Been a real hectic last two days. Hit horribly by the snow here in the northeast, and my wife will not drive in this, but it is mandatory for her to appear at work. So I've been stopping whatever I am doing around 2:30 to take her to work and then waiting around until midnight to pick her up. Sometimes she runs over and isn't done until 3-4am. To make it worse, when we were driving home at 3am last night due to PA state emergency all the bridges were closed so we had to turn back and drive another 45 minutes to my parents house and then the kids get up at 6am :x
Wednesday I reported to work like normal after picking my wife up from work at 3AM in the morning. It had already been snowing good but I got there ahead of time. As usual, everybody else was smart and called out. I told my boss I had to leave when I got there at 2 to drive my wife to work but I could come back if necessary. I ended up standing around all day miserable and getting one job. It got real real bad (white out) about 1PM so they actually ended up closing the whole store again at 3. The last snow Sunday or whatever it was the same thing happened - drive through horrible ****, end up being one of very few who came in, stand around get no work, go home at noon. Complete waste of day.
I drove her to work but was determined I was going to make something positive out of the day. I asked as I crossed the PA-NJ like (she works in NJ) if the bridges were going to be closed. We had packed change of clothes just in case and the toll booth person said yes they would be. I dropped her off and knew if I went home I'd be stuck in PA and she'd have to sleep at work or if I stayed in NJ we would be stuck there. I called my parents and made sure I had a bed, dropped her off, went and picked up some tools from Harbor Freight (poor employees, only other company open in this crap), and then went to Princeton.
I've driven through some bad stuff this winter and winters past, but this was right up there.
Look at the snow on the top of my black Escape - keep in mind I already cleaned off the car once, that's half the storm.
More is coming tomorrow and Monday possibly :crybaby2:
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Harbor Freight had the spot weld cutters in stock. I bought two, luckily. They are double sided so when you wear one blade out, you can flip it. Just like any metal bit, control the speed (keep it low) to keep it sharp. Honestly, it's nothing special. It's a tiny hole saw. It is supposed to help cut damage to a minimum but there is really no difference. It's just more convenient than using 3 different bit sizes.
So I continued drilling out the spot welds out of the passenger side of the front seat mount and eventually got them all.
I pulled the driver side seat and began scraping the sound deadener away to reveal the spot welds, then the power went out.
I would not be denied!
Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain.
Got the corner bracket out with some fighting.
And eventually, the entire front seat mount.
The transmission crossmember brackets that I said I removed.
With the front seat mount out, continue drilling exploratory holes through the front channel and follow it backward with the hole saw until you see the end of it.
Then fight the war with the rear upper seat mount.
The rear also has two brackets that you need to get from underneath the car. You're going to hate spot welds even more when you're lying on your back looking up and red hot metal shavings are raining down on you.
Remember the jackass that claimed he remembered where all the sensitive stuff was on the underside and he didn't need to pull it yet? Yeah, that was me. Well, what happens is you skip a step like that and you forget. Then you go to remove that front seat mount, and you drill holes in your brake and fuel lines. Good job, stupid.
Then again, looking at these rear fuel lines, maybe it was a blessing in disguise.
Start the rear channel by smacking out the weather seal. It's hard plastic, smash the center out then use a prybar to get the edge pieces.
You can't really see it, but I'm using a laser pointer here. See the marks in the sound deadener that looks like there would be another channel below it? There isn't. But you use the inside line as a reference guide where to drill your exploration marks (see the line of drill holes?).
Viewed from underneath, put some drill bits through the holes. You should be aligned with the center of the rear torque box (well, the big section that forms one side of it). These are no Mickey Mouse LCAs kids, they directly tie the rear torque box into the front subframe.
Drill the holes.
Better have marked the rear bulkhead with that laser pointer, you're going to need it. Just one exploratory hole and hole saw needed. See how it's off just so slightly (missed right, towards inside of car)? Since we're smart and using 1 7/8", we'll be fine. When we cut the hole to 2" for the tube, we'll cut just the left side.
[SIDE NOTE]
I build my car to AI rules. Where possible, I also try and meet NHRA tech. Not that this is an AI car, or going to be an AI car, but it is a very modern and safe class and something to aspire to. If I ever decided to go full race in the future, I would not want to have made permanent modifications to the car that would require purchasing a new vehicle or cutting out and re-doing difficult things. That being said, I try and keep up on corner-carvers and NASA forums often for rule changes, see how people are building new cages and chassis, etc. Someone posted an image of his cage and one critique was it would not meet AI tech because he had cut the floorpan so he could run a cage bar straight instead of with a bend. After much debate (and PANIC by myself, as you can see my floorpan is modified!), the conclusion was made that it did pass tech due to
a) To facilitate the addition of safety equipment such as subframe connectors and roll cage bracing (i.e.
roll cage may extend through the firewall to strut towers);
I think I'm good. I'll check with the local NASA tech that I know.
[/panic]
[/SIDE NOTE]
I wake up at my parents this morning and grab some tools, have some coffee. Call my boss, and flat out told him I'm not coming in. The bridges are now open, but I'm not coming in a third day this week to stand around. Went and worked on the slowbra.
Drill the last two spot welds out of the front channel.
Cut that mofo off where it pinches at the end. Now the only part of the front channel left on the vehicle should be the uniform straight section so the 2x2 will lay right in.
I began digging for the new rear seat mount. No real need to move it too far. Use a scratch awl and protractor to scribe a straight line through the center of the old two bolt holes and end perpendicular to the door sill. Look close. Make dimples for drill bit in the line.
Fire!
Same story on the front one, but there are no old bolt holes (they were studs for front). So freehand it where it looks flat and as painless as possible.
I was going to drill some holes but Harbor's drill (new) started making some odd noises. I picked up a cheap corded drill while I was there for other stuff because my cordless stuff dies QUICK. Somebody threw a grenade into the gear drive I guess. For once, I have the receipt, it's one day old. We'll see how well they handle warranty issues.
Moving on, lets make some header plates for the door-sill-to-seat-mount. I never end a tube-to-body connection, whether it be cage, frame, or whatever, straight to the body. You can fail tech for it, and it's generally just not a strong connection. As thick as that door sill looks, it is still pretty thin. Rules state no plate may be larger than 100 square inches, no smaller than 2 inches any dimension, no greater than 12 any direction. Must be at least .080 thick (see side note below). Generally, if I'm making a plate, it's twice the dimensions of the tube mounting to it (2x2 tube goes to a 4x4 mount, 2x3 goes to a 4x6, etc.). Clean at least a four inch wide area on the door sill and floor pan above your scribed centerline. I'd suggest 8 inches or so. Scrape away all that bodysealer. Drill out the rivets in the centered 4" area.
This helps.
Cut out the section of the floor pan that was riveted (the part that goes up/down).
Get underneath and clean the area out. Again, you will hate anything from the underside infinitely worse.
Fabricate yourself some 4x4 mounting plates, or as you will inevitably hear me refer to them as header/footer plates. In this one, four holes, 1/2" diameter.
Slide in the footer plate. Straighten out your pinch weld underneath as best as possible, then vice grip. Tack top. Tack 1/2" holes. Go underneath, tack, remove vicegrip.
[SIDE NOTE]NASA CCR updated the spec for mounting plates to .080 thickness. I used to use 16 gauge for small stuff like this and 11 gauge (1/8") for the cage, etc. So great, I get to cut this plate out. Luckily I had to leave to drive wife to work.[/SIDE NOTE]
That's it for today. I need to catch up on some sleep. I won't have a chance to go back unless we get hit by snow again and work gets closed until my normal days off Monday/Tuesday. For now, I'll toy around with the trans at home, I think I have some shift linkage issue to chase down. A trip to get dry ice and a trip to pick up the metal are in order so I can start cutting out the channels and laying new steel.