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| Completed hairpin frame brackets, with tapered holes. |
Written as a companion to my earlier post Home-Made Hairpins.
I spent part of Presidents Day completing brackets needed to attach the front hairpins & rear end radius arms to the Model A frame.
Earlier, I flame cut 3" wide strips of
A lot of hot rodders would stop there, drill holes, and bolt this mount straight down, off the side of the frame. I'm going for a more finished look, so I'll take it a few steps further.
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| Keep the mallet close. |
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| ...flame has no shadow. |
Next, I heated and bent the plate 90°. Evenly heating a band to a dull red (front & back) just above the vise, made hammering the steel over easy as cake. I used a Harris #2 Rosebud tip. From lighting the torch to the completed bend took about one-minute. Then let the steel air cool off the vise.
After marking the piece, I used my cutting torch this time, to cut off the excess. Then using the bench grinder to clean it up a bit. Next I cut & shaped a hole to fit the tapered-hole Speedway 'shock mount'.
Hot rodding books from the 50's told readers to cut off tapered tie-rod eyes from steering arms found on car spindles. This could still be done today from just about any junk car or truck. But at $2.99 each from Speedway Motors, it's much cleaner & easier.
After fitting the mount into the bracket (making sure I have the correct side of the mount facing out), and chamfering the hole as a valley for the weld, I set the welder on high. A nice MIG weld bead, front and back, completes the joining of two pieces.
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| I took an architectural class in high school. |
Some final machine sanding, and the brackets actually look a little too good for a 1950's track car.
(A sketch with measurements is useful when making multiples of something.)
The next thing I have to do is fit the rear radius arms with threaded tube & tie-rod ends. Then tack these brackets to the underside of the frame rails, after I've 'measured twice'.
