Custom Chassis with canti setup

[XXL]

Originally Posted by valleycustom

Nope. This truck is going to be a driver. I can't stand it when people have cars they don't drive. What's the point of having it?

Amen!

[valleycustom]

Originally Posted by Musclerodz

My bad, I did not notice the upper diagonal until now. With the amount of travel you are planning, I assume you have some type of spherical bearings at both ends to eliminate enevitable binding associated with running diagonal bars?

Mike

The bars I have in the picture I use for mock up. I have another set made up for this truck with Johnny joints on each end.

[valleycustom]

Originally Posted by a squarecan

Man I wish I have a 10th of the skills you have man! You could make a killing building frames for people! People would have you booked for months waiting for your next crazy creation. How long have you been working on this frame?

Keith

I've been working on this frame for about 18 months. That's only part time after my day job. I have also been doing other projects on the side. I could probably do one of these in a month to a month and a half. That would be working full time.

Thanks
Jr

[valleycustom]

Originally Posted by XXL

Amen!

You're the first person to hit the nail right on the head. I see people making frame rails all day long and I don't see gussets, and I think damn that would suck if that thing came apart while your doing 70 down the freeway. You can never be to safe. I also don't want a law suit on my hands.

[valleycustom]

I would like to thank everyone on the comments... If anyone is near Modesto Ca hit me up. Or you can see this truck in a mag some day.

[milehightoyz]

valleycustom, just reiderating what everyone else has said, simply incredible work!!! im very curious as to your background, it seems building a frame like this would take a tremendous amount of knowledge or experience in engineering. id like to be able to build something like this one day, but just dont have enough knowledge or confidence to attempt it.

[valleycustom]

Originally Posted by milehightoyz

valleycustom, just reiderating what everyone else has said, simply incredible work!!! im very curious as to your background, it seems building a frame like this would take a tremendous amount of knowledge or experience in engineering. id like to be able to build something like this one day, but just dont have enough knowledge or confidence to attempt it.

Well durning the day I'm a system administrator for a ambulance company. So I use this to burn off steam. I've been working on cars for over 12 years now and I'm only 26. I couldn't afford to pay other people to fix my cars so I started to do it myself. Then I bought some books and learned to weld and it just went from there. I know some people that have been doing this for years so I just watched and learned. The most important thing is to measure ,measure and measure some more. Being off more than 1/8" will turn everything into a nightmare. "I learned that building a frame on jackstands doesn't work". This is the third version of this frame. You can see the picture on the first page. That was the first version. I finally built a frame table that made my life eaiser. Really once you learn to setup the front end geometry and the rear end geometry it's cake from there.

[milehightoyz]

what goes into building a frame table? is it built custom for each frame or is it a basic template like a jig? sorry for all the questions. i find this very interesting and would like to learn more about it. thanks again.

[valleycustom]

Originally Posted by milehightoyz

what goes into building a frame table? is it built custom for each frame or is it a basic template like a jig? sorry for all the questions. i find this very interesting and would like to learn more about it. thanks again.

Not a problem. I am the same way. The only way to learn is to ask questions. A frame table is a big ass jig. This table is setup for any frame up to 36" wide and 15' long. I plan on making it bigger to compensate for the newer frames because they are wider. My table is made of 3x3" box steel 1/4" wall. The most important thing about the table is that it's square. I welded adjusters on the feet of the table to level it out on any floor.

[milehightoyz]

awesome. thanks for the info, any pictures of the entire frame table? i can see just bits and pieces in your frame pics. also, do you use mostly tig or mig on your frames? your welds look great.

[valleycustom]

Originally Posted by milehightoyz

awesome. thanks for the info, any pictures of the entire frame table? i can see just bits and pieces in your frame pics. also, do you use mostly tig or mig on your frames? your welds look great.

Most of my welds are TIG. I only use the mig on the joining parts of the frame rails. Everything else is TIG welded. I will get some pictures of the table and post them.

Jr

[kevncar]

I've been by jr's house to check this truck out. If you think it's awesome in these pics, you've got to see it in person. Hit him up if your local and go check it out.

[a squarecan]

Man everytime I sign in I always come back to check this thread out because I am so impressed with your fab skills! Same pix each time and everytime I am still drooling over them. Being 19 and wanting to some day make a career of what your doing now do you have any advice on what a young kid should do? I know you mentioned practice and lots of it, but how in the hell did you learn about all the geometry involved? I plan to go to WyoTech next year to take chassis fab along with alomst everything else involved, but I am curious if you had any sources to learn what is involved with frame geometry?

Thanks
Keith

[GenIIIShorty]

Yeah, the fabrication is just beautiful.....

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by a squarecan

Man everytime I sign in I always come back to check this thread out because I am so impressed with your fab skills! Same pix each time and everytime I am still drooling over them. Being 19 and wanting to some day make a career of what your doing now do you have any advice on what a young kid should do? I know you mentioned practice and lots of it, but how in the hell did you learn about all the geometry involved? I plan to go to WyoTech next year to take chassis fab along with alomst everything else involved, but I am curious if you had any sources to learn what is involved with frame geometry?

Thanks
Keith

Study mechanical engineering & do cool stuff like this as a side gig.

[Portmod7]

Awesome work man. I have been thinking about building a new front and rear suspension for my 68, and I have been trying to figure out what to do about bushings. For the upper and lower control arms in the front, as well as a triangulated 4-link in the back(I thought I was the only one who thought about reversing the upper links). I plan on building everything myself. I thought about just using heim ends for all the connections, but I think that would give a bit of a harsh ride. I want something that will feel really smooth going down the road. Any suggestions on bushings? I was thinking maybe some bushings for a monte carlo or something. Thanks, and again, NICE WORK.

Just out of curiosity, why did you reverse the upper links on your rear suspension? i.e. run them close together at the frame and far apart at the housing, rather than the conventional setup? I had something in mind when I thought about it, just wondering if you did it for the same reason.

[valleycustom]

Originally Posted by Portmod7

Awesome work man. I have been thinking about building a new front and rear suspension for my 68, and I have been trying to figure out what to do about bushings. For the upper and lower control arms in the front, as well as a triangulated 4-link in the back(I thought I was the only one who thought about reversing the upper links). I plan on building everything myself. I thought about just using heim ends for all the connections, but I think that would give a bit of a harsh ride. I want something that will feel really smooth going down the road. Any suggestions on bushings? I was thinking maybe some bushings for a monte carlo or something. Thanks, and again, NICE WORK.

Just out of curiosity, why did you reverse the upper links on your rear suspension? i.e. run them close together at the frame and far apart at the housing, rather than the conventional setup? I had something in mind when I thought about it, just wondering if you did it for the same reason.

Look into Johnny Joints. They are better for the type of applications we are building, and they ride great. I changed the upper bars because I didn't want a lot of clutter in the middle of the frame. Doing it this way gives it a cleaner look, and it's not good to weld on the 12 bolt housing. I used poly bushings in the front and I made custom brass bushings for the cantilever setup. The 4 link will use poly bushings on one end and Johnny joints on the other.

Thanks
Jr

[Musclerodz]

Running a pair of bars diagonal in a 4 link is called a satchell link suspension. If set up right they work very well. The other thing they do is eliminate the need for a lateral locating device such as a panhard bar or watts link.

Mike

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by Musclerodz

Running a pair of bars diagonal in a 4 link is called a satchell link suspension. If set up right they work very well. The other thing they do is eliminate the need for a lateral locating device such as a panhard bar or watts link.

Mike

I knew all that already, but most stock style satchell link suspensions have the links mounted to the pumpkin on the rear end housing, and spread far apart towards the frame. I thought about doing it the other way around so that when the truck goes around a corner and the bushings in the links squish a little it will actually push the outside rear wheel back, and bring the inside rear wheel forward just a hair. It should promote a slightly "loose" handling through the center of the corner, keeping the front end from washing out so easily, in turn making cornering faster.

I race cars on the weekends, this is stuff that goes through my mind all day long every day, thought maybe it would be cool to apply it to my truck.

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by valleycustom

Look into Johnny Joints. They are better for the type of applications we are building, and they ride great. I changed the upper bars because I didn't want a lot of clutter in the middle of the frame. Doing it this way gives it a cleaner look, and it's not good to weld on the 12 bolt housing. I used poly bushings in the front and I made custom brass bushings for the cantilever setup. The 4 link will use poly bushings on one end and Johnny joints on the other.

Thanks
Jr

I didn't know such a thing existed, but just this morning a friend of mine who is helping with my truck found some on the net. I didn't know what they were called. I found them to be called Ball Bearing-bushings or something like that. If you are looking for a place to buy them, Currie enterprises has them for 39.95 a piece or this site called http://www.*****************/products...ot_bar-end.htm

Theirs look to be the same thing only $5 cheaper. Looks like a really awesome piece. I am thinking about using them on my A-arms too. A little expensive but I bet they would feel awesome. Going to weld my 4-link to a floating axle 9-inch Ought to be fun.

[XXL]

Originally Posted by Portmod7

I knew all that already, but most stock style satchell link suspensions have the links mounted to the pumpkin on the rear end housing, and spread far apart towards the frame.

The stock 67-72 does it the other way around... narrow on the forward mounts, and angled back until it intersects with the (outer ends of the) rearend. What other stock multi-link suspension does what you're describing?

[DroppedZ84]

Hey Valley,
Do you have your own shop or what? There's quite a few bagged trucks around Modesto, but I don't think I've seen any with quite that extensive of frame work. Very impressive. Hopefully I'll see it driving around modesto in the near future.

[a squarecan]

Hey XXL the chevelle had a stock 4 link ran that way.

Keith

[valleycustom]

Originally Posted by DroppedZ84

Hey Valley,
Do you have your own shop or what? There's quite a few bagged trucks around Modesto, but I don't think I've seen any with quite that extensive of frame work. Very impressive. Hopefully I'll see it driving around modesto in the near future.

I should have my shop open by next summer, but until then I'm just doing the work out of my house. Yeah I have a few trucks driving around town that I bagged. I have a pewter Sonoma on 20" kmc's. I also did a black hardbody on caddy rims and it has the rear shaved.

Later
Jr

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by XXL

The stock 67-72 does it the other way around... narrow on the forward mounts, and angled back until it intersects with the (outer ends of the) rearend. What other stock multi-link suspension does what you're describing?

Are you talking about the 67-72 trucks? That is a truck-arm suspension, I was talking about a triangulated 4-link. Every triangulated 4-link I have seen on a stock vehicle has been witht he upper links mounted close together at the housing and far apart at the frame. There may be some I am not aware of that go the other way, but I don't remeber ever seeing any before.