super scamp 340
Well-Known Member
That's one sweet ride very nice work.
"Rookie-Touring" '69 Dart
- Thread starter swisswill
- Start date
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swisswill
Well-Known Member
Thanks Guys.
Denny, When I put the front together that is exactly what I did, I tacked everything, ALOT! Then checked for square, retacked, checked for square, then burnt it all down. Just a very small amount of warpage on the front passenger side. That front rail is about 1/32" lower than the driver side. Should be no problem. It won't go anywhere when I put the rear rails on.
Denny, When I put the front together that is exactly what I did, I tacked everything, ALOT! Then checked for square, retacked, checked for square, then burnt it all down. Just a very small amount of warpage on the front passenger side. That front rail is about 1/32" lower than the driver side. Should be no problem. It won't go anywhere when I put the rear rails on.
I think that happens to all of us, after all, there's no instructions.....:mrgreen:
OK Will,..I knew you would have a handle on it...but,you know me....just tryin' to help...kinda' an armchair fabricator......and I wouldn't worry about the 1/32 diff...I don't think these cars were originally built on any kind of surface plate anyways......good old '70's
rapidtransitric
LX/LC platform a body swap pioneer
but i've been looking at your car for two years rjsjea.... hows that go? oh yeah ("just sayin"):colors:
Good one.:evil1: I need inspiration from Will's build
swisswill
Well-Known Member
You guys are killing me... Seriously though, I have to let the paint dry so I figured it was time for a break.
Okay, that's enough of a break, back to the garage.
Okay, that's enough of a break, back to the garage.
rapidtransitric
LX/LC platform a body swap pioneer
well will i guess it's all on you
swisswill
Well-Known Member
Here's some progress as of late. Doesn't seem like much but I've been working my junk off! The chassis is almost finished after I had to rebuild my front frame rails; I can do statistics and calculus like nobody's business, but apparently 7th grade geometry has fled through my first set of front and rear frame rails. For those that commented on tack welding everything together, duly noted for future reference...
So, I built the rear rails tacked them in place, rebuilt the front rails, tacked them in place...
...started building the back brace, tacked it in place, and here is where the chassis is at...
I have a lot more to do on the back brace to strengthen and finish it but I ran out of material since I changed the design. I'll pick some up and get it finished up tomorrow.
After double and triple checking all measurements I welded the chassis solid and began the fishplates. I've got all the fishplates cut and tacked in place and will get those locked down tomorrow as well. Tuesday I'll begin working on suspension mounts and the front cross member.
While all this has been going on, more parts have come in, Spohn Del-Spere's, Howe Balljoints...
Trans mount when I get there later this week or first of next...
Rear license plate holder from a '77 TA to hide the trailer hitch mounted to the frame...
And finally the jig for my LCA's...
That's enough for now, more to come tomorrow.
So, I built the rear rails tacked them in place, rebuilt the front rails, tacked them in place...
...started building the back brace, tacked it in place, and here is where the chassis is at...
I have a lot more to do on the back brace to strengthen and finish it but I ran out of material since I changed the design. I'll pick some up and get it finished up tomorrow.
After double and triple checking all measurements I welded the chassis solid and began the fishplates. I've got all the fishplates cut and tacked in place and will get those locked down tomorrow as well. Tuesday I'll begin working on suspension mounts and the front cross member.
While all this has been going on, more parts have come in, Spohn Del-Spere's, Howe Balljoints...
Trans mount when I get there later this week or first of next...
Rear license plate holder from a '77 TA to hide the trailer hitch mounted to the frame...
And finally the jig for my LCA's...
That's enough for now, more to come tomorrow.
swisswill
Well-Known Member
Denny, this is more or less what I'm doing...
No cage, no true X-brace. I will be bending up some tube for drive shaft loops that will run down the trans tunnel and tie the two sides together. I need to pick up a die for that since I'll be using rectangular tube instead of round.
No cage, no true X-brace. I will be bending up some tube for drive shaft loops that will run down the trans tunnel and tie the two sides together. I need to pick up a die for that since I'll be using rectangular tube instead of round.
I always thought about building/buying a chassis from Alston and dropping the body over it...of couse lowering the body in the process....of course ..that would be too easy....and a little futher out there from what I was after...but ..If I could stumble onto another 70 to71 Duster shell....................somebody find my plazma cutter
swisswill
Well-Known Member
I was REAL close to buying an Art Morrison chassis and just couldn't do it with a $1400 shipping cost. They also couldn't do a triangulated 4 link with a 345 rear tire because the rear rails would have been too narrow. So I decided to build my own. I would do it again in a heart beat, and I hope too.
swisswill
Well-Known Member
I hear you Denny. I've got ideas from 3 different builders in my design, the picture above is from the Roadster Shop. Overall I'm real happy with it. I'm still torn on how I'm going to mount the front LCA's. The Viper spindle is designed for anti-dive to be picked up in the LCA so the rear mount is about an inch and a half higher than the front. I've got a couple ideas but am still torn on which I will like the look of better. The rear suspension is figured out and I'll probably have that set in the next few days. I'm looking forward to having that all tacked up and see this with the wheels on it.
Thanks Tin.
Thanks Tin.
swisswill
Well-Known Member
It definitely feel great and it's even better to get some big work done on the car.
swisswill
Well-Known Member
Not much in the lines of fun pics to show for progress but here's where I'm at this morning.
Yesterday got my tube bender put together. Bought it from tubetek.net; they have a great price and their product is really good. I built a bench top base for it which worked out great yesterday.
Used it first to bend up some rear tubes that will pick up the rear lower control arms. I'm using tube clamps on the rear pickups in order to drop the entire rear-end, if needed, but I need to get two additional that should be here Friday. My original design only required using two tube clamps, but I changed it in order to make building the rear frame rails easier, which also simplified these tubes but now I need two additional clamps. The tubes are tacked in place until I can get the suspension mocked up against it and I know the fit is perfect.
Welded in the rest of the center section on the chassis, with exception of the support pieces that the floor will rest on. I'm waiting to put those in until I can test fit the chassis; I want to make sure the width is adequate for the trans and exhaust routing. This isn't a great picture to see it since the chassis is upside down but I'll try to get it flipped today.
My new inner rocker panels will be here tomorrow so I finished getting the drivers side ready for those, still need to lay down some weld thru primer but I'll get that today. Sure isn't much left of the original rocker, but this should work out perfect.
Had some problems with gas flow on the welder over the last few days so we spent a bunch of time getting that worked out. I noticed the problem while welding on my fishplates, they came out looking terrible so I had to grind everything down; hoping to get at cleaning those up a bit soon. Took a while to get it worked out but we fixed the issue (kink on the line inside the machine) and all is good now.
Today we are assembling my front lower A arms; we're tigging these together. My buddy Dave will be doing the tig work on these so I'm headed to his place shortly. After that, I'll come back and finish getting things ready new inner rockers and installing the chassis for the first time. Hopefully will be another productive day. I still have a lot to do in order to make this thing a roller before I leave but I believe I can do it, time will tell. More to come...
Yesterday got my tube bender put together. Bought it from tubetek.net; they have a great price and their product is really good. I built a bench top base for it which worked out great yesterday.
Used it first to bend up some rear tubes that will pick up the rear lower control arms. I'm using tube clamps on the rear pickups in order to drop the entire rear-end, if needed, but I need to get two additional that should be here Friday. My original design only required using two tube clamps, but I changed it in order to make building the rear frame rails easier, which also simplified these tubes but now I need two additional clamps. The tubes are tacked in place until I can get the suspension mocked up against it and I know the fit is perfect.
Welded in the rest of the center section on the chassis, with exception of the support pieces that the floor will rest on. I'm waiting to put those in until I can test fit the chassis; I want to make sure the width is adequate for the trans and exhaust routing. This isn't a great picture to see it since the chassis is upside down but I'll try to get it flipped today.
My new inner rocker panels will be here tomorrow so I finished getting the drivers side ready for those, still need to lay down some weld thru primer but I'll get that today. Sure isn't much left of the original rocker, but this should work out perfect.
Had some problems with gas flow on the welder over the last few days so we spent a bunch of time getting that worked out. I noticed the problem while welding on my fishplates, they came out looking terrible so I had to grind everything down; hoping to get at cleaning those up a bit soon. Took a while to get it worked out but we fixed the issue (kink on the line inside the machine) and all is good now.
Today we are assembling my front lower A arms; we're tigging these together. My buddy Dave will be doing the tig work on these so I'm headed to his place shortly. After that, I'll come back and finish getting things ready new inner rockers and installing the chassis for the first time. Hopefully will be another productive day. I still have a lot to do in order to make this thing a roller before I leave but I believe I can do it, time will tell. More to come...
Not much in the lines of fun pics to show for progress but here's where I'm at this morning.
Yesterday got my tube bender put together. Bought it from tubetek.net; they have a great price and their product is really good. I built a bench top base for it which worked out great yesterday.
Used it first to bend up some rear tubes that will pick up the rear lower control arms. I'm using tube clamps on the rear pickups in order to drop the entire rear-end, if needed, but I need to get two additional that should be here Friday. My original design only required using two tube clamps, but I changed it in order to make building the rear frame rails easier, which also simplified these tubes but now I need two additional clamps. The tubes are tacked in place until I can get the suspension mocked up against it and I know the fit is perfect.
Welded in the rest of the center section on the chassis, with exception of the support pieces that the floor will rest on. I'm waiting to put those in until I can test fit the chassis; I want to make sure the width is adequate for the trans and exhaust routing. This isn't a great picture to see it since the chassis is upside down but I'll try to get it flipped today.
My new inner rocker panels will be here tomorrow so I finished getting the drivers side ready for those, still need to lay down some weld thru primer but I'll get that today. Sure isn't much left of the original rocker, but this should work out perfect.
Had some problems with gas flow on the welder over the last few days so we spent a bunch of time getting that worked out. I noticed the problem while welding on my fishplates, they came out looking terrible so I had to grind everything down; hoping to get at cleaning those up a bit soon. Took a while to get it worked out but we fixed the issue (kink on the line inside the machine) and all is good now.
Today we are assembling my front lower A arms; we're tigging these together. My buddy Dave will be doing the tig work on these so I'm headed to his place shortly. After that, I'll come back and finish getting things ready new inner rockers and installing the chassis for the first time. Hopefully will be another productive day. I still have a lot to do in order to make this thing a roller before I leave but I believe I can do it, time will tell. More to come...
That's all you got done ?? ,what did you do for the other half of the day....\\
/
rapidtransitric
LX/LC platform a body swap pioneer
thats what i'd like to know. come time magement
swisswill
Well-Known Member
You know, I'm learning that fabricating, designing, building, and welding takes a lot longer than I expected. Example, we built my lower control arms today and I expected 2-3 hours total, 5 hours later I have 2 LCA's. Fitment, measuring, checking, double/triple/quadruple checking, tweaking, etc, takes a whole lot of time. On top of it, I'm still new to welding, fabricating, and building. Still, I have plenty of time to get to where I want to before I leave (praying for it anyway).
That brings us to today's progress. Unfortunately no pics, but I got the LCA's finished and spent the evening getting the front suspension reset with the revised geometry. I'll have it finished up in the morning and will be ready to install on the chassis once I have the chassis in the car. For now, the chassis is as far as I can take it until it's in the car. Everything else is contingent on getting it in the car and getting the suspension mounted. Unfortunately getting the chassis in the car is contingent on the delivery of my new inner rocker panels. Those were ordered 3 weeks ago and should have been here 1 week ago but will finally arrive tomorrow afternoon. I hope to have the chassis in the car this weekend, get the suspension mounted next week and get the car off the table next week. We'll see...
Here is the plan for the inner rockers. the green is the existing rocker, the red is the new panel, and the silver is the 2x4 perimeter frame rail.
As for weight, I don't know yet but I'm hoping to be in the ballpark of 3200 lbs.
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