Sirpent "Z"

[Sirpent]

Hi All

 

Had a few questions and requests for the Rotisserie plans I drew up and built mine from.

 

Please note that "B" section should be 100 x 100 x 4 (NOT 5)

 

Sections I and J were for my chassis and do not form part of the Rotisserie so disregard.

 

And finally all prices as per cut sizes were through Steel Solutions Melbourne

 

http://www.steelsolutions.com.au

 

Have fun.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

42561_0f8861c1dd6fe33751f60ac7b817fe3daf567465.pdf

[Sirpent]

Yes working quietly behind the scenes and will post updates sometime in the near future.

 

In the meanwhile, it's always inspiring remembering where it all started, and mum was kind enough to dig up some old pics for my 50th to remind me to stay the path.

 

First pic, my first love and where my nickname came from, taken in July 1983 - Ford 351 XC Cobra build #163, the Saturday morning after I picked her up. What a sight to wake up to from my bedroom window.

 

 

Second pic, taken in October 1983, picture to the extreme right taken the 9th of October 1983, 32 years ago, I'm the one in the white T-Shirt with my Buddy Tony, his HQ Monaro and our squeezes at the time.

 

 

Third pic, My longest surviving love and my first restoration of her, to the left pics taken of her paint stripped off in May 1985, to the right the finished product in September 1985 in front of Governors house in Melbourne. The Stag belongs to my childhood mate Rob and ran a 350 Chev.

 

 

Last pic, My Girl as she was and will be again, taken around September 1985.

 

[dat240z]

Ouch that XC GT woulda been good to keep!!! Worth a pretty penny now too

[Sirpent]

Yep been seeing 351's going for $100K and the 302's for round the $75K mark

 

I could pay off whats left on my mortgage and finish my Z if I had it to sell now :-(

[gav240z]

Lovin' the vintage pictures, thanks for sharing.

 

A shame about the XC Cobra, pretty cool car. At least you still have the S30z though.

[Sirpent]

Bit the bullet, sat down and retro penned the S30 cross member measurements. Came up with a new configuration as moding the original cross member to accept the E46 power rack wasn't going to be an effective solution.

 

Still in rough build stage, it will need a lot of "pretty" TIG welding along the seams, the LCA pivot points drilled out and chassis mount plates still to be positioned and welded on.

 

Engine mounts will be further aft toward the firewall therefore non fitted.

 

Next, the rear diff mount, then back to the ladder chassis.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

Edited November 26, 2015 by Sirpent

[KatoKid]

Beemer racks are much easier to mount than anything else!

 

Looking good john.....now pull your finger out and do more!

[Sirpent]

Beemer racks are much easier to mount than anything else!

 

Looking good john.....now pull your finger out and do more!

 

Thanks mate

 

Not wrong there when you build around one, but if I had to mount it to the S30 cross member the amount of moding would have made it a nightmare with the power steering feed lines.

 

Anyhow, I finished up the mock up this morning and welded the rack mount plates in position, I'm really happy with the result thus far with heaps of clearance and great alignment. Tomorrow I will be "Pulling My Fingers Out" and start working on fitting it up to the Zed and continuing where Lurch and I finished up 18 months ago.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

[Sirpent]

Progress, trial fit of cross member and hang plates

 

 

[PB260Z]

Hi John

 

You have some nice fabrication going on there, I for one admire builds of this nature.

 

Cheers

 

PB

[Sirpent]

You have some nice fabrication going on there, I for one admire builds of this nature.

Thanks Peter

 

But far from nice, hopefully once its all mocked up then hopefully the finishing welding will do it justice.

 

Cheers

 

John 

[PB260Z]

But far from nice

 

Not at the moment - But I like where you heading and am sure it will be "pretty" when finished. Edited November 28, 2015 by PB260Z

[Sirpent]

Some progress today on the chassis build.

 

Having had all the time in the world since Lurch and I made a start on the chassis over a year ago, and with the completion of the new cross member, I decided that some major redesign needed to be undertaken due to the impediment of the front tension bar mounts which we initially built around and meant that the chassis couldn't be dropped out of the body.

 

So unfortunately they came out today and I started to fabricate new sections.

 

With the new cross member assy now bolted to the car rail mount points, I was able to fabricate the new chassis rails which sit on larger mount plates on the cross member. These new chassis rails will eventually be welded to these plates permanently therefore forming part of the new chassis.

 

The tension bar mounts will now be fabricated and mounted to the new chassis rails therefore removing additional stress on the original rails and skirts.

 

Forward of the new cross member, I will be adding mount plates in each corner where they meet the front radiator support and using the tow hook mount points on the bottom of the radiator support panel so as to further anchor the body to the new chassis.

 

Working back from the front cross member, I will be fabricating mounting plates on each new chassis rail which I intend securing to the original transmission mounts on the "Z".

 

Stay tuned.............

 

Cheers

 

John

 

 

[PeterAllen]

Good work John.

 

If, with me, we end up with nothing else from these projects we will have greater admiration for industrial designers, particularly automotive design engineers.

 

I can only reiterate from my very hard earned experience, but keep an eye on the complete assembly, including ancillaries. I'm now trying to plumb heater hoses and it is proving harder than an engine install. 

 

On the point of a 'complete assembly', how is the clearance for the exhaust with the new frame rail running down the firewall?

[Sirpent]

Good work John.

 

If, with me, we end up with nothing else from these projects we will have greater admiration for industrial designers, particularly automotive design engineers.

 

I can only reiterate from my very hard earned experience, but keep an eye on the complete assembly, including ancillaries. I'm now trying to plumb heater hoses and it is proving harder than an engine install. 

 

On the point of a 'complete assembly', how is the clearance for the exhaust with the new frame rail running down the firewall?

Thanks Peter

 

But I still feel like a bit of a hack at times, luckily I will have someone with a lot more skill do all the final welding.

 

Clearance for the exhaust wont be an issue as the I am going to have Peter Mc do me a set of custom headers which will dump straight down, initial measurement seem to indicate ample room.

 

A bit more done this morning, the plan to go with the 2 additional mount points at the tow hook points have given way to using the sway bar mounts as per the pics below, this seems a better way moving forward as now although the mounts will be a few mm's lower, this will give more rigidity to these mount area points and the sway bar as well.

 

The front cross brace between the rails will be perfect for mounting a new custom radiator.

 

Alignment of the new BMW rack is great and there wont be any issues with mating it up to the S30 steering column and clearing the new rail assy.

 

This afternoon I will be working on the main chassis rails under the floor pan, so far everything is plumed up really well.

 

Cheers

 

John

Edited January 11, 2016 by Sirpent

[Sirpent]

Well that's a wrap for this weekend, now starting on the floor rails and have twin tubed the junction dog legs on each side, eventually these will have additional profiled plates added over the top to strengthen this juncture.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

[260DET]

That looks pretty sturdy, what I did with the 260 after fitting a FJ20 engine was to fabricate a simple brace across the tunnel and bolting to the tension (compression) bar mounts. The FJ had a gap between the back of the sump and the bellhousing, the brace went though that gap. As a general principle I have always tried to incorporate several X braces tying the chassis rails together eg back of the gearbox, near the diff.

 

This is a great build, far more ambitious than most and most importantly will result in a very well balanced, powerful and practical car. Good one 

[Sirpent]

That looks pretty sturdy, what I did with the 260 after fitting a FJ20 engine was to fabricate a simple brace across the tunnel and bolting to the tension (compression) bar mounts. The FJ had a gap between the back of the sump and the bellhousing, the brace went though that gap. As a general principle I have always tried to incorporate several X braces tying the chassis rails together eg back of the gearbox, near the diff.

 

This is a great build, far more ambitious than most and most importantly will result in a very well balanced, powerful and practical car. Good one 

Thanks mate 

 

Once I can position the motor and trans I do intend seeing where I can position an "X" brace/s somewhere along the ladder, but the engine and trans will determine whats possible at this stage. I imagine at this stage that one will mount in somewhere aft of the trans mount position and possibly incorporate run through piping for the exhaust pipes to navigate through.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Sirpent]

A bit more work done today.

 

Decided to leave a bit more room between the cars rails and the new chassis so unplucked the temp weld's and narrowed each side by another 5mm. This will allow me to comfortably put in 4mm reo plates on both sides of each dog leg without worrying that they will foul up against the cars rails.

 

I also wanted to check everything with an inclinometer, and came across an article that suggested using an iPhone app, downloaded it and it worked a treat.

 

Got everything repositioned and then started welding things up again along with the 2 long extensions leading to the rear.

 

removed a group of redundent brackets from the body at the rear and tomorrow I start on the back cradle section.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

 

[Sirpent]

Spent today checking clearance for the new Tremac T56 box and as suspected the Z box mounts had to go.

 

I negated the brackets but left the reo saddle which I used to create new mounts for the new chassis.

 

[PeterAllen]

John. If you have not done so you might want to give some consideration to inserting crush tubes at several points along those rails. That was how I mounted the gearbox cross-member but I regret not having made and fitted pair so I could have also tied the rails together closer to the diff. You might also consider a smaller pair to mount the tail-shaft safety strap. If not used they are not a problem.

 

I even fitted some in the rear rails so I can mount it back on a rotisserie if needs be - the GTO body work now covers the OEM rear bumper bar mounts.

Edited January 24, 2016 by PeterAllen

[Sirpent]

Hi Peter

 

There will be 4 bolts that will require crush tubes as agreed with and directed by the engineer.

 

First 2 will be through the rails I have built and will bolt through the floor into a cross member which will be welded internally under each seat running sideways between the inner sill panels and the transmission tunnel.

 

Second 2 will be at the rear which will also bolt through the floor and tie into a ladder assy which will be affixed between both rear suspension towers, this will stiffen up the entire rear end.

 

As for the rest of the mounting points, its either a HT Bolt and nut affair using OEM bolt points as I have done so far or as in the case of todays mount builds, HT incapsulated nuts welded into the assy.

 

Alas, I was about to complete the 2nd mount and the MIG gas bottle was reading almost "0" so thats it for this weekend.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

 

[Sirpent]

Added the rear cross member today and started to add in twin exhaust portals, everything's squared up to the millimeter.

 

Now I will start thinking incorporating about an "X" support member in the chassis, at this stage it looks like it will slot in from the inner corner points at the rear, to the tunnel support brackets I fabricated.

 

Sitting back and taking it all in I realise I will probably be able to flat bottom the area under the chassis now, so will see how things pan out down the track.

 

Cheers

 

John

Edited January 25, 2016 by Sirpent

[KatoKid]

Looking good John, nice to see some progress!

[Sirpent]

Looking good John, nice to see some progress!

Thanks Mate, although I must be confusing the hell out of you all with that last rear cross member obscuring the rear LCA mounts.

 

I have 2 options now in that area

 

1st being that I graft in 40mm ID pipe cuts to replicate the original set up.

 

2nd, and the one I am favoring as I'm looking at using Arizona fully adjustable rear LCA's is to use a fixed bolt in mount shaft that the LCA's via the rod ends would hang off. This would mean that  brackets would be fabricated on the new forward cross member and at the opposing ends at the new rear mounts I will fabricate.

 

No more 2mm hanger plates and moustache bar

 

Hope that makes sense.