1968 Shelby fastback Build and now the war begins!!!

[stirtonhotrodz]

So here we go, I have set a timeline of March to have the car finished. This is going to be hard because my customer stuff has to be the priority. So far we have spent 6 hours on the car from a roller to what is here. Another 6 hours and we will have a pretty good carcus to start all the measurements and pre fab.

[XcYZ]

Very nice. Keep us up to speed.

[stirtonhotrodz]

So today was a good day. Im a little bit ahead of schedule on 2 other cars so I thought that Jim ( My right hand man) and I would make the table to start mocking up the car and continue gutting it. I build the cosmetic tables out of wood and then transfer any fab over to a chassis plate. Here are some pics of where we ended up today. Enjoy!!! Tommorrow is going to be measurement day. We have a chassis blueprint pretty much done geometry wise so now we mark the tables accordingly and transfer the drawing into fixtures

[customcam]

Welcome
Look forward to seeing updates

[T_Raven]

Subscribing

[65 347]

Looks good so far, what are your plans, wheel size, motor and are you building your own suspension?

Mike

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by stirtonhotrodz

So today was a good day. Im a little bit ahead of schedule on 2 other cars so I thought that Jim ( My right hand man) and I would make the table to start mocking up the car and continue gutting it. I build the cosmetic tables out of wood and then transfer any fab over to a chassis plate. Here are some pics of where we ended up today. Enjoy!!! Tommorrow is going to be measurement day. We have a chassis blueprint pretty much done geometry wise so now we mark the tables accordingly and transfer the drawing into fixtures

So where's the chassis plate? How accurate do you plan to get using wood jigs for holding stuff?

[stirtonhotrodz]

Actually this is the only way to build a chassis like this efficiently price wise and time wise. With this chassis in particular, there is a lot going on. To machine all the different one off spacers and tube holders it would cost thousands of dollars. Being that it has to be fully functional and a show peice we will be changing on the fly with certain components possibly being re located ( to hide). A good example of that was over the weekend I noticed the master cylinder would be to close to exhaust pipe under the driver floor. If that was a machined chunk of aluminum or steel I just blew the machinists time as well as 50 bucks. Totally not worth it. First you build all your bars as they need to be and then when all your components are mounted functional and spaced correctly you machine your fixtures one time only and there dead on. As for the chassis table. I have a tube car on there now as we speak getting its chassis welded. The problem is that if they were generic square tube cars a fixture costs very little and can be reused car after car. But round tube stuff is always different ( motor trans suspension etc etc) Drag cars use 1 5/8 but streets rods use 1 3/4 see what im saying? I wouldnt even consider building all these fixtures because we are not a chassis shop, we couldnt justify it. We build one chassis every 10 turn key builds if that. Skinny kid for an example have a ton of fixturing, because they have cars on tables 24/7 they can justify and can use the machined fixtures reqularly. Not to justify anything here but even if one wanted to weld something on that wooden table with a tig welder and someone who knows how to use it you could do it if you clamped the main rails properly. I personally wouldnt try it because I dont need to but i would bet 10-1 that an experienced welder wouldnt warp those bars if they were fit properly.

Thanks Ross

[GregWeld]

It's an interesting build and I like to learn. The reason I was asking is because I couldn't help but notice that in your last post showing pictures - the very first picture in that set shows a board holding two tubes just ahead of the motor - note that it is sitting flat on the table BUT in the last picture of this set - that very same board is off the table a 1/4" or more... And the hub appears to be just sitting on a couple of stacked up 2X4's that don't appear to be secure - nor is there a hub on the passenger side at all... so what keeps you square and true... I don't see any center line or any permanent markings on the table to pull from etc. Personally I've never been able to weld anything and keep it from pulling off line - without it being more than securely clamped. So is your plan to take this off the wood table and transfer it to a chassis table for finish welding?

[stirtonhotrodz]

Greg look at the 5th pic on the last set. Picture that hub fixture in steel. Thats what it is but with a center nut holding it at 12.5 inches high ( 24 inch tall tire combo. I will be posting more pics tonight at some point