1937 Chevy Coupe

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Thank You for your comments and compliments, guys.



It took a few hours, but we needed something you can't buy with a credit card and a catalogue.




We're not likely to enter the market, but we understand what it takes to compete. We pay ourselves 25 cents a day and take a 5 minute lunch break, complete with a bowl of rice and a cup of tainted water. :p

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Your attitude and work conditions are a lot like mine... :D
 
We've been working "body on frame" for... a while. :rolleyes:

We're at the point where work on the body interferes with work on the chassis and vice versa... so, the body came off and we stripped the chassis... exhaust, drivetrain, steering... everything out and off.

We still need to fit a couple bars up front. (It was necessary to fit the exhaust before fitting these pieces.) I drew a few lines to show where they will go, roughly...


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Crappy picture, I know.:mad: It's become CLEAR to me, a smart phone can take pretty good snapshots... until it draws too close to the rebar in my head... could be a magnetic issue... can't tell you for sure... regardless, I look forward to finishing the chassis fabrication and finally, welding all the parts and pieces we've only tacked and stitched to keep their place. (I hate doing anything twice, if it can be avoided.)

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Good lookin frame, It should be stiff enough!!!!!!!!!!!!

^^^^^ X's 2 ^^^^
I'm getting closer to getting to pulling my Dodge off the frame as well. It will take up less room in my shop and I can get it lower to the ground to finish the top work.
Of course I need the snow to all go away first.
[P [P [P
Torchie
 
Thanks guys.

I believe in overkill and hope to achieve it. An engineer friend once told me, "Find your expected load and multiply by 2.5."

We're dealing with an 82 year old frame designed for 85 HP and 170 ft.lbs.... B-tard has a brand new, baby fresh, "old school" solid lifter 360" small block waiting on the stand... it makes something in the neighborhood of 370hp/400tq. Plans include a limited slip 8.8" rear, "healthy" tires and most likely, a custom converter...

With all that in mind, we're making it as stiff as we can. Time will tell, but I don't foresee any failures...

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Ya know that freeway bridge that collapsed here some years ago and killed 8 people? I wish you would have designed it, Doc. It'd still be standing and nobody would have died. Just my way of saying, "Nice frame work".
 
Ya know that freeway bridge that collapsed here some years ago and killed 8 people? I wish you would have designed it, Doc. It'd still be standing and nobody would have died. Just my way of saying, "Nice frame work".

I can't say I'm familiar with the bridge failure, bob, but Thank You all the same!



I've been fortunate to work with many people smarter than me. I could babble incessantly about those smarter people on numerous topics, but speaking structure, design and fabrication, my years in manufacturing probably taught me more than all the others combined...


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You've got my curiosity up, Doc. On your trailer, the fenders don't seem to have enough extra room for lifting the single axles or for caster steering them. When the whole unit turns a reasonably sharp corner there is a lot of scuffing sideways even on a set of tri-axles, but those extra single axles would really drag sideways, if left as solid simple axles. What's your trick?
 
No trick, Mac. The front axle is a lift axle and it steers, but cuts a much larger radius than a cement truck with two front steering axles. The rear axle is fixed and also lifts.

The two boxes (indicated below) control drop, lift and airbag pressure... some were manually operated, some were remote/electronic, depending on the customer and his requirements...

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The fender height is somewhat deceiving. Our "rule of thumb" was 8" clearance. In the photo above, we obviously had more vertical freedom in the rear and the fender is much higher, probably 11 or 12", again, whatever fit the customer's requirements and available real estate.

Here's another example, built to similar specs. In this case, the fenders are set, more or less, to our 8" standard across the board. Obviously, the lift axles are tucked 8" or less, but it works for the application.

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The dry bulk units above were built for Ontario customers. I assume they needed full adjustabililty to meet "weight per axle" requirements for varying roads and varying limits. [S

All this nonsense is counterintuitive by our western standards. I'm sure the examples above scrub tires at an excessive rate with only the wide spread tridem "on the floor". (We're accustomed to B-trains, for the most part, where your head can't fit between two tires.)

Since I'm busy hijacking my own thread... the company I worked for, would build most anything to spec, as long as it was a bulk carrier... crude oil, sour mash, fly ash (hole), flour, peas, fuels of any sort, water vessels to war zones, you name it, within reason...

Anther dry bulk anomaly. We built a small fleet of these things for a customer in Utah. I don't recall what the product was, but it's clear, they needed tip-toe featherweight equipment. Single wheels all around.

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One last photo to end this post. (Pay attention, Mac. You're responsible for all this.)

Something we used to call a "Two Way Hauler", now obsolete. They were a "squashed" steel tanker, built like a bloody battleship. They hauled fuel north and returned with lumber on the deck. Tough as nails. I've seen pictures, where one of these trains was recovered from a gorge in BC and soon returned to service. Tough they were, but the nastiest, most difficult animal to build. I don't miss them for a minute.

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