The 1930's datsuns, like all other 1930's cars that I'm aware of, used a ladder frame that was partially exposed, with the body sitting on top of it.
The locost-based chassis on my replica does not have a solid frame rail like this. Instead, it has two horizontal tubes under the door, with small vertical tubing spacers between them. In front of the door - at the bottom of the area a locost builder would call the "scuttle" - there is a single tube.
I'm going to cover these bottom chassis tubes with a skin that will be painted a contrasting color from the body, thus resembling the 1930's frame rail shown above. Yesterday and today I worked on that skin. I used another part of the washer and drier stands. It had large holes that I filled with circular patches. (I wasted a lot of time and money trying to cut the patches with hole saws that I bought for the purpose.....ordinary aviation snips did the job easier and better.) I caused some welding distortion, but not so much that I could not use the metal.
I welded the patches in VERY SLOWLY....making two tacks, then letting the base metal cool until I could rest my hand on it indefinitely without discomfort. This caused a lot less distortion than before. The distortion that did happen was greatly reduced with the use of hammer, head/dolly, and lots of heat shrinking via tack welds.
Update #: 232, Date: 2010-03-21 09:03:32
Title: grill shell
Keywords: grill shell
I started on the grill shell. The frame for it is 1/4 inch rod.
I took him back inside during the welding, but Cypress supervised the measuring, bending and cutting of rods during this process.
The sheet metal is mostly from a box fan I pulled out of a neighbor's trash. The additional parts are from a trashed washer stand.
Update #: 233, Date: 2010-03-22 06:03:58
Title: odd thoughts
Keywords: Other people's car fabrication
It just dawned on me that building the car's body out of scavanged sheet metal means I'm following in the footsteps of the zhao brothers who built an F1 replica out of scrap. A lot of the crowd from jalopnik didn't like their car, but I say it's full of WIN.
Oh, also, this story about a $500 BMW from craigslist finishing third in class is positively inspirational.
One of the neatest cars I saw at the grand prix was not a racer....it was an ariel atom behind one of the race teams' trailers.
The car was wonderful. I can honestly say that I thought the TIG welds were art.
It was a right hand drive car, so I figured it was built in the USA. I was a little confused, though, when I saw that it was powered by something lifted from a SAAB.
Wiki cleared that up for me, though. A quick search revealed that the LK9 ecotec engine was used in the second generation SAAB 9-3. Thus, it is safe to assume that this particular Atom was one of the 2.0 liter ecotec cars assembled by Brammo Motorsports.
Update #: 237, Date: 2010-03-29 06:03:16
Title: axle tramp
Keywords: Other
"Axle Tramp." Jalopnik used the term recently, and I didn't know what they were talking about. It sound's like the name of a song by a 1980's hair metal band, but it is actually a silly sounding name for an ugly handling issue - nasty wheel hop due to using a solid rear axle on a car with massive amounts of torque that cause the leaf springs to load and unload.
Luckily(??) Rose won't have enough power to do this.
Update #: 238, Date: 2010-03-30 09:03:34
Title: toys
Keywords: Garage
Hurray! Last night I tried out my new sheet metal brake (Thanks, Dad!!) and it works well. Oh, and GRM has an interesting thread over here that includes a link to a miata with a wonderful warbird paint job:
Update #: 239, Date: 2010-03-30 08:03:07
Title: grill shell update
Keywords: grill shell
I have the two portions for the bottom of the grill shell cut, bent, and re-welded into shape. That metal came from the box fan. Most of the passenger side of the shell is done....I'm making the sides out of a panel from a clothes dryer.
Update #: 240, Date: 2010-04-25 03:04:40
Title: more delays
Keywords: Other
So why have I not posted about the build? That's because I haven't touched the car in basically a month. No, I haven't gotten discouraged and given up. I got side tracked by vacation.
I went on vacation out of state for two weeks. The week prior to that was spent getting ready, and most of my free time in the week since has been spent photoshopping my vacation photos. I went kayaking on one of the days that I was gone, and that has led to further delays......it was enough fun that I decided that I need to go kayaking more often.
What little time that has not been devoted to photoshop has been spent playing with fiberglass. I now know that I dislike working with fiberglass. I've now learned that glass resin sticks to both Tupperware boats and open cell foam stuffed inside [lawn mower created] holes in the bow of the fore-mentioned boats. I've also learned that properly laying fiberglass takes a lot of practice. Since I lack that, I'm laying on multiple layers to make a thick, but ugly/lumpy, patch. My trusty angle grinder will smooth and thin the glass to pretty it up.
I also got some bungies and used them to make new elastic cargo straps for the deck. The bungie ends were looking a little frayed after passing them through the eyelets on the kayak deck. There was enough left over, though, to wrap them in duct tape near the knots (i.e. behind the frayed area) and cut through the tape. I then filled/coated each bungie end with fiberglass resin to prevent any future fraying of the fabric ends.
After that I tried sitting in the 'yak. I can still fit in it, but barely, and certainly not for long. I'm tempted to remove the seat (...and fabricate a new one???) to get a few more inches of room inside.
