Kyle242GT's 1959 5.044

Passenger inner frame rail in. 1" x 2" x 1/8"

Thought I could bend it, hahaha, no. Sliced, bent, welded back up.

I have been thinking of doing that to the frame rails on Goldie, to gain some more rigidity and better jack points. I may choose to use larger than 1/8 wall... what ever is in the scrap bin is usually my choice.

I'll likely do a double layer at the front and rear for jack points and call it good. It wasn't that hard to make up the pieces. Make sure you have clearance inside though....

I'm cringing. Not because of what you're doing, but just because it makes me think how rotten mine is underneath.

Yeah, I really need to start over with a new body shell, mine's not really worth trying to fix.

mine isn't either.

Was going to work on the trans crossmember and floors today, but had a small situation with the engine hoist - unsure if it had enough fluid, I lowered it down all the way and proceeded to pull out the inspection plug. about a quart of jack oil shot out, hit me in the face as well as shooting all over the damn garage.

Definitely low on fluid now.

Got the other frame rail in, and figured I may as well tie the rails to the front frame horns.

If I didn't know better, I'd say that almost looks like I know what I'm doing.

Looking good as always! You are inspiring me to get out and get the Datsun underway.

Now if only I had some time....

Trans crossmember is in, tied to the outer rails as well as the inner frame horns. The way it's assembled I'll have about 1/2" of up/down leeway to fine tune driveline angle if needed.

Put the engine, trans, pedals, steering, seat back in to get the feel of it. Gonna be tight. Up next is a bunch more metal work. Have to adjust the trans crossmember - didn't leave room for movement of the trans (oops). Will also have to widen the footwell area, really not enough room for clutch in and brake down without hitting the gas.

Then the firewall, floors, tunnel, column hanger. Going to pass on further frame bracing for now.

Looks really good, also your welding appears to be getting very good.

Thanks!! I keep reminding myself (as I receive my semi-regular overhead shower of molten slag) that I'm learning things while beating myself to death on this otherwise pointless project.

Nothing pointless about it. You are building a hell of a machine!

Are those new frame rails going to tie into something like a 4-bar rear suspension at some point?

Rectilinear said:

Nothing pointless about it. You are building a hell of a machine!

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Thanks for the kind words!!

JohnMc said:

Are those new frame rails going to tie into something like a 4-bar rear suspension at some point?

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That's a definite possibility. The rear suspension is complete and functional as it stands, but will likely need to be revisited.

The rails also make a nice place to attach the trans mount, and provide some stiffening... if I wind up wanting/needing to and some roll cagery to it, the rails will also serve as a good solid tie-in.

After falling victim to analysis paralysis time and again, I'm basically just putting one foot in front of the other. It was suggested (by RWC IIRC?) to run some rails, who am I to argue with him?

Floor pans

Made the floor pans; still need to bead roll them and drill holes for the spot welds. Plan spots along the frame rails, and bead and/or stitch weld where it meets the old floor.

Planning to weld from the bottom, overlap on the top (except for one section of the driver's side, where it overlaps under the seat support. The old floor material is pretty rusty on top, and the inside corners too hard to grind clean. I have a product called "rust mort" that I'll put in the overlapping area to mort the rust that's there.

Interested in feedback on that plan.

Clearance, Clarence

Before welding in the floors, I want to be sure to tackle anything else made simpler by having no floors in place.

One such issue is the clutch pedal clearance. I'm using (a piece of) the Mustang's firewall for the pedal cluster mounting, to keep the relationship between clutch/brake/gas pedals.

In so doing, there's precious little room for the clutch foot... I have this concern that with clutch-in, I'd be unable to fully depress the brakes. Not a good scene.

Following my ongoing strategy (if it's in the way, cut it out) I removed a section of the inner body to make room. There was a 2" piece of metal between inner and outer, so it's gone too.

The firewall section is thicker than the inner or outer body. I'd estimate 14 ga vs 18.

I'm figuring since I put the new inner frame rails in I can afford to sacrifice some hull integrity. Current thought is to transition the inner body to the outer, boxing it in, and enclose the open area of the firewall. I have a sheet of 16ga for this.

What do you think of that?

From there, I'll get the column position nailed down and fab up the rest of the firewall and tunnel. Then on to wiring, plumbing, headers, gas tank, heck, I'm almost done!

You can drive yourself crazy chasing down every single dab of rust on a 40 year old car. You are doing a great job of replacing metal and making the car more structurally sound that it ever was. Use your best judgement and fix what you can get long as you feel good that it will not cause problems down the road.
While I am not familiar with the exact product you speak of, it sounds similar to Naval Jelly that folks used to use to convert rust. Nowadays, I would be comfortable with using POR 15 with their metal prep for hard to reach areas.
As always, looking good!

Rectilinear said:

You are doing a great job of replacing metal and making the car more structurally sound that it ever was.
As always, looking good!

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Man, you have no idea how good that makes me feel. Thanks!!

I approve of cutting metal that gets in the way.

745 TurboGreasel said:

Early Tempests used a wire rope driveshaft,

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Myth. They looked like they hung like rope in the technical drawings/advert drawings, so people concluded they were.
Actual material was a spring steel, OD-ground, solid tube.

Just FYI

This is going to be amazing. So much work involved and you jsut slowly keep plugging away at it. Keep it up!