93 Fleetwood Caddy build.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

Looking good Homey! People are going to do triple takes when they see this car.

[Kanaworm$ 292]

Wow just wow at the craftsmanship!

Keep up the great work!

[lightingman117 8]

My goodness, you are the kind of guy I want building the space shuttle. No missing pieces, everything nice and sturdy. I take that back, you are the kind of guy I want building our everything in this world. Skyscrapers wont fall. Buildings wont collapse. Cars wont explode. Aside from the batteries Anyways, Great build can't wait for more!!

[outhopu 70]

Looking good Homey! People are going to do triple takes when they see this car.

The ironic thing is that your average person will have no clue as to whats been done after all the welds are polished down and it's painted. Thats why I document my work the way I do so more people can grasp whats being done and how.

Wow just wow at the craftsmanship!

Keep up the great work!

Thanks, quality is the goal here.

My goodness, you are the kind of guy I want building the space shuttle. No missing pieces, everything nice and sturdy. I take that back, you are the kind of guy I want building our everything in this world. Skyscrapers wont fall. Buildings wont collapse. Cars wont explode. Aside from the batteries Anyways, Great build can't wait for more!!

I'm a little bit obsessed with details and the end result is a byproduct of many many small details linked together. To many people cut corners and use the "good enough" attitude which always degrades the finished product. I use the I can do better approach and prefer those results. Thanks for the props and a good laugh.

Got the crossmember just about done.

Polished the welds down where it meets the frame rail. Every welld will be shaped to a sharp edge before getting rounded over. This will insure straight and flat seams.

Finished trimming and welding the lower mounts and did a little bit of metal finishing on them.

Started formulating my plan of attack for the custom uppers. I'll need to extend these arms and make a jig to locate the balljoint then I'll be able to get started on the new arms.

After some thought I'm going to build the lowers first.

Made a jig to locate everything.

Now I just need to put something between these. :biggrin:

Here is a comparison of the stock lower ball joint next to the new one I'm retro fitting in it's place. It's much larger and uses a larger nut, it should add a considerable amount of strength. It's also a NAPA H.D. balljoint for even more piece of mind.

Got the uppers ghetto extended so I can make a jig for the new uppers tomorrow hopefully.

Got the uppers ghetto extended so I can make a jig for the new uppers tomorrow hopefully.

[sefugi 166]

You never fail to impress, frame is really looking good. Control arms...I'm tuned to see these come together.

[edouble101 314]

Awesome craftsmanship! Are you fabbing tubular a-arms?

[outhopu 70]

I'm at a stand still on the lowers until I get the ball joint sleeves machined so I moved on to the jig for the upper.

The new upper ball joints are larger and longer also. These are also NAPA units

Well now I need to get material for the uppers so it's on to narrowing the rearend.

Had to do a ton of measuring and remeasuring and get a print drawn up to make sure I didn't end up scrapping $1200 worth of axles and housing. This is my least favorite thing to do.:burn:

Removed about 15" from the housing, the drops are sitting on the table.

Got some more prep work done on the housing.

I didn't like the way it was welded.

I don't like the idea of grinding down welds that I didn't do so I ground a groove in all the existing welds and ran a nice fat bead over them to allow me to polish the welds down without risking any thin spots.

Then I got busy polished the welds down. I'll do more finish work later after I'm done welding all the brackets on.

Had to modify my aligment blocks to fit the Ballistic housing ends since they are a heavy duty end with extra retaining bolts.

The raised center section slides into the housing end and gets bolted up to line up the housing ends with each other and the center bearings. An aligment bar slides through the center before welding them on.

The ends are a press fit and I just have them press on a little bit for mock up,

they aren't squared up yet.

You can see the axle tube( marked with white) slides into the ends. This eliminates a butt weld and greatly increases strength. I'll also weld this end as well as around the inboard edge of the housing end.

[outhopu 70]

You never fail to impress, frame is really looking good. Control arms...I'm tuned to see these come together.

It's going to be a little bit before I can get the arms going I need to get a couple of things machined first.

Awesome craftsmanship! Are you fabbing tubular a-arms?

I originally wanted to do tubular arms using 2" .250"wall DOM but my bender just can't do a tight enough bend. I'll be fabbing some from 3/16" plate steel.

[sefugi 166]

That's gonna be a beautiful rearend on that Lady!

[porkchop 304]

i have ran a few beads in the past 13 yrs, as a structual ironworker and a little in the ornamental field as well....

i have alot of appreciation for the amount of work you are putting toward this ride....

amazing to get to be able to it step by step....

truly a priveledge!

thank you for sharing!

keep up the awesome work!

[mccleery3 166]

You are an artist sir This is an outstanding ground up build!

[outhopu 70]

That's gonna be a beautiful rearend on that Lady!

I'm found of it.

i have ran a few beads in the past 13 yrs, as a structual ironworker and a little in the ornamental field as well....

i have alot of appreciation for the amount of work you are putting toward this ride....

amazing to get to be able to it step by step....

truly a priveledge!

thank you for sharing!

keep up the awesome work!

Thanks. Glad your enjoying the build. I feel it's important to do these build threads to help educate others. Too many people hold onto their knowledge greedily and thats how certain skills get lost over time as those that posses them pass away and take it with them.

You are an artist sir This is an outstanding ground up build!

Thanks. There is lots more to come. The body is next on the list after the chassis.

[outhopu 70]

Picked up the alignment bar today and got started on welding the housing ends on tonight.

I removed the ring gear from the 3rd member and installed the bearing alignment blocks in place of the bearings. I put the alignment bar it prior to tightening the bearing caps to make sure the blocks are square and true.

Then I removed the bar and installed the 3rd member in the housing and installed the bar and housing end locator blocks.

One side lined up good so I sqaured it up and tacked it in place.

The other side didn't quite line up. This is why it's important to use an alignment bar. If the ends are off centered too much it will lead to bearing failure later.

A little heat and some pressure and I had the end almost lined up. I'll finish fine tuning it tomorrow hopefully and get the other end welded on.

[outhopu 70]

Got the other end to line up and tacked it on.

Also verified that the ends and alignment bar were square.

It's now ready for full welding and rear suspension mock up.

My friend got my ball joint sleeves machined for the lowers.

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

looking sweet as usual! Are you going to truss the axle? Are you staying semi-float or going full-float?

Your bender is an animal if it will bend .250 DOM! My JD2 will do .125 wall at best.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

[outhopu 70]

looking sweet as usual! Are you going to truss the axle? Are you staying semi-float or going full-float?

Your bender is an animal if it will bend .250 DOM! My JD2 will do .125 wall at best.

No truss on the axle. Using semi float stock style 9" axles from Dutchman. They only case harden their axles which gives them more strength without making them brittle.

I've bent 1 5/8x1/4" wall with my JD2 but it required an extra long handle for leverage. I have changed my mind on doing the tubular arms anyways though so I won't need to use the bender on this.

Got started on a lower A arm today. The coil pocket has been relocated for better alignment with the cylinder and the pocket has been dropped 1" also.

I used some 1 1/2x1 1/2x3/16" and some 1x3x1/8" to make a skeleton to hold everything in it's place and add strength.

Made sure all the pieces were coped for a tight fit and strong weld.

I'm using 1/4" plate for the side plates. The coil bucket will get trimmed down after I cap the top.

The tube is welded to the joint sleeve and then the plate is welded to the sleeve on the outside and tied into the tubing also for maximum strength.

[outhopu 70]

Made the other plate for the side.

Also tied the plate into the tubing where possible for more strength.

Polished the edge of the balljoint sleeve where the plates came together.

[CrazyKenKid 64]

*whistles* nice!

[outhopu 70]

Thanks.

Bored all the body mount openings out. They are the exact size as the original opening so the body mount will sit on the reinforment plate instead of the stock frame. I'll trade the body sitting 3/16" of an inch higher for the gain in strength.

I had to make an adapter for the tube adapter since I'm not using round tube. I plug welded all 4 side and welded each end of the tube to insure it will hold up.

Made a mock up arm to check out how the geometery is going to work with all the mods. Once I determine the final length and shape needed for the upper arms I'll do the real arms. Just grabbed some scrap pieces out of the pile that were close to the shape needed. I know the spindle is for the other side but it served it's purpose for now.

I'm waiting on the tapered reams until they get here I can't go any further.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Sweet work. One of the builds of the year, easy.

[CrazyKenKid 64]

Sweet work. One of the builds of the year, easy.

One of the top builds of the new year for sure! keep on working!

how many hours in the day do you tend to work on this car? I assume you have a full time job and this is a side/hobby for you!

[outhopu 70]

Thanks guys but at the rate I'm going it will be years and not year. Lol.

Work has been hit and miss for a while now so this and other projects have kept me busy in my down time. I'm not one to sit around so I just make sure there is always something in the garage to work on to keep me from going crazy.

I work as many hours of the day as possible some times it's only a couple hours some times it's 14 hours. I'm a single father also and I make sure to spend a fair amount of time with my daughter. Before I had her I'd work almost everyday of the year 12-18 hours a day, I spent many of holidays in the garage in my younger years.

Edited March 4, 2011 by outhopu

[outhopu 70]

Got most of the 1st round of welding done on the frame today. I even welded all the lower corners. I want to do as much of the welding as I can while the frame is locked down on the jig.

Also welded the housing ends on the rearend. I full welded the inside for now. I'm holding off on doing the outside, I may take it to my friends shop and use his tig welder for the outside weld.

Then I started polishing down some weld. This section is ready to be rounded over.

This section will need some more weld first. It's a little hard to tell but the white looking areas are low spots.

Basically I will end up grinding all the welds down then going back over everything again with another bead of weld to build the shoulder up then grind it all a second time to get the perfect squared corner. After I get the entire frame to that point I'll round all the corners over. The corners have got to be smooth and straight without any bondo.