Custom Chassis with canti setup

[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

[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 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.

[GenIIIShorty]

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

[a squarecan]

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

Keith

[valleycustom]

I figured I would snap a few pictures. I finally got the motor in.

[Rollie396]

More pics!Lookin awesome.

[valleycustom]

Well after many hours of thinking I decided to redo the rear canti setup. It's going to look the same but have bigger components. The new verision isn't going to use bushings, but it's going to run wheel bearings from a mustang II rotor. With this new setup it will eaiser to get replacement bearings rather than making bushings from stock. Here are some pictures of the old setup and the new setup I'm making right now and some picture showing what I need to do to get this stuff to work. The first picture shows what the stock looks like when I start on the right and what it looks like when I'm finished on the left. The last picture you can see the difference between the old and the new.

[FirstGen]

Very nice work. How are you machining that tubing like that? Looks like some thick tube material you are using is that .250 wall? Just courious what size tubing 1.5? and what wall you are using on the suspension stuff. Are there guidelines on what size and wall tubing to use on frame and suspension stuff other than thicker the better

[valleycustom]

Originally Posted by FirstGen

Very nice work. How are you machining that tubing like that? Looks like some thick tube material you are using is that .250 wall? Just courious what size tubing 1.5? and what wall you are using on the suspension stuff. Are there guidelines on what size and wall tubing to use on frame and suspension stuff other than thicker the better

The tubing in the picture is 2" O.D .375 wall. I'm maching the I.D of the DOM to 1 3/8" on my lathe then I run a broach through to create the keyway. On the frame I'm using 2x4 and 2x5 3/16" wall box and for the tubing I used 1.5" dom .156 wall.

Thanks
Jr

[stueber68]

I tell you what, I have seen all sorts of fabrication and with what you have done I am amazed with your attention to detail. it's almost a shame to cover this up with a body. This setup, hell I can't come up with something to express it properly. Awesome job, I AM IMPRESSED.

[FirstGen]

Very cool, thanks for the info and pics! Any pictures of your frame table? I would love to see what that looks like...
-Taylor

[70short/step]

You guys that are too far away to visit him are missing out! He did my rear suspension and while I was there checked out this awsome custom frame! The detail is unbeliveable and these pics dont do it justice!
He has a complete machine shop in his garage and can make damn near anything you want!

[cornutz]

Damn Jr... your head is full of kick ass ideas, I have been too busy to get over there... we have #2 coming really soon and I am trying to finish bidness with the kidlets rooms! I want to check out that rear end you are fab'n!

I still want you to notch the rear of the burb too! I know I wont be able to check things out this weekend but maybe next! You are on your way man, that shop of yours will do BIG things INDEED!

Bill

[Izzy]

Damn that's probably the best fab work I've seen.

[Musclerodz]

That is a waaay better setup than the first go round. Kudos to you on your fabrication skills. That should hold up forever and have an excellent ride quality.

Mike

[cornutz]

Hey Jr.--- any more pics to update us on? I know you have been busy burnin' the hours on this project...

[valleycustom]

Originally Posted by cornutz

Hey Jr.--- any more pics to update us on? I know you have been busy burnin' the hours on this project...

Yeah, I'll take some more tonight. I need to have this thing on the road by the first goodguys in 06.

[Damian]

Dam thats some nice work you have done. I go down to Modesto ever weekend so I would like to see all the work in person and maybe talk to you about bagging my tuck. So let me know. Thanks

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Nice damn work....

[valleycustom]

Well here are some more pictures. I had some new brackets laser cut for the canti. It took over 2 weeks for this to get finished. So that set me back. I'm still on for the goodguys show in March. I'll be driving this there if my life depends on it. The body might not look to nice but it will be on the road.