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Website Updates

A good friend of mine T-man put a complimentary post on the HAMB last week and drove traffic through the roof! We average 147 hits per day. That’s over 1000 a week! But on Friday the 8th, we saw over 500 hits. Of course this must have attracted some unwanted attention.

 

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On Sunday we had two people decide to park their butts on my webcams for hours on end. I don’t know what the intent was but all they could do was watch those areas of the shop where the cameras were pointed. And as society goes, it just takes one jerk to ruin it for everyone. So from now on you will have to register and log in to see the webcams. Since I have done this, I may put some new content up for registered only people in the future.

Steve

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The re-introduction of the Dakota IFS kit

Initiation: 05/27/2011

This is more of an open thread, I am considering a run at the kits again but this time I want to make some serious changes to the kit and it’s function. It has been over a year since the split and my former partners plan of manufacturing the old kits. He still may at this point and I encourage him to do so. I want to push the fourth generation of the kit since it’s introduction.

 

Here is an outline of what I plan on doing.

First off, I want to try and unitize the whole kit and make it a bolt in. I have never been a fan of the current crop of bolt in kits, however I do realize there are many people that were turned off of the old kit because they could not weld but still wanted to upgrade their front suspension.

I also want to make the base kit standard with tubular control arms set up for coil overs. You will still be able to use a stock (modified) upper control arm, spindles and rack and pinion. But one of the major issues we had was matching spring rates. There just were not enough choices for the guys trying to jam this IFS into stuff that was considerably lighter than the Dakotas were.

Your input is welcome!

Update: 06/27/20121

I have been measuring and brainstorming with this for a  month now. I have some ideas to start with but I am actually kind of disappointed in the response from this. I have been tracking my hits on this thread and others related to the Dakota IFS kit and  I will continue with my development in the next few months and see if I get any uptick in interest.

I hear you guys want cheap, well that frankly cannot happen unless the kit is very raw and on the level of some of the low end Mustang II kits already available. That is just not something I want to hang my hat on, so sorry guys it will not be sub $500.00. Bolt in IS going to happen and I have a few ideas firing from neuron to neuron with the occasional flash of brilliance. To make it a bolt in, the stock coil springs are gone. The problem I am having is adapting coil overs to stock control arms for you junkyard scroungers. I did however talk to a company over the Fathers Day weekend about aluminum castings. What I am going to have to do is render the entire kit in Alibre’ and start doing my FEAs and initiate a conversation about pricing.  My initial introduction with them is very encouraging and they are casting and machining right here in the USA and Anaheim CA no less!

My backup would be to produce a fabricated or tubular control arm. Considering the fixturing required to do a proper run of tube might put them on par with what the cast aluminum would cost. So I have to consider the fabricated steel units for the base kit. My next hurdle will be spindle, rack and brakes. I might have to introduce them sans those parts and tool up for the rest at a later date.

 

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Kickbases

I built a few of these for myself, but as good news travels fast, people found out about them and wanted them. I built them with some future-proofing as best as I could see by making the foot pedal for pullrod or pushrod configuration. Also putting in ten different axle pivot positions so you can choose the leverage you want.

I had ordered an Eastwood deep throat shrinker stretcher with stand to fulfill an immediate need during the chop on Richard’s Four-door Mercury and man was I ever disappointed. It didn’t even work as shipped without modification, the pullrod was about 4 inches short of working AND it needed to be bolted to the floor. Or at least a large plate that would be a pain in the ass to move about the shop. I needed mobility and stability. So a few hours of dreaming on my Alibre’ software and I came up with a base that would meet my needs.

Alibre' design of the Kickbase

Postprocessed the files and CNC cut the plates out of 1/4″ steel plate and TIG welded my prototype machine together. This first unit had a solid body 3/8″ foot pedal on it and I used a clevis to connect the pullrod. I found out shortly some limitations to this design so I cut a pair of 3/16″ plates and was able to use a HEIM joint instead of the clevis. This freed up the feel and gave me the range of adjustability I needed. The arm pivots on bronze shoulder bushings and has a 3/4″ axle retained by a pair of snap rings. With every hole reamed to size, changing pivot positions was fairly easy to do. Once I found the arc and foot position that felt the most comfortable I threaded some heavy wall tube and welded on a six pointed thumbwheel. This also was changed out to a lighter setup and I added a pair of counter springs to the back of it to improve the pedal feel, it was just too light and was far to easy to over shrink the workpiece.

First mockup of the prototype

It didn’t take us long to put it into use…

In use on the Merc project

 

 

The most recent one out the door went to our new friend Douglas, member of the Arizona Artist Blacksmiths. He had me build an adapter to work with his Lazze branded Shrinker/Stretcher. I machined an aluminum base adapter and fabricated a new upper clevis to attach to the Lazze piece. I have these on file and can produce them for your machine also.

 

 

Other than the minor updates to the foot pedal arm and the pullrod itself, the design has worked fantastic. There are 7 of them in the world now with two available right now. Hit the E-store if your interested in one.

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Site updates!

Been working on the site today. I added a whole new page, look at the tool bar at the top and notice the TECH FILES tab. In the drop down of that button you will find information and installation sheets related to each of the front ends we use. It’s a work in progress but, there are now downloadable PDF files of the old instruction sheets. Stay tuned for more!

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1931 Model A Sedan build

This build has been in the works for a few months now.  A 1931 Ford Model A that has made it’s way here from Bakersfield California passing through many promising hands before our customer got it. Now we are working for a classic hot rod look in the lineage of Doane Spencer 1932 Ford Roadster.

Starting off with two lengths of 2X4 inch pickled and oiled box tube, we capped the ends and filled them with packed sand. Using a process called bump bending in a hydraulic press we are able to curve the frame rail sections to conform to the outer profile of the body.  Once the basic profiles were created using a simple drawing on the floor we were able to transfer these dimensions into Alibre’, our solid modeling software. This allows me to make design decisions before committing our customers cash in wasted labor. We can also take this data and export it into the CNC plasma to make one off parts for each build.

Perimiter frame mockup

The center crossmember is fabricated from 1 3/4″ tubing, the frame rails got a series of 2 1/2″ holes on the inside and the rear kick-up is fabricated from 2X3 P&O steel tube. The front spring crossmember is a generic hot rod Model A part. we did several mock ups with the front and rear suspension parts in place to confirm our measurements and to make sure we had the “look” down tight.

Perimiter frame and mocked up suspension parts