cash

If you don't have the cash to spend. How to you figure you are building a hot rod ?
Everything I do is on a budget. But it does cost money. Damn dude .

you are going to need to buy tires.

shit like this don't work. (two steering boxes)

Chris' roadster

John is finishing up the final details .
Will post more pictures soon.
Smooth running 8BA with 59AB Cyclone heads (hi Kevin)

chassis was a spread in Street Rodder magazine

When Rats attack

Craigslist seems to be the dumping ground for bad builds.

Zoom up on the end of the axle..
Oh my god. 

oh no. RAT TURDS

this ain't right.

the heim end is facing the wrong way ,

hairpins on a tube axle is explained in suspension 101

the stacked tubing of the frame is just as bad. do you see the weak point ? 

ug , when fabrication goes bad

click on the picture for a bigger view, if you dare

umm

it's all so bad I don't have words for it.

Ackermann , was a real dude.

200 years ago George Lankensperger and his pal Rudolph Ackermann ..

It's not rocket surgery, and I ain't no brain scientist


But come on. The early Ford front end is a thing of simple beauty. Follow the design and
it works so well.

Copied this from Wikipedia,

The intention of Ackermann geometry is to avoid the need for tires to slip sideways when following the path around a curve.^[2] The geometrical solution to this is for all wheels to have their axles arranged as radii of circles with a common center point. As the rear wheels are fixed, this center point must be on a line extended from the rear axle. Intersecting the axes of the front wheels on this line as well requires that the inside front wheel is turned, when steering, through a greater angle than the outside wheel. ^[2]
Rather than the preceding "turntable" steering, where both front wheels turned around a common pivot, each wheel gained its own pivot, close to its own hub. While more complex, this arrangement enhances controllability by avoiding large inputs from road surface variations being applied to the end of a long lever arm, as well as greatly reducing the fore-and-aft travel of the steered wheels. A linkage between these hubs pivots the two wheels together, and by careful arrangement of the linkage dimensions the Ackermann geometry could be approximated. This was achieved by making the linkage not a simple parallelogram, but by making the length of the track rod (the moving link between the hubs) shorter than that of the axle, so that the steering arms of the hubs appeared to "toe out". As the steering moved, the wheels turned according to Ackermann, with the inner wheel turning further.^[2] If the track rod is placed ahead of the axle, it should instead be longer in comparison, thus preserving this same "toe out".

The builder told me, "some like the look"
There is so much wrong in this picture.. and I just don't like the look of a poorly executed front end

I'll just start typing..

the tie rod out front does not allow proper Ackermann,
I wouldn't want to drive it on wet street

the extensions to bolt on the upper a arms are a weak link

Ford tie rod ends are meant to mount from underneath, nuts on top

A tube axle and hairpins don't work together, the tube axle does not flex like a I beam axle does

So something will give way eventually (crack- break)

Friction shocks are marginal at their best. The attachment needs to be at the axle, where the suspension has the most movement, mounted behind like this they can't do their job.

(controlling compression and rebound)

Some sort of cross steer going under the hairpin?
I don't see a panhard bar in there either .( Guessing adapters on the wire wheels, messes with the
scrub radius )
So it looks cool? not to me. I'm sure it rides bad (shocks)
and it can't corner good ( Ackermann)  and I'd bet the steering wheel doesn't want to return to center.
like it should.  But hey it's got radials  ( never mind the looks there)

Getting all preachy
below is a sample picture of a correctly set up front end.

 Here is some more reading for you. Good ol' Hot Rod Magazine
http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/interior-electrical/0902sr-science-of-straight-axles/

Ford I beam axle can handle nice. And be fun to drive.

real Z frame

here's a real Z frame . Dually and diesel too
thanks Joe !

unreal, hurts my head to think about it.

oh boy. that's a frame

holy wheelbase batman !  that's some funny shit right there.

this is some hack off craigslist PA,
but then he also has this picture in his ad

Hey wait a fucking minute !  That's my frame, my sidewalk, I took the picture !
I even remember who that one was built for (Mr. V. from CA)
Thanks for sending me the link, glad to see we inspire folks . :)

Coupe frame redo," Ryan's coupe"

Ryan has this coupe that's been messed with.
Got Scott on board for the heavy lifting.
And we built him a new frame. It is going to be a cool car.
And Scott's shop knows how do build real bad ass cars
( Blue Collar Customs) in Sacramento  (google or Facebook 'em)

almost, but time for a new foundation,
see the ladder bars mounted all wanky?

here it is now on the new swept front frame

reusing the GM rear, see ladder bars (same ones) with new mounts

coupe poop

yikes !
it took a lot of work to mess up the old coupe like this

Stupid

Or just plain dumb

Wheel placement

When building a hot rod truck, the rear tire placement is key

kinda cool truck but the rear tire placement
why on earth are they that far back?


Here's his brothers truck, maybe now I understand

And their uncles truck

 

 

Ford I-beam axle

So simple, yet so easy for some to screw up
Look at his hot mess, nice chrome plating etc..
Can tell that's a Chinese rip off front spring.
The bulldog perch is so long, I'd guarantee it to fail.
Oh, hey  where's the shocks !

 

ugg


Where will the headlights mount? Two feet behind the axle?
Picture the spring on top of the axle, and a regular Model A front crossmember.
It would be at the same height, but you could then make it work.

oops , rat rod mistakes..

I'm just saying, know what I'm saying ? Little too far forward ..

 

 

 

 

Here's a new mistake , at least I've never seen it before

the front fenders go on the front !

 

Thanks Steve for the local craigslist ads

Ouch, so ugly it hurts

My buddy Sal down in Florida is on the hunt for a 1930-31 coupe.
Almost made a seven hour drive out to see one for sale.
Luckily he got more pictures..

The frame was done by a shop out there. And do you notice the cowl has been cut off flat ?
Ouch that's some ugly fab work.

Rat rods attack

barf.

Dirty rats attack

Another buddy sent me these pictures.
Horrible designed frame.
Can you see the flaws in its design? try to imagine the front spring mount..
And he posts a picture of a coupe I built the frame for.
His iron turd has nothing to do with that coupe.
Straight off the HAMB classifieds.  Pretty flippin' funny to me.

Now that's a rear kick up. Right up to the deck lid
Suicide front perch not built yet. I'd guess it will need to be 15 inches tall
off the round tube front.

says it's super heavy so the coupe will ride better
why not fill the holes with concrete and go for super duper heavy ?

I can't explain how much I hate this type of home made parts , cheap heim ends

This is the picture he posted. It's a Riley Automotive chassis I built for a customer in Oregon
The new owner Dan in Virginia loves it

in his garage and bet he wouldn't want anyone to think that dude built anything on his clean coupe. 

 

The coupe pictured is riding on a double Z'd chassis like Matt's pictured above..
Nothing extreme, just our proven design.