My rail project (56K go bake a cake)

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 9/22

Well it's been too long since an update, so here goes. We got more goodies from JC Whitney the other day including the seats, steering wheel, clutch package, cv boots, and wiring kit.





We put the clutch assembly on, does anyone know the proper torque for the pressure plate bolts? I torqued them to 20ft-lbs but I dont know.



We also dissassembled the axles for a thurough cleaning, those suckers were uber dirty. All of the cv joints seem ok though :thumbup:





I also picked up the sheets of aluminum that I ordered for the floor yesterday. The guy I got them from said he wanted to make someone smile and didn't charge me a dime for any of it, needless to say :laugh: :laugh: However, I wans't smiling trying to drive those bishes to the workshop. One of them was too big to fit in the back of the station wagon so we had to strap it to the roof. I was so scared that it was going to become flying death on the highway.



But it did make it there, and there is enough for a full floor and a skid plate. it is 48" wide and a total of 105" long



We started fitting and scribing it for plasma cutting and if I do say so myself, it looks damn good.



There was no way I wasn't going to see how it looked with the seats on there =)



I also needed to see how well I fit in there. Turns out that there will be enough room for me and a passenger, YAY :laugh: (first pic of me on the vortex)

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 9/27

Didn't get a whole lot done last night, more drinking than anything else really. But we did get the back section of the floor cut and it looks really good.

We took it over to Don's buddy's place to cut it with the plasma cutter, man do I want one of those things so if anyone is feeling generous you can ship me one (IM me for my address) or paypal some money to [email protected] :laugh: Anyways this is how it turned out.







Don is taking off for Texas Thursday morning for 10 days so I'll be going it alone for a while. I plan to weld the floor tabs Thursday or Friday and possibly start making some more for the lights and such. We laid the tabs out approximatly where they will be welded, if anyone thinks I should do it differently please speak up.



I'll also paint the headers with some flat black stove paint tonight after I clean them up in the blaster tonight. Other than that, nothing new but hopefully there'll be some welding pics up early next week

[DubsMcGee]

I got the headers painted last night with Rustolium's 1200 degree flat black fireplace paint, all I have to say is W:eek:W. The stuff went on so nice and dried ultra fast, it acually looks and feels more like a coating of sorts than paint. It was a little too flat for my liking at first but I wiped it down with a dry paper towel after it dried and that gave it a nice satin finish. If this stuff wasn't almost $10 a can I would have liked to use it for everything else.

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 10/2

I definatly didn't get as much done this weekend as I would have liked to. After I burned a small hole in the frame welding I decided that I was not familiar enough with the machine to properly use it. It has a thickness setting rather than amperage/voltage :sly: I did pick up a steering shaft, new clutch arm, quick disconnect, shock bushings, and the amber lights.



I also got the exhaust put on, and if I do say so myself it looks goooood :laugh:





I took the mounting brackets off of the seats to see how much of a recline I would gain and I think it'll be better with the brackets off.



Here are the wheels that will be going on the buggy, WELD racing wheels 16x9.5 in the rear and 15x7.5 in the front. Word.



And now for the frustrating part of the weekend. The damn retaining nut on the stub axles will NOT budge :banghead: I tried everything from soaking it in JB 80 to heating it and hitting it with the impact. It will just not moove, if anyone has suggestions on how to get those bastards off please fill me in. This is all I really have to say about them.



Page 4 bishes!!

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 10/6

Ok so here is what happened, the nuts holding the drum on the spindle were stuck really good. I tried everything, immpact, heating with impact, breaker bar, nothing would work and the nuts were getting really stripped by this point. So I decided to cut them off or try to at least, I coudnt get in there enough to cut the nut in half so I decided that I would cut a gap between the two nuts, it also kind of seemed like they were stuck together. After that I hit it with the impact again and I dont know what happened but the nut didn't come off, it just started spinning on the shaft. I pried it off to find that the threads in the nut were gone and the threads on the spindle were messed up. The same thing happened to the second nut :banghead:




Check out these nasty breaks as well


On a better note, I got the stub axles off and they are sitting in the parts cleaner at work with the cv joints as I type this.


I also had to cut the steering coupler and hit it with the air chisel to get it off, but no damage to the steering box. I did something right last night at least :rolleyes:


This is how she sits now.


Don gets back on Sunday and my pedals, steering brakes, gas tank, and other stuff should get to his place on Monday so more updates after that.

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 10/7
I gave the stub axles, all the bearings, and the cv joints a good deep clensing. After the cv joints fell apart in the cleaning tank :banghead: I had the most ridiculous time figuring out how to put them back together. I guess that is one more thing to add to the knowledge bank.



However, one thing that I failed to pay attention to is which way the cages were positioned in the joints. I am going to break the cv joints down into 3 basic pieces to aid in my explination/question. The innermost part I'll call the "inner race" followed what I'll call the "cage" that the balls snap into and that assembly fits into the "outer race". Now the cages have a lip on one side that will not allow the inner race to be removed from that side. Does it matter which side of the cv joint that lip faces? I have pictures to explain

Here is a picture of the lip on the cage on the same side as the lip on the outer race


Here is a picure of the non-lipped side of the cage on the lipped side of the outer race


On another note, my gas tank, pedals, cutting brakes, etc... arrived at Don's place yesterday so I'll be heading over there tomorrow to check it all out.

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 10/12
I didn't get much done on Tuesday since Don wansn't available to help me with the welding, but more parts came in.The dash, pedals, cutting brakes, clutch slave and bracket, fuel shutoff, accelerator cable, and throttle cable came. I'm still waiting on the tank and kingpins.


I started taking apart the front end to rebuild it and paint it but for the life of me I can not get the tie rods off, and we don't have the right puller for the job so I'll have to pick one up. Here is what the front end looks like right now.




I am assuming that to get the kingpin out you press out the bushings for the linkpins and it'll slide right out, is that correct?


I also opened up the steering box because it felt a little rough when I was turning it by hand and I discovered that it was a little dry :laugh: I'll pack some more grease in there later.


And lastly I put the airfilter and clutch slave on, I know, super exciting right :rolleyes: I'll have to make a spacer for the cluch slave but that won't be a challenge.

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 10/13

Friday the 13th, I hope nothing goes wrong today :sly:

We ended up using a pickle fork to get the tierods off, it destroyed the boots but they were shot anyways. Looks like I'm going to need new tie rod endlinks unless they can be salvaged (they are all crusty and dry).


Well after over a month of having the frame we finally did some welding last night and discovered that niether of us are very good at it. It probably doesn't help that we were welding in areas that were really hard to get to let alone lay a good weld. We did the tops of the floor tabs and will roll it over tonight or tomrrow to get the bottoms.




Here is one of my better welds, not too bad for the first time welding something real. At least I don't think it is.


And here is one of the bad ones, it was ultra awkward to get to this one. It'll buff right out :laugh:


After a little "buffing." I have a feeling that the grinder will get very intimate with the chassis before we are finished with it.


We ran out of tabs before we got them all finished but hopefully I'll be getting some more soon. Cheers.

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 10/15
We took a huge step forward this weekend by welding the light tabs. I must say that after a little practice and more accesable welding areas it makes it a whole lot easier.








We made some tabs and mounts for the headlights, turn signels, and tail lights. I think they turned out pretty well for being hand made.








Put all the lights on and I really like the way it turned out.




I also learned a lesson about welding without gloves, DON'T, UV burns suck :banghead:


I also took some time to figure out where I want to mount the seats, pedals, cuting brakes, and the console. We will make a tower for the cutting brakes so that the knobs are about even with the bottom of the windsheild frame. Mounting them there will allow me to easily grab the handles without reaching too far from the shifter.




We'll proably get the seats mounted, the licenceplate frame figured out, and whatever else has to be welded next week. I've discovered that I like welding but I need gloves bad.

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 10/18

Don wasn't feeling well last night so not a whole lot got done, but I did make 2 of the seat brackets with the material that we had.

The harnesses and gas tank were waiting for me when I got to his place. I am very happy with the quality of everything. The tank has good welds and came with powdercoated brackets, it is a 10X30 10 gallon capacity. sorry for the crappy picture.


The harnesses are 3X3 5 point SFI 16.1 approved. These things are beefy There is no way I will be able to moove when strapped down by these!




The last thing for today's update are the adapters that Don picked up at a swap meet on Sunday while I was out doing a road course in Wisconsin. Wide 5 to Ford, not too bad for $25.


Anyone know where I can pick up a set of 4x130mm to 4x4.5" adapters for the rear? or will I have to make them?

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 10/20

Well, got a little done last night. We took the front end apart and made some more tabs in preparation for some more welding this weekend.

In process of taking the front end apart we got another suprise, a broken torsion bar YAY :banghead: anyone know the best place to get replacements?


It looks like this thing has been broken for a long time, these ones came out and they were pretty rusty. Kinda suprised me for sitting in grease.


I also cut off the bump stops, don't want to bottom out and break more shizz.


We are going to cradle the gas tank between a couple of bars so it can sit as low as possible to keep the center of gravity low and also help with vision. We had to cut and notch this bar using only a cutoff wheel, sawzall, and an angle grinder. It induced a lot of frustration and now my welding skills will really be tested looking at the size of the gaps I have to fill


That's all for now, more updates after the weekend.

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 10/23

We got a lot done this weekend, lots of welding and fabricating. I'm actually getting pretty good at welding, I had to fill some gaps and holes. I think the biggest one was about .5" x .5" My welds still aren't the best looking but they have penitration, so there is a lot of grinding time. Here I am grinding in my sexy welding cap.


Drilling out the holes to mount the seats.


We got the steering bearing mount welded on, you can see one of my welds on here. not the best looking but it's not going anywhere.


We slotted the pedal mounts so more people will be able to drive the buggy with a simple adjustment. We may slot the seat brackets as well to allow for more adjustment.



We fabricated and welded the seatbelt tabs on, I think they turned out pretty good.




We also got the steering shaft and u-joint figured out. The u-joint took some major modification but it works pretty good now.



The last thing we got welded was the licence plate mount, and in the process I managed to have some spatter burn through my pants and make a little bbq Jesse :banghead:




Then it was time for a little test drive, The harness' really hold you in the seats, pretty happy about that.


Finally got the old kingpins out, it took a "little" heat but they're out. Here is what the aftermath of a "little" heat looks like

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 10/30

We've got some more fabrication done over the past week but still have plenty left to do. We did a custom setup for the gas tank so it is cradled inbetween two bars and recessed to keep the ceter of gravity lower. I like the way that it turned out, I havent seen anyone else do this but I could be wrong.






To be able to cradle the tank like that we had to move the battery box so there wouldnt be any interferance. A little extra work but in the end I think it will be worth it.


I made the rest of the floor tabs and finished welding them on, we also got the front section of the floor cut. Nothing too interesting about this but I had to weld a few tabs to the front suspension but it worked out pretty good.


The most frustrating ordeal was getting the shock mounts to fit the trailing arms. Heavy modification is an understatment :banghead: let me say that the die grinder was an essential tool for this job. But we did get it figured out.




We ran out of wire so the welding had to stop early on Sunday night, here is what it looked like at that point.


My order from Chirco arrived today so there will be some more progress tomorrow. Hopefully for you guys I get off my ass and do some updates this week :laugh:

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 11/6

Got my order from Chirco, brakes, shocks, roller pedal, bushings, etc... the rear shocks will be picked up on tuesday, they are Monroe Reflex with a 8.75" travel.


I am happy to say that the welding is almost complete and we have started painting! The only thing left to weld is the upper rear shock mount wich we have figured out, it just needs to be bent. Here are some of the newly fabricated pieces.

Passenger foot rest, it was designed for the shortest person that'll be riding (my girlfriend) to be comfortable, taller people will have their knees a little higher than they might like. But most likely all the taller people will be guys so if I hear them whining about it they'll be punished in a fitting manner :laugh:


We also contructed an adjustable grab handle. I know that I could have purchased pretty much the same thing and it would have probably looked better but all the clamp on ones would have interfered with the windshield bracket. Turned out pretty decent.




The last thing that was fabricated this weekend was the steering brake tower, pretty simple, 3 pieces of steel welded together to mimic the shape of the shifter box. I could have got this bent but I was impatient and wanted to practice welding some more.


And the painting begins, all the black parts will be spraybombed rustoleum gloss black because those are the pieces that will probably be subjected to the most damage, traling arms, front end, and all the smaller trim pieces like the grab handle.




Lastly we got the brakes cleaned up and reassembled, they look brand new dont they?


here is what they looked like before

[DubsMcGee]

UPDATE 11/13

HOLY CRAP!! only one more thing to weld (upper shock bosses) then it'll be ready for paint. We got the upper shock mounts fabbed and welded this weekend and also the dash mounts. Overall I like the way things have turned out. There will be some clean up on some of the crappier welds that are readily visable but for the most part its pretty good. On to the pictures.

Here are the upper shock mounts, I think they kinda make it look like a truck with nerf bars :laugh:


The dash mounts need some major cleaning but they are on there. I still need to make the dash and I need to get guages to do that but I have a design and it should work out.


I said earlier that I got Monroe shocks but didnt really know what they would be like. They are beefy, hydraulic gas assist 8.75" of travel, I think they'll work


And got more of the front end painted and got the new seals on the arms. Hopefully the new kingpins will be able to be put in this week, the guys in the shop at work have been pretty busy lately but they are still willing to help


That's all for now, the search for paint is on. I know exactly what color I'm going to get but you'll have to wait to see what it is, unless I've mentioned it earlier :screwy: