Starting from scratch

I bought books on chassis and suspension design, made plans, drew models, calculated weight distribution, stress points and center of gravity, steering geometry and more. Thirty years ago, I took a number of classes offered by General Motors and I have done a lot of brake jobs, replaced engines and transmissions and tune ups, and more.

From the time I was 10 I have had a project car that I have worked on for fun and have replaced every component in a car at one time or another. The key word is “replaced” now I find myself designing and building a complete chassis and suspension from scratch, who the hell does that? 99% of the hot rods you see on the street, if not stock, use a kit chassis and component suspension parts.

With the right attitude I opened the garage door one February morning, took the wreck apart, down to the last nut and bolt, indexed and stored everything. Than I started cutting, I literally removed everything from the firewall forward as well as the entire chassis, and every piece of sheet metal underneath the car as far back as I could go. When I was done I had a body, no chassis, suspension or floor. Well I wanted a clean slate and now I had one.

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