easier to run exhaust around. All the early Ford pitman arms are interchangeable. You can get one from a '35-41 cross-steer box, and slip it right on the F1 box, this has a tapered hole for your tie rod.

Also, the HAMB, at www.jalopyjournal.com is a little more traditionally oriented website. Lots of good info for your build over there.

Thanks for all the info, I did buy that book about two weeks ago. Although it is Model A oriented, it does have alot of useful information for building a 32 also. I just bought an original Model A front crossmember(opted not to use the aftermarket copy) and will install that and fab motor mounts as per the Vern Tardel book. I'm also going with the F-1 shock mounts, Model A headlight mounts-modified, and some of the other tips in the book. One question though, the aftermarket front crossmember had a 7 degree caster built in, if I go with the original model A crossmember how will that affect Caster?

Caster is going to be determined by the wishbones. If you are running an unsplit bone mounted in a stock K-member, the caster is going to be around 7-9 degrees. There is no adjustment other than cutting and welding the wishbone ends near the axle to change the caster angles.

The aftermarket crossmembers all claim that 7 degree number, but they are really only trying to reduce spring bind. The caster is controlled by the wishbones/hairpins/etc....

Here is a pic of a chassis I built like you are wanting to do....

Nice! I'm going with split wishbones, and I bought some mounts from So Cal that fit right on the bottom of the frame. They only drop about 1-1/2 from the bottom of the frame rail. I mocked up the Model A front crossmember yesterday and was looking at the caster. If I mount it flat to the bottom frame rail it leaves a gap at the top of the frame too large to weld/bolt(approx 7/16"), but if I tilt it rearward and up, the top lines up and caster looks right and the lower rear rivet holes look good, but the front lower rivet holes are about 7/16" off the frame rail. Now I could heat and bend those tabs and make them fit perfect, but is that right? Do you have more detailed pics of your front end?

I would say bend the tabs to make the bottom fit up like you want. I would make some filler pieces close the gap on the top, then weld it all up.

I've been looking at several frames and most of them have it flush or just below the top edge, taking into consideration the height needed to make the radiator shell and firewall line up properly.