Crossmember Kit – Page 3 – Industrial Chassis Inc.

Posted on 04/05/2014 by Steve — Leave a comment

Headway on the new generation of kits. 65-66 F100

Right Frame rail A — After squaring and leveling the donor frame from Bill Wilson, I set a Datum at the original Axle centerline. Then Taking careful measurements I can construct a representation in Alibre’.

1965 F100 Right Side Rail B — Added the rear half of the frame from previous. Also changed the way the bumpout for the core support works. Not technically correct but works with my software.

1965 F100 Right Side Rail C — Locating all the critical holes needed for current and future projects.

65-66 Frame assembly A — Alibre’ 12 isn’t as sophisticated as it could have been. Doing a mirror of the Right frame rail wasn’t as easy as a command. I had to re-generate each sweep, boss, and cut the opposite way to generate the Left side rail.

65-66 Frame assembly B — Tried an approximation of the stock transmission crossmember. I may go back and re-draw it. Added the rear body mount crossmember and gussets as well as the forward crossmember for supporting the rear springs.

1030 6566 Crossmember B — Very similar to the 61-64 kits, this one requires a taller boxing plate and different locating holes. The longer boxing plates should solve the problem of the long and unsupported front frame section once the stock Twin-I-Beam crossmember has been removed.

1030 6566 Crossmember C 1030 6566 Crossmember A

Posted on 10/22/201305/05/2014 by Steve — 3 Comments

Full X-member for 32 Fords

Full bolt in, actually stiffens the frame and allows for a transmission change. Now includes front frame horn liners and “bolt-in” front split wishbone mounts.

Available now, hit the store!

2013-10-22 11.55.42 2013-10-22 11.55.05 2013-10-22 11.55.14 2013-10-22 11.55.24

Posted on 10/04/201310/04/2013 by Steve — 1 Comment

Shop update: 10/04/2013

Been a busy few weeks, lots of jobs in and out and progress made on the more long term jobs. The good news is, as we clear out these jobs, the new Dakota Kits are eminent!

Just wrapped up a Vintage Air install on Ron Shives’ 1957 Chevy Hardtop. Such a nice car, we removed the AirTique unit installed a decade or more ago that never quite worked properly and installed a new Vintage Air sure-fit unit. In went a Vintage Air Front Runner package and radiator relocation to the 6 cylinder position so that we had room for a Volvo 850 two speed cooling fan. We also upgraded to a Borgeson Delphi 600 power steering box, Flaming River steering column and did some routine maintenance for him. Overall the car turned out fantastic, very nice daily driver now.

Dr Marvelus is going to town on Tony’s 60 Bonneville, pretty rusty car in all the structural areas, so look for updates on that soon.

Larry Ivy’s 34 PU is roller status, cab goes on and the controls are going in soon.

More importantly, Bob’s 32 5W chassis will be going together next week in preparation for the Deuce Day show. We are doing the second build out of our “Bolt – In” center X-member! These will be available in the store very soon.

And the news you are waiting for, the Dakota kits are in process as soon as Bob’s 32 frame comes off. First up will be the 65-66 frames and the 53-56 and 57-60’s immediately after.

Posted on 08/30/2012 by Steve — Leave a comment

Bell Tech dropped spindles…

Richard D brought his frame in for us to straighten last weekend. He also asked us to install the crossmember kit (006) and hang all the components. With the parts he brought were a brand new pair of dropped spindles from Bell Tech. It looks as if they did a nice redesign of the old spindle. It wasn’t apparent at first whether they fixed the steering arm location issue or not.

Installation confirmed they have not, if anything has changed it is for the worse.

The steering arm has been raised over an inch over stock and shortened. It also appears they have moved the arm location outboard more but have also changed the angle of the tie rod end boss. The machine work is not up to correct tolerance either. All three tapers are bored too deep into the bosses, note how much thread is exposed on the Bell Tech spindle tie rod end vs the stock spindle. This also raises the tie rod up farther causing more interference with the anti-roll bar and increases bumpsteer.

Belltech VS Stock Clearance — Note the location of the tie rod in relation to the lower ball joint, notice the one on the left (Bell Tech) is much higher than the one on the right. Also notice the tie rod contacts the anti-roll bar.

Belltech VS Stock steering arm — Take a look at just how much the arm has been raised in comparison to the stock spindle steering arm

These spindles are still going to need the tie rod drop I detailed on my Dakota Based IFS Tech page.

Posted on 03/16/201203/16/2012 by Steve — 10 Comments

So close you can taste it!

Here we are folks, #2 is installed and this is #3 and the first one to ship.

Installation is much easier than before and the frame stiffness is unmatched. I have been test fitting parts and making small corrections so that you get a high quality part you won’t have to fight to install and will enjoy for years to come.