Tube Chassis Hemi Dart Project

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A couple of more photos that were stuck in the camera...
 

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Guitar Jones said:
Damn you built that beast and you still have a wife?

Absolutely amazing.
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Guitar man, I can relate to that comment. Wife is gone, with all the cash and most of the real estate. Slowed down my build a bit, but still worth the biotch being gone.

Hemidart, really nice build. The stance is perfect and almost identical to mine, including the big meats out back. When I get off my lazy butt, I will shoot some pics and learn how to upload.
 
Hemidart528 said:
Here is a pic of the aluminum panels I cut from 4x8 sheets. Each started out as a cardboard template and after cutting were beadrolled for strength and design. It took me about a month to completely fabricate the wheel tubs and panels. Since each is a one off piece I had to make sure my powdercoater guy was extremely careful not to drop or bend any. He did a perfect job and I'm lucky he did.
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Absolutely impressive work that you have done here!!!!!!!!!!

How did you end up cutting the panels? It looks very clean and my impression is that alum can be hard to cut smoothly. Did you bead roll it all yourself? Was your frame a kit or all done from scratch? TIG or MIG. Please share more pix of the frame fab if you have 'em. I am going out to the garage right now to erect a shrine in your honor!! That car is crazy sicque. L8r

Jim
 
old mopars said:
Hemidart, really nice build. The stance is perfect and almost identical to mine, including the big meats out back. When I get off my lazy butt, I will shoot some pics and learn how to upload.
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Jim, If you need any help with uploading, give me a call or email. I was just checking in on your big block the other day.

Hemidart528... Great build, I would love to able to build something even half that nice.
 
Hemidart528...your the best thing thats happened to this site in a long time!

better than the rags (magazines)...its great to get the skinny directly from the builders...instead of some writer thats never build a hotrod..yet alone turned a wrench...plus we get to comment/ask questions/fluff your to-to....and everybody likes to get fluffed...right???
 
old mopars said:
Guitar man, I can relate to that comment. Wife is gone, with all the cash and most of the real estate. Slowed down my build a bit, but still worth the biotch being gone.

Hemidart, really nice build. The stance is perfect and almost identical to mine, including the big meats out back. When I get off my lazy butt, I will shoot some pics and learn how to upload.
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Thanks old mopars. The stance is based on a 2 degree rake with the lower lip of the front fender behind the tire being 4 inches off the ground.
 
gerahead said:
Absolutely impressive work that you have done here!!!!!!!!!!

How did you end up cutting the panels? It looks very clean and my impression is that alum can be hard to cut smoothly. Did you bead roll it all yourself? Was your frame a kit or all done from scratch? TIG or MIG. Please share more pix of the frame fab if you have 'em. I am going out to the garage right now to erect a shrine in your honor!! That car is crazy sicque. L8r

Jim
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Thanks Gerahead for the props. The first thing I did was buy several sheets of poster board and make templates of everything I wanted to make a panel from. A lot of scissor work and Sharpie use later I was able to have everything laid out in poster board. I ordered about 5 sheets of 4x8 aluminum from my local metal guy and basically laid all of the templates on them and traced and rough cut them out with new fine cut tinsnips about an inch from each border. Then I performed the final cut around the lines going very slow with the snips so as to not kink the edges of the aluminum. Then I used a small file to smooth all edges. Some of the larger pieces such as the wheel tubs I was able to cut the aluminum close to the edges using the metal sheer in my buddy's shop. He also has a bead roller so yes I stuck each piece in there and laid some conservative lines down (after alot of practicing on scrap!). The frame is all done from scratch. My chassis friend keeps a decent stock of chrome moly tubing in all sizes (1 5/8, 1 1/2, 1 1/4, 1"). Even though we never considered a kit from some mail order house we knew we wanted to do it ourselves so we could tuck all of the bars as close to inner body panels to avoid gaps in the overall look. Chrome moly must be tig welded so that is what we did. I ordered the chassis spec book from SFI which includes drawings of all certified chassis types and the diameter of the bars that must be used. We built it to 25.4 specs which certifies a 3200 lb car or less to run 7.50 seconds or slower in the quarter mile.
 
HemiDenny said:
Hemidart528...your the best thing thats happened to this site in a long time!

better than the rags (magazines)...its great to get the skinny directly from the builders...instead of some writer thats never build a hotrod..yet alone turned a wrench...plus we get to comment/ask questions/fluff your to-to....and everybody likes to get fluffed...right???
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Denny you're the type of guy that keeps the rest of us Mopar nuts motivated. Thanks for the kind words and the fluff job!
 
Hemidart528 said:
New photos! I am also showing some before and after for perspective. One thing I am especially proud of is the dash. Most cars built like this lose the dash and end up with some aftermarket or homemade piece of aluminum hogged out for some guages. I wanted as much street look to this build as I could accomplish. We took 6 inches out of the middle of the dash and used a silicon bronze rod to weld it back together so it could fit with the down bars of the cage. I think we pulled it off pretty well. Also, I had my Weld Magnum wheels sent back to Weld to be converted to beadlocks and they did a great job. Thanks for looking.
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Wow, this thread went crazy since the last time I looked at it. I am going to have to go clean up, wow! Love the fact that you retained the instrument panel, gauges and glove box cover. This car is in a class of its own, very nice.
 
HemiEd said:
Wow, this thread went crazy since the last time I looked at it. I am going to have to go clean up, wow! Love the fact that you retained the instrument panel, gauges and glove box cover. This car is in a class of its own, very nice.
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Thanks HemiEd. Have a good one.
 
Hemidart528 said:
Thanks Gerahead for the props. The first thing I did was buy several sheets of poster board and make templates of everything I wanted to make a panel from. A lot of scissor work and Sharpie use later I was able to have everything laid out in poster board. I ordered about 5 sheets of 4x8 aluminum from my local metal guy and basically laid all of the templates on them and traced and rough cut them out with new fine cut tinsnips about an inch from each border. Then I performed the final cut around the lines going very slow with the snips so as to not kink the edges of the aluminum. Then I used a small file to smooth all edges. Some of the larger pieces such as the wheel tubs I was able to cut the aluminum close to the edges using the metal sheer in my buddy's shop. He also has a bead roller so yes I stuck each piece in there and laid some conservative lines down (after alot of practicing on scrap!). The frame is all done from scratch. My chassis friend keeps a decent stock of chrome moly tubing in all sizes (1 5/8, 1 1/2, 1 1/4, 1"). Even though we never considered a kit from some mail order house we knew we wanted to do it ourselves so we could tuck all of the bars as close to inner body panels to avoid gaps in the overall look. Chrome moly must be tig welded so that is what we did. I ordered the chassis spec book from SFI which includes drawings of all certified chassis types and the diameter of the bars that must be used. We built it to 25.4 specs which certifies a 3200 lb car or less to run 7.50 seconds or slower in the quarter mile.
Click to expand...

Cutting all that alum by hand (twice) and then filing it makes me wonder how you got it all done that quickly! I guess that I didn't catch in the earlier post that you were using chromoly tubing. It sure is a good thing to have well equipped friends isn't it? NO, that's not how I meant it, LOL. I will be watching this build. I love the look of the car and the stance. More than just about anything else, that is what caught my eye when I first saw the Comet that I now own. Beautiful work! L8r

Jim
 
Its easy to see you build by the creed......

Perfection is not my goal...it is my standard
 
Ok things are really getting weird fluffing and Hemi's what have things come too.
 
love the look of your car. would you have any pics of how you have attached the chassis to the rocker panels.
 
That is one very sick ride.... i just got some wood over it . great job man..:hello1::hello1::hello1::hello1:
 
HemiDenny said:
whatcha' workin on lately?
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Hey Denny, trying to finalize some loose ends so I can finish the Dart. I finally located a front windshield gasket and they bent me over on the price but it's one of the few left in the country. I also have ordered front and rear chrome bumpers for the car and will be mounting them soon as well. The fiberglass ones I had ending up looking like crap once we painted them so even though they are much heavier I've decided to go with factory metal and chrome. Just waiting on parts this week from Ebay. Have a good one.
 
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