1970 Grabber Green Project

[latoracing 256]

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!!

 

[latoracing 256]

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. 

[stangnet33 88]

Looks great !   With the outside surrounding rocker are you going to give it a stainless steel treatment or just going with body color ?   

[latoracing 256]

On 5/15/2017 at 12:38 AM, stangnet33 said:

Looks great !   With the outside surrounding rocker are you going to give it a stainless steel treatment or just going with body color ?   

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. 

 

[MAC390 327]

Looking real nice , great work and i am really impressed with your engineering and welding skills. 

[Ridge Runner 1,112]

I built a 66 fast back road racer on the rotisserie ,cage and all ,two casters folded under the extra weight and it was not fun turning it

[RPM 1,190]

3 hours ago, MAC390 said:

i am really impressed with your engineering and welding skills. 

Ya MAC, we are all impressed!

[Vicfreg 771]

Hey Mike.  Nice to see your car on that frame.  Guess my Convertible was a lightweight compared to yours.   Looks good!

[latoracing 256]

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. 

 

 

 

[RPM 1,190]

Your talent never ceases to amaze me Mike. Kudos!

[MAC390 327]

excellent work

[latoracing 256]

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.

 

[Ash 145]

That's a cool addition. To the unknown you would not even pick it once complete.

[Vicfreg 771]

Mike, wow....you have outdone yourself.....

[Machspeed 219]

I don't frequent your build often Mike but when I do, I'm always amazed! As a car guy and former metallurgist, I love watching this come together. Your passion for what you enjoy doing is poured out here. Absolutely awesome! Thank you for sharing!!!

Say, I've got to build a chassis cart for my build. Where are the attachment points located on your table under the car? 

[latoracing 256]

58 minutes ago, Machspeed said:

I don't frequent your build often Mike but when I do, I'm always amazed! As a car guy and former metallurgist, I love watching this come together. Your passion for what you enjoy doing is poured out here. Absolutely awesome! Thank you for sharing!!!

Say, I've got to build a chassis cart for my build. Where are the attachment points located on your table under the car? 

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.

 

 

[Machspeed 219]

Mike, thanks! I'll look at those pictures and bug ya later if I need additional info on it. 

[latoracing 256]

Haven't updated this in a little while, been busy with that E-wheel build , it is a fun distraction but hopefully going to be useful on future projects. 

I did get the passenger side beef-up welded in place a week or so ago.

I have the other side all trimmed, fitted and on it's way. The floor is laid out for cutting and that's where it's been sitting... The E-wheel is getting closer to being completed, I'll get back to this frame reinforcement business soon.

Meanwhile, weld, weld, weld, weld.....

[Vicfreg 771]

Mike.... So, a small part of the exhaust piping is actually going to above the plane of the rear floor pan, go through that hole in your new upper frame rail, and then back out through the rocker...?    Wow....    Incredible work.

[latoracing 256]

I've been bad, haven't posted on this is forever. Kinda lost the drive of posting with all the picture issues lol.

I have been working on odds and ends, but got irritated with the exhaust tip floor pan patches. I did get the the other frame beef up put in place a while back

So I decided to get my motivation back by completing the hammer form for the modified '69 tail lights. I despise wood (best use is for keeping the house warm in the winter lol) and do not like the way it works. The MDF that I used to make the form out of is still annoying, but I got everything ready to try out a piece. As the '70 tail light panel has a convex shape to it, the form also has the same radius to match, it may look flat, but it isn't. Sandwiching the material between the blocks, the clamp holes were marked, punched, then bolted together (so nothing slips) and carefully forming the material edge (starting in the middle of the long opening) around the hammer form shape. This gives a general idea of the shaping process.

As I worked around each opening using several different hammers and punches, I was able to form the small edges into a decent shape, that needs a bunch of touching up. I smushed the middle opening's top, so that will have to be fixed. For the first attempt, it turned out decent. Removing the top revealed the formed 20ga.

I had to see if the lens would even come close to fitting in the openings, with a little tweaking, they kinda fit.

The corners are the biggest issue, as I need to build a dedicated forming tool to help form them better. The flanges are not quite tight enough due to the MDF giving a little, and hammering this by hand. I have a few more bends to add to this part, along with refining the shape. I'll stick it on the tail light panel and see if I like it before chopping up a brand new panel. More to come...

[Ridge Runner 1,112]

Oak works pretty good for a hammer form but it is harder to work with. That is going to look nice 

[JET 445 43]

I used two pieces of steel plate clamped together to do the corners of my tail light repair.

[latoracing 256]

35 minutes ago, JET 445 said:

"I used two pieces of steel plate clamped together to do the corners of my tail light repair."

If I was making a repair part, that was flat, this is exactly what I would have done.

With the radius of the rear panel, and the 3 separate holes, metal would have been much more preferable. Oak is an option as Ridge stated above, but I just got back from picking up a truck load of oak, in just the right size. (to fit in my wood stove lol). Phenolic would be my ultimate hammer form material as it does not have grain structure, and doesn't expand and contract or split like wood. Only making 3 to 4 parts tops, then the MDF will be toast.

 

[MAC390 327]

Nice work, you have a lot of patience.

[Footcutter11 23]

Nice!