Homebuilt Adjustable Perches - Suicidal!

A frame design was the first big decision I had ahead of myself when the time came to take my roadster project from the drawing board to the garage floor. In essence, my concept is a traditional A-V8 highboy arrangement with a '28-29 Ford roadster body. The thing that made my chassis different was the fact that I needed to stretch the wheelbase more than a set of Deuce 'rails would accommodate. If I were to use a set of '32 'rails, they would have to be extended somewhere between the reveal and the front crossmember. The problem was, '32 'rails need to be pinched in the cowl area to fit the narrower body style of the early Model As. Many aftermarket shops provide Deuce chassis to fit the '29 body style, but the fact that I still needed to chop the 'rails and stretch them meant I would be playing Russian roulette when I cut the chassis apart as to whether everything would stay in position (obviously it would not). The only option was to make a chassis jig to hold the 'rails in place while the front section was lengthened.

The other problem that arose was the fact that the engine would be set back in the cowl, pushing the trans mount, and inevitably the entire X-member, rearward. The reason for this was the fact that there would be a 4-71 blower mounted off the front of the Chevy engine block, adding around 15 inches to the engine. This meant that not only would I have to stretch the chassis, but I would also have to locate where the engine and trans would mount, and I would have to fabricate an X-member that would accommodate these changes. As the chips started to stack against me, I opted out of using Deuce 'rails and decided that starting from scratch would be easier.

I've always been a huge fan of dry lakes and Bonneville racing, so the idea behind my '29 has always had those influences in mind. I decided that if I was stuck building a chassis from scratch, I would do it in style and incorporate all the nuances that have peeved me in the past. My last hot rod (which Editor Rizzo is doing a marvelous job resurrecting) suffered from a chassis design that scrubbed its chin, even with a stock axle and 6.50x16 Firestone bias-plies. I was never happy with the larger tires up front, but had no choice since smaller 5.50s would have put the car in the weeds, literally. It also suffered from an extreme amount of caster due to the mounting point of the radius rods and the fact that there was no adjustment in the front end. With this in mind, I decided I would incorporate as much adjustability into it as possible since I had complete design freedom for the new chassis.

Essentially, I wanted to have complete control over ride height and suspension adjustment. That meant being able to swap out any size wheel/tire combo and still maintain adequate ride height. I also wanted to remain flexible in regards to axle configurations. If I wanted to go from a stock Ford axle with a stock main leaf spring to a dropped axle with a lowered main leaf, I could do so by simply moving the spring perch to maintain the same ground clearance. Foreseeing these changes ahead of time allowed me to not only make aesthetic changes to the car, but also allowed me to tune the suspension for performance applications as well.

Since I had complete design freedom for my new chassis, I decided to build it using 2-inch round tubing in a space frame design. This would allow me to bend my framerails to follow the contour of the '29 body easier than bending rectangular tubing, all the while continuing the race-car theme I wanted to evoke. I started with two sets of 'rails-one upper and one lower pair that I bent using a tubing bender and a chassis jig I made using angle iron and a set of dimensions I laid out on the shop floor. I then placed the front and rear axles in their respective locations and let the sparks fly.