Cutting and welding Ford I-beam axle
- Thread starter rehoward
- Start date
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Bonehead
Skull Master
You are probably right, most are drop forged. "safely" depends on how well it is done.
zzrodder
It ain't grey hair, it's chrome!
Yes, they are forged, the way to adjust the camber on them is to actually bend them on the small end. Front end shops that have the right equipment do it cold but I have simply heated them red with a torch and used a jack to bend it. Also have welded bag mounts to them (see pics). Shortening them should be no problem if done right - don't just do a square cut butt weld - a deeply angled weld joint would spread out the stress and be stronger. Wish I'd shortened the axles on my build, it is wiiiiiide compared to older vehicles.
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zzrodder
It ain't grey hair, it's chrome!
It rides great. On my setup, I mounted the bags inboard of the original spring mount position so even though I used single convoluted bags, I still get 6" of travel. Bags with greater extended length would give more travel but with the Twin I Beam you want ride height to be in the "sweet spot" where the tires are not tilted in or out causing excessive wear. Since air bags have a progressive rate, the more they are compressed, the stiffer they become. Unless you're off roading, you just won't need more travel.
In the pics it is aired down, ride height is 3" higher but for pics, it looks kooler down low - you can see how much the tires tilt in when lowered.
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zzrodder
It ain't grey hair, it's chrome!
Here's a few more for ya. It started out as a 78 F150 chassis though I did a ton of mods to it. Cut it at the hump under the cab to straighten the rails, stepped the rear about 6", trimmed and added more upward curve to the front frame horns. Tried to re-use some stock pieces like the gas tank, front leaf mounts for the lower 4 link arms etc. Moved the front radius rod mounts to the side using ones off an E150 van. The steering box came off a 74 Chevy C10, I reversed the pitman arm and modified the end of the F150 tie rod to line up right. After all that I boxed the side rails and added the X member. Lotsa work and it weighs a ton but it is strong as a battleship, been cruising it for 6 years with no issues.
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BigIrish
Well-known member
Wow! That is some build! What is the cab, fenders, hood etc from?
zzrodder
It ain't grey hair, it's chrome!
The body is all one-off scratch built from 18ga. steel. I went through 8 - 4'x10' sheets making the body. I later tweaked the shape of the front edge of the front and rear edge of the rear fenders, you can see the differences from the painted and bare steel pics.
I've never done a full build thread, didn't want to ruffle any feathers with another shiny rod...
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ZZrodder,
You have set the bar so high with your rod that anything I have been thinking of seems like wasted effort. That is one impressive display of craftsmanship. Wow.
How did you create the grill shell and fenders. Planishing hammer?
Randy
You have set the bar so high with your rod that anything I have been thinking of seems like wasted effort. That is one impressive display of craftsmanship. Wow.
How did you create the grill shell and fenders. Planishing hammer?
Randy
BigIrish
Well-known member
I think everyone would LOVE to see that. I don't think it matters if its shiny or not, the main thing with this site is that most build whatever they have themselves.
Now if it was a "chainer" car where all you did was drop off the check and pick out the easter egg purple...may be a different story!
