year old hot rod chit

Let's start the new year by blowin out the cobwebs,

I've got 80mb of memory and need to make space!

My old buddy Mario had acquired a clean 30 coupe,

and bought a repop 32 frame.

Of course those two don't go together automatically,

as model A's have a flat frame.

After 100's of texts and not helpful pics,

I figured what the hay let's do it.

Lotsa rusty metal cutting,

most of the rear subfloor and notches.

The body dropped maybe 1.5",

almost a cheater channel,

 but basically flush on the sides,

sucked in on the rear and forward ends.

Voila!

All done right?

Ehh not necessarily...

The wheel well had gaping holes and no structure.

Hmm...

That's the time to step back and do other stuff,

let the old computer chip make a plan...

A flathead was desired,

so mounts were whittled...

Firewalls were hacked,

bulges were flattened...

Finally I had a plan.

The first was to trim the body along the frame,

then to pinch the inner metal in a bit.

A mounting lip was welded on the inside,

(those little white caterpillar welds)

which gave the rear it's needed support.

Reveals were refit and rust was patched.

Now to fill in the gap.

There were times when I questioned my sanity.

Why spend all this time on an area covered by a tire!?

The trick is to keep moving forward.

Finally the result resembled what I'd imagined,

minus the dozen hours I didn't plan.

The good thing is the other side was half the time.

All done... Yay!!

Nope...

The inner subframe was needed,

he wanted a lip to lay in wood floor panels.

Effin guy...

Then the rumble seat mechanism was welded in,

the first time it had actually worked in 50 years.

The gaps were close enough at this point,

since the body would need shims when bolted down.

During this time the shiny frame 

didn't stay shiny.

If you notice this was before the big shop move 

of January/February 2016.

Jaxon spent a lot of the early summer sanding away,

preparing for some rattlecan black.

Good ole child labor...

There were a ton of other things done,

Vega steering box mount,

trimming grille shell to fit,

modding headers to fit,

some crossmember framework to fit the t-5 transmission...

Boring chit of necessity.

Now it's relegated to the "where are they now" files.

Hopefully Mario will get on it soon.

TP