Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[J. Robinson]

Thanks for the compliments, Don and Mike. The mock up pic makes it look like I'm a lot farther along than I really am...

I built some wood supports to hold the frame off the floor (visible in the pic above) at the intended ride height (5" front; 7" rear). Then I set the body in place, rolled the front and rear axles into their respective locations, and propped the nose piece up where it should go. The front axle location is pretty much dictated by circumstances. Using my coupe's engine bay as a standard, I need about 31" between the firewall and the radiator. I added 3" to that for radiator and spring clearance and made the frame so that it extends 34" from the firewall. The axle is positioned in front of the frame so it clears by about 1/2" (The tie rod passes under the frame rails). I moved the rear end back and forth until I was happy with the overall proportions and finally measured the approximate wheelbase. It will be about 97 inches.

The next step is to get the front and rear axles mounted. I suppose there are many ways to approach the problem, but I like to get the radius rods built and in place to keep things "located" before I start fabricating the spring perches. On this car, since I am after a classic track roadster look, I am going to use traditional Kurtis "hairpin" style radius rods on the front. I could buy them from Speedway for $159 each plus rod ends, but I can make them for about $25 for the pair, plus rod ends. That leaves me more $$$ to spend elsewhere and the cheaper I can do this, the quicker I can progress on the overall project.

To begin fabricating the radius rods, I cut 4 pieces of 3/4 in. OD tubing (1/2" black iron pipe) about 6" - 8" longer than the intended final length. In this case, I cut 4 pieces 40" long (one piece was longer, but I just left it for later). Next, I bent one end of each piece to about a 60 degree angle. (For the bends, I used a pipe bender I bought at Harbor Freight, but I have done this before using an old v-belt pulley clamped in a vise.)

Next, I set my nifty tubing notcher to about 22 degrees, clamped the scrap end of the tubes in the notcher (see pic), and cut them off with a 7/8" hole saw. The challenge was trying to cut them all in the same place. It's mostly a matter of "calibrated eyeball" and using the first one to gauge the others. After they were all cut off on the bent end and deburred, I lined them all up side-by-side on the floor with the bent end against the bottom of my workbench and marked them to be cut off to the desired length (35" in this case). I also cut two little pieces 4 3/4" long for the center pieces. In the pic below, you can see how they fit together before I cut the long pieces to final length. Everything fit nice, but there's more work to do before I can weld them together...