Street Rodder Road Tour–Chassis

We’ve been covering the Street Rodder Road Tour build for a few weeks now, but we’ve left out a very important part of the build–the chassis! Without the brand new chassis from Fatman Fabrications, our job would’ve been much more difficult. Check out what makes it cool!

The Fatman chassis for ’49-51 Fords is a great starting point for any street rod, thanks to fully boxed frame rails, and lots of bracing throughout the structure. As for suspension, the chassis is setup with a Mustang II style front suspension, complete with tubular control arms, coilover shocks and rack and pinion steering. It’s a great setup for this type of build, and it offers a moderate ride height. You can always go lower if you want your Shoebox Ford to have the hunkered down look, but we’re going for the “tail dragger” stance.

Out back, the suspension feature a four-link setup, with adjustable coilover shocks, and a sway bar for added stability. The rear end is a Ford 9-inch. Mock up disc brakes are in place at the moment, but when it’s time for final assembly we’ll bolt a set of Wilwood discs into place. Another note about the chassis is the tire and wheel setup, which is certainly unique. It consists of a set of American Classic whitewall tires from Coker Tire, sized at 235/55R17 and wrapped around a custom set of Wheel Vintiques Smoothie wheels. The wheels are 17×8 inches and will feature a chrome hoop and a color-matched center section.

Polished four-link bars connect to the Ford 9-inch rear end.

By the way, Fatman used this for a display chassis, which explains the bright yellow paint. We’ll be blasting the frame, and painting it different color….just in case you were wondering!

This is going to be the best handling, best stopping ’51 Ford on the road!

All of this bracing adds rigidity to the Shoebox chassis. Fatman designs the chassis to be a bolt-on process, meaning that all of the body mounts are in place, and ready for your body. Also notice the driveshaft loop, transmission mount and the holes for the exhaust to pass through. Cool stuff!

A closer view of the tubular control arms. The steel bars are in place of the coilovers, and replicate ride height, once the car is a full weight.

This is a mock-up tire and wheel, representing the American Classic whitewall radial tires (from our neighbors at Coker Tire) and Wheel Vintiques 17×8-inch Smoothies.