Yes! the angle has made welding about a zillion times better.

And I tried to shrink the rockers already with a rubber mallet on a piece of maple. It took quite a bit out but it's like it didn't have enough power to finish it off. I'm planning on picking up a poly hammer. One of the local sheet metal guys told me to get a planishing hammer and use it on a wooden block, but i'm a tad weary still. I'll try a poly one and see if that does some more.

the inner rocker structure is a tad weird, it seems to be a piece of angle iron welded along the length of the car, with a sheet coming up from it that forms part of the inner A pillar and the inner rockers, part of the door jamb, as well as being where the floors attach and the pinch where the outer rocker attaches to it on a seam on the bottom.

Have a look for Dale's 122 build thread to see what I did to the inner rocker structure to stiffent things up. A planishing hammer usually refers to something attached to an air hammer - this is going from crawling to flying. You can planish a panel with your body hammers, but remember, hitting it with something hard will stretch the metal if done incorrectly. I always shrink with my poly hammers (when it isn't to tension a panel - which is different entirely). You're not making duct work - this has curves and has to look good.

Planishing as in something ala http://www.ardenwoodforge.com/assets/im ... hammer.jpg

basically after i chase the tucks into a bit more of a crease, this with a slightly crowned face on a poly or wooden backing makes shrinking a sinch if you use light blows.

I saw what you did with Dale's car, and i'm not so sure it'll work on the amazon. The rocker structure is a fair bit different.

My plan though, is to rebuild the rocker as stock, maybe adding a cross brace or two in there for torsional stiffness, but then to fill it with the high density closed cell polyurethane foam once all the welding near it is done.

The stock angle that the floors/rocker/everything attaches to is about 3/32" x 3/4" flange and i'm probably going to uprate it to 1/8" x 1.5" flanges. it will add about 8lbs to the car, BUT should provide significantly more stiffness. total weight of poly foam on the car however is going to near ~~35lbs. and the uprated rails will add another 8 pounds or so. The xmember is probably 30-40lbs heavier and i'm sure the rear end is going to be close to 100lbs heavier. The additional body reinforcements/strut mounts I would not be surprised if they added 50-80lbs as well. So i'm looking at 170+ lbs extra weight in a worse case scenario. I'm not terribly sure about the differences between the B16/cast iron tranny case and the b5234/alum tranny, but wouldn't be surprised if the aluminum stuff weighed a bit more. It's looking like i may have to re-evaluate my 2400lb weight target.

finally blew some cash for the 220v extension cord so i can get the plasma closer to the car. Now just jigging up the block, gonna make new mounting plates for the motor mounts... hope to get everything aligned in right now. This is going to be a tad awkward since i don't have my rear end placement 100% done yet.

BUT, i've got a measurement from the junk yard that should get me within 1/4" vertically or so, and over the driveshaft it should be less than 0.2 degrees out from my design, which won't hurt much with the u joints.

So, i'm goign to put the motor/tranny about 3 degrees down and centre the the crank to the car (since the crank is offset in a whiteblock btw) and mount vertically.

i've build the engine-mount frame rail pieces out of some 3/16" plate i had kicking around so i'll plug weld it on in about 8 spots per side and then do the edges to the 18ga sheet metal. Not terribly hard to do actually. I'm really starting to feel the need for a bigger 220v mig welder. Something in the line of 160-180 amps or so available. The 110v jobbie is great for sheet, but i've had to use the stick welder to get adequate welds on the motor mounts.

wish me luck!

hmm, so it seems i can't find anyone that'll run me off two pieces of hat-channel for the frame rails.

This leaves me with a couple options,

a 2x4" .1" wall (11 gauge?) set of rails running front-back. 62lbs

2x4" .065" (16ga) set of rails on the same thing, about 34lbs.

The only problem then becomes finding 16ga rectangular tubing.... garrrh

in othre news, the floors arrived, i've got all my stuff ready to jig the motor into position. i'm really hoping to have it in by xmas. my hoist is still not back though.

ended up with two 7' pieces of .1" wall (11 gauge) 3x1" tubing for the unibody subframe pieces.

that had ought' to do for now. a tad heavier than i had wanted (42lbs versus about 26lbs for hat-channel in 18ga), but it'll do. That and the weight is below the centreline of the vehicle, so it shouldn't mess with all that much handling wise.

Engine is now jigged in, i'm going to have the pan hang 1.5" lower than the front xmember, but should still have near 7.5" of clearance at the intended ride height.

I am going to relocate the oil filter fairly high.

The starter however, will only have about 1/2" of clearance to the frame rail, it might have a bit more when the vertical clearance is taken into account. However, i will need to revise one of my engine mounts to a slightly inferior design wherein the mount is offset about 30 degrees from its mounting point versus about 5 for the old design. This is to avoid having issues when mounting the engine of getting the bolt done up within the tight clearances that the starter will give. I reckon it shouldn't change much though, but it will force me to design a strong third-engine mount from the tubular suspension member to the motor for some added safety.

Look for some big pictures update this week sometime

i've been brutally unproductive as per late, but did get out to make some measurments tonight. Looks like my rear suspension mounts will work out nearly perfectly. Off the 11ga 1x3" rail, there will be a 22.5º Upturn for a few inches to mount to the rear control arm bracing, and then it will go vertical to the frame rail. I will cut a 90ºnotch out of the stock upright/frame spar and build into this some more plating. In effect i'll get a

Existing spar / |
__________/--|_________|
____________|xxxxxxxxx|
----\________|xxxxxxxxxx|___Inside of car_______
-----Subframe-\_________|Frame Rail____________

type arrangement wherein the "xx" is a boxed in section of the frame made out of 1/8" plate and about 3" wider than the frame rail itself.

The good thing is that here the bolts do not locate the suspension, they merely support an axial load (Normal to a bent tab coming off the end of the control arm mount) that stiffens things up during cornering.


EDIT

I <3 Plasma. Pics to come later, i've unfortunately ran out of 1/8" plate though. but should be able to get 3/4 of the first side done

for my own future references the plates are

15.2 top

5.5x2.5 notch out of the bottom

and a 17mm difference between the end of the angle and the top of the notch section.

whole plate is approximately 13cm lengthwise.

Plasma cut quality (and you can see i flubbed up too!)





some tacks done. The mig is right at the limit with 1/8" with a very small gap here. welds nice, but definitely maxing out the machine. I'm definitely going to start shopping around for a 220v machine.


some pics for those interested. Not much to look at yet, the notch goes to the new frame rail, whilst this whole thing is cut out of and welded into the existing frame spar. just gotta locate the holes for the rear suspension mounts and get to chopping.

A few words on the replacement floors, they're not moulded/pressed like the stock ones in the slightest. So, while this makes my frame-connector idea much easier to execute, anyone looking for an OEM style replacement is SOL. they're both flat the whole way through where the OEM ones have a dish to give a few extra inches of foot room.

just a small update on the lincoln/tbird suspension

the rear mounts are ~~ 40" across at the front of the subframe and about 36" at the back, will make the rear subframe design on the PV a tad whacky, but will almost fit perfectly in the same spot the stock stuff fits.

Hi, I just read your whole thread - well, skimmed it. Hard to visualize alot of that stuff. Amazing; what are you studying?

I have yet to weld, but I was just given an arc welder. I'm just-about finished restoring a 67 wagon, and do NOT plan to do another one, but welding can be pretty handy.

Best-wishes.

James

Mining engineering at the U of A, sometimes i wish i would have gone into mechanical just to have more knowledge on this type of stuff.

Apparently i may have found a rear end out of a 96 XR7 for $150, so hopefully next weekend i can get some accurate measurements and see how things go

Mining - geez, lucky guy. I took Electrical, but have always thought Geology would have been very interesting. I'll bet you get some geology too? Metallurgy? Maybe not.

I know this is way off topic (again) but tell me, do you have any favourite books about mining/geology? You-know, books about famous people, places, events, discoveries.... Thorton Wilder, in "The Eighth Day" has a great accounting of the copper-mining chaos in Venesuela (sp?) going back a ways. It's a great book about perseverence. These days, I 'mine' oil - directional drilling - but I also have two Bachelors Degrees a Masters and - go figure - I still like to work with my hands.

(about CVC 'etiquette' - ummmmmm, I hope nobody minds reading this. It could be a PM, but I don't see why it has to be. Maybe somebody-else has a suggestion)

J

Hi Rock-Man,

I was just lying under my car, and looking at the holes I need to plug in the various unibody members. The guy who painted my car filled the rockers with foam (to keep water out...?) and I got to thinking about some of your planning, which I gather is to fill frame members with foam for strength - would that work for me??

What the heck is "Mjöllnir?"

J

well, likely if he filled them with foam, it's an open-cell polyurethane foam like mono-ultra, which is no good, as it will trap/collect water for the most part.

the foam i'm looking at using is a closed-cell very high density foam that offers some structural advantages, yet is waterproof. I've largely decided against it -- for the time being, until i actually have some dollars to spend again and figure this all out. Also, the stock drainage channels will need to be left open (tubes through them and such) to avoid pooling water above where the foam lies and causing even bigger rust troubles.

As far as the name, it's Thor's hammer, which is hopefully how powerful/insane i'm hoping this car will be with a 6" wider track and a 5cyl turbo engine, big brakes and fat rubber.

As for the other questions, i've got a few books at home i've enjoyed, mostly on the geology of western canada though. I mine oil as well up in fort mcmurray, fun stuff.

Hi -

One of my nick-names is "Odin" - who is blind in one eye (and because of which he has certain gifts). I always think it is cool when I drive through Valhalla (north of Grande Prairie).

Geology of Western Canada, eh? Do-tell. If not prohibitively technical that would be very interesting. I get a lot of time to read at work, I see a lot of rock samples (under the microscope), and so would be interested in a broad overview with specific examples - that kind of thing.

James