everybody mad from eastwood here
there isn't much to building a traditional hot rod you pick a nice body
your drivetrain and your suspension and you're on your way to me the stance of a
vehicle is equally as important as the wheels and tires that you pick and the
chassis is the foundation that gives a hot rod that iconic profile that we all
love behind me i have the chassis table that we built in another video with some
tubing on top that will become our frame rails follow along as we build a simple
hot rod chassis and we show you some tips and tricks along the way so let's
get started first the front of each frame rail was marked so that we could
slide the original model a front crossmember in place
yeah
the original frame horns narrow as the slope down so we needed to relief cut
the front of our frame rails to pinch the height of the rails down to match
with the front of the frame rails modified we slid the original cross
member in place and set the width of the frame at the cow and clamp the rails in
place
next the front crossmember was clamped in place and we checked our cross
measurements in the frame rails and set our desired caster we then welded the
crossmember in place using the big 175
the frame horn sections were then clamped in place and welded to the frame
rails
yeah
we then marked out lines to make a series of relief cuts in the frame
just in from the front cowl and cut through the frame rails from the top
leaving the bottom side intact
using a floor jack we lift it up on the front crossmember compressing the relief
cuts and gradually sweeping the front portion of the frame up to our desired
angle
yeah
each seam was then prepped and slowly welded shut
letting them cool in between welds
next a pie cut was taken out of the bottom of the frame rails just behind
the crossmember to bring it back to level and we welded the same shot
yeah
alright so what we've been doing here is sweeping the front of the chassis
this essentially lowers the front end of the vehicle and gives it a nice profile
so we've already put a bunch of relief cuts in the chassis here
lift it up about five degrees and then in the front here what we need to do is
compensate for that five degrees to get our alignment of our front axle correct
so we've taken a pie cut out of the chassis here just behind the front
crossmember we're going to press down on this which will bring it back down to
zero and will be level with the back portion of the chassis
then we can weld it up we're ready to test for suspension and start setting
over your ride height
the frame was then cut free from the table and set on the ground so we could
build up our front suspension
yeah
the Versa cut 60 was used to cut out the original floor from the body so it could
be channeled over the frame
yeah
with the body set on the frame we rolled the rear axle under the body and cut
notches in the wheel wells so we could set the rear ride height
the engine was temporarily mounted in the frame to load the front suspension
so we could take our final measurements
height measurements were then taken from the floor to the top of the rear
crossmember and from the top of the frame rails to the top of the
crossmember to determine the size of the rear frame step we also measure the
distance from the center of the front hub to the center of the back hub to
determine our final wheel base for the car
the chassis was then locked back into the table and a rear fixture was made to
hold the rear crossmember at the desired height
we then dialed in the wheelbase and use mechanics wire to cross measure and make
sure the crossmember was straight and aligned in the frame
yeah
all right guys let's give you a little update on where we're at with the
chassis build the last couple of shots he's already set the body on we test fit
the drive train to get some weight into the chassis so we can take measurements
to figure out exactly how high our ears he needed to be so what we've gone ahead
and done at this point there's a built-in rear fixture here
the sets the rear crossmember exactly at the height that we need it to be
we've also squared everything up on the chassis table here so we noted straight
and true
it's going to go down the road street so now what we need to do is cut up some
pieces here to finish off the rear z
well everything up our perimeter frame is done
yeah
the beginning this video we started with a pile of old Ford parts in a bunch of
box tubing and now well look at it
we've got a pretty killer rolling chassis and it's very strong
all i have to do is dress up a couple of the welds and a center crossmember we
have a completed rolling chassis
next we're going to build a floor for the body so that it sits down over the
chassis and bolts on like factory if you want to follow this build or any of our
other builds make sure you subscribe to our youtube channel and visit
eastwood.com to get the tools you need to do the job right
yeah
hmm
yeah