Progress Thread Slow Boat To China

Ya know, I didnt really look at it when I bought it because I didn't know that it was wrecked. It all seemed to fit fine...




Ahh managed to get a rise out of the master fabricator himself! Responses in red. And I understand the Devils Advocate approach. Someone has to do it!

I got ya! The frame rails look bent on every fox when the surrounding sheetmetal is taken away. If the car was wrecked in it's past,...and was consequently repaired by a reputable shop that had the ability to straighten the frame back to at least close to factory spec,..there'd be evidence of the remaining kink(s) where the frame was pulled on.

Coming from somebody that has built more than a few race cars not only for myself, but for quite a few others as well,...messing w/ any part of the box that you're gonna put 700-800 HP in is risky business,...especially when the by product of having that much power means that the whole mess will be traveling somewhere in the 150+ MPH range in a quarter mile.

As long as you put the structure back together (even using your round tubing, and brace it accordingly to at least rival the strength that the stock stuff had), then there'll be no trade off. But why take on all of the work to fabricate mount points for the front end, radiator, bumper, fenders when it's all there already done for you in brand new sheetmetal?


So now, Im off to a buddies house who has a fox in great shape with no motor in it. Going to take some measurements of his engine compartment and figure out what "square" really is so I can mimic that with my engine bay.

I'll bet you find no evidence of difference between your's and your buddies. At least not enough to go through all of the rebuilding you're getting ready to bite off.
 
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Yup.
 

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I'm not opposed to the whole project, however when I look at the tubing I get a vision of the front end hitting the wall at about 100mph and it kinda smears to one side. I'm thinking a real tube chassis tied to the cage is in order at this point.
 
I'm not opposed to the whole project, however when I look at the tubing I get a vision of the front end hitting the wall at about 100mph and it kinda smears to one side. I'm thinking a real tube chassis tied to the cage is in order at this point.

Well I can't tie it to the cage yet as it's still an 8 point (for the time being). The new frame rails are 2x2x1/8" and the tubing is heavy wall steel. I ordered a bunch of roll cage gussets yesterday as well that should be here tomorrow. I really think it's going to be stronger than the 18ga stamped steel stock stuff once the gussets are in.

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Well I tried to post a video clip, but imagshack is not cooperating. The front of the car is light enough for me to easily pick up. Not really worried about weight.

And besides, I think we are kinda missing the point of this build. Hot Rodding was born from making stuff work out of your garage. I say screw paying thousands to have professional shops do the work for me. I have $3300 in this build so far and have full confidence this thing will be running 10s (at least) for under $10K.

Will it be pretty? Noo. Will it work? Yes.
 
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Well I tried to post a video clip, but imagshack is not cooperating. The front of the car is light enough for me to easily pick up. Not really worried about weight.

And besides, I think we are kinda missing the point of this build. Hot Rodding was born from making stuff work out of your garage. I say screw paying thousands to have professional shops do the work for me. I have $3300 in this build so far and have full confidence this thing will be running 10s (at least) for under $10K.

Will it be pretty? Noo. Will it work? Yes.

I think you're missing the point. The car needs to be safe and in order to be safe the correct materials and installation practices must be utilized. What type of material did you use in the front end, pipe or tubing?
 
I think you're missing the point. The car needs to be safe and in order to be safe the correct materials and installation practices must be utilized. What type of material did you use in the front end, pipe or tubing?

Well I meant to just mock it up with pipe, but have been unable to source any tube in Houston so I'd have to order it.

You'll have to explain why there is a distinction to be made.
 
Pipe is measured in inside dia. And tubing is measured in outside dia. Tubing has a much different construction process, different strength and hardness for starters. For example a length of 1" sch 40 steel pipe from home depot could be easily bent by standing on one end and killing. You would be hard pressed to do this with 1" .120 wall mild steel tubing and I would bet money you absolutely couldn't do this with .083 wall chromoly. I'm not sure what size you have used but 1 5/8 minimum off the strut towers and around the front and 1 1/4 for the rad support would be sufficient. Long story short your safety is paramount and if you need help sourcing the right material I'll be more than happy to help you find it. I'll have to look through some old pictures I think I have one of a front end my buddy did a while back similar to yours.
 
Pipe is measured in inside dia. And tubing is measured in outside dia. Tubing has a much different construction process, different strength and hardness for starters. For example a length of 1" sch 40 steel pipe from home depot could be easily bent by standing on one end and killing. You would be hard pressed to do this with 1" .120 wall mild steel tubing and I would bet money you absolutely couldn't do this with .083 wall chromoly. I'm not sure what size you have used but 1 5/8 minimum off the strut towers and around the front and 1 1/4 for the rad support would be sufficient. Long story short your safety is paramount and if you need help sourcing the right material I'll be more than happy to help you find it. I'll have to look through some old pictures I think I have one of a front end my buddy did a while back similar to yours.

Good to know. Can I bend this tube with my bender or will I need to use a mandrel bender? I could also use a source on tubing since it is unavailable locally (as far as I have found)
 
The 90 degree bends are tough without the right size dies and a bender like the jd2. I have seen guys bend tubing with a harbor freight bender but there are a few tricks to doing it without kinking the tubing. I remember a while back seeing a few videos on YouTube of guys getting the harbor freight bender to work. I'm not sure which type you have. What type of welder? 110 or 240 volts? I'm sure you have a grinder and I know harbor freight sells a tubing notcher for making the fish mouths pretty cheap, I used one for a long time and still have it somewhere, I have since upgraded though. I know aed motorsports ships all over the country but ill look to see tomorrow if I can find any place in Houston that has it. It will be much cheaper if you can pick it up somewhere. The design you have looks to be good I like the bars the kick off the strut tower to the frame rail. Once we get you the right tubing you'll be in awesome shape!
 
I guess that all depends on your tubing bender. If you have one of those benders that uses a bottle jack and came w/ various dies as a whole unit, then you'll probably experience kinking as the mandrel will not be a tight enough tolerance wise to hold the bend tightly enough. The whole "What happens when you hit a wall at 100 MPH?" is a dumb argument anyway, as I'm pretty sure the stock stuff would wad up like chewing gum as well. I still scratch my head and wonder what you think you're gaining by doing this, citing "extra clearance benefits", especially since you intend to use a smallish LS engine under the hood in the first place. We all know there is enough room in the stock configuration to fit a 460 oinker in there, w/ room for 3 little pigs too.
I guess my new question is how are you intending to mock up mount points for the front sheet metal w/o stock reference points?