The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Jim G’s SLURP Project – Posting 27: The art inherent in classic frames

This posting is one in a series. If you have not yet read the earlier postings in the series, you’ll need to, as this posting won’t make much sense without having done so! Just do a search using the word “SLURP”.

In my last posting I described the humorous process of cleaning and then refinishing Red’s frame and related components and assemblies.

In this posting I’m going to talk about the incredible “art” aspects inherent in classic auto frames, for those possessing any attention to detail.

I certainly had plenty of time to observe and grasp the significance of some of those details, when I spent the past week’s “leisure hours” doing that messy cleaning and refinishing. I learned a lot.

Take a look at this series of photos of different details on the chassis, and see what YOU see!

Here is the front driver’s side leafspring mount:
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Artinherentinaclassicframe001fronts.jpg

Here is a relief in the frame, whose purpose I am unable to deduce or remember with the frame cleared of all its various attachments:
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Artinherentinaclassicframe002framer.jpg

Here is the beautiful forward spring mount for the rear driver’s side leaf spring, with the fascinating parking brake cable mount right adjacent to it:
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Artinherentinaclassicframe003rearsp.jpg

Take a GOOD look at this boxed section on the passenger side of the frame (there is a mirror image boxed section on the driver’s side):
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Artinherentinaclassicframe004rivete.jpg

Here is the rear driver’s side shock absorber mount:
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Artinherentinaclassicframe005shockm.jpg

If you are observant, and have an aesthetic / style sense, you might have noticed:

- There are NO welds in this frame, except for the amateurish ones done poorly by prior owners of the truck

- Parts are joined together structurally with rivets – not the wimpy kind used these days, but the beefy kind used to build highway and railroad bridges. These are TOUGH. It took me and Randy an average of 10 to 20 minutes EACH RIVET to defeat them when we were removing the multi-riveted mounts for the running boards. And THAT was using hardened drill bits and heavy duty chisels and hammers.

- There are five key kinds of material used: forgings (e.g. brake pedal pieces), stampings (e.g. shock absorber mount), cast pieces (e.g. the lovely rear spring mount), rolled material cut and then forged to correct size and shape (e.g. many of the pieces in that boxed section), and elastomers (e.g. the suspension limit bumpers that limit travel of the front and rear axles)

- The boxed section has been ENTIRELY constructed via riveting of individual pieces. No welding and no bolting. Can you imagine the contortions of man and riveting equipment to achieve that in a high volume assembly setting.

- Many of these pieces are individually beautiful, and it is also obvious that their rivet positions were selected not only for functional suitability but also for balance and beauty. Note for example that the rear shock absorber mount, while a “standardized” part that is pre-stamped for FOUR rivets, and uses only THREE in this application, nevertheless has those 3 rivets in a nicely proportional triangle, whose base is held perfectly level despite the angular mounting of the mount onto the frame which is itself non-level at that specific spot. THAT’s attention to detail

- Note the remnants of “art deco” in many of the design shapes used. This was the tail end of art deco.

My friend Micah Shoemaker, owner of AF1 Racing (Aprilia race team) and a gifted metal fabricator himself, tells me that the complete shunning of welding was likely a corporate reaction to the unsuccessful attempt to use structural welding techniques in the rapid and cheap fabrication of “Victory” ships during World War II (the welds failed due to inadequate impurity control, due to the state of the production welding art at that point in time, and ships sank as a result). The riveting methodology was not only well proven in railway, bridge, building, and ship construction, but also softened the shock loads to the frame components, as there would be a certain amount of small scale flexing versus the harsh rigidity of a weld.

When I compare the quality and aesthetics of these components and techniques to those used in modern vehicles, I am saddened at some of the changes. We seem as a society to now favor cheap appliances with gimmicky features and glossy skins covering subassemblies you really don’t want to look at.

I could stare at these components for a long time, and learn more each time I do so. Our ancestors had class.

In 1955, a vehicle like this truck cost about a year’s pay for an “average” worker. It still does. What we are getting though for the money has changed FOCUS a lot, maybe because WE have changed.

Jim G

They used to care thats the difference. And the scary thing is when you get down to the engineering of it all for having no computers no insanely high tolerance machines they were able to produce better quality products that structurally holds up better. And if you look at the steam engines some of them are geared so complex that modern engineers can't figure them out. Now it is how fast and how cheap can they be produced without falling apart. Frankly are predecessor were hell alot smarter then most give them credit for. Leave a modern engine sit for twenty years and see if it runs if you believe that I am wrong.

The guy who is constantly told that he was born 50 years to late and I laugh and say 60 years.

I like this post, Jim. You lost me when you started talking about a V-8, but now I'll go back and read some more when I have time. I appreciate your engineer's eye for aesthetics. I can't match your education, but I do like the way you think.

We ALL educate each other on this website, and on others, when we take the time to post and to ask questions on postings.

Honestly, I feel like a "newbie" on this particular project, as it is the first time I have tackled a really old vehicle. I am learning an awful lot each day on the project!

Jim G

Jim G
Great post, and an interesting take on the beauty of these old rigs. I'm now inspired! The next nice warm day we have I'm going to pour myself a glass of Merlot, get a hunk of cheese, and spend a few hours at the Stovebolt Museum of Fine Art, perusing such subjects as the "lovely rear spring mount", and other details that often go unnoticed by the uneducated masses.

I sailed on Victory ships during the Viet Nam war-after serving in S.E. Asia in the military. Went thru quite a few Pacicic & South China Sea typhoons, one severe enough to break up the wood lifeboats hanging on their davits. Quite a few T-2 tankers were still sailing at that time also. It is recorded that the Queen Mary, now on display in Long Beach CA., went thru an Atlantic storm so severe some of the plate glass windows of the wheel house were broken out-while steaming to Europe with a full load of troops. I would submit that these ships held up quite well & that those that did break up were more due to the severe storms they plowed straight thru in the name of war time necessity.
Some of the shipyard workers could still relate stories of seeing welding rods laid into the V-grooves as fillers & then being 'washed over' with a couple wide passes on top. For most of those weldors, it was their first job as such & the pressure to launch a ship a day was great.
I totally agree with your 'beautiful to the eye & great engineering comments, just had to add my seagoing experiences here.
Doug

Doug: It is that kind of personal testimonial that adds SO much to the joys of exploring this 55 to 65 year old time in history. I view many of my research activities on the details of my AD truck as a continuing history class that is SO much better than just reading a history book.

Jim G