1934 Plymouth Fatman Clip Installation - Fat Reduction

20 With the welding finally complete-a lengthy process as it involved letting the welds cool before continuing, again to prevent distortion-Proctor dressed the joint using air grinders with discs of varying grades.

21 Finally, dressing the area with a DA sander, you'd be hard pressed to know there was even a seam there. These triangular sections are included in the kit to blend the join as the new and old are of differing heights.

22 With the triangular section in place and dressed, Proctor fabricated these "fish" plates to bridge the seam, offering extra support, though it should be stressed with good weld penetration and correct installation of the Fatman-supplied gussets, the joint will be strong enough without them. CCHR just likes to fit such plates across any join in a chassis 'rail.

23 The final welding to be done was to plug-weld the holes on the inside of the new 'rails above the internal gusset plates. The temporary braces and core support jig were now removed.

24 While the major part of the IFS installation is the fitment of the new clip, the complete kit includes everything required to put the Plymouth on its wheels. It includes rotors and calipers, steering rack, wheel bearings, springs, shocks, spindles, tie-rod ends, stainless control arms, and all hardware.

25 With a blanket on the ground to protect the stainless components, the parts were laid out and readied for installation.

26 We'll not go into detail on the whole IFS installation, as the instructions are very clear and detailed, but we should mention the spring plate bolts to the top of the lower arm, the molded spring seat locating over the inner two mounting bolts, ensuring the free end of the coil is nearest to the lower ball joint. Remember to use antiseize on all stainless hardware, particularly the long main lower control arm bolt.

27 The upper A-arms use these uniquely shaped bolts to attach them, allowing the camber to be adjusted by undoing just the locknut.

28 A spring compressor is required to compress the coil spring enough to fit with the spindle attached.Note the pad on the jack to protect the stainless components.

29 With all components in place and the wheels bolted up, the Plymouth was lowered back onto the ground, the rolling chassis complete. However, without the engine, trans, radiator, fluids, and all the sheetmetal in place, the frontend will sit way too high. The springs may need shortening, or they may not, but it's difficult to tell until all the above are installed.

30 In order to set the ride height while installing the engine, trans, and rearend, the springs and shocks were removed and these T-shaped rods installed in their place. The lower shock bolts pass through the top of the inverted T, while the rod is threaded and nuts above and below the top suspension mount allow the ride height to be adjusted.

31 Before the "ride height rods" were installed, the front sheetmetal was installed to check for fit, and wheel placement in the fenders.