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Ray Delgado
Expertise
Metal Fabrication Chassis & Suspension Chopping & Sectioning Gassers Restomod Chassis
📍 Phoenix, Arizona

Ray Delgado

Metal fabricator and chassis builder who has spent 25 years turning flat sheet and mild steel into hot rods, gassers and restomod underpinnings.

Ray Delgado runs a small fabrication shop outside Phoenix, where he builds chassis, chops tops and shapes body panels the old way, on an English wheel and in a jig. He came up sweeping floors in a chassis shop and stayed for the craft. Ray writes about the parts of a build most people never see: how a frame is boxed and Z'd, why a channel job changes everything, and where a chop goes wrong. He is patient on process and blunt about shortcuts that come back to bite you.

Magazine Articles by Ray Delgado

1970 Chevrolet Camaro, pro-touring build in night paddock
Car Features

Second-Gen Camaro Pro-Touring Builds

Ray Delgado · · 7 min
1978 Chevrolet Camaro, parked on a mountain pass shoulder
Car Features

Second-Gen Camaro Rust: Floor Pans, Lower Quarters and What to Check

Ray Delgado · · 8 min
A cruise night in a parking lot with a 1969 Dodge Charger
Ownership & Lifestyle

Getting Restoration Customers Without Paid Ads

Ray Delgado · · 8 min
A coastal restoration shop bay with a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe
Ownership & Lifestyle

Running a Classic Car Restoration Business

Ray Delgado · · 11 min
Bare unibody shell beside a ladder frame, restoration bay
Restoration & Tech

Unibody vs Body-on-Frame: Why It Changes the Restoration

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
1965 Jaguar E-Type roadster, cockpit view at a motel lot
Market & Values

Does a Restoration Add Value? Cost vs Sale Price

Ray Delgado · · 8 min
1960s coupe fender, block sanding grey epoxy primer
Restoration & Tech

Epoxy Primer, Sealer and Block Sanding

Ray Delgado · · 7 min
Restoration technician checking a door gap with a feeler gauge on a 1960s coupe in gray primer
Restoration & Tech

Panel Gaps and Fitment: Why Show Cars Get Gapped Before Paint

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
Classic car restoration shop with a bare steel body on a rotisserie and a customer touring the floor
Restoration & Tech

Visiting a Restoration Shop: What to Look For on the Floor

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
Welder tack welding a steel patch panel into the lower quarter panel of a 1960s sedan in a restoration shop
Restoration & Tech

Rust Repair Done Right: Patch Panel vs Full Panel Replacement

Ray Delgado · · 7 min
Bare unibody coupe shell on a rotisserie stand beside a front subframe in a restoration shop
Restoration & Tech

Body-Off vs Frame-Off: Unibody Cars and the Terminology Problem

Ray Delgado · · 7 min
Restorer in a respirator media blasting a 1960s coupe body shell, half stripped to bare metal
Restoration & Tech

Media Blasting vs Chemical Stripping vs Acid Dipping

Ray Delgado · · 7 min
Bare 1960s coupe body shell rotated on its side on a rotisserie stand while a welder repairs the floor pan in a restoration shop
Restoration & Tech

What Is a Rotisserie Restoration?

Ray Delgado · · 7 min
Primered 1950s pickup cab lifted on a shop hoist above its bare ladder frame during a frame-off restoration
Restoration & Tech

Frame-Off, Rotisserie, Driver or Concours: The Levels of Restoration

Ray Delgado · · 12 min
1930s workshop - exposed ash wood body frame under repair
Car Features

Rebuilding a Wood-Framed Car Body

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
Craftsman hand-wheeling a panel on partially restored body
Car Features

Restoring a Coachbuilt Body: The Lost Skills

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
Bare ash wood body frame under construction
Car Features

Wood-Framed Bodywork: How It Was Built

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
1930s lacquer paint - close detail of original body panel
Car Features

Preserving Original Nitrocellulose Lacquer Paint

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
1930s workshop - mechanic adjusting brake linkage under car
Car Features

Maintaining a Century-Old Mechanical Brake System

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
Wheelwright shrinking a steel tire onto a wheel
Car Features

Wooden Artillery Wheels of the 1900s

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
1930s sedan trunk panel fitting in restoration shop
Car Features

Built-In Trunks & Interlocking Body Panels

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
Bare hot-rod rolling chassis on a shop floor with boxed frame rails and a dropped front axle located by split wishbones, no body attached
Restoration & Tech

Choosing a Hot Rod Chassis and Suspension

Ray Delgado · · 8 min
A channeled traditional hot rod coupe body dropped low over the frame rails on jack stands in a builder's workshop, low-slung profile surrounded by tools
Restoration & Tech

Channeling a Hot Rod Body

Ray Delgado · · 8 min
C10 driveshaft pinion yoke -- digital angle finder in place
Restoration & Tech

Calculating Driveshaft Angle After an Engine Swap

Ray Delgado · · 7 min