winter changes/upgrades

[wikd69]

So what do you expect this ride will weigh ? Any ideas ?

[DOTracer]

These next two pics show some of the painstaking and time consuming little jobs that need done on projects such as this. The tubs are installed and welded on the top and forward sections. The tub stops before reaching the rocker panel so an extension needs to be fabricated. The rocker needed to be trimmed back to line up with the larger diameter aftermarket 36" tub. This tub extension finishes off the forward section of the wheel tub as well as capping the end of the rocker.

The next picture is inside the car and shows two pieces of sheetmetal fabricated to create a frame/shelf for the new floor to sit on and attach to. This will make this section of floor transition smoothly from the rear floor pans moving back to between the tubs where the rear firewall will come down.

It's small pieces such as these that eat up alot of time. Keep this in mind when getting quotes from chassis shops for fabrication work. Little detail stuff takes ALOT more time than some of the bigger projects like the tube chassis/cage work. This will become more evident when I post pics of the mounting of the seats, pedals, fuel cell, battery, fuel pump, fiberglass dash, gauge mount, doors, etc.

My goal with this rear sheetmetal is to try and maintain a somewhat stock appearance even though it's clear it's all new metal, but smoother look without all the bumps and dips the stock floor had where the rear seat used to be.





BTW, since many might not clearly see the two pieces I'm refering to, here is a before picture.



The last pic shows the TRZ housing cut to length with the housing ends welded on. Total length of the rear wheel to wheel is 52", down from the stock length of 58" (my old rear was 59 1/4" w-w). Housing end to housing end is 47".

[DOTracer]

[BracketNova]

Man, I gotta say it again - your welds are absolutely beautiful.

Holly crap yes!

[DOTracer]

I was out of town most of this week, so I didn't get much time to work on the car in the evenings. I did make some progress between last evening and today.

The trans tunnel is complete and I got a head start on the rear firewall and package tray. I hope to be able to finish that up tomorrow. Once that's done I need to get working on mounting the seats as I can't weld any of the floor stuff in till I make the seat mounts which will go through the floor and weld to the tube structure below.

[evil16v]

Very clean install. You should have a great deal of pride in this car when you finish. Hell, for that matter, right now!

[DOTracer]

Well, as usual I was not able to get the rear firewall and package tray done this weekend. I put the rear sail panel trim in place to check the intersection point for the rear firewall and package tray and wound up needing to make a new rear firewall as it needed to be laid back more and dropped down some. Also lose time making several flanges to secure the floor sections to the tubes. These pieces are hidden, but like anything, they take time to make and fit.

I should be able to knock out the remaining 4 pieces on my two evenings this week so I can hopefully move on to the seat mounts on Saturday. I'll leave the trunk sheetmetal go for a while and concentrate on doing the interior stuff like the seats, pedals, dash, etc.

I originally estimated the rebuild to take 200 to 250 hours to complete. Well, I was sure off on that estimate. I haven't kept track of any hours thus far, but can estimate fairly close. I started the work the first week of November and usually average 24 hours per week. It's been 15 weeks since this work began. Now lets drop some hours for Holidays, etc, so my guess is it averages out to 20 hours per week, so right now I'm sitting at approx 300 hours. I'd bet it'll take double that to complete the work.

Work yet to be completed:

- trunk sheetmetal
- mount fuel cell
- mount battery
- mount fuel pump
- front & rear driveshaft loops
- driveshaft enclosure
- mount drivers and passenger seats
- weld all interior sheetmetal already fabricated
- seat belt tabs
- parachute lever and cable
- helmet hook
- mount dash
- relocate/fabricate brake pedal
- relocate/fabricate gas pedal
- fabricate new steering column mount
- mount gauge panel (fixed under removable f/g dash)
- ignition & wiring panel
- fire system install
- door X bars
- forward door bar gussets
- engine compartment bars
- remount motor plate
- mount f/g trunk lid
- fiberglass doors (40 hour job)
- fabricate/mount lexan quarter and rear windows
- rewire the car
- re-plumb the car (fuel & brakes)
- media blast and paint the chassis/cage
- ???

[sc racing]

You still got a LOT of work done in a short amount of time and its QUALITY work. I might have as may hours as you redoing my car but its not nearly as nice and its streched over a 3-1/2 year period. I have a list like yours to complete I just try to pick off one at a time.
NICE JOB!

[DOTracer]

Well, I had a fairly productive weekend working on the car. I was able to get the under floor seat brackets fabricated & welded. Next up was to weld in all the tabs for the seat belts, then weld all the steel floor sections into place and dress down the plug welds.

The last project completed was to fabricate the interior seat mounts.

I took a couple pics, but they don't really show anything different than has been posted before on the project.

Tomorrow evening I'm gonna work on relocating the steering column, then start on fabricating a new brake pedal, then the gas pedal.

[evil16v]

Great to see such good progress. I wish get that much accomplished at the moment. Please keep posing the pics. Very entertaining for us!

[Bruce69Camaro]

Do you happen to know my buddy that run K-Star Automotive?

Bruce

[DOTracer]

Thanks guys, will most definately keep the pics coming as I know many like to see fabrication stuff, myself included.

Yes, I do know Keith a little. We have met and chatted on a couple occasions at Cecil...super nice guy.

[Bruce69Camaro]

Keith is a good friend and also my builder. He is also a member on here.

A client of his was looking to upgrade a car he just bought and I told him about your posting and should ask you for some help. He then came back and said he knew who you were.

I'm going to tell Jason to make sure he gets some pictures of your car at the track.

Your car looks great

[DOTracer]

Between one evening this week and today I was able to get the steering column relocated, the brake pedal fabricated as well as the throttle pedal.

The only thing needed to complete both pedals is a positive stop for each, a brake switch bracket and a locating dowel for the steering column.

I'll start on the engine compartment bars tomorrow.

[DOTracer]

Just one more pic from today. I got the engine compartment bars installed. I wound up having to remount the motor plate as cutting out the old forward bars, they sprung and the bolt holes no longer lined up on the motor plate. I got 90% done with remounting the motor plate, but ran out of time to complete the shelf/tabs in which the motor plate rests on when installing the engine.