Nerd Rods, 55-59 Truck Frame Project 1956, C4 suspension, 5.3L Auto, Kit Frame Design

[rat_rod_russell]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

So how many hours of welding do you have "accounted for"?

Just asking.

I haven't kept exact count on this one as its the first of the Chevy Truck frames but its taking a lot longer just because of all the photos I've been doing. For every photo I post I delete 5-10. But I was pondering this question a little while back and here's the little bit I timed just to get an idea. The box for the control arms to the frame that I installed just before I put the front on the frame. The one side I photographed the build of took me 7 hours. The second one took 1 hour and 50 minutes and I basically only weld at night to keep people from bothering me so mostly uninterrupted (you answer the girlfriends calls).

I would guess I have 22-25 hours in the frame right now with another 4-10 to finish it all up.

Keep in mind our shop is only 2 guys most of the time with 2 part time guys who help out and do body work on the shop projects. We've been building a TriFive stage 4 chassis, boxing up 6 other frames, run a powder coating business and my father (the other full time guy), he's going in for back surgery next month for a slipped vertebra so take a guess how useful he is right now. I wish I had the time to just bang this frame out but we need to support the customers who have already purchased their own TriFive frames. I will timelaspe the next frame (I have another in a crate to weld up) and clock it at the same time. With luck we'll have a dozen clocks on the set and you can see them all ticking along to get a feel for the time as well.

Later
-Russell