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

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
Close-up three-quarter view of a rat rod's big-and-little staggered wheels: a narrow steel front wheel with a wide-whitewall tire and a taller fat blackwall rear tire, low patina stance
Car Features

Rat Rod Wheels and Tires

Ray Delgado · · 7 min
A 1955-57 tri-five Chevy gasser sitting nose-high on a straight front axle, three-quarter front view showing the classic drag-car stance
Car Features

What Is a Gasser? The Straight-Axle Drag Car Explained

Ray Delgado · · 9 min
C10 frame rail with steel boxing plate welded -- restoration shop
Restoration & Tech

Boxing a C10 Frame for Increased Rigidity

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
1970s Chevrolet C10 subframe connector -- boxed weld on lift
Restoration & Tech

Installing Subframe Connectors on a High-Horsepower C10

Ray Delgado · · 7 min
C10 bed wheel tub panel tack-welded in workshop
Restoration & Tech

How to Wheel-Tub a C10 Bed for Wide Rear Tires

Ray Delgado · · 7 min
A classic car body being sectioned in a fabrication shop, a horizontal slice removed from the bodywork with panels clamped and welding sparks at the seam
Restoration & Tech

Sectioning a Car Body

Ray Delgado · · 8 min
C10 rear frame -- C-notch cap welded above axle
Restoration & Tech

Step-by-Step C-Notch Installation for a C10 Rear Frame

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
A nose-high straight-axle gasser parked beside a low street hot rod at a classic car show, the stance contrast between the two builds clearly visible
Car Features

Gasser vs Hot Rod

Ray Delgado · · 7 min
Tubular control arm bolted to C10 front crossmember -- detail
Restoration & Tech

Installing Front Tubular Control Arms on a C10

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
A 1940s Willys gasser with an extreme nose-high straight-axle stance at a vintage dragstrip, skinny front tires and wide rear slicks in dramatic light.
Car Features

The Gasser Story

Ray Delgado · · 14 min
Low-angle detail of a hot rod's suicide-mounted dropped I-beam front axle hung forward of the frame with polished hairpin radius rods
Restoration & Tech

Suicide Front Ends and Z-ing the Frame

Ray Delgado · · 8 min
Low tight detail of a gasser's skinny ribbed front runner on a Torq Thrust mag beside a fat rear cheater slick on a slotted mag wheel
Restoration & Tech

Gasser Wheels and Tires: Skinnies and Slicks

Ray Delgado · · 6 min
Bare rat rod rolling chassis with no body on a shop floor, showing open C-channel frame rails, front beam axle, vintage steel wheels and a mocked-up flathead V8
Restoration & Tech

Rat Rod Frames and Chassis

Ray Delgado · · 9 min
Chopped-top hot-rod coupe in side profile with a dramatically lowered roofline under moody side lighting
Restoration & Tech

Chopping a Top: What It Means and Why

Ray Delgado · · 7 min