OK, details it is! This morning, I decided I might as well make room for the engine.
OK, details it is! This morning, I decided I might as well make room for the engine.
In reply to bentwrench :
It may be hard to tell from the pics but there's room for harness bar-to-seat clearance. But thanks for looking out for me. Seriously, with all that's going on with this build, I'll take all the extra eyeballs on it that I can get.
EDIT - pic added: Here's a perspective on the clearance. I'm 5'10" and this is the seat in position for me. One of the team drivers is 6'4 and he's comfortable (enough!) with the room he'll have with the seat "all the way back".
Definitely keep the format!
Well, I planned to not focus on the cage. I failed! The earlier comment about seat back clearance put the thought of the main hoop diagonal in my head so I decided to get that bar cut and fit. I wanted the top to land close to the corner of the main hoop bend. It ends up that the bar lands partly on the bend. This just means it's not a straight miter cut - it's a different cut on each side of the miter. But I got a nice fit.
Then it was a bit of silver tape to mock up the other diagonal, just to get a vibe on the overall look. As the saying goes, "X marks the spot!"
Here's a best practice, for those who may not have heard it:
When you're cutting miters on both ends of a tube and you're satisfied with the first end's miter, you want to be able to have a way to accurately repeat cuts on the other end. This is really helpful when you can't get an exact cut location / measurement for that second miter and you're sneaking up on it to get the perfect fit.
First, mark a rotation line on your hole saw frame. A Sharpie works great. Do your best to get the tube aligned correctly and mark a matching rotation line and stick out line on the tube. Make a conservative cut and check it. If you need to change the rotation, you have a reference mark from which to adjust! Assuming you nailed it the first time and just need to remove more material, refit the tube in the hole saw to and just line up your rotation marks! It's super easy to be sure you have the correct rotation position. And you can see/measure how much more material you're going to remove with the next cut. Determine how much more, position the tube and mark the new stick-out position. Repeat until the tube fits.
You can see just how conservative I was when I started! I'm not doing this to make money so for me, it's better to take more time and make more cuts than to fall victim to the "I cut it four times and it's still too short!" syndrome...
Also note the blurry bottle jack in the background. It's always a good idea to support the far end of the tube because any droop at the back will lift the part of the tube being cut and the miter won't end up in the middle of the tube's diameter. Ask me how I learned this...
Time to make room to move the drive train forward. The plane of the main hoop made a logical point to target for the base of the new firewall. Out comes the Sawzall. The tunnel, she is not ever going to be the same...
A bit of 1.75" square tubing for the base.
And another for the upper cross brace.
This mod got me ~9" additional clearance. You know, now I COULD fit a V12!
But no, I'm sticking with the LS (for now). What it does mean is that I get to move all that weight about 6" farther forward in the chassis than it would have been. That'll help. And yes, I'll have good axle angles and long-lived CV joints.
Next up are two tubes per side that'll tie from those Sharpe circles back to the outer frame rails, one from the top bar, one from the bottom. Along the way, the tubes will weld to those big ass, curved triangle-ish chassis braces. With that all done, I'll remove the middle of the factory cross brace and close up the tunnel.
The new lower fire wall is welded in so it seemed like it was safe to remove the section of the factory cross brace that was no longer needed. That is one big, heavy chunk o' metal.
Oh, the carnage!
I'm loving every minute of this build, it's inspiring.
This is so amazing. Can't wait to see you get further along.
So if you can't tell, I'm completely OK giving a go to stuff that may or may not work out as planned. After all, if it's a fail, I learn something and get to noodle up something else to try. That's most of the fun for me anyway. So...
This time, it's seeing if Prius electric power steering can work. Let's refer to this as "EPS", to save me typing, OK? I want to try EPS for a few reasons:
- With the engine in the back seat, I'd otherwise have to run a power steering pump and reservoir , then run lines to the front of the car. I'll be swapping the 'Vette power rack for something else, too. You'll have to wait to hear more about that.
- The Prius EPS only needs 12v to operate. Yes, in a Prius, it receives CAN messages to vary the assist but when it doesn't, it defaults into a mode that delivers what it would at 43 mph. This system has been used by many other in all sorts of applications so let's see if it works for RacerBenz.
- I mentioned the EPS can receive CAN messages. A potential future mod would be: it may, may, may be possible for me to leverage the 'Vette wheel sensors and other sensors to generate CAN info that would allow me to tune the EPS. Like I say: potential and may.
Anyway. Here are pics of a stock set up, as it comes, complete with a tilt mechanism. You also need the factory controller. It's not shown in this pic. Note the teeny steering wheel shaft. Not confidence inspiring to me...
I didn't need the tilt and I wasn't interested in using a Prius steering wheel 
so after doing a bit of "I wonder how all this works?" poking around on it, I disassembled it where the shaft housing meets the motor housing. Then I cut off what I didn't want. Happily, there's a suitably sized "shaft within a shaft" set up under that tilt housing area! There's a support bearing in the part of the housing I'm keeping, too. And it now weighs a bunch less! This is all goodness!
There are a two areas on the EPS housing that are suitable for use as mounts so next is working out a bracket that welds to the dash bar and supports the unit. Progress!
I was totally focused on cage work and the steering unit. I was making great progress. But then, this showed up...
Yep, it's official: RacerBenz is now mid engined! 
OK, OK, so it's a mock up engine. Gotta say, these things are pretty impressive. I can toss it around like nothing. It has steel inserts (claimed to be within OEM tolerances) that enable everything to be bolted to it. I haven't sourced the actual LS that will be used so this mock up allows me to proceed. Next up, I'll attach the PDK to this and we'll REALLY see where things need to go.
Then work will shift to locating the rear suspension and engine/trans mounts. Man, I'm having SO. MUCH. FUN! with this build.
Forgot to share the pic of the sill bars welded in. Here with the first of the door bars' X tubes fitted and the near side other part of the X being mocked for position using super cool, diamond plate duct tape.
Like this! But only in the car, with a real LS, all wired and plumbed, with the PDK tuned and shifting well. I mean, how hard can that be?
tygaboy said:I mean, how hard can that be?
I read this in Jeremy Clarkson's voice.
This is amazing!
Glad you folks are enjoying the build. I sure am. And for anyone interested in learning more about the Prius EPS, here's a video I found really helpful. I essentially copied what he did. So yes, this is an example of how I'm OK, ahem, "borrowing" from others' great ideas/work. I mean, why reinvent the (steering) wheel?
Hard to tell from the pic but the PDK axle flange width is juuuuuuust narrower than those inward bulges on the 'Vette frame rails. No biggie since the rails aren't looking like they'll be used but man, that's one wide trans. Anyway, this set up is about to be jacked into place and will make it much easier to figure out where the engine and trans will end up.
People ask me if this build is following a plan. My answer?
"No, I'm winging it!"
Ha! But seriously, RacerBenz is starting to look pretty cool, IMO.
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