Team Stampie $50 Q45 Challenge build

My goal this year is to beat you in concourse. 

Granted, after your experience, this is going to be like picking a fight with hollifield.....

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

I thought you were supposed to set your goals high?  

In reply to Stampie :

You seem to have all but mastered the presentation. So i am setting it high!

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Let's see my cars have gotten 8.5, 13, 13.5, and 18.8. That's an average of 13.325 so that makes me a C- student in my book. 

After much thinking I decided to go with 1/8 x 1 inch steel bar. Couple of reasons. First it's free from Mark's stash. Second this is lighter at 2/3rds the weight of the 1/4 x 1.5 inch aluminum.  I know I said a couple but the third and fourth reason is easier to bend and weld. 

This evening I cut the pieces. And weighted them. 25.8 oz is about half what the old battery box was and I haven't put holes in it yet. 

If this aluminum is 6061-T6, maybe try 5052-H32 if you can find some. Less prone to cracking when bent.

I think I've lost track of exactly what you're trying to fab over the course of a year.

In reply to maschinenbau :

I'm making the most awesomeness battery box possible all because sleepyhead made fun of me. 

In reply to Stampie :

What material are you going to mount the NO2 bottle with, Steel or Aluminum?

In reply to Indy-Guy :

I said I'd beat you in the drags not totally embarrass you in the drags. 

Earlier this week the local you pull it sent me an automated email saying they put out a 350z.  I said hmm if I'm lucky it'll have 17 inch wheels for my drag tires.  Sure enough I went after dropping Lil Stampie at school this morning and it had 17s.

350z with only two wheels left.

The manual tire charger about kicked my ass but if I didn't take them off they'd charge me for tires showing steel belts.

Loaded up in the truck and ready to go.

Walmart oven cleaner for the brown dust deposits...

In reply to Agent98 :

Thanks. I think Lil Stampie just got a new present. 

This evening I got back on the battery box. Started off with the main support.

Punched the holes first because I can't fit it in the hole puncher if it's bent. Then we put it in the press and we got ...

Failure. Hmm. Used the press to straighten it out and because I'm a stubborn son of a donkey's ass I repeated the same failure. Then I came up with the bright idea of put it in the vice and hammer it over.  Ended up with this somehow.

Straighten it back out.

Then I decided my evening would be much more fun spent watching TV with a drink in my hand. Above took an hour and a half. 

All this for a battery tray? Why not just slice up some 14-ish-gage with a cutoff, drill holes with a stepper bit, and weld it up? Or this some kind of masochistic thought experiment...

maschinenbau said:

 Or this some kind of masochistic thought experiment...

Yep

So yes I know I could cut off that end and then weld it back on at the 90 degrees I want. That's not the point. The point is I use these project to learn. I want learn how to bend 1/8 steel with holes nearby. I have an idea. I cut 1/4 inch plate. 

Then Grandma Stampie called so I didn't get further. 

I present to you ... The Bendinator

Two pieces of 1/4 plate beveled at a steep angle.

Another piece of 1/4 plate beveled to match.

Welded all up burning finger in the process and first bend is perfect.

Test fit in the car and all is good.

The sleepyhead battery box base.

9.9 oz

Still have to build the hold down but that'll be pretty simple.  Hope to keep it under 6oz so total weight will be under a pound. 

Yesterday it was raining but today we got back on it. Punched 15 holes in the top bracket and bent it up.

And the weight is right on target.

Just need to add threaded rod and two wingnuts.

In reply to Stampie :

I’m mostly a lurker, aside from my own build, but all this work just to make a 2lb lighter battery box makes me happy.  GRMS epicness to to the core

In reply to Number1Gaza :

Thanks, I really appreciate that but I think you give me too much credit. Reality is I'm a stubborn mofo that was ashamed of my battery box that took only 30 minutes to make. 

Stampie said:

Yesterday it was raining but today we got back on it. Punched 15 holes in the top bracket and bent it up.

The proper metallurgical term for that new material is Weapons Grade Drillium. 

A hornet stung me on my knuckle today so I'm using that as an excuse to take it easy this evening.

But this came into today. Hopefully it'll get use Saturday.

We worked on another project right after school but while grilling our bacon wrapped hamburgers we painted the drag wheels. If they look like crap I'm going to blame Lil Stampie's prep skills.