And so it begins...the AP build.

[joe]

Put the front glam on to check a few things. The tow bar isn’t exactly in center of the rad opening. I’m not sure if this would cause problems if it ever had a tow strap hooked to it. I may cut some tack welds tomorrow and lower it.
I may have to trim back the lower front corner of the frame as it may interfere with the body…or I may just trim back the body since I will be redoing a lot of fiberglass in that area anyway.
View attachment 134852View attachment 134853

 

[Neil]

Put the front glam on to check a few things. The tow bar isn’t exactly in center of the rad opening. I’m not sure if this would cause problems if it ever had a tow strap hooked to it. I may cut some tack welds tomorrow and lower it.
I may have to trim back the lower front corner of the frame as it may interfere with the body…or I may just trim back the body since I will be redoing a lot of fiberglass in that area anyway.
View attachment 134852View attachment 134853View attachment 134854View attachment 134855

If a tow strap is looped around that long thin bar and pulled hard, won't the bar bend in the middle?

 

[joe]

For a straight pull around the track because of a mechanical, or winching into my trailer...with such a light car and 1/8" wall tubing, I'm not worried. For a harder pull, the tow strap could be slid to the corner where it wouldn't flex.

 

[joe]

Cut the diagonal bars off to cut down the front diagonals so the tow bar could be lowered. Everything seems a little more square now. Plenty of room around the bar with the condenser somewhat in place. I need to figure out how I’m going to attitude to the rad.

 

[joe]

Hi, my name is Joe and I tend to overthink and over engineer things.
It bothered me that the front upper A-arms had only triangulated sheet metal for support. I wanted to clean and stiffen up the upper attachment for the rad support .
Problem solved. I'll tie in the upper cross brace with the A-arm mounts. I also plan on bracing the sway bar attachment areas as well.

 

[Devin]

Hi, my name is Joe and I tend to overthink and over engineer things.
It bothered me that the front upper A-arms had only triangulated sheet metal for support. I wanted to clean and stiffen up the upper attachment for the rad support .
Problem solved. I'll tie in the upper cross brace with the A-arm mounts. I also plan on bracing the sway bar attachment areas as well.View attachment 134988View attachment 134989View attachment 134990

Joe, to find my radiator angle, I measured the angle of the inlet/outlet tubes and made my mounting support angle so that the inlet/outlets would be parallel to the bottom of the car (or floor of the front support structure). If it helps, mine is a 30 degree tilt forward of vertical.

 

[joe]

When I was mocking up the radiator, I made sure that its lowest point sat above where the floor of the front compartment will be. I have a 4” wide radiator. To get it positioned where I wanted it, it sits at a 35 degree angle. Both of my outlets are on the bottom. They aren’t quite level, but I’m not sure I have a choice.

 

[Howard Jones]

A bit of advice (free). Anybody but you who tows the car from your tow point will put a huge amount of load on the tow point. A lot of it laterally as the vehicle towing your car makes a turn. MUCH MORE than you can imagine. It will be a JERK! JERK! JERK! As the tow strap stretches. You will be yelling FUCK! FUCK! FUCK ! as this goes on. Ask me how I know.

Referencing post #105. Triangulate the bottom of the square of the radiator support box with an "X" made from the same square tubing as the rest of the down-slopping tubes and the sides with a vertical from top rear to bottom rear with another horizontal element across the bottom front from left to right.

If you can't jack the car off the ground from it then it will bend when towed. For sure! If it bends, the radiator will be twisted and it will split the welds and leak. Also if you track the car, the track workers are not gentle or careful as they pull your car back to the paddock IN A HURRY! A flat tire can cost you a radiator repair. Ya ask me how I know again.

IMHO you should be able to hang the car from the ceiling by the tow hook. Ya...... that strong!

 

[joe]

Great advice! More than likely, the cross bar will be a brace for the rad support more than anything. After I figure out how I’m going to hinge the front clam, I’ll weld on a tow hook receiver at each corner for a ZL1addons.com hook like I have on my 69 and 66 track cars.

Then

 

[joe]

Front sway bar centered up and mounted. Now the search for end links begins.

 

[Neil]

Front sway bar centered up and mounted. Now the search for end links begins. View attachment 135021View attachment 135022

As a German physicist I worked for used to tell me "I am not a friend of such an arrangement."

 

[joe]

Not sure what that means….but these should work:

 

[Devin]

Just my 2 cents, I thought I would need longer end links like those but ended up adjusting to ones that are about 170mm/6.7” to keep the ends further away from my wheels in lock to lock steering extremes. Your sway bar looks very similarly mounted to mine.

 

[joe]

By bars are OEM C5 ZO6/Z51 bars. I think my sweet spot will be around 7” .

 

[joe]

I don’t think the rear will be as easy. I know the C5 front bar works on the back of this chassis, but has to be narrowed.

 

[joe]

Simple solution to mounting the ac condenser. It’s held on with rivets on the backside.
Rad unit set at 34 degrees with 3/15” between lowest point and what will be the floor of the front compartment. I can finish up bracing and then work on hinge design. I’m not gonna finish weld anything until I’m completely done and everything is working properly with the clam.

 

[joe]

Bracing nearly completed. I may put another piece of round bar below the tow bar, but that depends on what I come up with for the clam hinge. I’m leaning towards something similar to what I’ve seen in what I believe are Tornado chassis.
I plan on using an Optima battery up front

and mount similar to what I have in my 69 and 66.

 

[joe]

Glad I lowered the tow bar while I had the chance. Time to get a plan together to mount-hinge the front clam. Then it’s on to the hood…that is currently in 4 pieces!

 

[joe]

The way the headlight block offs were installed is unacceptable in my garage. Uneven, held in with 1 layer of mat, no fillet at edges, etc. I’m cutting them out and will fit and install properly with West Systems epoxy. Once this is done, I can fit the front clan to the new frame.
There’s a AP Gulf car going across the block at Mecum tonight. Estimate is up to $145k. Someone bought it in BAT a couple of months ago for $98K. It’s a piece of crap Accord to the pictures. I figure my car will be worth north of $500K when it’s done!)

 

[joe]

Covered head to toe and still itching.