The Willomet Charger

[AgDieseler]

Frame table is pretty much built. I have a few more welds to finish and a mounting pad to build for the rear body cart legs.

Materials - 4x4x.120 heavily trussed on 1/2-13 threaded pads. Everything was level within a degree and square within 1/16" before burning in the corners. Must have measured ten times before committing.







Looking to get the car mounted and locked down this week. Then, I should be able to plate the inner rocker and add other reinforcements.

David

 

[sreidmx]

Looks amazing.. as always
Btw you might have a couple spiders on the wall.. 6.2 kind! Lol

 

[AgDieseler]

Looks amazing.. as always
Btw you might have a couple spiders on the wall.. 6.2 kind! Lol

Thank you! Those four are always hanging around.

David

 

[sreidmx]

Nice huge wrench too.

 

[JoshHefnerX]

Nice welds dude!

 

[1985 K5 Blazer]

Im not sure if i keep coming in here to look at the work on the car or the walls lol

 

[AgDieseler]

Nice welds dude!

Thanks! Comfortable position, clean material, and the right settings make things go smoothly.

Im not sure if i keep coming in here to look at the work on the car or the walls lol

The stuff on the walls just started out as a way to store parts, and eventually became a kind of signature of the shop. Nobody on the b-body or lateral-g forums has identified what engine those intakes are from.

David

 

[campfire]

Thanks! Comfortable position, clean material, and the right settings make things go smoothly.

The stuff on the walls just started out as a way to store parts, and eventually became a kind of signature of the shop. Nobody on the b-body or lateral-g forums has identified what engine those intakes are from.

David

Even most chevy guys can't name all 4 of them. I'm only confident about 3 of them, and I remember asking about them already!

 

[campfire]

P.S. - the tractor manifold makes more sense to me after I bought those shocks. I now see what you did there, Mr. Willomet Fab.

 

[Greg Ducato]

Those are some beautiful welds sir

 

[76zimmer]

View attachment 229765
Looking to get the car mounted and locked down this week. Then, I should be able to plate the inner rocker and add other reinforcements.

David

I should have mentioned it earlier, have you thought about raising that rack up so its easier to work at thigh or waist level?
Looks awesome David!

 

[AgDieseler]

I should have mentioned it earlier, have you thought about raising that rack up so its easier to work at thigh or waist level?
Looks awesome David!

Thank you. It's stinking heavy!

You bring up a design criteria I struggled with, and made me glad I visited and talked to several hotrod shops. One thing I asked about was their frame tables - how long does the car stay on, design details, etc. The Roadster Shop has their full custom cars with the rockers at knee level, and Rad Rides is about the same. The deciding factor - whether or not they're mounting the powertrain and suspension while it's on the table. Chassis repair is allowed to work at waist height, but neither shop seemed to place cars with engines at that height.

That's the key criteria for me since I need to have the LS/6060 in the car in order to build the engine mounts, recessed firewall, and inner chassis bracing, and a cherry picker will only go so high. The rockers will be at my knee caps, and I'll have decent access to the underside. While I don't enjoy out of position welding, I'll have plenty of room to do it.

Long answer, but there are a lot of variations out there, and I didn't understand why until I had to decide how to build this one.

David

 

[ClassicStyle]

We us art Morrison or Detroit speed, I tend to like waist height the best for any body repair or modification,

 

[76zimmer]

Thank you. It's stinking heavy!

You bring up a design criteria I struggled with, and made me glad I visited and talked to several hotrod shops. One thing I asked about was their frame tables - how long does the car stay on, design details, etc. The Roadster Shop has their full custom cars with the rockers at knee level, and Rad Rides is about the same. The deciding factor - whether or not they're or not they're mounting the powertrain and suspension while it's on the table. Chassis repair is allowed to work at waist height, but neither shop seemed to place cars with engines at that height.

That's the key criteria for me since I need to have the LS/6060 in the car in order to build the engine mounts, recessed firewall, and inner chassis bracing, and a cherry picker will only go so high. The rockers will be at my knee caps, and I'll have decent access to the underside. While I don't enjoy out of position welding, I'll have plenty of room to do it.

Long answer, but there are a lot of variations out there, and I didn't understand why until I had to decide how to build this one.

David

I should have known you would give this great consideration.
Thanks for the insight!

 

[AgDieseler]

I should have known you would give this great consideration.
Thanks for the insight!

Glad to share what's working for me, and I'll disclaim that my method could be less than optimal for someone else's build. Once I get the car leveled to the table, I'll measure the rocker height from the floor.

Progress tonight - the car is on the table. Still much to do before it's "locked down."


I picked up a digital level, and used the 1/2-13 threaded adjusters to get front/back level with 0.1* - more than sufficient for my purposes up to the point. As well, these short "wings" are for the rear legs of the body cart. I'll have them installed most of the time once I've plated the inner rocker.


At 15' 9" long, there shouldn't be any limitations to what I can brace to or build from.


David

 

[76zimmer]

Excellence!

 

[AgDieseler]

Taking my time during this step. Check, check again, and then once more.


So far so good.

David

 

[tomford]

Awesome Build !

 

[AgDieseler]

Table level up - second iteration:
The garage floor has a 1/8"/ft slope to it, and the forward adjusters were close to maxed out, so I pulled the jam nuts on the rear adjusters to get the table 1/4" lower overall.

The relevel yielded better results than the initial - 0* variance side to side. Front to back is a little different - 0.1* on one table rail and 0* on the other, though my bubble level(s) looked smack dab in the middle of their lines. My nice 4' level is on permanent loan to my dad, so I'm going to get a new one and double check the measurements before locking anything down.

Car level up - first iteration:
The car does need some assistance getting level side to side. The front is off by 1/8" rail-to-rail while the rear looked more like 3/16". The rockers leveled out perfectly from the start (measured from the top pinch). I'm experimenting using inverted and normal quick grips and shims, moving around the car to the (presumably) level table beneath it to get uniform readings.

I left the shop with all bubbles sitting within their lines and gauges reading 0* or 0.1*. Doing the math, 0.1* over 15' 9" amounts to less than 1/32", which is acceptable given that the unibody probably wasn't flat when it left the St Louis production line. Parallel and perpendicular are more important as the reinforcements are integrated.

David

 

[tRustyK5]

Sounds like you got it pretty damn flat, and are now finding the point of diminishing returns. This is going to be a great final product with a beginning like this!