Street Factions's "Spirit of Fortune" S13 Vert

[matts13vert]

Same car. Same owner. New skills. New wheels. New build thread.
You can see the old build thread here: http://zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=358251

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2009: 17x8 / 17x9 Volk/Manarays, Cusco Comp-S Coilovers


2010: 18x10 XXR 521’s, PBM Pro Coilovers, Sleeper KA-T (210 WHP)


2011: 18x10 AME TM02 Tracers, Fully Built KA-T (350 WHP)


2012: 18x10 Work Bersaglio, Fully Built KA-T (350 WHP)

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Introduction
I've always wanted to learn how to fabricate, so I learned the basics at Cerritos College in early 2013. By the end of my first semester, Richard and I started Street Faction. Within a year and a half, I managed to stay at the top of each of my classes and became a certified Aerospace TIG welder. With this experience, I'm going to be doing all the fab and welding work on my s13 vert. The goal for my car is to be a drift & grip car by the end of 2014. I’m hoping to take it to Formula Drift Irwindale and All Star Bash in October.

I'm finally at the point where I'm proud of the quality of work that I put out and I pride myself in everything I do. I have one more semester of Aerospace TIG welding, then I will pursue engineering.


Contact Information (since my inbox is full)
[email protected]

www.facebook.com/streetfactionengineering
www.streetfaction.net

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Enough of the chit chat. Time for the tear down.

April, 11 2014: Pulled my car into the driveway to start the tear down. I will be using a KP GT1 kit for the build.


I started on the prototype 50mm aluminum overfenders a month prior. I will be styling the body lines similar to those of the FC because they are both aggressive, yet stylish. Expect to see more progress on the aluminum wide body towards the end of the build.


I picked up some doors from a friend and proceeded to completely gut them.


Even went as far as removing the brace behind the skin.


S13 convertible doors are 100lbs each before gutting. After gutting coupe doors, they’re only 20lbs each.


Some people may not fully understand just how heavy the vert doors are. I saved 160lbs of weight by swapping to the gutted doors.




Next step was to pull the fully built KA24DE-T featuring an awesome KAMAK Dynamics TD06-20g at 15psi.




After a while, I started getting lazy, so I needed some motivation. I got an insider tip from Cosmis Racings that a new wheel was coming soon, so I waited and purchased one of the first sets of the 18x11’s in black chrome. Needless to say that shiny wheels make me happy, so back to work I went.


Looks like my prototype fenders fit on point with the new wheels just as I planned.


I ordered over 120ft of DOM tubing to build the cage and front end with.


I removed the sound deadening using dry ice and isopropyl alcohol.




Main hoop time. This is my first time building a cage so I’m learning as I go. The hoop is made of 1.75”x.120” DOM, The set back harness bar and diagonal brace are made of 1.5”x.120 and .095” DOM tube all TIG welded together.






I began laying out the dash brace. I won’t be running forward-down tubes off the main hoop/halo, so I tied directly into the A-pillar area/bulkhead for strength.




Since I won’t be running forward bars off the hoop, it is very important that I make the main hoop is rigid as possible. I incorporated a To-and-Thru support box design to brace the main hoop in more than one structural plane of the chassis.




More weight reduction! Since there won't be any rear passengers, I removed the rear seat brace/seat belt assembly and also removed the boxed strut brace because it’s ugly and heavy.






Next is the intricate door bars. Here I used regular mild steel ERW tube to practice the upper door bar, good thing I did because I had to revise the design before I made the final DOM version.


Triangles! Since I won’t be utilizing forward down tubes, I need to make the door bars as strong as possible to successfully join the front of the chassis to the rear of the chassis. I’m trying to compensate for the lack of a roof by doing this.






Here you can see the additional tubular braces that I added to the front and rear of the door bars to tie the entire structure together.


Welding outdoors sucks because slight breezes can cause these crazy looking colors after welding.


Driver side door bar is a mirror image.


Just a rad picture.


Close up of the tube merge.


Now that the door bars are pretty much done I can move onto the fun part. The front end.


With the help of my friend, Zach, we pulled off the upper cowl panel to better route and access the upper frame tubes into the dash bar.




Fully welded and completed driver side door bars.


It’s nice to look at it every now and then. My vision is finally becoming a reality.


Turns out that my friend needed a clean front clip for his s13 hatch so why not give him mine. He came down to help with the removal. I’m always trying to produce quality work so even when it comes to stuff I remove and cut out it isn't half assed.




We spent a couple hours removing the entire front clip by cutting all the spot welds and placing two specific cuts to the upper rails. It all came of in one clean undamaged piece.




This is the car’s current state as of today August 1, 2014.

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