48Dodger

Its all looking sa-weet Merle. Just curious....what kind of tunes are we talkin here? Are those 6" speakers gonna handle it all, or is there gonna be a pair of 12" monsters under the seat? 48D

LOL. Yes, your right Dezeldoc. I've been quilty of a few "no,no's" in my life. Like grabbing to many piceses of pizza, or cussing in front of my Grandma (wasn't fair really, "crap" shouldn't be classified as a bad word). I like Dave's idea. Next time, I'll grind the tops off and dill the center out and try the punch again. 48D Hey, great picture Jim!

Merle's post helped me a few years ago...... This is how I do it. download your photos to the internet site Photobucket. Put it in a file/album you're happy with, cuz if you move it after posting it, it will break the link. Open photobucket and the forum window in seperate windows. cover the picture you want to post in photobucket right click the "direct link" code and copy it go to the Forum/"reply to thread" window click the yellow box with the mountain and sun in it you might have to "allow" if your computer blocks it a small long window will show in the left corner...paste the code in it will show the code in your "reply to thread" window click on "preview post" to check the photo before posting That's what I do. Thanks for the kind words Jim 48D

Yes, you are correct. I was trying to show other "moments" in doing a job like this. The steering box notch, boxing of the frame and welding are greatly covered in other articles and posts. Getting the cross member straight seems to be the biggest problem for most. Not to mention ride height. According to tech articles I found, there is only about 1.5 iches of play in T-bar adjustments. Up or down beyond that you may lose more performance than is realized. With my jig, I could have dug deeper into the frame to slam it and keep the torsion spec in line. I placed the X-member so it'll be slightly lowered, nothing radical. 48D

That is way cool Norm! Oh yea....K-9 heaters are the best for camping. 48D

To varify the location of the centerline to the fender, we put the cab and doghouse back on and made a few more measurments. I apologize, the tape is standing in for me in this picture. There was no one to fire the camera off with all our hands working! So we kinda mocked things up to show what we were doing. I was looking for centerline, not ride height. when the bars are back in, the center of the wheel will be lower. With everything in place, we all took turns welding it up. My son made a nice ugly tack or two. My nephew took on the lions share, and I had fun bossing everyone around. So that's my story. I have 3 parts to my "jig", and feel confident I can repeat the job with little problem. The frame will get boxed back to the trans x-member, and the rear will see a 4-link in the near future (i'm working on a custom design for the 50' dodge with a shop that builds Grand American Modifieds) or, I may use a late 80's IRS from a T-bird (it ain't mopar, so i'm not sure yet..lol). I plan on having this truck ready for September. If all goes well...I'll be racing it at Bonneville, with members of this site, looking to join the 130 mph club under the name of DPETCA. 48D

I didn't strip the frame before all this because I wanted to keep the frames exposure to heat down to a minimum. The idea with the primer paint was to show me where to grind. For the actual cut I used a sharpie pen. I raised the jig up uniformally to locate my notch. after the cut, I rechecked it with the jig. I cleaned up the edges with a grinder and high speed sander (24 grit). I was pretty happy with the tightness of the cut.

This the first template in place. I then made the otherside, checked all my measurements and welded the 2 together for an easy drop in stituation for the Dodge frames. This silly looking thing represents a lot of work on my part, but I had a blast. To test my "jig", I pulled everything off, and use it alone to map the cuts I wanted. It worked awesome.

From this point, I started leveling the crossmember to the bottom of the frame. The two cross bars are helping me center the crossmember. the rear bar is over the wheel centerline, and the front bar over the "floor" of the cross member. Once I was close, I had to do math. The towers are toe'd out. The frame is toe'd in. I measured and re-measured to get the space down between the frame and the tower. I carefully cut 2 "identical" wedges to act as spacers to hold the crossmember in place. I have since had these blocks cnc'd into aluminum for future use. I would like to thank my 5th grade math teacher. I then clamped everything down so I could begin making my templates. It was important to do this so I could create a template following the right profile of the crossmember. This isn't the actual paper template I used, it took a few tries. But this is how I made the steel templates, taping the paper down and cutting away.

The rivets are stubburned evil little b*stards. I sent serveral flying across the shop, and I'm sure some are in orbit around the sun. I had to really bang the crossmember out of the frame rails even after it was cut free. Like i said, this is my experience. I'm sure there's a few ways to rip those buggers out, but in the end it was a fun sweat, considering the direction my frame is going. 48D

At this point, we (me and my son) welded a support for the frame, and the removed the crossmember. Quick story. That hole you see is a perfect critter hole. Remember, that's the bottom of the truck. As I was grinding I smelled a "grass like" smell. Turned out to be a huge mouse nest. I forgot about it, until I turned the frame back over and set the nest on fire with the plasma cutter. Wehoo!

Stripping the front end of the frame. If you're determined, you'll figure it out. If your wondering what it can look like, here you go. The removal of the front hanger and original crossmember. For me, a plasma cutter, a grinder, a pick hammer, a hammer, a small sledge hammer, a chisel, and a crowbar. Pictures are worth a whole lotta typing. I flipped the frame over after grinding the sides. Remeber to check the driver's side of the frame for the "VIN" number, it might be stamped on it, or it might not. My frame is a 1950 and had no markings. the removal of the hangers involves grinding in areas where the numbers may reside. The numbers may not be important to you, just thought I'd warn ya.

I used several marks to find the center, and then tranfered the info to the towers. From this point I was able to center the front end to the frame and the mark for the front axle centerline. This of course is my personal experience, and hope everyone can enjoy it that way. 48D

I could have done a Fatman cross member. I could have done a Mustang II front end. I could have done any number of after market x-members, but I decided to experience the Volare for myself. The front end is in. The final steps are being carried out this week, so I thought I'd share some of the "not so covered points" in putting one of these guys in. I leveled the frame according to the build sheet. 2 feet. I not trying to "slam" the truck down, but excepting the normal drop by virtue of notching the frame for the cross member. The frame height is based on 29" tires according to the build sheet on the DPETCA Knowledge page. Then we checked the frame for cracks, etc. I measured the frame 35" 29/32 from the rear to the rear axle centerline. From there, 108" to the front centerline. At this point we used the frame guage to check for squareness. That's me double checking the junior hot rodders. I leveled the frontend using three differnet refererence points. I noticed in a Ford build, the store bought template had an angle build into the design. The Ford build doesn't use the original motor mounts and seems to assume the engine is level to the front end. The original Volare motor mounts have roughly a 2 deg downward angle buildt in. I haven't measured this yet, but with that in mind, I put the crossmember in level to the frame. The centerline for the the front end can be referenced to the zerk fitting on the upper control arm. After stripping down the front end, leaving the UCA on, I scribed a dozen or so marks on it til I established the centerline of the crossmember.

How's your miss coming about? Are you holding your throttle constant, or is it happening under acceleration? 2500 rpm doesn't seem to extreme for either 12 or 6 volt. if the distributor is tanking, it might be robbing you of some power. On my race car i had a ghost in the machine that turned out to be a slightly bent distributor shaft. At 4000 rpm it was trying to shake its self out of the bearings, and compromised the contact points. Otherwise, maybe some vacum leaks are leaning you out. How do the spark plugs look? 48D

YES! You Rock Reg! Of course "Bullitt" won't be to happy. He figured the missing door was part of his new dog house. lol 48D

Omg...are you kidding me? FLAME ON!!!! You guys have been to 2 many car shows, you've been burned out on flames. Fire is always good...well...except for real fire...that's just wrong. 48D

You got it Don. Just let us know when you're passing through and I'll get the "Caly Locals" together for a improptu Mopar Meet. Just don't forget to bring your reccent hip x-rays so I can get you cleared to climb into my RaceCar. 48D

Hey Don Coatney!!!! Its getting close to the "Q'.....you gonna be "somewhere on the road" near California? We'll tweak that T-5 of yours and set you up with one of them super rare "SpitsFire" racing heads if "y'all" show up. That should help you keep up with us trucks on the straight aways, or at least help you make it through the intersection before the lights change. lol. 48D

Been tryin to get my brother to buy them. I think either way Claude should bring'em to the BBQ. Sure to get an impulse buy. Probably be me..lol. 48D

Gonna start strippin' down the frame this weekend...should be to much longer for the brackets. 48D

OK...I think im getting closer....trim brackets. These are photos of Ford emblem trim brakets. Are the ones Bob posted Dodge? I don't know...but i'm getting closer. 48D-tective:D

uh oh....did paul say something wrong??? 48D:D

Those are Claude's Trucks. He's a member of this site and is helping his son build a PH as we speak. Both he and his son are real stand up guys, they came down early and help set-up the BBq at my ranch last year and offered again this year. Someone really needs to buy these trucks from him! I know the money will help finish the other one they have. 48D

They look like a locking type bracket (educated guess). I haven't seen one on any of my trucks, but looks like you put a carriage bolt through the square hole, and lock it down with with a sheet metal screw with the round end. There's a bracket like that on my son's 72 Roadrunner for the A/c. 48D