Race Car Repair and Upgrade

[eugene13]

Nice work on the car, seat, and burner setup.

Thanks for the compliment. I use hole saws quite a bit in my mill, I prefer the Lennox brand, they seem to last the longest. I've even built some special mandrels so I don't have to use a chuck, and I made them 7/8" so they cant be used in the drill press.

 

[Aukai]

Having the mill would have helped with the out of range cuts on my roll cage, but the joint jigger got it done. Great recycling projects.

 

[eugene13]

Thank you, you can do some real precise stuff with a hole saw in the mill, I'll show you some door bars next time I post. Now that the burner is mounted it's time to roll the burner bucket with my birthday present, a 12" X 20ga Baileigh slip roll. My materiel is 22 ga X9" wide. I laid out the hole locations and marked them with a 1/16" hole, then I rolled it up. Not wanting to mash it out of shape with the hole saw I made a wooden block that fit the profile from some 2"X 8" and used hole saws with pilot drills, here it is installed, and last is the nearly finished product. The grates are made of some inconel I picked up years ago, It was shipping braces on flue gas re-heaters left over from construction of the power plants. Oddly, the diameter is the same as a W drill bit, .388. To keep them from coming out my son is going to plug weld them with the heliarc. I've still got a lot of tubing left over, time to start the next project, any ideas?

 

[eugene13]

Here's my finished burner setting on our chassis jig, in the background you can see a1968 to 1972 aftermarket Chevelle front end being leveled up and clamped together for assembly. It's the begenning of a new project, replacing the front end on a wrecked race race car. Are you folks tired of me or should I continue? The last two shots are of the door bars on one of our chassis, done on the mill it took only a day to fit them up.

 

[Boswell]

Not me, I love to watch other people work .

 

[extropic]

Not tired of you at all. I like to see competent peoples doing great projects. Keep it coming.

 

[eugene13]

We received the car Monday, it looks pretty forlorn without it's front clip, the owner saved himself some money by removing it himself. Notice how he cut into the front end instead of cutting the tubing, you always cut into what you're going to replace. We rolled the car off the trailer like a wheelbarrow and under our gantry and my son began grinding, an hour and one grinding wheel later it's as good as it gets, and it's ready to be mounted on the jig. The next two shots are of the initial fit-up, and the last one is ready to weld./ The car is squared up to the jib using plumb bobs hanging from the frame rails and the front clip is squared to the jig also. Some builders turn the clip a little to the left, but I won't tell you what we do.

 

[eugene13]

Before the weld up we install the lower control arms, the brackets are both bolted and welded in, there is enough slop in the bolt holes that you can move them around a bit to get the freest movement, note the plumb bob hanging from the ball joint, we use it to confirm our earliest measurements and to make any final adjustments. I've never liked the way some builders "butt weld" the main frame rails to the clip, we always reinforce it with a tubing gusset. Where we cut out the left frame rail has been replaced from a piece from the kit. Here's the right frame rail clamped up for welding, it does nothing structural but both sides are required by the sanctioning body. I cant believe how fast this is going, the right side motor mount is welded in.

 

[eugene13]

My son spent part of the day slaving over a hot race car, he managed to finish the motor mounts and install the front weight jacks. Me, and my wife brewed a batch of beer in my driveway using my newly constructed burner,

 

[eugene13]

My son and welder had to go back to work and I was left with the task of building some bumper mounts, a simple piece of angle iron with two threaded slugs welded in, these will be welded onto the front frame horns. During a lull in the action on the front end Bryan began attacking the rear. The car was originally an under slung rear but in an attempt to get more lean out of the chassis the owner cut out the bar and capped it off, we are going to remove the unneeded material, and stiffen up the upper bars by adding two braces.