by Jeff Smith

Hello again! The last time we talked we had stripped the front portion of the frame, all except for the suspension. This was so we could build the front boxing plates, fit, and weld them in. About a Month prior to this, we had acquired a Macguyvers 1946 Ford Pick-up Cross-member. In the instruction manual it states that the cross-member is built exactly to ford specs, and then narrowed 3/16’s on each side for the boxing plates. This is funny because, when we went to fit the cross-member into the truck all it needed was a bit of a nudge with a rubber hammer. It fit Perfectly! Prior to welding in the cross-member, we had put back on the front fenders. This is because we weren't sure if Ford had put the original wheels in the center of the wheel wells. Sometimes the wheels in a pre 1948 vehicle can be quite a few inches away from what appears to be the middle of the wheel wells.

Here are the front fenders back on the frame. We’re just checking for Axle center line, etc...

We also wanted to establish how far back the radiator sits on the frame to make sure we don’t have the engine running into it later on. Well the wheels sat right dead center in the wheel wells, this was a bonus because all we had to do to determine axle center line for the Mustang II Cross-member, was run a string from the middle of the left spindle, to the middle of the right spindle. After that string has been run across, we just hung a plumb-bob down the frame where the center line string was, and drew a line up the frame.

	Here is a shot of the string going from one side of the car to the other. Since The wheels are in the middle of the wheel well, the string is coming from the middle of the spindle.
On the piece of tape is the line of axle center line. The two chalk lines are the outsides of the Mustang II Cross-member.

Bang, now all we had to do was nudge up the middle of the cross-member to our line, and tack it in place. Now, the kit does have Hats in it, but we aren’t going to weld them in quite yet. This is because we really didn’t need to quite yet. But rest assured, we will eventually. In the next Foothills Kruizin’ I’ll talk about building, and installing our motor mounts, and welding in the Hats. So until next time...
 

Well there it is, the Mustang II Cross-member Semi-welded in. We’ll finish the welding when we can get the frame on a rotary.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,Part 4, Part 5