(from Fine Carsmagazine in 1956)

Early in December 2018 I brought the extra chassis I got from Ray Cosh when I bought the
XM Turnpike Cruiser from him to a local sandblasting shop to have it cleaned up.
It came back looking like brand new.


Ray thought he had rounded up a chassis just like the one FORD had sent
to Ghia in Turin Italy for them to build the XMTC on.

I had the car up on the lift in my shop so I began taking measurements of the chassis in the car
to compare it to the donor and I found that they were not the same.
To verify my measurements I made cardboard templates of several parts of the chassis in the car to compare with the donor


My plan to replace the complete chassis wasn't going to work.

I then made 9' long templates in the car and found that the donor chassis had the same contours on the side and bottom
as long as 7 feet which was long enought to replace the severly rusted portions along the bottom under cabin.
Also the very front cross member that the lower control arms are connected to
was exactly the same on the donor and that in the car was almost non existent.
I brought the car into the work shop where it will spend the next 1 1/2-2 years
getting restored and removed the engine and transmission as well as all of the parts
that were still bolted or screwed onto the car While I had it on Jack Stands.


The next step was to make the brackets for attaching the car to my rotisserie and get it connected
so I could park it on it's side to give me room in the shop to make repairs
to all of the trim parts that would need re chroming.

When one of the previous owners took all the trim and other parts off the car,
a lot of the studs thate were holding the parts to the car
were twisted off because of the rust and the nuts wouldn't spin off the studs.
I wanted to get the bulk of the chrome parts to the plater because it takes 4-6 months to get them back.
When I get to finishing stages, which won't be for some time,
I want those parts here and chromed for fitting.
As you may or may not know, when you get parts re-chromed
they often grow a little larger than they were so it's imperitive
to have the finished part for fitting for parts that fit tightly against a painted surface.





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