2 X 4 steel tubing frame

[35DODGE]

I am building a 1935 Dodge truck. I am going to z the frame it will be 14" in the back and 4" in the front. I am stumped on how to do the rails in front of the firewall. I wold like to taper the bottom edge of the tubing. I'm not sure of the best way to go about doing this. Also I was wondering does anyone make frame horns that will work with 2 X 4 tubing. I will try and load some pictures next week.

 

[Bonehead]

You taper 2x4 tubing, by cutting a long pie shape out of the end of the tube, squeezing it back togeter, weld, and grind.

 

[donsrods]

Welcome to the forum. Not to send you to a self serving thread, but I am building a roadster pickup on a 2 x 4 x 3/16 thick frame that we built, and it is done EXACTLY how you are planning on yours.........4 inch kickup in front and about 14 in the back. I also tapered the front from 4 down to 3 as Bonehead described. If you read it there should be everything you need to do to build one like it.

Here is a link to it:

http://ratrodsrule.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20556


Don

 

[Kurtm333]

Google

I just google ratrods and z'd frame before I started my frame to come up with something a little different.

Lots of great ideas on this site too!

Kurt

 

[RPM]

Here is how we do it. Lay it out in a CAD program then cut it with a CNC plasma. They can be had with or with out holes. Bend them and weld them up.

 

[patina]

You taper 2x4 tubing, by cutting a long pie shape out of the end of the tube, squeezing it back togeter, weld, and grind.

and leave it a few inch's longer so you can cut the middle out and leave the top and bottom on it. Then you can bend it around a some round tubing for a cross member and have a factory roll on it. I can get a better picture if you want but this is all i got at the moment.

 

[35DODGE]

Thanks for the help

Here are a couple of photos of my truck. A friend of mine did the body work. I hope to have some photos of the trunk on the start of the fram build

 

[donsrods]

That is a really nice looking body and will make a nice little hot rod for sure. You are wise to want to go with 4 inch tubing, it will look more proportionate and be a lot stronger.

Don

 

[choppinczech]

RPM-

What do you charge for those frame rails? [dr

 

[BigIrish]

I grafted the front 36" of repop '32 ford frame horns on to 2x4 tubing. At that point the rail is 4" tall and matches up nicely. You can get them online pretty cheap.

I went that route b/c I want to use a 32 front cross member, which will fit a model A grille shell nicely and liked the curved look of the frame horns.

But if you want a super low, suicide style front end, I would go with the pie-cut method described above.

 

[35DODGE]

Frame update

I am sorry that it has taken so long to post an update on my frame build. The flu has gone through everyone in the house. I think that we are on the upswing now. The build is taken place at friends shop he is a much better welder then I am. I have done some of the grunt work,and picked up some pointer along the way on welding. Got to start somewhere. The rails behind the cab may be a little longer then needed but it is easier to remove material then to add it later on

 

[donsrods]

That looks really good so far. Smart move leaving it a little long until you decide on the right length.

Don

 

[35DODGE]

A little ambitious

I have been think (which is dangerous for me) as to how I want my front frame rails to look like. I would like to thank all that have replied to my post. Last night I had taken home my work computer so that I could play with Solid Works. I came up with one idea however it may be a little ambitious of a design. I was going to make it of steel plate which will be a lot of welding. Which is not a bad thing so I can get plenty of practice. Any thoughts or advise is welcome.

 

[Old Iron]

Not too ambitious at all
Getter done [P

 

[klink]

I have been think (which is dangerous for me) as to how I want my front frame rails to look like. I would like to thank all that have replied to my post. Last night I had taken home my work computer so that I could play with Solid Works. I came up with one idea however it may be a little ambitious of a design. I was going to make it of steel plate which will be a lot of welding. Which is not a bad thing so I can get plenty of practice. Any thoughts or advise is welcome.

Get some rectangular tubing the same width as the height of your template. Mark it and trim it, leaving portions of it intact. These areas will keep the tubing square. Use some flat stock to re-build the top and bottom. Example, if you use 2" wide by 1/8"thick tubing, the flat stock will need to be 1 3/4" wide. Use at least 3/16" thick flat stock so you can lay a nice weld and still be able to round it off. In one of the attached pictures you will see that I welded washers inside the tubing, these acted as stops for the flat stock (make sure you grind off the plating). I was able to clamp the flat stock in these areas, whick kept it nice and snug. The frame rails that I built are flat on top all the way to the front crossmember. To get some rake, I pie cut the tubing to get the front of the frame 1 1/2" inch higher than the frame area under the body. This cut was made at the fire wall. My build has a lot of the frame building steps in it...

 

[shockley_67]

I have been think (which is dangerous for me) as to how I want my front frame rails to look like. I would like to thank all that have replied to my post. Last night I had taken home my work computer so that I could play with Solid Works. I came up with one idea however it may be a little ambitious of a design. I was going to make it of steel plate which will be a lot of welding. Which is not a bad thing so I can get plenty of practice. Any thoughts or advise is welcome.

here is a post i found and made a template on plywood then took the template to my buddies shop and cut the pattern out of 2x4 tubing. open the file from post #5. for the radius at the front instead of heating the end and rolling it over i cut a piece of 2" round and welded it in the end and just formed the top and bottom of the rail to it if that makes sense. i will try and post picks tomorrow of the finished product if you want.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=712816&highlight=frame+horns

 

[35DODGE]

Thanks for the link if you get a chance to post some picks that would be great. More information that I have all the better.

 

[35DODGE]

Triangulated four bar setup

I want to do a triangulated four bar with coil over spring setup. Would I be better off to buy a kit. If so who would you all recommend to go through. I have seen what Speedway offers and welderseries.com, what are my choices. I do have the ability to fabricate most things at home with my Bridgeport and lathe. A friend of mine has a small plasma table so he can cut any plates that I may need. More importantly how do I go about setting the bars up. I was told that the pinion gear should be at 3 degrees. That is all I know so far.

 

[oldracer22]

I built my own 4 bar setup. It's easy, especially since you have access to a plasma table for the plates. I bought my weld in bungs from Rod End Supply. They are on the net. I used 1.125" x .095" 4130 chromoly. Probably overkill, but I had it laying around. 1" x 125" DOM should be sufficient.
For pinion angle, the pinion angle should be the same as you have the engine mounted.
eng/trans at 3 degrees down from front to rear, pinion angle should be 3 degrees down from front to rear. Eng/trans centerline and pinion centerline should be parallel.

 

[35DODGE]

One step closer to a finished frame

I had Ron from RPM cut out my plates for me, which came out real nice. I was going to start tacking welding them this weekend. But because of the snow fall Friday I was forced to do clean-up instead. There is always next weekend.

Now for my next question. I was going to buy a 32 Ford cross member from
Speedway. My concern is the cross member is only 22 3/4 in long. Would this be to narrow to try an shoe-horn my Hemi block into. The frame rails are 31 wide on the inside in front of the firewall.