Previous episode.

Seats mounts are finally finished, a project half started years ago at this point. With those in place the 5pt harness can be measured out and fitted. 350z Clutch masters reservoir is remote so it's fixed in place after the usual runaround, similarly my wiring mess is better sorted (bare-bones engine wiring 80% complete)

Door Hinges are ironed out, which was a real PITA considering how the panel gaps interact through the hinge arc. Basically trial and error of hinge spacing off the door skin, and fore/aft from the gaps until the panels "rest" reasonably close together but don't touch as they open.

The Cage A-pillar mounts to 1/8" plates welded to the sills rather then the frame for...reasons, long story short this door hinge bulkhead will help tie the firewall down to those mount plates. In effect, building a unibody around a spaceframe for maximum heft.

Thoughts about safety and weight led to remaking part of the sill exterior with these dimple die'd slabs. The idea here is to fix some mistakes making it look cleaner while providing better reinforcement of the rears unsupported section.
( Also a dashbar for the cage would make for better steering column mounts so I redid that for the third time, dosent look much different in photos but the old design was not elegant)

This forward panel has been built to distribute load across more of the frame in side impact along with even more tie ins to the Cage. No idea on how effective any of this will really be in an accident or to structural rigidity but I want to have tried.

This is a similar locost spaceframe to give you an idea of the basic frame structure and why all the worry about side impacts

The projects really gotten to the hard part of figuring out how things will mount efficiently, how to make a 300lb frame safe with 2500lbs of car, does this seating position actually feel good?, congratulations on making that part now do it exactly the same for the other side, is xyz actually square, and thanking 20 year old me for signing up to such a massive timesink project.
More to come as always, Thanks for stopping by!

Everything's jimmied together juuuuust enough to make it happen; my wirings valid and the motors good enough to deal with at a later date. If the rad was hooked up and with a clutch line, it'd actually drive!

Excellent way to end the Year!

Today we are shaping the side Barrels

CAD here will provide a profile to the wheelwell aswell as basic measurements on where to focus bends.

Transfer
Double check marks, this metals $5 per square foot!
Couple minutes on the English wheel then mark areas to clearance
Bend, clearance, check, repeat 4-5 times

Making the opposing side:

These basic shapes will provide the skin for all the doors, rear portion of the fender, and mating surface of the hood. Making it in one sheet means all the panels will have matching curves instead of trying to copy various arcs along oblique angles.

Making panel edges/gaps, 18ga steel stips will be folded into a 1x1" 90° then matched to each surface with the shinker and stretcher, from there it can be welded to the panels. Doing it this way is more welding, cutting, and grinding but it provides good control over panel gaps. You can make the edges on a bench, easily verifying left to right symmetry.

Tacoma Hood after initial trimming, then tack welded to the wireframe and further whittled down.

Didn't like the hoodscoop on first pass but after moving it lower its the ideal ram air for the intake.
Charge pipe is made However I cannot stress enough that this is for testing. Actual plan is a small water to air intercooler for each turbo and much more graceful 2-1 union, That's all a little put of budget for the time being.


Exhaust is made, there's some more welding to do along with hangers. It's 2.5" out of the turbos immediately up to 3" stainless, and a small Flowmaster FX. It's probably absurdly loud!

Ecu is repaired and back in my possession though I don't want to test start it again until the wiring and fuel system are sorted enough for a test drive.

Up next is fitting an E brake, maybe electrical then more body panels.

(This turned into a long ramble that I refuse to edit down into anything compelling)

Where we last left off the motor mounts had been rebuilt on the engine side but lacked the mounting plates on the chassis, sill panels were being formed and tacked into place, and a section of LH fender had been formed using a Chevy bedside.
Motor mounts are finished, just need to locate the transmission then they can be welded down. The part was simple to produce but I had a hard time getting the materials needed, eventually liberating some scraps from work. Left and Right hand sills are welded in, still more work to do making a third cell that'll extend down the weakest section of frame (between passenger compartment and front suspension). Also haven't welded the top surface and door jamb together, as I want more details ironed out before committing.

Met with @Rusty-Vandura a few weeks ago and bought a LSD equipped 8.8 axle destined for his Crown Vic, that was sadly stolen. We both traveled a ways to meet up, had a good conversation, and made the exchange.
As a direct result of that conversation I picked up a custom shift knob from @CobraJoe . Driven with it on the F250 for a week and love it, really nice fit and finish.

Formed the RH fender slab using a Tundra bedside, it was a good test of how easy will it be to maintain symmetry. So far so good.

Got to work on the top section of fender, normally you'd try and form the largest section possible but in this case it's a patchwork because I have to work around the metal I can find. In the long run the whole cars getting skim Coated in filler because I feel the car won't get done if I try and make everything perfect in metal.

Started extending the dash out to the steering wheel, to do that I've got a strip off the Sprinter window and made the necessary cutouts for the defrost. The challenge here is keeping everything straight so when I weld the two together the dash isn't cocked over weird. It's nearly ready to go just havnt decided if I'll save a bunch of time and overlap one over the other or try and trim them straight for a butt weld.(probably dosent matter since it'll be wrapped in leather)

This morning was pulling the Locosts axle out in the hopes of swapping the 7.5" s197 mustang brakes onto the Vic 8.8 Axle. No joy, and surprisingly the internet was wrong and the Vic axle is actually wider then my current one (wanted a thinner rear track with the 8.8 upgrade). Either way today I'll finish stripping the Axle off its flanges, chip off some rust and get it ready to weld on my own. Should drop back in with no problems but I'm seeing the driveshaft is slightly offset, havnt measured it yet as I don't really want to know.

That's about up to speed, work continues though I now do this exact kind or thing at work for 9-10 hour a day and it's harder to keep at it.

Bonus digression?

Work project is a making a completely bare 60's f100 fit a custom frame designed for a car, then make it run and drive within a few months. It's also an 800hp edelbrock lt4. So far I've cut and relocated the frame front and rear, plated those areas, located and mounted the body to the chassis making all the mounts from scratch, extended the rear rails, shortened the front bumper, built a removable core support, made an LS radiator fit, removable crossmember, smoothed firew blah blah blah...
As an Apprentice every step is a new challenge and it takes alot out of you trying to design and built things on a professional level within a reasonable time.
Everything I know about fabrication is from the Locost and starting this project a couple years ago I knew nothing, its pretty much fastracked my way into a career that's so far been satisfying if not stressful, time consuming, and Apprentice wages.

I don't necessarily enjoy working on the car, though I often look forward to it. It's more along the lines of showing up for class and putting your time into the course work.

The compound curve has eluded me for a while, most of the stretching has been done with hammers with the wheel only being used for gentle curves and smoothing.

Got a few more youtube certifications and spent 2-3 hours reforming a Dodge 2500 fender into this bit.

After trimming the excess bits and a little cleanup of the paint.

Bonus: More Shelby Cobras

The usual process after initial wheeling and trimming.
The project marches on.

Front ends come together a little more with panels up to the hood seam. (Need to rework both fenders above the headlights and confirm symmetry before going much further up front)

Rear quarters taking shape! This part has me hesitant because the rear end looks fine skinned but ungainly as a bare wireframe. (Which is why I usually take photos from the front)

Door jamb mocked up, really need to finish the forward jamb to set in the door frame and complete the "barrel" between front fender and rear quarter.
Into the madness: Weight distribution is looking good, 2061lbs total with 4gal of fuel and no intake or exhaust plumbing.(as pictured above)

• Front 52% Rear 48%

• Only 2% Difference side to side

Outside of an intake and a few details the front ends as heavy as its going to get, the rear end however still has a trunk interior, body panels, and trunk lid. With a full 18 gallon fuel tank and 180lb driver a rear weight bias of 52-55% is within reason.(the car as it sits with a full tank is already 52% rear)

Weighed using 2 bathroom scales, measuring twice per wheel then the results were put together for a "calculation". Which is to say, this is all highly accurate.
Previous weight was 1734lbs 50/50 distribution as pictured with no wireframe buck, body, cage, sill panels, fuel, battery, radiator, or floor.

Taking it easy this weekend as I've been committing every free second quite alot of time lately.

Where we left off last month the RH rear fender was largely shaped in place and a few panels were formed but not secured in any way.

At this stage the body is a house of cards, everything is being held in place by the wireframe which in turn is directly welded to the chassis, nothing can easily be removed or put back into place after removal.

Long story short the front end had to come off so the cherry picker can reach the engine. Cutting the wireframe off means its no longer square it'll be largely impossible to relocate to the chassis as the hood structures shifted.

This is a blessing and a curse, sure its all wobbly now and you can't really reinstall the front end but, you can easily measure it out and ensure symmetry. That process was about deciding on a few known good points and welding support rods off of that (rods welded in place to ensure given distance diagonally and vertically)

From there a hood structure was Cobbled together to work with a pair of random hinges and boom, the front ends reinstalled an secured in a permanent manner. The square tube support structure is known symetrical so you can now reliably line up the measured points of the hood and weld the two together, anything not measuring out properly can be identified both with hood symmetry and location to the chassis.

The entire wireframe buck underlying the body was eyeballed, the left and right sides were built in unison and measured to the best of my abilities however it's still tolerance stacking hundreds of points. Variances so far have been 1/8" per side with outliers being as bad as 1.5" (the wheelwells in particular as those beams bend on all 3 axis and could not be reliably copied or located side to side) Overall I'm happy with the accuracy of the process given how much time and money it can save over a wood buck, plus the ability to iterate the design.

The side Barrels have been trimmed, in this case using a paper template to make sure Left and RH doors are cut to a similar shape.

An Aside: The body has been streamlined towards ease of production instead of uncompromising art, basically how simple can it be made and not look like something hacked together in a garage. The simple slab sides, beetle roof, clamshell hood, and abrupt seams are all part of that decision. My pipe dream is to build something like this for a customer where time invested isn't the main concern, with full time effort and better materials you could bring a design from your imagination directly into production instead of shaving every possible corner. (I don't want to be 30 and bankrupt when this thing finally moves) Having learned from this chassis I could make a much stronger example and would know what to design around instead of on the spot problem solving for every detail. Ahh to dream

Bonus @Just-Jeepin bait:
Fancy chassis for an unpictured Bronco and a Reproduction Cobra motor for the Orange unit.

Ole scrappy compared to the arts and crafts mockup from earlier

@JunkleMKVII Asked how the metalshaping is being done, here's a overview with slides.

Get some Cardboard conformed, trace it out, then cut it to shape, and test fit. The last thing you want to do is eyeball how much material you need and come up short.

Trace the cardboard onto your metal, I usually give myself a little extra on a couple sides. There are many ways to use the wheel, what gets larger bends in quickly is using the side of the Anvil as the fulcrum rather then the center. You press on the panel as pictured and roll it through, instead of working front to back. However rolling it traditionally is useful for gentle adjustments and taking out small dents, whereas pressing on the side is fairly aggressive.

Great you've spent the last couple hours wheeling, hammering, and test fitting. It fits snug to the wheelwell but won't shrink down enough at the front to conform with the grille.

Plan B: Don't have the skill to shrink and stretch a panel that large? Neither do I, so work with smaller panels that are easier to fiddle with. (Also allows you trim out material)

Mockup a panel, trace out where to cut (you can see on the trace, as the panels formed their edges "grew"; the straight cuts became curved) It's not quite fitting to the wireframe buck on its edges.
Trying to impart a curve forward towards the grille while maintaining the upward bend of the wheelwell means shrinking one end and stretching the center. Holding the panel at an angle to the workbench, then hammering down into it folds the surface that's still touching the table and stretches wherever the hammers hitting. Place the center that you want to curve over a corner and hammer around it, as the metal stretches it will start forcing the leading edge to curl up, continue to hammer that flat as the metal collects. Having shrunk one end, and stretched the center its now curved. Run it through the wheel to remove witness marks, fine tune it with your hands, and keep going through the steps until you like it.
That panel took 6 hours of weekend effort. What's already on the car is the extent of my metalworking experience, so take anything here with a grain of salt. On the other hand its clearly doable without a boatload of experience.

@RallyWrench Everything about bringing a classic back into service feels so right. Nothing beats that smell of sunbaked interior and a light(heavy) film of oil.

Some time ago I bought the world's rustiest manual k20, drove around for several months to get some life into it and sold it to my father who regularly hauls firewood/gravel/soil through muddy trails. Every time I see it there's a new dent or gash, It's living its best life probably stuck with the hubs locked

@415s30 Man that restoration been going for what, 5 years now?

@Wolox42122 Beemer

@pyroholtz Grocery life means downstacking pallets at ungodly hours

@Taylor-Martin Boil the old tank, pressure washing won't be get results you trust.

Once you have a clean tank and the cars driving, the fuel inside will keep the rust from becoming a bigger problem (assuming you get most off or sealed the tank though various means). Which is to say cleaning the tank is a permanent solution given its well done.

@MM54 That's a good point, canned goods have certainly gone up, Cambells condensed soups are well over $2 when they were just over a dollar prepandemic. Frozen veggies are still cheap but various other frozen foods are way up (ravioli, meatballs, burritos, pizzas)

@Taylor-Martin If you decide to keep the tank Electrolytic rust removal would be the way to go.

@MidEngine Can comfirm it's cheaper to buy a few Tacobell dollar breakfast burritos or spend $3 on their breakfast crunchwrap then to waste your own cheese, eggs, and tortillas. McDonald's prices are out of wack

@Qaaaaa Manual swapped

@jminer See also: