Flaming Ford: Chassis

I had to go down to Wellington for work so it was a good chance to tie in a couple of other things while I was down that way including a visit to Juniors Kustom Rides where my chassis is coming together. I guess you'd call it a perk of the job.

Here's a few shots of the showroom before we head out to the workshop.

Well here it is in all its glory. This is the first time I've seen the chassis in the flesh of course so its fair to say I was pretty excited. It was even better to be able to see it in the jig and being worked on.

They use Tig welders which are a lot slower but the result is a lot nicer than a Mig.

The Jag rear has now been stripped out of the big ugly cage that it was in when it was in the Jag. Its still pretty grubby & rusty but is starting to look more like it should in its new home.

Check out those welds....... B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. An absolute work of art. It was great to be able to see the work actually in progress. A lot of time and care being taken here to get things just right. Have to say I am really pleased with what I saw.

The chassis below has just had all its work completed before its delivery to the owner. Its for a 38 Chev. The font suspension you see here is pretty much what will be going into mine. That is the next stage once they have finished installing the Jag rear.

This is Mark, the owners project. Its a Model A Coupe. He intends running it as a plain steel car with bare interior, so no paint or upholstery as such. It will look much as you see it here. That in turn means the panel work has to be perfect as you can't hide any sins with bog or paint. You should see the work that has gone into this already. Certainly a labour of love and a long term project.

The rear of this 32 Tudor (another project on the go) is what the Jag rear should resemble once finished with chrome, polishing and HPC. A long way to go. This one is actually a custom unit imported from the states and it has a true quick change diff head, meaning the diff ratio can be changed via the back cover. I am not sure but I imagine the gear set is Winters brand while the unit itself is probably something like Krugel. It would be somewhere around the $20k mark.

This 32 Tudor has just had a Louvered roof insert added and it looks great. Real nice panel work here. The price tag makes the fibreglass option real attractive though. This car as you see it is said to owe the owner some $200k. Ouch!

I am not a huge fan of Pop's as they are often budget rods and their finishing has a lot to be desired. This one though is another story and in my opinion is exactly what a Pop should be. Has to be powered by a V8 and check out those tubs. This will be fun in the dry and downright frightening in the wet.

They do all sorts of work here. This truck is in for rust repairs to the floor and door frames.

These few pics give an idea of the scale of the workshop. Its simply massive with plenty of scope for more projects. As it is though they have 8 staff working on what you see here.