latoracing

As all the tack welding was taken care of and a few other details completed, its weld time. I would have loved to just run 4ea long beads all the way around as that would be really fun, yea, that would turn out great lol. I have taken my time and not gone very fast at all. I stitch welded all over and let it cool. Flipped the frame over and repeated. I kept the majority of this fairly cool to the touch, as in not super heating the entire frame. The entire time i have been welding over the past few days I have heard only two tacks pop. Both of them were on the frame side that I had just put in place. It isn't warping, thankfully, and I have just a little more to do. While it is cooling I have started the legs with their attachment plates. More to come...

I had some drops left over from a job that required the pipe and I have been looking for a place to use them instead of scrapping them. They might not add anything to it, but hopefully won't hurt anything lol. As the majority of the steel (so far) in this is 3/8" it weighs 15.7 pounds per square foot. This frame alone is 200 lbs so should dress out around 275ish. I took the plasma cutter to the tacks on the butt welded joining the inner wrap and it relaxed all the stress in the weldment, it lays nice and flat without any clamps now. That 1/8" twist could have gotten a lot worse. Getting the outer wrap all dialed in and tack welded to the side I left the butt weld totally undone. Thankfully, this is still flat. I have a few areas to bevel then I can get the rest of this frame tack welded together. So far so good, yea!!! Mike

No, it's the same ol' one I've had, just moved it away from the wall as I need access to both sides of it. The frame is sturdy and I skimped on the top (3/16' hot rolled) as I usually do not play with 3/8" plate. I should have pained the frame, it's all rusty now, but still works great.

N cases are pretty lol. I need one of those at some point in time. I will look even better once you get it stuck back in the housing.

I have had a fun day with the weld joint preparation and part fitting / trimming. I had eluted to the dread of having to bevel all these weld joints and decided to try an old torch method with a plasma cutter. I'm sure several people have accomplished this task this way, but I haven't tried it. I wasn't 100% certain the "flame" would be controllable, but it works like a charm, with or without a guide. The without method is a little on the shaky side, but knocked a 45ish degree bevel all the way around these parts in less than a couple of hours. A rather quick touchup with a flap disk and it was ready for assembly. I started with the inside strip, trimming, tacking and forming it a little as I went. You wouldn't think that a few tacks and very few stitch weld would draw (shrink) a part terribly, this was on the road to pretzel-ville lol. I clamped it to the table and test fitted the pipe inserts. Positioning the opposite side in it's place I tack welded the 3" Schedule 80 316L pipes to the lower plate. I am going to cut some gussets to go in-between the tubes and the fillers, for a little extra support. I'll have to plasma cut a bunch of them. Mike

I have wanted to build this for many years and have finally made time to do so. I haven't had a need for a wheeling machine for many years and have always had to use someone else's equipment. I almost went with an Imperial wheel and had it built, but there is this issue with buying vs. building. I seem to have more time than funds so I decided to attempt my version. Plus I am board and need a new challenge lol. The machine will be built around a Hoosier Profiles 3 x 8 upper with 3 x 3 contact flat hardened anvils and their adjuster. These parts arrived a couple of months ago and I double checked the measurements and did a very rough sketch of my vision. I have access to the equipment at work, along with Solid Edge CAD programs, and a bunch of other fun toys, which i know is cheating, but why not take a little advantage? Taking my rough sketch and getting it plugged into a format that can be made into a DXF file along with a bunch of other modeling aspects that really didn't need to be done with this particular project. In a few hours a basic drawing of the frame was rendered. The main dimensions are 4" x 8" section made from 3/8" CRS with some schedule 80 pipe for the fill ins. I know that the tubes will offer 0 weight savings as the tube is almost 3x heaver that the two plugs of 3/8" material. The tubes will offer little help for torsional rigidity, other than to dampen some harmonics, and will add some aesthetics, which I personally like, so they are a part of it. This will be a 26" throat design, with a "short" 8" backbone. I am making the lower portion removable, but in reading many threads on Metal Meet and All Metal Shaping forums, I'll probably never take it off. Getting all the details all dialed in the parts were laser cut. Once chopped out, I was able to get the wraps rolled into shape with one of our "little" section rollers. In no time, the wraps were all basically formed, ready to be trimmed. I'll get them home so I can bevel edges (for days lol) and get this tack welded in one piece. Should make for a fun project, least it has so far.

I think he went with Team III wheels. I actually called the guy to make me a custom set but it he didn't want to build them "my way". The website has a list of sizes and offsets and should be easy to order from. I like the wheel you selected better than the Team III personally. Here is a link to some vintage T/A cars that might give you some ideas. http://www.ponysite.de/transam_news0.htm A guy on VMF linked it a few weeks back. I am attempting my own T/A themed build with a Pro Touring twist, complete with the 1" nose drop, side exhaust and a bunch of other inspired bits. I can highly recommend the SoT suspension route (haven't driven it yet lol), you will not be disappointed.

You all are far too kind. I used the forward leaf spring mounts as the rear main attachment area and some adjustable threaded supports under the frame rail close to the torque boxes. I also positioned the side rails to center the rocker pinch welds to use with small jack stands along with some adjustable rear supports that attach to the tie down plate bolt holes on the rear frame rails. The majority of the table build starts on page 29 in this thread. If you need any measurements let me know.

I love the mini lite styled rims. They will look fantastic and will add that T/A theme you are after. I will do a build with that style one day. I like the shape of the spokes, adds a little flair to a timely design. This is an example that I look at often as a clean look. Modern sized wheels that don't look so modern.

Thanks Bob and Mac, I'm just enjoying being creative. I need some more practice as I am getting rusty supervising all day long, its no fun. Finished trimming in the beef-up part and down sizing it by over 1/2", it looks much better. I marked the area that it will be attached to and removed the floor leaving the frame rail flange exposed. I did not want to weld this to the floor pan, that would have been fairly useless. With all that removed, I went ahead and marked the area for the pipe to go through and cut it out. I also cut a strip out of the leftover tube to enclose the 1/2 hole. A little bending in the vice, tacked and welded in place. I will trim the excess off and get the welds ground down on the beef-up and the frame rail. Should be welding this one in place on the next posting.

Since everything else I have done on this car is "overkill", might as well continue with that theme lol. I wanted to give the frame rails a little more support, since I all but cut them in half. I also need a way to plug those huge holes I cut in my new floor. So I started with a template, then enlarged it a little. I then transferred the pattern to some 2" x 4" x 1/8" wall tube. A little bit of Sharpie guided plasma cutting and we have some roughed out frame beef-ups. A little trimming, some grinding, more trimming and the beef-up is starting to fit. When I torched out the rough shape, I left a long strip of the top of the tube, which was cut at the tangent line of the radius on the corners of the tube. The front is bent down to the radius I cut into the tube, which takes the contour of the part. Tack welded in place as the strip makes contact Fully welded and ground. The radius on the sides mimic the original shape of the tube, (your how to for the day lol) and will look like it was formed, not welded. I have a couple of plasma holes I didn't get filled, but I'll take care of them shortly. I am going to cut some of the height out of these as they look huge, and probably do not need to be that big. I'll get it trimmed, then notched for the side pipe routing.

The engine bay is looking very nice. The strut tower brace turned out great and blends in well.

I had started with the idea of having a stainless steel surround, but didn't continue with it. I'll try painted and see how well it holds up. The surround can always be added later. I fixed the rocker shape on the rear portion, it looks much better. The exhaust was removed, the band was welded in the frame rail notch and a few other touchups were knocked out. I decided to go ahead and remove the car from the rotisserie for a while, so over to the lift it went. The frame table was positioned under the car and lowered into position. I was glad it all lined up with just a little persuasion. I think it looks funny on this as I have only seen the '70 convertible sitting on it. The junk castors I used for the table do not like the weight of this car. With the block, heads and transmission in the chassis, along with a roof and cage it added some weight (compared to the convertible) and the castors protested. I'll get it all in position and leveled, then get these holes in the floor filled back up.

As I continue to get interrupted with other issues (like putting a clutch in a AWD Outback, yea...) I have gotten the attachment brackets fabricated and positioned. They were already laid out so all I had to do was to cut them out, drill, bend and weld them up. A few holes drilled in the car (actually a bunch of other steps were needed, blah, blah blah...) and the passenger side piping is fairly well done. I removed the system and welded the muffler to the X pipe assembly. I do not like how the rear rocker area doesn't look like the other side. A straight edge confirmed that this side is about 3/16" flatter than the driver's side. So while the exhaust is off the car, this area will be chopped back apart and brought out to the same contour. My OCD will not let me ignore this. Barring any more surprise "friend" projects, I'll get that fixed and move on to getting the holes in the floor covered up.

Still slowly getting things accomplished, snails have a quicker pace than I do lately. Didn't want to re-hash the usual grinding and fitting portion, so a little fast forward. The welds are all ground down, and the majority of the areas are semi trimmed to final size. Fitting pipes, welding V band clamp flanges, tacking stuff together... (with a gratuitous weld porn pic) With things coming together, a quick check to see if this fits, which thankfully it does. I have removed the muffler to cut the exit hole in the side and get these pipes attached. The extra long, drawn out exhaust build is getting ever so close to completion, yea!!

It has a single castor attached to a removable cross member, just for rolling around purposes. It makes it easy to maneuver in tight spaces.

Looking quite nice. I can't believe how much of a difference a little cleaning and priming makes. Doesn't look like the same car.

You all are too kind. Thank you for the compliments. Got to chopping up the passenger side. I made some templates from the other side and laid out all the cut areas. I removed the majority of the areas and left some material to fit the parts too. Getting the tunnel filler to fit was a little easier as I had a somewhat clue of how to go about it. With a little time, the hole in the rocker was just right, the inner rocker was laid out and trimmed. Lots of grinding and more material removal, the filler was tack welded in place. I went ahead and mimicked the notch from the driver's side and welded it in place, while I was at it. Getting the majority of the parts all welded up, it is ready for some metal finishing. It would be fun to leave it all messy without grinding the welds... maybe next time lol

^^^^^ This sounds like fun! ^^^^^^ In having just "a few" hours involved in constructing my exhaust system, I can sympathize with the people who attempt to market exhaust systems to the public on a mass production scale. Ensuring that these systems fit without modifications takes a lot of engineering. I have seen a Magnaflow 2.5" system installed on a '68 coupe, which fit nicely, but have not seen a full 3" over the axle system. Keeping an exhaust system tucked up tight to the chassis is another difficult task, especially with some full length headers and larger pipes. I went with Spintech oval x pipe (3" sized universal kit) with some custom spec (read extra baffles and larger case) mufflers. This had better sound good, cause it sure isn't a quick install lol. And I sure would not want to be paying someone to build all of this, I'd be broke...

While I was getting all the welds and plasma cut areas all smoothed out on the modified areas, I went ahead and finish welded the muffler to the pipe assembly. I attempted to keep the tube in the same relative position while I went around the joint. Everything turned out nicely. I dusted a little primer on the rocker area that was bare metal and removed the tape off of the tip. Getting all of it reinstalled on the car, without any extra bracing it still lines up, thankfully. I had to get a right side up pic of the tips without their yellow tape, the picture does not do them justice... With a little rearranging, I'm onto the passenger side. The tip on the driver's side will have to come off again to make some cut templates, and for general reference. Hopefully the second side will be quicker.

Glad the site is back up and running. I have missed posting and reading everyone's progress. I have been in tedious land for several weeks. These tip mounting brackets were kicking my butt lol. I went through several tab designs, that were thankfully made out of paper, to verify if the tip could be removed with them in place. This particular example would not come out without hitting, so I came up with a multi piece design, which started out as rather large tabs. The second section of tabs have to be bolted in place, with not a whole lot of room to put many fasteners. The forward tab landed between what use to be the leaf spring mount, which is about 3/8" with all the layers. The rear area needed some beefing up as it was nothing but the floor pan so some 3/16" plate was formed and welded in place. The tabs incorporated more of the blue silicone isolators. I was using miscellaneous hardware to attach all this, hence the extremely long bolts. I pilot drilled the brackets so I could mark the parts welded to the exhaust pipe. Removing all this, the brackets were drilled out to size and the attachment brackets received a little trimming. I used stainless nuts / bolts for the "actual" fasteners but I am definitely going with a socket headed fastener, as these hex head bolts are a pain to tighten. With all the pieces all in place, the tip is rather close to center, and can be adjusted with the V-Band clamp and the preload on the bushings. There is very little movement, it shouldn't go anywhere. I need to tidy up all the chopped up areas and grind a bunch of welds along with fixing the hole I made in the quarter a while back. I did make duplicates of all the parts so hopefully the passenger side will not take six weeks to get to this point. I have some ideas on the "upper" side to reinforce the frame and cap off the area, more to come on that.

Least you are putting stuff on to stay lol. Those look much goodlier

The mounts and doubler plates are all welded in place, they are not going anywhere. Did a little bit of choppin' on this poor thing. The plasma cutter got a slight workout with the several layers of material and careful trimming of the areas. I didn't want to go nuts and chop out something that I'd have to put back, so baby steps and a lot of checking. I got it all to fit and tapped it in place. I rolled the car over several times to get to different areas and to watch the plasma slag fall out. The upper (I get confused with the car upside down lol) part of the frame rail got a 2" radius area chopped out of it to help clear the V-band clamp flange. I will have to go back and weld a band in this area to reinforce it. The V-band clamp didn't want to play well with the rocker tunnel, it would get stuck on the straight piece of tubing I had mocked up. So, 3 steps forward, 8 back. I removed a section of the top (there is that orientation issue again) to help in installing / removing all this assembly. I get to patch another hole ( along with my quarter as I sanded too much :( ) but that's half the fun... As the straight tube wouldn't get me anywhere close to where I wanted, I cut the tacks off and tacked a short piece of pipe with a 45 on the end. The V-band clamp flange will have to get a little notch in it to sit right, but for fitting purposes it was ok. With some spacers, and a little tape, I was able to center the tip, and get a good measurement for the other portion of the tubing. A little chopping and the other elbow fell right in place. With everything kinda in place, the tips stick out about a 1/4" too much (measures 1/2" from the rocker) so I'll chop all this apart again and re-tack everything, triple checking before it is all welded in place. I also have to come up with a clamp / hanger for all this. Lots more to do, and I still have an entire other side to do...

That cleaned up nicely. Having a uniform, rust free starting point will make for a great paint job. Looking good!

I am assuming that you are referring to the frame rail as I do not have frame connectors. Once I have these anchor points welded in place, I'm going to chop up my floor pan a little more, along with a notch on the frame rail on the floor pan side. Kinda hard to explain, but will show this as I get to it.