D101: Gas Tank D1

I finally got around to starting the gas tank. I picked up a nice piece of cold rolled 18ga sheet the other day. The cold rolled looks oh so clean compared to hot rolled sheet.

I designed the tank to be as wide as possible with clearance for the shocks. It ended up being about 31x15x8 in. The height should be perfect to reuse the stock fuel pumps and sending unit. The front side has a slope of 20 deg to butt up against the back of passenger compartment. Both sides on the bottom also slope up at 20 deg to give the upper suspension arm mount extra clearance.

Step 1: Stencil out all the sides + bottom

Step 2: Cut out the stencil

Step 3: Fold. Started with the 2 part sides, then front, then back. Folding was done quite crudely by clamping a bar on the seem, heating and manually folding by hand. I then hammered out the bends to make them a little tighter.

Step 4: Tack everything in place

Here is the tank in the trunk butted up against the rear of the passenger compartment.

Lastly, the clearance between the upper suspension arm and the tank. There are still some pieces that are "overlapping" the edges that need to be trimmed off. As well as final welding the tank both inside and outside. I'm also working on the top and how to mount the factory pumps.

D100: ROLLER!!!

Fitting that this post comes on the 100th day of working on this build. I finally have a rolling chassis!

I finished the upper a-arm and shock mounts on the driver side and installed the rear end. I don't have shock mounts on the rear yet, but a couple of well placed pieces of wood took care of that. Once I got the front suspension together, I just had to get the wheels on and roll the thing out of the garage. Definitely an exciting day for me.

Now I'm just trying not to think of everything that's left...

D99: Scuttel & Upper A-Arm

I've been dying to get an idea of what this car will eventually look like, so I threw some spare wood together to build a scuttle mock up. I'm still deciding what I'm going to build the scuttle out of in the end, but for now, at least I can picture it.

I also rebuilt the upper a-arms. I had to do this to mount them to the new geometry created by rebuilding the front end. Below is the new design built out. It's not as easy to adjust, but it gives more space for the shock and of course, works with the frame redesign.

Oh, and I built some shock mounts. I'm not finalized on the placement of the upper mount yet, but it'll do for now.

D98: Shifter & Engine Bay Bracing

I finally got around to working on the shift linkage. I've been wanting to get this done for while, or at least try it out to see if the design would work. I realized after the first engine fit that the shift linkage was too short and needed to be moved further back. Here is what I've got so far. I cut the original linkage and extended it by about 4 inches. The new shift lever uses a couple pieces of 3/4" .120 wall DOM tubing with a 1/2" bolt to hold them together. The pivot is a 3/4" heim joint.

One thing I like about this design is that I can adjust how short the "throw" is by unscrewing the bolt to change the motion ration.

I also got around to adding some extra bracing to the engine bay. The top pic is a removable brace that goes over the transmission tunnel. This makes it much easier to get the engine in and out. The bottom pic is the brace on the drivers side of the engine bay. I also added one to the passenger side as well.