click here for a over critical hobbiest welder

[pigeon]

Whats up, my names Shankle, been toying with the idea of a build thread for a while, I figured I have enough to start one now that should progress fairly quickly until completion. Rewind to 2011 November my last event at Summit before I came up with the great idea of taking apart a running car.

I wanted it to be lower, look cooler, go faster and just be more awesome all around. So naturally this happened..

Sold off pretty much everything except my suspension, and a few wheels.
It took until about May to sell off everything, but the first thing I bought was a shit ton of 1.5 seamless tube and a JD2 bender and notcher. That kept me busy for a while.




Felt pretty happy about the fitment of my first cage, I'm 6.2 so I needed it to be as tight as possible. Then I continued to cut things off the car which would force me to learn how to fab at a higher level. This is strickly hobby only, Ill be the first to tell you how everything I do could be better.
Anyways I think Im having more fun building this thing than I will driving it.


Finally got around to picking up some cool parts from George and MAMotorsports


I have been wanting to cage a car since high school, so after 6 years of ideas from all types of car and track events etc, this is what I started coming up



The door bars are my favorite part. I have so much room inside the car its not funny.
Went to Road A and then palm beach with Mr. Lewallen

He built a pretty sick rig, and drives it even better, you should check him out.
I got this idea from my jeep, I like being able to just lift the doors off. So I cut up the door brackets/hinges what ever you want to call them and made it so I can just lift the door skins off.


Should make working on this thing easier.
Doing drastic things


Rear firewall, copied Miro here.
Fitment is more important with welding instead of wheels Im finding out

Got a box for fuel

Made a box for the box

Did the whole subframe thing
Steering colum holder. Dimple because there cool, welds= bag of dicks as usual.

More unessacary cutting and fab


Made a stinger for the front of my jeep, got one set of fn's powder coated.

Made a fab table

Got a compressor and small lathe

More Dimples to try and be cool


Booger welded in place

Figured I could use more bars for when I wreck and roll this thing and my shit welds break loose. Triangulation..

Yes that is a Aileron from a airplane on top of the car It will be used...
Typical collection of stickers

Got some solid mounts


Started making roll center correction stuff and mono ball things to replace the ball joint that pukes grease everywhere. More lathe stuff, found out that i need a bearing with a higher misalignment. There on order, more waiting.



Both the tie rod and ball joint tapers on the spindle had to be drilled out to a straight 5/8 and 3/4 shank. Saw this happen on Stew Leasks car and it seemed pretty bitchen.
Should be able to get some decent angle with my flca's scalloped out for the tie rod (now hiem) and the knuckles from MA. So I figured I should move the rack forward too.


Got it to move forward about an inch or so

Shouldnt have any over centering problems.
Got a TIG machine and redid my front bar.


Learning a lot every time I pick up the torch.
Renforcing


That's pretty much where I'm at right now. I need to buy a shit ton of fiber glass and finish the fab work, and then hopefully before the year is up I'll be driving this thing..
Non car related I made a rottisery

And put a Airplane on it.


Everyone loves a homeless looking dog

[tdaffern]

Sick work man!!! can't wait for updates

[bova17]

sweet ass build man, whats that tig welder though?

[alexisthemovie]

Wow, what is the cleanest cutting / preferred tool for cutting thin sheetmetal like quarter panels?

[StryfeS13]

What do you do for a living?

[di-devol]

I need a welder stat. Awesome work dude!

[Teigen]

great welding!

[STL240SXDRIFT]

Great job! Cannot wait to see more!

[projectkouki]

Badass build and welding!

[D.Adams]

Amazing build so far. Love all the fabrication work your doing cant wait fo another update. Your garage space is huge.

Subbed

[zooopreme]

Liking the fab work for this car, definitely going to keep a look out for this thread. Nice work!

[EmpyreS13]

amazing work, subscribed for updates.

[Treize]

Mother of cutting your car's rear end off lmaoooooooooooo

[PoorMans180SX]

Be careful with the ball joint extension, it'll run into your brake rotor pretty quick, and adds a lot of ackerman.

[Extreme Dimensions]

keep this thing up !

[Trinidrift3]

dude, jezzzz. sub'd

[240boi115]

is there any part of your car that hasnt been hacked and modified??... lol its a sick thread though!

[hotlavaflow]

So unnecessary, I love it

[cchondro]

Hot damn subscribed.

[Got Insulin?]

I'm geekin' over your garage space, man. Looks like a really promising start to a rad build!

[IIIXziuR]

The thread title is very misleading. Great welding work.
Your work shed looks very roomy.

[pigeon]

Originally Posted by bova17

sweet ass build man, whats that tig welder though?

Thanks, I have had a miller 140 autoset mig since highschool, and just recently got a 200dx dynasty tig machine. Its way more than I can use right now but I like steep learning curves lol.

[pigeon]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

Be careful with the ball joint extension, it'll run into your brake rotor pretty quick, and adds a lot of ackerman.

Thanks for the heads up, I hadn't thought over the rotor yet, However Im basiclly coping Stew's set up so ill find a way to make it work.

Originally Posted by alexisthemovie

Wow, what is the cleanest cutting / preferred tool for cutting thin sheetmetal like quarter panels?

I just use a electric grinder with a thin cut off wheel. After a lot of use, you learn to get good with it.

Originally Posted by StryfeS13

What do you do for a living?

I push the start/stop buttons on a 5 axis CNC mill making aircraft parts out of composite core. We make parts for Boeing, Lockheed Martin, GKN and various other companies that make Bitchen planes. Cut a F35B Bomb Bay door the other day.


Thanks to the rest, Ill do my best to keep you all entertained lol.

[pigeon]

The shop is a project that My Grandfather, Dad and I took on three years ago, needed a work area and a place for a tractor (which is now back outside again haha) and some other equipment. Cool thing is, it powers the house and the barn and any left over is run back into the grid and sold to power companies.





Airplane parts



Anyways, back to the car. I got the rear subframe put on and put the motor and trans back in for another mock up. I need to make up a trans mount and then the underside of the car will be mostly done apart from running fuel and brake lines.



With Georges dual caliper spacing the wheel out another 8mm or so and then a 15mm spacer on a 17x10 +12 I should be filling out some 50mm fenders pretty well i think.



Steering is still unfinished, I have s14 FLCA that I cut and put heims on the inside of the arm so it wouldnt bind, extended the arm by 25mm after the tension rod and then scalloped the arm for even more room for the steering heim. Moved the steering rack forward almost an inch, picture is earlier in the thread, and now im waiting on my spherical bearing from Aurora. I got bearings from the chassis shop but the misalignment on those were only 8 degrees or so which is not enough. The Aurora bearings will 18 degrees of misalignment.
Ill be running a 17x9 +15 wheel with a 15mm spacer. still looks like the tension rod is going to be the limiting factor but I have a good idea of what I want to do with that.





All I have for now, Thanks again for all the love.

[energy0uth]

Are you on MA?

Don't remember the car at Summit. I love the solar setup and airplane work pays real well!

[pigeon]

MA? No I don't think so, Local forum?

I drove a Nov event in 2011, car broke some rockers around lunch so not a whole lot of driving.

[240boi115]

if thats going to be the final angle of your tires "lock to lock" then daaaaaaaaaaaaamn son!!!!!!!!!! thats ill!!

[bc.]

wowowowwow

[onthegrind]

This car is insane... and your fab skills are just as insane!

[izzy-]

Best build thread! Great ideal with the doors!