My biggest build yet.

dpea250 · Aug 17, 2020

Got the rear end crossmembers in and the 4 link brackets in place. Ones just tacked on and the other i got fully welded in place, the brackets are kinda thick and ive got my machine maxed out on 120v i beveled the crap out of the brackets to ensure good penitration. I may give them one more filler pass but not 100% sure if i need to yet. Kinda wishing i bought a better mig welder, would have made this sooooo much easier to do

With where the shocks are gonna have to go, they will need about a 15°-20° lean back to avoid an excessive stink bug stance and still allow a little adjustment. Im thinking of notching the frame a little for clearance but im not sure if thats NHRA kosher and i do plan on making this certifiable for 8 second passes. Though im not sure if it will ever be THAT fast, it would be nice to know its safe to do so.

dpea250 · Aug 18, 2020

So its looking like ima have to cut off and redo the front of the frame rails. At first it looked like they had a slight bow in that could be corrected when it was time to weld in the cross members, but now that im looking at it it looks like they both have a tilt in the same direction that will not be self correcting there is also a slight bow on of one of the rear runners but its all square enough where the brackets are mounted.
Ima call this one a lesson learned and next time around i dont think ima build the 2 frame rails seperately and try to connect them but start with the rear an move forward.

a91what · Aug 19, 2020

Nothing a bottle jack cant fix. Unless I'm not understanding the issue.

dpea250 · Aug 19, 2020

Maybe, id like to hear how you could use a bottle jack to straighten it.
Its kinda hard to get a good pic of the front to show it. So heres a rough drawing thats a little exadurated to make it easier to see.

From the top it looks like one side is just bowed in a little which i think i would be able to correct when the cross members are put in place. But the front view you can see that both of the front runners tilt to the side, likely from my chop saw cutting a little crooked and i didnt correct that enough before welding it in.
My concern here us that even if i can get it square from the top down from a straight on view the fron runners would still have that lean.
Also if i can pull the frame striaght again, do you think i can do it without twisting the lower runners too much?

a91what · Aug 19, 2020

In that case you may have to cut the welds and adjust everything.

dpea250 · Aug 19, 2020

a91what said:
In that case you may have to cut the welds and adjust everything.

Yeah thats what i figured i was gonna have to do. Its gonna move the kick ups back a little but i left plenty of extra length at the front so at least i dont have to make new ones.

429MII · Aug 21, 2020

To properly make straight and square frame rails you need to first build a jig or frame table of some kind using I beams or known square surfaces or you'll be chasing out of square on them every time you weld on them. A jig and solid clamps to hold the rails square and parallel are pretty much a necessity.
When using a jig, all you have to do is make sure it is square and straight (1 item) and then everything you pull from it will be straight and square(multiple items) if they are clamped tight into it.

dpea250 · Aug 21, 2020

429MII said:
When using a jig, all you have to do is make sure it is square and straight (1 item) and then everything you pull from it will be straight and square(multiple items) if they are clamped tight into it.

Thats the plan here, im making 2 jigs.
One will clamp the kick up to the bottom of the frame rail at the desired angle.
The other will basically be 2 pieces of some long scrap i have that will be clamped to each side of the rail on the upper and lower portions to hold them parralel. Thats where i think i messed up with the front. On the rear I got one made dead nuts and used that and some scrap to make it act as a jig. Did something similar when i made the front portions, but i neglected to do that when joining the 2 pieces. But it was hard to tell it wasnt right till i started to tie the 2 rails together. You can see the one jig i made to hold the rails at the right width for the cross members, one side is shallow so its easy to take on and off, and one side has a lot of wall to clamp to.

My biggest build yet.

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