1934 Chevrolet 4dr sedan build

[Neophyte]

Front suspension continued

It was time I worked on this poject again. I am now not too far from finished with all my major fabrication on the chassis.

Seeing that the rear shock mountings have been done it was time to do the front. First off was to fabricate two shock towers to place on the chassis next to the grill. Nothing too fancy was needed so I came with this fairly boxy design.

The first pic just shows the three pieces of 50mm x 5mm flat bar that make up each shock tower while the second shows where I tack welded them together.

In the third pic they are tack welded to the chassis with an old (mock-up) shock fitted. My next entry will show the shock mountings wishbones on the wishbones a bit closer up.

 

[Neophyte]

Front suspension continued

These pics just show the front shock mountings that go onto the wishbones. The second pic is a close-up of the one where the front panhard bar will bolt to. That one will be the left rear of the shock mounts. The panhard bar's other end will then be fitted the the right shock tower.

 

[Neophyte]

Fish plates and rear panhard bracket

Although I'll only be welding the fish-plates onto the chassis a bit later on I also cut them while I was busy with the plasma cutter. I managed to get those lines so nice and straight by using a piece of masonite as a guide against which I could "slide" the torch. It actually makes for some very nice cuts.

I also made the rear panhard bar's axle bracket while I was at it. The smaller top hole is where the panhard bar will be bolted in. As you can see the welds still needs to be cleaned up a bit.

 

[Neophyte]

I just got this speedo cluster today and it is labeled as coming from a Hudson. Unfortunately no model or year.

After some searching I found it to be from a 1954 Hudson Jet. What do you think?

 

[Bonehead]

I like the cluster, the whole build is looking good.

 

[Neophyte]

Panhard bars

I finally managed to do the panhard bars for both the front and rear as shown in the first photo. The longer one at the top is the front bar while the shorter one is for the rear.

The second and third photos shows the front bar installed between the right shock tower and the left wishbone.

The last photo shows the rear panhard bar and bracket installation.

 

[Neophyte]

Radiator support

I had the radiator support laser cut and cnc bent earlier with all the other laser cut parts. It's the bottom item in the first pic. They just couldn't bend the two ends in also. The second pic shows where I bent the two ends myself. After that I welded up the seams on the corners to make it stronger. In the last pic it's installed between the frame rails right behind the spring perch. You'll also notice I welded fish-plates to the inside of the frame to sort of hide them from view. I then drilled and tapped two holes in each to bolt the radiator support in place.

 

[Neophyte]

Body on the frame

Made another milestone! Got the body on the frame before year-end...

This was the very first fit and I did the final lowering at about 8:30pm last night. AND, I did it all by my lonesome self. That's where the gantry and 1.5 ton block and tackle comes in very handy.

The planks you see it resting on gives it the 4 inch channeled height I want. Even if I can say so myself...I think it's going to look awesome when done. The height and the 3 degree rake is just perfect.

Yes, it doesn't look 100% right yet but that's because the body needs to be moved forward by about 2 inches or so. That'll close up the gap between the firewall and engine a bit.

I also couldn't resist taking the photos with the front of the proposed grill shell in place and the '39 Chevy headlight bucket as the air-filter scoop. Next on the list is to get a set of wheels on it but the front will have to wait till mid January when I can have the front hubs made.

In the mean time I'm going to started getting the body squared up so I can build the floor structure and get bracing in it for the chop.

 

[oldmule]

WOW, nice build. I like all the pictures of bracketry and details.

 

[humfleet]

Looks like we have similar interest in body builds.Mine is '32 Lasalle cadillac w/ 265 chebby. Looks good keep us posted.

 

[Bonehead]

Question on the front panhard bar. What steering are you using? Generally no front panhard bar is needed unless you have a cross steering box like a vega. A forward backward ford type box pushes along the arms and won't move the axle. If you have already addressed this, sorry, I guess I missed it.

 

[FlatBroke]

WOW,
That is what I call documenting every step of the process.

Your attention to detail is off the charts.

Very cool build.......

 

[Neophyte]

Looks like we have similar interest in body builds.Mine is '32 Lasalle cadillac w/ 265 chebby. Looks good keep us posted.

Very much so I see.

Question on the front panhard bar. What steering are you using? Generally no front panhard bar is needed unless you have a cross steering box like a vega. A forward backward ford type box pushes along the arms and won't move the axle. If you have already addressed this, sorry, I guess I missed it.

I am going to use a cowl steering setup so by your statement I don't actually need the front panhard and I fully understand why. I just want to make 100% sure there's no sideways movement. At this stage I'm thinking of using a VW bug steering box turned on it's side. The Nissan box I was going to use would require the pitman arm to point up instead of down. The VW box will be easier to mount than trying to reverse the Nissan box.

WOW,
That is what I call documenting every step of the process.

Your attention to detail is off the charts.

Very cool build.......

Thanks. With all that documentation I can overwhelm the licensing authorities when time comes to get this car registered and roadworthied. Basically with these kind of builds we hardly have a title, as you call it, for these cars. Once done you need all your documentation and receipts of parts and then it's about an 8-10 week process to get the car registered and licensed. Apart from that it's also a good way to get those not into the hobby to appreciate what we have to go through to get these cars into the shape we want them.

Dumb question: Does my attention to detail not seem more because I document more?

 

[LordMaximo]

Nice build so far.......it is looking like a very fun job.
I am presently under 30 inches of snow with a blissard blowing hard outside this morning. Oh well......keep us posted on the progress, great work.

Maximo

 

[Neophyte]

Yeah it is quite fun. We're lucky if we get two inches in 20 years.

At the moment I'm focussing more on getting my '53 done. I did however go to one of the guys in our club on Friday to get him to turn me two hubs for the front and two spacers for the rear. The new hubs are to convert from the '38 Ford drums to early 80's BMW 528 discs. The PCD is the same as that of Chevrolet and these discs are cheap to replace too. So, soon the '34's chassis can be on actual wheels and it will start to give it character.

 

[LordMaximo]

I have been out of touch from the past six months.......had a bad fall and messed up my right knee. It took 5 months to get the insurance topay for the surgery and I am trying my dangest to get through the theropy. So my builds were all on the back burners for the end of last year. But, I did receive a new out building for an extension to my shop front. A freind gave me his skeletal framing for a 35 x 18 extension to my shop. It will be well used once put into place in the next couple months. Good to see more are getting their projects into motion.

Maximo

 

[Neophyte]

Front hubs and rear spacers

I finally managed to get to the machine shop to pick up my new front hubs and rear spacers and I must add they came out very nice.

The front hubs will allow me to convert to disc brakes using the stock wheel bearings as I had the internal dimensions machined according to the original '38 Ford drum. I tried to keep the external dimenions with regards to the wheel mounting surface in relation to the wheel bearings the same too. The bolt pattern was also specified to be a Chevy bolt pattern. The brakes I'll be using are from a 1980's BMW 528. Once I've got new bearings and got the hubs fitted I can go and fabricate the brake calliper brackets.

The rear spacers are 30mm wide to push the rear tyres away from the body that little bit.

 

[Gastrick]

Those hubs are really trick Neophyte. That was a good idea.

 

[falconvan]

Looks very cool; I had no idea there was so much old American iron in South Africa. You dont have to worry about it being too cold to work on your ride!

 

[Neophyte]

Thanks guys! Well Gastrick, that's what we have to do here so often. Improvise. Importing a brake conversion kit from the States is totally out of the question. Not just because of price and exchange rates (which is going for a loop now) but also the shipping cost which is what kills such options in most cases. Even though the hubs were a bit expensive with regards to the build budget, I still think it was a fair price to pay. This whole brake conversion (excluding replacement bearings) in the end will cost me only a fraction of importing a kit. I'm talking of a cost in the region of $300 which is: 1. The custom hubs. 2. 2nd hand callipers with good pads and a sample disc from a scrap yard. 3. 2 new discs from a parts store. That does however exclude the cost of a few pieces of off-cut steel for the calliper brackets.

As always more progress pics will follow as I get them fitted. Now I just need to phone around and order new bearings. Yesterday I managed to get some Timken cross-reference numbers for the Ford numbers. Today it'll be my mission to order the bearings. Hopefully, if the suppliers have stock, I can have it by tomorrow otherwise I might have to wait a week or two (or maybe even three).

I don't know about it not being too cold though. In mid winter it does get quite cold (per our standard hehe). We're by far not in the coldest part of the country but Johannesburg's lowest temps at night still turn at around freezing point and some days don't go higher than 10 degrees Celsius. On the good days it'll reach between 15C and 20C (by mid day). Then again we're also not one of the warmest parts either. Even then you get silly guys like me who'll commute by motorcycle right through winter.