Bringing up the Rear

Well it has been a busy last few months here on the ranch. We have been busy buying our first house and then I have been tied up working on a few off topic cars. Just recently I got back on Mike's modified. The next step in the build was bringing up the rear suspension. The plan was to mount a Model A style spring in front of the rear end. So I started by making the mounts for the rear spring. I started with some 3/8" steel flat bar.

And who says you need fancy tools to build a hot rod? Gotta love that trusty angle grinder!

All welded up plus I added a gusset out 1/4" to strengthen it up.

Then I started building the mounts for the rear ladder bars. Still to be smoothed out at this point.

The rear ladder bars tacked together. We used 7/8" .156" wall DOM steel tubing. I had a local machine shop tap one end of each of the tubes for the clevises we would use to mount them to the ladder bar mounts. You can see I am using the ol' drill bit trick to make sure I have the gussets centered.

Welding up the front mounts for the ladder bars. Sorry about the mess everything is getting packed up for the move. 

Rear mounts all smoothed up and welded in.

The front mounts along with my fancy homemade slip joint yoke.

The body is on!

I had to notch the channeled body to clear the new cross member I made

We are going to trailer it back to his house so he can sort out a few things and so I can move into our new place. Next up will be the front end and steering.

It has been a long time since I have made any updates. They are coming soon, but to hold you over in the meantime how about some tunes. This was the A side to The Sonics first single. One of my favorites of all time. Gotta represent the Northwest.

DeSoto Tranny Crossmember

Not a huge update but I have been making some progress on the DeSorta Modified. I have been working on the tranny crossmember and tying in the rear suspension. Mike and I opted to use a crossmember from Speedway with a 6" drop. Once that was cut, positioned, and welded in I bent up some 1.75" tubing that I tied into it. We will then mount the rear ladder bars to these tubes plus it sure strengthens up the frame. It is always fun working with tubing. A lot of different angles going on here. I didn't take any "in progress" photos but here is how it came out.