well thanks for your reply's. I better explain with a bit more detail.
I agree with you 100% about building a chassis however here in Australia we have tough registration and building laws to protect us from ourselves (nanny state) and we are effectively unable to build a new bare frame - we can but we have to involve an engineering signatory and the real crunch comes then because it's deemed to be a new car and so has to comply with all the current year design requirements - known as Australian Design Rules (ADR's). This means it has to meet current year emissions have anti lock brakes, air bags, traction control and etc etc for ever. Hardly a Flathead powered bare bones ride. All the '32 Ford boys are OK 'cos they just claim there repo 'rails are original Henry Ford steel.. Reading a bit on various forums and a couple of mags it looks as if you blokes are starting down this path in some states as well.
It's not all bad because we've had to please these self serving bureaucrats for a long time and we have a volunteer body working for us called the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and they liaise with the registration and licensing people and we can get cars on the road.
We have a long tradition going back to the '50's of building our own stuff at home maybe with a couple of mates pitching in every so often and we have hundreds of cars on the road on original frames. They will have had decent cross members fitted, been boxed had decent suspension and steering and do thousands of miles on our less than perfect roads each year. Interestingly enough a lot of the new cars built on reproduction rails with new steel bodies and the like don't seem to do any miles under their own power? Afraid of a little road rash??
So that's where I'm at - I want a car on the road and it has to be on an original frame. I have a pretty good Model A frame I'm going to use. I will be replacing the front cross member with an aftermarket one currently hanging in my shed. That will narrow up the front and lower it a couple of inches, I will also pull out the centrecross member trim a bit off it and tack it back in then I will put a small step in the back and remove and refit the rear cross member so I will now have a narrower frame.
Then on with the rest and like I said I'm looking for you all to chime in at anytime with advice,suggestions and criticisms.
Cheers
Tony