Gas, tires, oil.

After the frame rails were finished I welded in a cross member over the kickup. I then tacked a light piece of angle between the rails in the front to hold them at the correct distance. I propped the rear frame and the subframe up on blocks at the ride height. Both needed to be trimmed, I found the spot on the subframe where the rear frame had the closest match and torched it off. I determined how long the rear frame would have to be to have the correct wheelbase and cut it off. I then slid them together as seen below.

(more…)

Jumping on the mystery tool bandwagon, here are just a few of the strange tools that I have in my garage (excuse my french, I meant “car hole”).

1. This first one is pretty easy. I recently used it when I replaced the trans in my wife’s suburban (to be blogged later).

2. Now this one below is a bit harder. It’s about 18″ long.

(more…)

Here is a pic of my ‘52 Chevy pickup with a Firebird subframe and custom rectangular tubing rear frame. Today I’ll show the construction of the main frame rails. I wanted to subframe the truck but didn’t want to use the old rear frame (very flexible). I simply took some measurements and copied the old frame with 2″x4″x.125″ rectangular tubing (later I added an x-member made from 1″x2″x.125″ tubing, but that will be another post).

I roughly copied the kickup over the rear axle with 45 degree angles. To make a 45, cut each piece with 22.5. Below I show the pieces for one rail and the other rail tacked.

(more…)

The ‘55 needed some some door panels, well specifically, it needed some side panels in the back seat area. The car is a utility sedan (no back seat, rear side windows don’t roll down) but has a back seat put in (well, wired with baling wire). The original carpet is long gone and the bare metal is dangerous for the passengers (my kids and brave hitchikers). I decided to do all the side panels at once, because the door panels were pretty ratty.

I wanted to eventually put carpet on the floor, so I went to Home Depot and found some nice, short knapp, dark green indoor/outdoor carpet for the floor. They also had some runner carpet in the same color, but with a pattern shaved into it. I thought this would look nice on the door panels, especially with the interior metal work eventually done with House of Kolor green marblizing (left over from my trike).

(more…)

I recently bought this ‘68 Pontiac Tempest off of ebay. A woman saved up her money and paid cash for this car in ‘68. She drove it until the ’80s, then her daughter drove it, then her granddaughter and husband used as a family car until this spring (they had a 4th child and had to switch to a suburban). I got to keep the original black and yellow California plates. The interior is just about perfect, it has a little rust from living in Pacific Grove its whole life (salt air).