1949 Chevrolet Gasser Front Axle

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Arthur Lever’s project car for class work at The Hot Rod Institute in Rapid City, South Dakota. He wrote:

have decided to start work on installing the front straight axle. The first decision was to use the original frame or cut it off and start new with a tube frame. Looking back, that is the way I should have gone but was given guidance to try and use the original frame. That frame is not straight enough in a long enough section to just weld the spring purchases to. I will need to widen the front mount point to accept the front spring purchases.

The first order of business was to plan out what I would need to build the chassis and get some parts here so that work can start. I am also attending classes and the first two weeks of the Hot Rod Institute is pretty much all classes and comps (Comps are in-shop tests (doing welds and getting them graded). This will give vendors and shippers time to get the parts ordered so that there is no delay when it is time to start work

Boxes have started to arrive. I placed my orders with Keith Burgan (Roo Man) of Roo Man MotorSports; his parts company is Vintage Racing Supply

Laid the parts out just to get just to get a feel for what I have gotten myself into.

Put everything aside and will concentrate on the front end.

First up is to add some strength to the front cross member. This is done by adding gussets between the frame and cross member. I used a duplication plasma cutting machine to create the gussets.

Now to widen out the front of the chassis so I can mount the spring purchases and add more gussets for additional strength.

I will never mount directly to the original frame, but add a plate and mount to it. What is shown is the base plate for the rear spring mount of the front leaf spring for the straight axle.