latoracing 256 Report post Posted February 18, 2017 Before my hip became an issue, I rode freestyle (obviously) and mountain bikes on a daily basis. I should have saved money and bought unicycles as I spent the majority of my time on the rear wheel lol. Bob, the cyclists have all migrated to the lakes. They were everywhere the other afternoon lol. I like the inverted picture, does give a better perspective. Makes the forward lower portion look larger than the rear one, will have to check that out. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grabber70Mach 107 Report post Posted February 18, 2017 Look awesome Mike. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vicfreg 771 Report post Posted February 20, 2017 Wow...they look great! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
latoracing 256 Report post Posted February 23, 2017 To get the tips all centered in their tunnels I have been needing to fabricate some hangers. It would have been easier to form some round solid rod or get a stockish style hanger to do the job, but I couldn't resist. Starting with some 1/8" stainless I just started with a 6" over all length. Put some holes in it and dimpled them, then formed a little break on the lower potion to stiffen it up a little. A few more dimpled parts for the end, with a little trimming... After welding the end part on and a little cleanup, the parts start to take shape, The high temp silicone bushings I bought give the bracket a nice look. Giving an idea of how they will look, once I get them welded to the muffler... Now to make the tabs to attach these brackets to the car,,, 2 69Mustang16 and Ridge Runner reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RPM 1,190 Report post Posted February 24, 2017 Mmm...Dimple dies! I always considered Steve McQueen to be the King of Cool, but this Mike guy is closing in fast. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
latoracing 256 Report post Posted March 2, 2017 Did a little bit of trimming on the attachment brackets and got them welded to the mufflers. Cleaned up the HAZ areas a little, then stuck them back on the car. Getting them in their respective positions, I took some measurements for the attachment tabs. I had pictured two designs, one was a basic formed angle, and the other was a bit more involved. I of course went with the more involved lol. I started with some internal doublers that will provide some much needed strength to this thin sheet metal. The "saddle" is a little smaller width wise so all this will get drilled and rosette welded to death. The tube is 1 1/8" x 1/8" wall DOM with a 7/8" spacer on the inside. I used a 3" long 3/8" grade 8 bolt, slightly modified, for the attachment fastener. I need to do a little more fitting, then all this will get fried in place. 1 Ridge Runner reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
newstang 388 Report post Posted March 2, 2017 how are you going to make the connection through the subframe connector? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RPM 1,190 Report post Posted March 2, 2017 Pretty slick. What's the thought process of having the threads exposed as opposed to having a bolt thread into the tubing with a welded in nut, a thread boss or a tube adapter? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
latoracing 256 Report post Posted March 2, 2017 Pretty slick. What's the thought process of having the threads exposed as opposed to having a bolt thread into the tubing with a welded in nut, a thread boss or a tube adapter? Using the shoulder of the bolt as a mechanical stop (I have 7/8" non threaded portion under the isolator) and not squishing my isolator bushing to death was one of my reasons. The second was to have a locking nut on the stud as a normal bolt wouldn't have any type of locking mechanism. I do not want this connection to come loose. The isolators do not have a metal sleeve in them, just an imbedded washer on one side. 1 RPM reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
latoracing 256 Report post Posted March 2, 2017 how are you going to make the connection through the subframe connector? 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. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vicfreg 771 Report post Posted March 2, 2017 Mike, that is wayyyyyy cool. Those blue isolators are a great idea, or else you will get a lot of resonance in the car..... 1 SweellTrex reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
newstang 388 Report post Posted March 2, 2017 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. Yes, sorry, for some reason i thought i was looking at subframe. crap im getting old and need quadfocals at this point :-) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
latoracing 256 Report post Posted March 8, 2017 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... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RPM 1,190 Report post Posted March 8, 2017 I still get a bit excited when I see an update on this thread in my email. Good stuff Mike. So at $10/hr for your labor, what's the damage so far? Ya know I'm kidding. All that thinking on how to get your fab work done has to be good exercise for your brain. Probably better than crossword puzzles. I'm serious on that one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vicfreg 771 Report post Posted March 8, 2017 Mike, I am guessing you want to use that V band clamp so you can remove the mufflers if you need to? That is a really tight spot in between the muffler and the frame rail and you got 2 bends in there....whew! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
latoracing 256 Report post Posted April 3, 2017 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. 2 69Mustang16 and Ridge Runner reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RPM 1,190 Report post Posted April 4, 2017 I've been jonesing for my latoracing fix for a couple of weeks now! Nice thinking there Mike, looks like a simple solution but we all know better. 1 Machspeed reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Machspeed 219 Report post Posted April 5, 2017 On 4/4/2017 at 3:43 AM, RPM said: I've been jonesing for my latoracing fix for a couple of weeks now! Nice thinking there Mike, looks like a simple solution but we all know better. Ditto...lol! Mike does some stinking incredible metal work, does he not!!! Hey RPM, looks like your "Republic" is going to become a safe zone state. Thoughts? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vicfreg 771 Report post Posted April 5, 2017 Nice mounting brackets.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
latoracing 256 Report post Posted April 11, 2017 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. 1 69RavenConv reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RPM 1,190 Report post Posted April 11, 2017 So cool. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
69RavenConv 286 Report post Posted April 12, 2017 47 minutes ago, RPM said: So cool. ^^^^^ What he said :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MAC390 327 Report post Posted April 12, 2017 That's real nice work. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
latoracing 256 Report post Posted April 18, 2017 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 1 Ridge Runner reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
connery 4 Report post Posted April 30, 2017 The exhaust pipe looks really cool, keep up the good work! I'm going to be following a lot of threads on this subforum, many of them are great! Keep up the good work! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
