Frame Rails

I've got the beginnings of a car now. The two frame rails are cut to length. The far ends in the photo have an angle cut which is half the total angle required for the kick up at the rear of the frame. You always need to cut half the total required angle from each side in order for the lengths of the mating edges to be the same.

The piece of cardboard in the foreground is the layout for the nose of the car. I'm going to get some pieces sheared to the correct width for the inner and outer sides. After I bend them to shape I'll cut some pieces for the top and bottom and then weld the four pieces together, grind them down and then weld it to the frame rails when I get ready to assemble the completed frame. The same goes for the tail end of the frame. I'm thinking that'll be a while. Unlike a lot of my projects, that's by design.

The piece laying on the frame rails is the beginnings of the cockpit. That piece will be the cowl. I'll weld a piece of flat to the front of it for the sides of the hood to lay against. I need to make the back frame piece that will support the dash and the steering shaft. Again, I'll get that made up and have it ready to go when I get around to needing it. The placement is specified on the plans, naturally, but I want to get the motor set in place to make sure I'll have enough leg room. I'm going to have to go in search of a transmission one of these days. I'll need to get that bolted up to the engine to determine where to place the crossmember to support the tailshaft.

As I mentioned previously, I've got plenty of other projects I want to finish and Surly and his boys have a couple of things that will require my help. However, I can make sub-assemblies and gather parts for this one, so when the time comes to actually get busy on this thing, I'll be able to jump on it.