Chassis/Suspension
Hells Gate Hot Rods specializes in providing an inventory of high-quality, hard to find, affordable hot rod parts to our fellow hot rod enthusiasts. One of the products that we are most proud to carry is our Air Ride Chassis for the 1928-1931 Ford Model A, which we manufacture here in our shop in Idaho. To learn more about this chassis and what makes our Air Ride Chassis unique, keep reading!
What Is A Chassis And How Does It Work?
In general, a chassis refers to an object’s basic framework. In a car, the chassis is the understructure of the vehicle and can be comprised of various parts including the frame rails, cross-members, brakes and suspension. The body of the car is mounted directly to the chassis.
Similar to a building’s foundation, the chassis is the most important part of a vehicle — a quality chassis is needed to have a quality driving and handling hot rod (while looking good as well). One reason for this is that the chassis is the vehicle’s central structure. Many of the parts that are key to operating a car safely and reliably are anchored to the chassis, including the car body, suspension system, and braking system. Instability in the anchoring of key components to the chassis can result in operational problems and damage.
Hells Gate Hot Rods’ Signature Air Ride Chassis
Hells Gate Hot Rods is proud to announce that we now manufacture and carry our own signature Air Ride Chassis, which is compatible with the 1928-1931 Ford Model A. If you’re looking to replace your Model A chassis or need a chassis for the hot rod you’re building from scratch, our Air Ride Chassis is the perfect choice for you. Following are 11 of the specially designed features that make our signature chassis unique:
- Our chassis is made with mandrel bent 2” x 4” steel tubing, allowing you to have a esthetically pleasing and flowing design to match the Model A body better.
- Our chassis comes complete with a brand new 4” drop tube front axle with early Ford spindles, which allows you to have the best of new hot rod parts without sacrificing authenticity and that straight axle look.
- The Air Ride Chassis is engineered with a triangulated 4-link rear suspension with extra large 1.5” OD bars, meaning less wheel hop and it is guaranteed to never bend or break.
- Our chassis comes complete with a brand new 9” rear end with 31 spline axles from Dutchman Motorsports, the best in its class.
- All of our chassis parts are made from the highest quality materials, every bracket is CNC cut for precision and accuracy and 100% TIG welded construction.
- The Air Ride chassis is engineered with a unique “HGHR designed” wishbone front suspension, which allows for proper suspension geometry and “hiding” the airbags inside the frame rails for a discrete and clean look.
- The suspension geometry on our chassis has been engineered to allow for more than 7” of total travel, allowing for greater adjustability without binding and a optimal ride height of 4” off the ground.
- The rear air bags in our chassis have been cantilever mounted, saving space and allowing for a softer ride as opposed to when airbags are mounted above the axle.
- The front air bags in our chassis have been designed to sit discreetly beneath the engine and radiator, which keeps them out of sight while still maintaining proper geometry.
- We do not include body mounts, motor mounts, or transmission mounts in the base model of our chassis in order to allow greater flexibility and customizability to our customers (these can be added onto your custom ordered chassis if needed).
- Chassis includes: front disc brakes, Willwood rear disc brakes, front and rear air bags, front and rear Bilstein shocks. A reversed Corvair steering box, wheels and tires, body and engine/transmission mounts can be add-ons to our chassis as requested at the time of order.
Each of these unique features combines to make our Air Ride Chassis special and gives it the enjoyable ride quality with still maintaining that old school hot rod look. For more information on the Air Ride Chassis designed for the Ford Model A, contact us.
Other Hot Rod Parts For The Ford Model A
Along with our Air Ride Chassis, Hells Gate Hot Rods is proud to offer other premium hot rod parts for the Ford Model A. Some of the other Model A-compatible parts that we carry include door panels, bomber style seats, Stromberg 97 carburetors and more. All of the parts we carry are either made in our shop in Idaho or sourced from our trusted vendors.
Learn more about Hells Gate Hot Rods and our mission to keep traditional hot rodding alive by checking out our About Us page. Also, be sure to check out our Customer Reviews and Photos to learn about the experiences our customers have had using our high-quality hot rod parts.
Check out these other top selling products:
Cold-Rolled Steel Mandrel Bends: These mandrel bends help you with building custom headers, intakes and exhaust systems for your project.
Exhaust Kits & Accessories: Take a look at your exhaust kit options and accessories for more complete kit options and variations.
Exhaust/Header Flanges: We have the most extensive line including over 40 different flanges to choose from and support 100+ engines from 1925 through present.
Full-Welded Intakes: We have custom fabricated multi-carburetor intakes for Buick, Chrysler, Desoto and Dodge Hemi.
Intake Flanges: These flanges allow for custom and unique intakes to be fabricated.
Straight Lake Header Kits: Build your own lake headers using our kits including all the required parts in one package. It’s the easiest style of lake header to fabricate for the DIY builder.
Swept Lake Header Kits: Allows for all primary tubes to “sweep” back into the megaphone for a more stylish and better flowing lake style header.
Services we currently offer in addition to the products listed on our website include custom part engineering, design and manufacturing, fabrication and TIG/MIG welding, hot rod and custom car building and small production runs for your own company’s product line. We want to keep traditional hot rodding alive. See you on the road!