Loss of a great car. - Cut-Weld-Drive Forums

Palepainter · May 10th, 2010, 06:11 PM

I just got these pics from a friend of the owner. Lonnie, the owner of the car, said the Link Pin broke and turned the car right into a tree. No casualties but a broken leg and some scrapes. The car is a total. He seems to be taking it quite well after all of the work into it.

I really dug this car. Just glad no one was seriously hurt. Pretty tough to break a king pin isn't it?

Jon · May 10th, 2010, 06:14 PM

That sucks. I have always liked that one.
At least he wasn't seriously hurt and thats whats important.

Al Low Ha · May 10th, 2010, 06:36 PM

Holy crap! Thats sad! Lucky he got away w/ a broken leg!
Condolences and Aloha

38Chevy454 · May 10th, 2010, 06:41 PM

That rod end on the pass side is broken. Is that what he meant broke and caused the accident? Never heard of a king pin breaking, and not sure what link pin means in tis context.

That was a nice looking car, lot of chrome on the front end.

RichG · May 10th, 2010, 07:38 PM

Is he talking about the pin through the axle that connects to the spring hanger and holds the wishbone (crap, I meant wishbone

)? I noticed the one on the drivers side is bent, it looks like it bent INSIDE the axle...kinda strange. I don't want to be an ass, but if it's from Speedway it probably came from China. I'd be hard pressed to trust any alloyed parts that come from the Chi-Comms, but that's just my humble opinion.

hotrod · May 10th, 2010, 07:51 PM

man that´s sad

**Unkl Ian** · May 10th, 2010, 08:04 PM

Sucks big time, glad nobody was seriously hurt.

Need more pictures.

Hard to see exactly what else has failed.
In a crash, suspension parts should bend, before tearing.
Not snap like a uncooked spaghetti.

rodderdan · May 10th, 2010, 08:06 PM

Chroming causes hydrogen embrittlement in metal.Makes it prone to cracking.Not a good thing on suspension parts.Could have been the cause of whatever failed.

cdscowboy · May 10th, 2010, 08:57 PM

Yikes...glad he came through with just the broken leg. That looks like a pretty hard hit. Glad he's got a good attitude about it, though - that makes all the difference in recovery!

**Steve** · May 10th, 2010, 08:59 PM

Ugh, that makes me sick.
I'm super glad he came out of it as well as he did.

markh · May 10th, 2010, 09:44 PM

Wow, that really sucks, that was a nice car and I guess he just finished building it not long ago. Was really looking forward to meeting Lonnie and seeing that car at a couple of the local shows. Hard to really tell what failed but it sure made a mess...

fishguts · May 11th, 2010, 01:54 AM

That's one sad loss for sure and a ton of work down the drain. Glad to hear the owner escaped serious injury.

For years (when in the stainless steel fastener biz) my brother and I warned street rodders and off-roaders about the danger of running chrome suspension components (and about using standard strength stainless steel fasteners on suspensions), but a lot of guys laughed us off. My brother (the mechanical engineer) still explains the dangers of this in the forward section of his catalog (Totally Stainless), so hopefully some people heed the advice.

Hydrogen embrittlement happens during the chroming process. Think little bubbles forming inside the steel!

If you don't believe me, call Fat Man Fabrications and ask for Bret, the owner (also a mechanical engineer), and ask him about chromed suspension parts. You'll get a real ear full.

But it's one of those things where you see other people get away with it and think it won't happen to you. That it appears to have happened to a volksrod which probably has one of the lightest front ends of any car on the road (lighter than a T-bucket with a motor up front) is daunting.

jkien65 · May 11th, 2010, 05:51 AM

http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showt...light=portland

Same car. So now all the nay sayers can see that the car was a driver. To bad, that was a beautiful car. Im glad he came out of it with minimal damage to him. Could have been so much worse.

walt · May 11th, 2010, 06:16 AM

Would it be possible to get more pictures with a better resolution? It's important that we figure out exactly what happened.
From what I can see, it looks like maybe the pirch bolt holding the batwing on the right side broke just below the tapered section. If that is the case there should be some scratches in the chrome where the spring rubbed on the axle before the batwing bolt fell out of the bottom. When the axle moved forward because it was no longer fastened to the batwing/ hairpin it would have steered right.
I always want to know exactly what happened in these cases so I know what to watch out for. A similar thing happened not to long ago on a 32 roadster and nobody could ever explain the reason.
This is really important so see what you can do.

Thanks, Walt

PureC4 · May 11th, 2010, 06:26 AM

The spring perch bolt is broken on the right side, but it doesn't show the king pin and wheel assembly on that side. That sping perch bolt had to take a heck of a lick to snap like that consideringmost of it is in the axle and it didn't break at the spring. I guess the lower shock mount could have had something to do with it breaking. And being chromed as ya'll have said.
All in all, at least he'll be around to build another beautiful car!

V8SuperBeetle · May 11th, 2010, 07:32 AM

Glad they made it out OK. That's sucks. I was just posted pictures of that car yesterday cause someone was looking for flame ideas.

**Unkl Ian** · May 11th, 2010, 07:41 AM

SWEET looking car.

**Unkl Ian** · May 11th, 2010, 07:44 AM

Hydrogen Embrittlement is not a given when Chrome plating steel.
According to 38Chey454, it is a potential problem only on steels above 32(?)RC.
On mild steel, it is not a problem.

Would definitely like to see some more close up pics.

Cat Box · May 11th, 2010, 08:21 AM

that is a total bummer

Mock1racer · May 11th, 2010, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodderdan

Chroming causes hydrogen embrittlement in metal.Makes it prone to cracking.Not a good thing on suspension parts.Could have been the cause of whatever failed.

Okay, for those of us (me) that dont know much about this chroming thing, is that like worse than powder coating? I'm
powder coating my suspention and would like to avoid this at all costs.
I'm very unfamiliar with chrome, so I dont know the process. Why does it make the metal weak?

Glad the dude is OK.

**Unkl Ian** · May 11th, 2010, 08:35 AM

Powder Coating is entirely different, no problem with Hydrogen.

Your favorite search engine will find info on Hydrogen Embrittlement for you.

Palepainter · May 11th, 2010, 08:53 AM

Walt,
I forwarded the hi res pics over to you. They are each over 1.5 megs. Let me know if your mail server doesn't handle it.

It almost looks like there were too many springs in the stack, resulting in a very stiff front end, cracking the beam just past the spring perch and hairpin mount.

Mike

Mock1racer · May 11th, 2010, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unkl Ian

Powder Coating is entirely different, no problem with Hydrogen.

Your favorite search engine will find info on Hydrogen Embrittlement for you.

Thanks for clearing that up

sorta.
Not trying to be a smart ass I just didnt know the process of chroming. I know about powder coating well and there is nothing but heat, chroming is a series of chemical dipping and soaking,cleaning, basically cooking the Nickel into the steel. I did find an article on the subject that will help the novice understand what takes place.

http://www.minitruckinweb.com/tech/e...ess/index.html

I didnt know it was quite that complicated, and the least little screw up and you just trashed your part.

**Unkl Ian** · May 11th, 2010, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Palepainter

It almost looks like there were too many springs in the stack, resulting in a very stiff front end, cracking the beam just past the spring perch and hairpin mount.

Mike

The AXLE broke ?

RichG · May 11th, 2010, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unkl Ian

The AXLE broke ?

uh, what he said...