Frankie 2.0 - Cut-Weld-Drive Forums

kustomkreep86 · September 21st, 2018, 08:52 AM

Hey everyone,
It's been a while. This thread as you can see in the title is gonna be for Frankie 2.0. Got Frankie running and driving and had some fun with her, but it's time for a change. As much as I love the little bug, I can't shake my hot rod ways. This was kind of my plan form the start, but I had the parts, and had never drivin a bug before so I had to see what it was all about. Here's a rough photoshop idea of what's going to be going on. I was trying to do as much eyeballing as I could as accurately as possible to see what I was working with.Keep in mind my finished product won't have rear fenders. I'm heading into actual volksrod territory now!

I've had a chevy 355 and an 82 s10 chassis lying in wait for a good project and I think this is going to be it. The S10 Chassis is for an extended cab short box, so the frame is way too long. They have a 122" wheel base and my design above is brought down to 100" wheels base. I bought a pair of leaf springs for an early model Jeep Yj to shorten up the back end. I'm going to leave the front spring mount in the stock location. The Jeep springs are 44" long vs the S10 springs which are 54". This will move the axle forward slightly and let me take a lot off the back end. I should be able to keep my shock mounts in the stock location as well.

I'm going with the open engine hot rod look so I will be cutting the front end of the body off but I'm gong to keep some of it and go with a flat firewall. I'm going to try and keep the stock hood hinges in place and make like a mini hood. I want to have a place closed off from the engine and elemnets for my wiring and fuse blocks. This way if I have to do work I can just pop it open and work from the top rather than having to climb under the dash. I'll be finding an old grill shell and rad for up front. Just didn't include that in my design. Just going to work with what I can find or make something.

That's all I have for now. I will keep updating here as I go. Plan is to have it all ready to go for cruising in the spring.

kustomkreep86 · September 21st, 2018, 09:23 AM

I forgot I started to talk about these seats in my last thread, but didn't end up showing the finished product.

Oh and I did get one thing done so far. since I won't have any back fenders I needed some new tail lights. Had some old trailer lights and some old 350 pistons so I put the 2 together.

**V8Transporter** · September 21st, 2018, 09:45 AM

Your new project looks pretty cool. A Street Vee-Rod.

Love the tail lights!

**Unkl Ian** · September 21st, 2018, 11:08 AM

Seat bottoms look very horizontal.
Might work better, angled back a touch.

kustomkreep86 · September 24th, 2018, 05:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unkl Ian

Seat bottoms look very horizontal.
Might work better, angled back a touch.

Yeah, they were a little flat. I'm going to address that when they go back in.

kustomkreep86 · September 24th, 2018, 05:52 AM

Finally getting back to the fun stuff. Hopefully getting my chassis back in the next couple weeks so I can get going on that. In the meantime, I worked on getting the body cut back off the chassis. If you saw my first thread you know the body got welded down. I bassically have just cut the floor out. I'm going to keep the frame rail/"heater channel" pieces I made and will put my body mounts through them.

I took off the fenders and cut away what was left of the rear apron mounts. I'm going to follow the shape of the deck lid and fill in the back to make it like a trunk. I will also be putting my fuel cell in there.

I also got to work measuring and marking out where the front was going to get cut off at. I stopped it right in front of the hinges. This will let me keep the hinges in place and have a mini hood. I wanted to do this so I could have access to all my wiring under the dash. stopping it here also put my pedal placement pretty close to where it was stock. I also won't need to move my steering wheel location. The front line in the picture is where it will be cut off. I will be making a flat panel from top to bottom where the wheel arch is.

**V8Transporter** · September 24th, 2018, 12:14 PM

So, you're cutting back the sheet metal to eliminate the, um, 'WRENCHEADS Excess?"

Harold · September 24th, 2018, 02:45 PM

Love me some Super Rats , did one a long time ago . Was a lot of fun .

**alykat** · September 30th, 2018, 07:16 AM

Nice work on the seats...and boy are they GREEN !

kustomkreep86 · October 1st, 2018, 04:37 AM

Back at is this weekend. Scored this 1925 Chevy grill shell for up front. Came with 2 rads, but they are beat. Probably going to end up ordering in something new. Stoked to find this though!

Got to chopping on the front. No going back now! hahaha

My plan was to cut the hood right in front of the hinges so I can still use the mini hood. I'm going to fill in under the dash and use this for access to my wiring and battery. I'm going to use hood locks to make sure it's all nice and secure.

This is a quick rough idea of how I'm going to square off the front of the body. The red squiggly area will be where my engine is sitting and the front wheels will be farther forward.

**V8Transporter** · October 1st, 2018, 10:45 AM

Slick. The curvature of the top of the Chevy radiator looks like an excellent match for the Bug. Should go well with the Chevy engine too.

Plus, there's a classic Chevrolet emblem.

kustomkreep86 · November 14th, 2018, 05:12 AM

Progress has been a little slow, but I got back to it this weekend. Got into some more cutting on the body. Just a few more cuts and it will be free again.

Finally got my chassis back home so I can get going on that. It's a 2004 GMC Sanoma chassis. Regular cab, short box. It has a 108" wheel base so I won't have to cut the middle of the frame for what I'm doing.

Here's my new leaf springs. They are for a Jeep YJ. They are the same width as the Sanoma springs. But they are are 44" eye to eye instead of 57". this will bring my rear end forward a couple inches and lower the car a bit too. I was eyeballing them in the below picture. You can see a bit how much it will shorten the end.

This picture shows how much my new shackle mount will come forward.

This is the new rad I picked up. It's a champion 3 core aluminum rad. Looking like it should do good to keep things cool.

Here it is sitting in my grill shell. Was eye balling it to check the fit.

Got these headlight buckets from Speedway Motors. Really diggin em. I'm going to run the conversion bulb with led lights. Use the little built in amber leds for my signal lights. Have a pretty good idea for headlight brackets. Just need to see how it all works out.

Zee · November 14th, 2018, 08:37 AM

That's awesome! Love the tail lights and how it's looking overall.

kustomkreep86 · January 9th, 2019, 09:46 AM

Well things have been a little slow, but over the holidays I managed to get a big step done. New leafs on the back and the body resting on the new chassis!

Here's a look at the new leaf spring mounts all welded in. Just used poly bushing for a Jeep CJ and it worked out good.

Here's a shot of everything all mounted. leaving the back open for now, because I may be working on a hitch to tow a teardrop trailer.

Here's mow much I was able to take off the frame. Brought my wheelbase down to 105"

Time for these two to get to know each other!!

Here's the body resting on the S10 chassis. Now onto the fun stuff! mounts and floors!

Body is sitting right about where I thought it would. Will definitely be getting some blocks and springs or spindles to bring the altitude down a bit. Still got lots of work do to, but stoked to be at this point!!

metalmaster1766 · January 11th, 2019, 10:50 AM

Looking good

**alykat** · January 12th, 2019, 10:10 AM

Shaping right up !

**V8Transporter** · January 12th, 2019, 11:23 AM

'Rod looks cool with a nice aggressive stance. You're mods to the frame are First Class.

Looking forward to seeing more.

kustomkreep86 · March 26th, 2019, 07:15 AM

What's up everyone. Here's a little update. Been cold, but I've been working away with my little 1970 space heater and lots of layers...haha I've only really been able to get a couple days a week of work in, but trying to make the best of that time. Now that I got some more daylight and some warmer weather, I should be able to get moving on this. My goal is to hit a big show that goes on around here on June 1st. I would like to be driving before then, but that's my real goal.

First Item on the list was to get new rocker rails in there becuase I cut the old ones out.

Next I mocked up my filler panel so I knew were I had to pie cut the front to match the body line.

Did some reshaping of the A pillar to flow a little better and match the witch of my rocker bar.

Next up was fire wall structure and support. There will still be some more support going across the front, but I want to get the engine and trans in first to see where it needs to go.

Next I got started on some floor structure. Wanted to get solid side to side bracing in and a rough idea of where my tunnel structure was going to be.

Once that was all put in there I got stared on the body mounts. Just used some 3" x 3" .125" I sleeved the rocker bar so it wouldn't crush. Found a good idea to use a boat roller for Body mounts. We'll see how long they actually hold up, but seems like some sturdy rubber. It was $9 for the roller and I got 8 mounts out of it will some extra left over. Used 1/2" grade 8 bolts and welded a nut to the topside of my rocker bar. I have 4 mount done and I'm going to add 2 more at the back under the package tray.

I welded a bar in the front of the package tray to give some support between the wheel wells, but also to make a mounting point for my floor structure.

Next I added more bars but inside the rocker bars. I wanted a nice solid mounting point where my floor meets the rocker, so I welded the floor bar solid to the rocker bar. This gives me a nice 1" sill and I will just spot wold and seam seal my floor pans to the top. I didn't want use seam seal there so I just welded it all they way across. some some bonus extra strength as well. Started working on the tunnel structure as well.

Once I had a couple of the tunnel hoops fully welded in, I cut the center out of the back support. I haven't added the front one yet because I need to see where the trans will end up.

Added some rod around the back for some structure and to make a latch for my deck lid. Which will now be my trunk lid. I also started working on the template for the trunk. Making it as large as I can. I have a small fuel cell I pickup up for cheap, but i will get a larger one in the future. Well as Larger as I can anyway....lol

Scored these nice headlight housings with a blue dot center and a signal light built in. Will help keep the front nice and clean.

Also Pickup up some 3" blocks to bring it down some. Was sitting a little too high for my liking. Need to get some springs for the front to do the same. Sitting pretty funny right now...lol

Things are moving at a pretty good pace now so you'll probably see more frequent updates. Hope to be rolling soon!

**alykat** · March 26th, 2019, 08:23 AM

Nice work. Headlights look killer !

kustomkreep86 · March 26th, 2019, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alykat

Nice work. Headlights look killer !

Thanks! Itchin to get this rollin!

**V8Transporter** · March 26th, 2019, 05:03 PM

Excellent work!

I'm looking forward to see how she sits. Your project has what we used to refer to as, "a high impression ratio."

kustomkreep86 · March 27th, 2019, 04:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by V8Transporter

Excellent work!

I'm looking forward to see how she sits. Your project has what we used to refer to as, "a high impression ratio."

Haha right on! Thank you! I want to get the the engine and front springs in so I can see exactly how it's going to sit. Has a bit of a gasser look going on right now...lol I know the front end is going to look a bit weird due to using the S10 chassis. The rad is going to sit out front of the wheels a bit. The plan is to get it rolling on the S10 chassis so I can have some fun with it, being free and all, and start collecting parts and building a tube frame with a straight axle out front. Just trying to work with what I got for now.

Bugula · March 27th, 2019, 05:00 AM

Some of the longest welds I've ever seen. Lol I would have blown a breaker!
Looks cool

kustomkreep86 · March 27th, 2019, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bugula

Some of the longest welds I've ever seen. Lol I would have blown a breaker!
Looks cool

I only did about 6" at a time moving around and taking some time in between to let the machine have some down time. I try not to go too crazy with it.

kustomkreep86 · April 8th, 2019, 09:34 AM

Got my floor frame from the a pillar back all done this week. Need to drop my engine and trans in to do from the a pillar forward. That should be going in this week. I used grade 8 bolts welded into 1/8" c channel for my seat mounts. Wanted to made sure I had them mounted into something solid.

Got started on some templates for the floor pan. Time to get going on some sheet metal!

Rolled it out of the tent this weekend so I could turn it around. Finally got to take a step back and get a good look. Happy with how things are looking so far! Still need to bring the front end down a bit. I have a set of Cragar Drag Lites to go on it. Fatties int eh back and skinny's up front. Have a set of 31" tires coming for the back and still haven't figured out what I'm going to run on the front.

Now that the front is facing out, I had to set the grill shell in place and see what it's going to look like. I still need to cut the front rails short and built my core support. Like how it's looking though! Like I mentioned before, it's gong to have a bit of a goofy looking side profile. But as soon as it's driving, I'm going to get started on another chassis for it.