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enclosing front tube chassis


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Hey guys, im at the point where i need to start putting up sheet metal on my front engine compartment that i made out of tubing ( totally cut off the front of the stock car). i was just going to start doing it out of sheet metal but im curious of what you guys are doing if anything different.

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aluminum tubes for the inner fenders and debating on either aluminum panels, just tapping and screwing them in place for easy maintenance later on, or doing the same with fiberglass.

 

But I have to get my new headlights to I can fab up a plug for the headlight housings, before the panels become an issue. :P

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yea was thinking about making them removable by welding triangles mounting tabs in the corners and drilling a mounting hole in those... but then i dont want it to rattle either...

my frame looks alot like this.. this is 74_5.0l_z car

 

FrontEnd.jpgPICT0035.JPG

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When I finished mine, I added some lightweight tubes (1 x 0.058") that have mounting tabs at the front of the headlight buckets. When I get home tonight, I'll see if I have any pictures.

 

Basically, the rear of the front fenders mount to the stock locations at the cowl and rocker panel, the front of the fender is attached by some light weight tubing, and the middle of the fender lip rests on the structure of the strut tower (with a piece of rubber sandwiched between).

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As promised, here are some photos showing the fender installation:

 

The first picture shows the car as it is today (with the hood removed). In the picture, you can see the 1 x 0.058" tube that connect the two fenders. The brackets on the end of the tube are constructed of 1/8" plate welded to 1.125 x 0.058" tubing that slide over the transverse tube.

 

DSC000181.JPG

 

 

The next four picture show the hinges and front structure during the construction phase two years ago. In this picture, you can see the hinges of course. The hinges were made by slipping two pieces of the 1.125 x 0.058' tubing over the transverse tube and welding two lengths of 1 x 0.035" tubing. Each piece of the 1 x 0.035" tubing has two dzus bracket welded to retain the hood. The small diameter black tube with the rod ends has since been deleted (it was only there for alignment during welding).

 

In these pictures, yo can also see where I had to massage the inner mounting flange of the fenders to clear the strut tower structure. I only removed enough material to clear.

 

DSC00598.JPG

 

DSC006021.JPG

 

DSC00610.JPG

 

DSC00608.JPG

 

When I was making the front fender supports, I was trying to come up with a structure that could be used to pull the car off the track if required, but that would also give in that event of an accident without affecting the suspension attach points.

 

I apologize for the size of the pictures, but it is easier to see the detail in the bigger pictures.

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74_5.0L_Z that is some great fabrication and customization mate - looks amazing!!!

 

Does that bonnet arrangement really work with funnelling the air through the radiator - looks like it does? just curious as I don't really have a bonnet, nor a front end, or a radiator or radiator support panel - kinda looking at a blank canvass :-)

 

The radiator air tunnel from the front spolier out through the bonnet looks like a really good idea, just wondering how well you have found it cools your engine?

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I had to enclose most of this race car. We used rivits, lots of rivits! In areas where acessability was needed we used zeus fasteners. Zeus fasteners hold pretty tight when done correctly, I'm pretty sure you wont get any rattles. The rivits drill out really easy. You might consider getting a Cleko kit - http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2DG1850&N=700+115&autoview=sku these really help laying out sheetmetal, amongst other things.

 

Here's some Cleko's in use on the right side of this dash.

DSC00312.jpg

 

It's not inner fenders, but here's a bunch of sheetmetal work for a firewall.

DSC00287.jpg

 

Cheers

Ryan~

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Here is a link to the bodywork construction thread:

 

Got any more pics :-), I am really interested in doing something like this with my Car!

 

Particulary the front without the bonnet or radiator in place, I would love to see some bare pictures of that area if you got them mate?

 

Had a look in the engine bay of a S4/5 RX7 the other day and its Radiator was sloped just like yours from the Factory! besides the ducting, which would have been very difficult if the radiator was straight up and down vertical, is there any science behind sloping the Radiator back like that mate?

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