Projects Slammed 31 A coupe....FINISHED!!

Hey all, it's been a long time since I posted over here, mostly been busy with life, work, kid, etc, etc. Anyhow thought I would share my current build with you guys. About a year ago I sold my 29 A sedan after it had its feature in Ol Skool Rodz, I had already purchased a 31 coupe which was my dream car since I can remember and I just couldn't wait to tear into it so since money is tight I let the sedan go to work on the coupe.

I still miss this car, it was a blast!





Anyhow, I'm gonna make a long post to catch you guys up on the work I've been doing, since there's lots of pics I'm sure you won't mind

The coupe the day I picked it up:



Didn't waste much time taking it to bare metal......the poor man's way with a buffing wheel.....cost nothing but time.



Was a good time to chop 6" out of it too!!




Did all the rust repair, grafting a new section of quarter panel, and making various lower panels like these ones at the quarters:

A bead roller sure is handy:


The plan for this one is open wheeled, stock wheel base, sweeping frame and FULL air ride front and rear.

Built the frame from 6x2 .125 tubing, lots of cutting and shaping, the center section where the body sits is cut down to 4" so I'll have a "little" bit more head room The front sweeps up about 5", still lots of pieces to fit and welding and grinding.



Added gussets to the inside of the tube:



Wanted something different for the rear kick than the usual Z so I took a front set of rails from another frame project and started pie cutting them and bent them to this shape. LOTS of welding and grinding.







Needed to make a rear crossmember out of 2x2x1/4 to match: Lots of blood was lost building this but it was worth it




Made some brackets for the rear bags



Cut the four bars down and mounted

 

uh oh!

 

For the front I used a Cen-Pen kit and modified it, the bags are hidden under the front crossmember.

For the dash I used a 60s c80 1 ton grill and cut the piss out of it, it was a lot of fun and I'm sure some dumb ass will think it a Chevrolet because the dash says so





For the front suspension I used a 4" drop custom axle from lucky7, original Buick 45 fin drums machined down to fit 39 Linkoln style backing plates.

Had to make new studs to accomodate the 35 Ford wires I'm running



In the rear I'm using a 8.8 drum rear end from a 92 Exploder.

I scored a seize 354 hemi for it and a year later it's been rebuilt and ready to rock with a tunnel ram and 3 deuce set up


So that's a crash course on where the build is at, I'm ready to tear it all down and do the final welding and paint on the chassis and start re-assembly. Got the air ride plumbed and working, here's a link to a short vid on youtube if anyones' intereseted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IdxTjfw2f4

And here's how the car is sitting now with the air out :




I'll keep the thread updated as work commences this summer.

 

Pretty damn kool!

 

Nice work!!! Whats with the "uh oh". So it's got air ride. who the hell cares, they had air back in the 50s, just not common. Also alot of the customs here have bags all around and they are cooler than hell. . Good work is good work. The detail so far is awesome.

 

great work! you might want to check out this method for about 4 miles less weld bead length, more control over the finished shapes, more strength in the finished part, and a few hours less grinding

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=671187&highlight=flthd31

 

looks pretty cool! sooo how long did it take you to weld all those pie cuts in the frame back up!! the things we do to have a nice look to them!

 

Thanks guys, the "uh oh" comment I figured would come from somewhere, I was hesitant about posting anything air ride over here, but I've read and seen a lot of super rad build threads on here with air so I figured why not.

Praisethelowered: the link you posted isn't working? I'd be interested to read it.

slddnmatt: It didn't take that long to weld and grind, I had prepped all the pie cuts for full penetration welds so there really wasn't a lot to grind. Maybe 2 hours per piece. I work as a welding instructor in my day job so that experience helps when doing these types of jobs. I could have had the pieces laser cut and cut down on welding but I wanted to use up some material I had laying around, free is always good

Thanks again for the comments

 

Nice fab work... thats a lot of welding!! Keep w the updates

 

Small update:

Had Drive Products do the driveshaft, Brian over there is very knowledgeable and the turn around is very quick for a really reasonable price. Picked it up today and installed it. Also finished off the mounts for the panhard bar, needed to cut the bar down and re-tap it as well I managed to utilize the mounting holes on the pinion and it turned out good I think.



It's gonna be tight inside once I build the floor.



Panhard:






Added some gussets to the rear kick for strength:









Basically the rear is done, just need to install the rear body mounts I've been working on and its finished and ready for welding.

I had put a lower patch in the passenger door some time ago and wasn't happy with it, I realized I should have shrunk the patch to follow the convex of the door before I installed it so I cut it out and started it again.



2 minutes on the shrinker gave it the shape it was needing prior to install:



Not even tacked in yet and it's an obvious difference in how well it's going to fit. I'll finish it tonight after the wife and kid go to bed:



I have a few things left to fab and mount prior to dis-assembly, next will be the master cylinder and some crafty heating and bending on the pedal then cut the grill shell down to fit the rad and make the mounts.

For the front frame horns I need to fab a set of bump stops. I see now that once the weight has settled on the suspension that the front drag link hits the balancer. I could program the air system to not go all the way down to eliminate this but I need to consider an air bag failure.


I think by adding some bump stops that will eliminate this, I could use approximately 1" more room between the balancer and the drag link, 2 other options are to heat and bend the steering arms (which I'm not fond of) or using a spacer in between the steering arms and drag link. I've heard yeah's and no's on doing this, I see they sell spacers for steering arms for 4x4's, is it bad to use a 1" spacer (MAX) in this situation???

 

Great work so far. Love the bags btw! Well done.

 

Those INSIDE welds on the gussets humble me. Will you be adding a drive shaft loop?

 

Yes I am in the process of building the driveshaft loops, they will go off of the 2x2x1/4" tube, also starting on the skeleton for the floor in the coming days. Want to have as much fabbed prior to tear down in a week or so for final welding and paint on the chassis.

 

Nice looking Coupe. I'm subscribed.

 

Sweet 31 your working on
I have a 31 A roadster that I'll be customizing

 

sweet ride ,love the chassis work

 

Nice work. Clean welds and quality work. Build it for you. Curious to see how the front bag system will work. Did I miss it? Bags or Air shocks?

Main thing is that it appears that it will be safe. Looks well thought out.

 

killer car dude. subscribed

 

Thanks for all the comments guys.

I'm using Firestone sleeve bags that are hidden under the front crossmember and shocks mounted on the outside of the frame rails you can't see the bags at all when the air is out. I'll snap some pics next time I'm out.
The one thing I don't like about those sleeve bags is that they fold over when you let the air out, Firestone says that is normal but I'm not to fond of it. The reason they fold is because they open and close on an angle.

 

Anyone got an opinion on this problem??

My balancer is hitting the front drag link when the air is out, I need maybe 1" more room :



I still need to make a set of bump stops that may eliminate this, or I could heat and bend the steering arms which I'm not to fond of. I was thinking of making a 3/4-1" spacer to put under the steering arms, I see they sell them for 4x4s, is it bad to use a small spacer on a steering arm????? I have heard yes and no but from only critics and no-one who can actually say they did it and wouldn't do it again and why.

Opinions are appreciated.

Cheers
Dean

 

Nice work. Can't wait to see more.

 

Decided to spend the day sectioning the grill shell, the one I have is pretty rough so I want to make a new one from sheetmetal but need to section this one first so I can use it for a pattern. Typically I would use poster board but this shell needs to be cut vertically as well as horizontally because the rad isn't correct for 30/31 shells like I was told when I bought it so I wasn't sure on the paper pattern and didn't want to do it twice. A fair bit more work but it was fun.

Here you can see how poor the fit was horizontally to the rad and get an idea of what needed to but out:



Cut out 4" vertically:



Then cut the bottom 3" out on each side of center, it needs to come in 1" on both sides near the bottom, I used the cut out section and scribed where I needed to trim it for the best fit, it also required some relief cuts and trimming at the top:





All trimmed and tacked up, might as well throw it up to the car and have a look:



Now I'm excited, threw a set of headlight buckets up too I'm not using these ones just couldn't resist:



Here's the number one problem with the rad and the car so low, the outlet won't work as I have no place to run the hose to the water pump, I'll need to cut it off and make a new outlet that sits at 90 degrees then I'll be able to run the hose up and over the crossmember. I had to do this on a friends sedan also, it worked well.



O.K so play time has to end, laid out the pattern on a piece of sheetmetal:



Added the sides and bottom flange to the pattern, the top piece will be seperate, it's too much to try and tip the whole thing in the bead roller:



Cut it out and ran it threw the english wheel 2 times at lower pressure with a low crown wheel to hopefully help it from going concave when I put the step in, it seemed to have worked just fine:



Next I tipped the sides and the bottom flange, I had to shrink the lower flange after.



Then I ran out of time so I'll have to do the top tomorrow as well as the inside flange which is also seperate.

 

Dude effing sick! I love how you mounted the front bags, it's super slick. I would think if you did bump stops and small spacers you should be safe. Also, I am very impressed with your welds and metal work. Any plans for color?

 

Thanks, as far as color, the chassis will be black, for the body I'm undecided, I'm either going with matte silver and a black belt line, or satin orange with a black belt line. The interior is going to have a bench style seat done in tuck n roll.

 

Bad ass dude! im keeping my eye on this page....

 

nice work dude. diggin it

 

Speedway has a cool set up that can make the drag link adjustable. I had a stock 1940 with the stock ball joint but had to go with these and then to heim joints. I lowered the drag link 2"
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Adjustable-Tie-Rod-Adapter-Stud-to-Heim,3333.html

 

Thanks for Speedway link. Yep, those would have worked just fine but I had already drilled the steering arms out to accept a 5/8" bolt for a heim. I see they sell other spacers for steering arms so I think I'll just use some heavy wall DOM and build a 1" spacer to put under the arms. Thanks again though.

 

So how about running a 5/8 Grade 8 bolt throught the steering arms and bolt them on, then run the heim down on the threads like the link.

 

I was just thinking of the that as well after looking at the link again, that would work just the same.

Cheers