So everything new is mo better, huh?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Current production aftermarket "offshore" cast '32 Ford front axle, failed in use...

Genuine 1930s Ford forged front axle, twisted intentionally by Ford to demonstrate its strength...

    

Edited 22 hours ago by Ace-Garageguy

[johnyrotten]

Down right scary. It amazes me those COULD even be sold without some kind of testing or certification. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

19 minutes ago, johnyrotten said:

Down right scary. It amazes me those COULD even be sold without some kind of testing or certification. 

A lot of stuff for the hot-rod market is just as bad, but not as immediately life-threatening...and who would do the "testing or certification" these days? SEMA would be the logical go-to, but they're not in that business. And dog help us if the gubmint started certifying aftermarket parts.

That said, there are very valid reasons that rods and customs have a somewhat sketchy reputation among normies, and just flat poor craftsmanship by the builders tops the list.

We just took in a semi-bare chassis for a '32 Ford rod that was in a collision to repair broken shock mounts, frame horns, and straighten one slightly bowed rail.

But the workmanship and "engineering solutions" the "builder" supplied when the car went together are so bad as to be almost beyond belief...to anyone who actually knows what they're doing.

 

Edited Friday at 02:33 PM by Ace-Garageguy

[johnyrotten]

25 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

who would do the "testing or certification"

Good point, and that would certainly skyrocket the price. On occasion at work I've built small jib cranes and such. My boss has had an outside firm come in have them "certified", all plans have to signed off on by an engineer, and I'm sure the rating is with a heavy safety factor. I've seen my share of backyard rebuilding, bad frame repairs and such. I'm pretty certain Henry Ford forged those axles for a reason, castings are in my understanding, great in certain situations and not so much in others. 

[LDO]

“…poor craftsmanship by the builders.”

The things I’ve seen on rat rods. A fuel tank directly behind the driver’s head in a 1930ish Tudor Sedan. No headrest. A collision could smash his head into it. A channeled Tudor Sedan without a transmission tunnel. Exposed driveshaft in the passenger compartment. These may have been the same car. 

[stavanzer]

1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Current production aftermarket "offshore" cast '32 Ford front axle, failed in use...

Genuine 1932 Ford forged front axle, twisted intentionally by Ford to demonstrate its strength...

    

Henry Used Chrome-Vanadium Steel for Good Reasons. He Over-Built his cars, knowing the roads and conditions they would be used in.

[1972coronet]

I saw this disturbing trend coming more than 30 years ago : "Strive ! For Mediocrity !" 

Where I work now ( same line-of-work for almost 40 years ) I see more and more of these "offshore" replacement parts failing quickly and frequently. 

Sure, there's been subpar parts made in the USA over the decades, but at least there was accountability on the manufacturer's part ! 

Accountability went out the door a long time ago - step-over dollars to pick-up dimes... 

[Mark]

Someone had the brainstorm to cast axles in the Eighties.  Every couple of years, you could read in a magazine, or online, articles about the failure of a cast axle.  "Fixing" something that wasn't broken.  You rarely heard of a forged axle failure, even on ones that were dropped and sometimes welded at the ends.

If anything, the more traditional rods that are popular now seem to be going closer to the original Ford chassis design.  I remember seeing articles on fat fender Fords going to four-bar front radius rods.  Then someone realized the four-bar limited turning radius (especially with wider front tires) and then most builders went back to the original style wishbone, splitting it only enough to clear the longer modern transmission being used.

[Shark]

The twisted forged axle looks like it could still be used, although the track width would be narrowed.

[Mark]

That twisted axle would be neat for a T-bucket, where it would be right out in the open.

[meechum68]

Quality always takes the hike when you get the idiots from Accounting involved, I know this first hand in my industry. We could have things lighter and safer but the idiot bean counters say nope, cuz it's not fiscally wise,yet neither is employees in the hospitals for cuts, hernia's, back issues, etc. 

Cheap parts = win for accounting regardless of industry, they care only to give the "shareholders" a big fuzzy happy set of news. 

[johnyrotten]

15 minutes ago, meechum68 said:

they care only to give the "shareholders" a big fuzzy

I grew so tired of hearing about the  shareholders in my previous line of work. They would somehow equate any problem, situation or concern into a shareholders concern. The " corporate speak" became  nauseating. 

[espo]

5 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Current production aftermarket "offshore" cast '32 Ford front axle, failed in use...

Genuine 1932 Ford forged front axle, twisted intentionally by Ford to demonstrate its strength...

    

Who are you going to call when this happens to you? better to pay a little more upfront for a known quality product than save a dime. 

[Brudda]

2 hours ago, meechum68 said:

Quality always takes the hike when you get the idiots from Accounting involved, I know this first hand in my industry. We could have things lighter and safer but the idiot bean counters say nope, cuz it's not fiscally wise,yet neither is employees in the hospitals for cuts, hernia's, back issues, etc. 

Cheap parts = win for accounting regardless of industry, they care only to give the "shareholders" a big fuzzy happy set of news. 

Greed

[Brudda]

Just now, Brudda said:

Greed

The old guys that gave a sh.t made things to last because their name was on it. Now it’s just greed. I’m trying to teach this guy about (your name is on the repair) but some people do not care. I’m disgusted with the current situation. 

 

 

 

[meechum68]

23 minutes ago, Brudda said:

The old guys that gave a sh.t made things to last because their name was on it. Now it’s just greed. I’m trying to teach this guy about (your name is on the repair) but some people do not care. I’m disgusted with the current situation. 

 

 

 

THIS!!! ^^^  
I always put my name on things I do, because if I do something and it's wrong or breaks, I will figure out why on both accounts.  I try and teach our new guys this, and they don't care, they don't understand it.

28 minutes ago, Brudda said:

Greed

1000000000000000000000000x facts!!!

2 hours ago, espo said:

Who are you going to call when this happens to you? better to pay a little more upfront for a known quality product than save a dime. 

Exactly! Too many go the easy route! 

2 hours ago, johnyrotten said:

I grew so tired of hearing about the  shareholders in my previous line of work. They would somehow equate any problem, situation or concern into a shareholders concern. The " corporate speak" became  nauseating. 

I hear this adnauseum at work all the time, and I fire back with.. was it there sweat or blood that did this? And they go no, and I follow with.. why are they getting my money this will make. The uppers shut up then because they know I will grill them to the ground. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

5 hours ago, espo said:

Who are you going to call when this happens to you? 

Jeff Bezos of course. He'll get a new one on the way from China immediately and pay all your medical or funeral expenses, and hire a crack legal team to defend you or your family from the civil suits brought by lawyers for the people you injured or killed in the crash.

Oh wait...that might cut into his $50 million dollar wedding to the queen of implants and botox.

Never mind.

EDIT: Same goes for all  the purveyors of cheap offshore junk that's made to get as much money for as little real value as possible. Have a problem with the stuff? Nobody's answering the customer service line, if there even is one.

You're on your own, sucker.

Edited yesterday at 12:45 AM by Ace-Garageguy

[Tabbysdaddy]

There's a guy in Pakistan that will weld that sucker up good as new.

[Ace-Garageguy]

3 hours ago, Tabbysdaddy said:

There's a guy in Pakistan that will weld that sucker up good as new.

And being poor quality cast iron, it'll break again almost immediately.

[Mark]

The other day, I finished cutting up some quality cast iron.  Parts from a roughly 80 year old gravity feed furnace that finally gave up the ghost in December.  No parts or upgrades available, so it had to go.  The heating company doesn't remove the old stuff, so I was on my own.

After a few different approaches (Sawzall, then drilling holes close together and wailing on it with a sledgehammer-messing my shoulder up for a while in the process) I finally hit on the solution. 

4-1/2" name brand angle grinder (no Harbor Freight stuff, thank you), diamond edge cutting blade...done.  I had to cut the bigger pieces up as they were too big, odd-shaped, and unbalanced (extremely heavy on one side) to maneuver up the basement stairs. 

Once outside, some pieces were cut up some more, to ease lifting them into a pickup bed for hauling to scrap.  I really hated cutting some of those up, they were neat looking castings.  But well-done, they lasted that long and probably could have done another hundred years had other parts been available.

I wonder how long it would take for that diamond blade to zip through that axle.

[johnyrotten]

Older cast iron, and cast steel, can be extremely dense and strong. I've got an interest in old machining equipment, some manufacturers would cast the bases and parts and let them "season" or normalize for a while before finishing the lathe,mill ect. I wonder if that boiler "work hardened" over the years of service. As for the diamond wheel,cast iron has tons of carbon in it,that dulls most regular blades. Machinists  cover the ways of their lathes to prevent wear and damage. 

[bobss396]

19 hours ago, stavanzer said:

Henry Used Chrome-Vanadium Steel for Good Reasons. He Over-Built his cars, knowing the roads and conditions they would be used in.

Ford's steel was a proprietary formula, he had foundaries that made these forged parts, which is a vastly different process over cast parts.

[Ace-Garageguy]

14 minutes ago, bobss396 said:

Ford's steel was a proprietary formula, he had foundaries that made these forged parts, which is a vastly different process over cast parts.

And which few even comprehend today.

The popular use of the term "forged carbon fiber" to mean low-pressure-molded chopped goop is evidence.

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, Mark said:

...I wonder how long it would take for that diamond blade to zip through that axle.

My guess is that the sledge hammer would be quite sufficient on its own.

[Brudda]

16 hours ago, Brudda said:

 

 

I have a friend who worked at Boeing. He said ever since Lockheed Martin was part of Boeing things went down hill. Boeing had three inspections per assembly, then it went down to 2. Then one. That’s when he quit. I’ll never forget his quote ( it will be amazing if the doors do not blow off this thing)  that was awhile ago and here it happened.  Bean counters are not always a good thing.