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Thread: Dropped my '56 off at Cnut's today

  1. #11
    Registered Member chevynut's Avatar
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    Thanks for the ideas Rick. I also noticed that both frame horns were biased to the passenger side in my jig so that verifies to me that the crossmember is sitting slightly crooked. Since I marked the centerline of the frame based on the radiator support holes and not the midpoint of the frame horns, I think it's still accurate. In order to accurately hold the frame it looks like I'm going to have to bolt the jig to the frame in the rear, which means I have to remove the bumper and move or remove the tailpipes that are right smack in the way. I was hoping to avoid that.

    We'll be cutting tomorrow, so I'll work some more on setting up the jig today. All in all, I'm happy with how it's working out.
    56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


    Other vehicles:

    56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
    56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    1962 327/340HP Corvette
    1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
    2001 Porsche Boxster S
    2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
    2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

  2. #12
    Registered Member chevynut's Avatar
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    Well I just worked on the setup some another hour or so and the good news is the frame isn't parallelogrammed like I thought. The bad news is that I did have to remove the rear bumper, and two tailpipe hangers and found a damaged rear frame end. The driver's side upright bolted on just fine and located the jig to the frame properly, however, the passenger side rear of the frame is a bit mangled, so I couldn't bolt the upright to the jig correctly. The end is actually kicked outboard 3/8" to 1/2" as you can see in the pic below, showing the jig brace alignment. It's really just used to establish height of the jig, so I bolted the jig upright to the frame and clamped it at the bottom. It lines up fore and aft well, and the undamaged driver's side establishes the centerline too.

    So it looks like all the damage that caused the frame horn to be too far back was contained in the front end, which we're going to cut off anyhow. I re-checked the center in both the front and rear, and everything looks ready to go. So with the exception of having to remove the rear brakes and caliper brackets, and the rear bumper, everything went as planned.

    I just called the sandblaster and he has the clip and the other frame ready for pickup. We're working Thursday night so I hope to have the clip attached by the end of the night, ready for the final frame matching and grinding.


    Here's the damage on the frame horn. You can see the dented in brace area, and the buckle on the top. The frame horn is actually pushed back and slightly up. The driver's side is higher due to the welding that was done on the top of it to install a bracket for the steering box, as well as a clutch ball.




    Hole alignment to jig




    Rear frame damage.




    Rear of the frame is too wide for the brace. So the upright is just clamped to the top of the jig.

    Attached Images Attached Images
    56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


    Other vehicles:

    56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
    56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    1962 327/340HP Corvette
    1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
    2001 Porsche Boxster S
    2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
    2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

  3. #13
    Registered Member WagonCrazy's Avatar
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    I'm a bit surprised that you took a job like this one on Laszlo...with the body still on the old frame, etc. Now you're in a can of worms with the whole thing being out of kilter. Good thing you have that jig to rely on...that's the only thing to go by at this point.
    1957 Nomad- LS1/T56 on C4 chassis
    1959 Fleetside Apache 1/2 ton, shortbed, big window, 327ci.

  4. #14
    Registered Member chevynut's Avatar
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    Paul, I'm always up for a challenge and Chad didn't want to start with a frame, nor did he want an IRS. It's not as bad as it seems, now that the jig is sitting under the car and ready for the clip. The rear is really of no consequence and it can be repaired at some later date if/when Chad wants to. I was concerned about the frame being parallelogrammed but again, I didn't think it would be difficult to fix if it was. Once you cut the front crossmember out the frame rails move easily, even with the body mounts in place. Worst case I would have had to loosen them up. I'm confident the jig is right, my main concern in all the jockeying was losing the centerline of the frame which we need to put the new clip on. But it looks like nothing moved and I was really careful with where I loaded everything.

    Plus, Chad's the closest thing I have to getting to ride in one of these at this point in time.

    I got the clip and other frame picked up tonight...and another clip is ready to ship tomorrow with an LS engine mount kit. I still have a little work on the frame, then I have to prime it. It's not something we normally do but I quoted it for this local customer.





    Attached Images Attached Images
    56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


    Other vehicles:

    56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
    56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    1962 327/340HP Corvette
    1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
    2001 Porsche Boxster S
    2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
    2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

  5. #15
    Registered Member WagonCrazy's Avatar
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    Plus, Chad's the closest thing I have to getting to ride in one of these at this point in time.
    Ouch...I know where you're going with that comment.
    Excuse me while I leave the keyboard to go back out to garage and FINISH THE NOMAD.
    1957 Nomad- LS1/T56 on C4 chassis
    1959 Fleetside Apache 1/2 ton, shortbed, big window, 327ci.

  6. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by WagonCrazy View Post
    I'm a bit surprised that you took a job like this one on Laszlo...with the body still on the old frame, etc. Now you're in a can of worms with the whole thing being out of kilter. Good thing you have that jig to rely on...that's the only thing to go by at this point.
    Hi all...I'm the first to admit that my car has lots of imperfections. Lazlo and I talked for a long time before we decided to do this...I've been pondering it for years and finally just said eff it! Thankfully, Lazlo was on board. It has plenty of scratches, the chrome isn't perfect, and the interior is barely in place. The frame is the frame that originally came with this car and despite what you might see with frame-off show cars, this aint a show car and it probably never will be. I drive this car, I live on a gravel road, and I'm not concerned with it being pristine...I'm more interested in having fun with it.

    So, you can all see the blemishes under the skin of my car now. Really, I'd say my car is pretty typical of most tri-fives out there. If the average tri-fiver were to take the body off the frame, they'd find much of the same thing after taking measurements I'm sure...it's not like the factory tolerances on these cars were what they are today. Has the car taken some hits to make it worse? Yep...it's 60+ years old, shouldn't be any surprise.

  7. #17
    Registered Member chevynut's Avatar
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    We took a little "detour" tonight and fixed some frame damage that Chad mentioned. There were two tears caused by chains or some tie-downs and were patched sloppily, one on each side of the frame. We cut the patches out, straightened the metal around them, and made new patches. After welding them in it looks a lot better.

    Before:



    After. The plates you see are the reinforcement plates for the clip which are plug welded to both the frame and clip with six 5/8" plug welds. The frame has been trimmed and is now ready to receive the clip.



    We actually got the clip fitted and installed but didn't quite get all the welding done. There's a lot of fitting and frame-matching, then you have to do the final welding and grinding so the seam is as smooth as possible. All the plug welds are done, so the clip isn't going anywhere. We always make the plug welds first to try to prevent the main frame joint weld from moving the clip around.

    I plan to remove the frame jig tomorrow so I'll post a pic of the clip installed then.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


    Other vehicles:

    56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
    56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    1962 327/340HP Corvette
    1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
    2001 Porsche Boxster S
    2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
    2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

  8. #18
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    Oh man...that looks 10 times better already!

  9. #19
    Registered Member rockytopper R.I.P 5-13-2017's Avatar
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    Hutch why want ridetech tell us what the their new composite leaf spring ride height is designed to? I have never heard a more BS response then the one I just got?

  10. #20
    Registered Member chevynut's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rockytopper View Post
    Hutch why want ridetech tell us what the their new composite leaf spring ride height is designed to? I have never heard a more BS response then the one I just got?
    What?

    Does Ridetech make springs for C4 suspensions now?
    Last edited by chevynut; 04-15-2016 at 09:11 AM.
    56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


    Other vehicles:

    56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
    56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    1962 327/340HP Corvette
    1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
    2001 Porsche Boxster S
    2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
    2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

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