Thanks. The welder is a Snap-On 110V MIG. It's a nice coincidence that Aaron's welder is pretty much the same as the one I "borrowed" from my dad for the last few years, so we're both pretty well practiced up on this machine. Of course, practice makes perfect...we're still getting better as we go.
Bryce
tuna55 wrote: Great work, guys. This thing is looking great. What kind of welder are you using? The welds look pretty good.
Thanks man! The hardest part of this whole project for me is not being able to create parts/welds that look as good as the ones in my head or the ones we all see on "real" cars, but we are getting better and more confident.
Sort of a side note, but if anybody in the Portland area knows where to find cold-rolled 18Ga steel sheet, we are almost out, and it's almost taco time!
Grudge wrote: Sort of a side note, but if anybody in the Portland area knows where to find cold-rolled 18Ga steel sheet, we are almost out, and it's almost taco time!
Home Depot has 16 Ga. in 6" x 18" pieces. That's what I used to make tacos. Bent it by hand around a piece of 1.25" and that got it very close to perfect for the 1.5" tube. C-Clamps took care of the rest.
Life for Aaron and I has been pretty busy lately. I'm crunched for time, so I intend to keep this update brief. We are getting pretty deep into tubing mastery...kind of reminds me of my old Formula SAE days with so many little tubes getting fitted! The rear cradle, suspension, and structure are 98% done. We haven't final welded much, almost everything is tacked and waiting for a big day of finish welding in the future.
One of the things that is finish welded is the base of the roll hoop. Due to how we designed it, we had to start welding in the base of hoop so that we could then install our box plates and hoop support plates. I haven't seen a cage done this way before, but I doubt that's because it's never been done...I just haven't seen it. Here's how the base ties in at the bottom of the tube...all the way to the floor. Note the dimple-died tie in to the body near the door striker as well.
Once the base was welded in, then the boxing plates were welded in. The order of operations was a little tricky, but in the end there are a lot of welded tie-in points for the roll hoop with a pretty clean installation.
This is what it ends up looking like, all done. Nevermind the weld-through primer...Aaron got a little carried away, forgetting that we were done welding so we didn't need the fancy primer on this part once it was done. I think the welding fumes got to his head! We're happy with how the hoop tie-ins came out.
The rear suspension took a lot of pondering and several scrapped prototypes before we came up with something we were pleased with. The lower control arm and trailing link were pretty straight forward, as they pointed straight at some pretty obvious tie-in points on our cradle assembly. The upper spring/damper attachment ended up looking very clean, but it took a while to figure out how to do it. As usual, the most simple solution is rarely the most obvious solution when you start! You can also see some of Aaron's dimple die taco gussets in here.
This is a sample of what it will look like with the spring and adjuster in place...snug as a bug in a rug!
Here you can sort of see the upper link attachment...this one was the toughest to figure out. I think I made four different versions before this one, and this one still isn't completely done. Needing to be removable (for service), robust, pretty, AND cheap was quite a challenge on this one. As is usual with $20XX, if I had just spent $50 on some parts from my friendly circle track catalog, it would have been a one hour job to set up. Instead, it became a 20 hour job trying to make it near-free.
Here we are almost entirely done with the rear. Hard to resist welding it all in now, but we want to be sure we're all done with everything before finish welding! We started the shifter, axles, etc. but until that's done we won't be finish welding.
Coming up next should be door bars, as we work our way forward on the chassis. This is also another peek at how these wheels and tires look on the car (shown here at full compression). We're really happy with how this combo looks! The 185/60 13 Hoosier TD will probably be the competition tire of choice if we can find some others on the cheap; if we can't, we have some 185/60R13 RA1s that will work on the cheap, but they're WAY bigger (despite the same size on the sidewall!).
Our original goal was to have the car running my July 4, which then turned into rolling by July 4. Now we'd be happy to be running by August 4! Yikes, we need some more time in the shop!
Bryce
You guys amaze me. very cool build.
makin my itch to build something just that much worse.
eXtremely cool guys!
need moar updaytz puhleez!
nice build=motivation 
What tool are you using to make the cool Circle dimples?
Nashco wrote:
Why is the driver's B-pillar so dangerous?
4Msfam wrote: What tool are you using to make the cool Circle dimples?
Go back in the thread a bit and he shows the dimple press his friend built.
Sweet! Thanks... I didn't go back far enough before. I love this build!
blizazer wrote: Why is the driver's B-pillar so dangerous?
HAHA! Forgot about that, it's covering up a body plate or sticker I think.
blizazer wrote: Why is the driver's B-pillar so dangerous?
I covered the VIN stamps/plates and marked it "DANGER!" so they are less like to get damaged. With welders, grinders, wire wheels, etc. being weilded around the car by so many people and so regularly, I was a bit paranoid about the couple of VINs on the car getting messed up. They are the only true identity of this shell, they must be protected! 
We'll have some more pictures next week. I promise to make it worth the wait. 
Bryce
Nashco wrote: We'll have some more pictures next week..... Bryce
...Ahem
4cylndrfury wrote:Nashco wrote: We'll have some more pictures next week..... Bryce...Ahem
BWAA HAHAHA!
Yeah we're slacking on pictures. We're trying to get to the next major accomplishment before revealing anything. We will be working feverishly over the next three days.
Busy weekend, but we did accomplish our goal...rolled the car out of the shop!!! We still have a long way to go, but this was a hell of a big step.
Bryce
Impressive work guys!
That gusset plate kind of hides the main hoop. I don't think 'jungle gym' when looking through the doors.
Very nice...and I'm jealous of the driveway contents..
I wanna see you bring it behind that truck...nice work!
Grtechguy wrote: Very nice...and I'm jealous of the driveway contents..
Ha, I was thinking the same thing!
...bout time you posted an update fellas...might want to check with Per, Im not sure your seat mounting is gonna pass spec...
The suspension is sick and Im loving the stance...not only will you get farthest traveled, but also shortest roofline as well! What are your plans for front end treatment? Bumpers and chin etc?
Nashco wrote:
Why did you let this homeless guy stand next to it?
Homeless people add 8 hp at the crank!
Hows she coming along?
If the devil is in the details, then we are definitely dancing with the devil. LOTS of little stuff bogging us down, plus trying to settle into a new shop space to boot.
Progress is being made, we should have an update this weekend.
Bryce
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