Sirpent

Dear Jeff's (LOL) True However, the rear cross beam of my chassis (Which is the one with the 2 exhaust ports) bolts at 4 points to the original LCA mount points which in Peters extension have been tied to the original rails. I'm just thinking that as I'm using this section as a major mounting point, an additional few hours work and fabrication to tie this area up to the rails and floor pan would not be a waste. Cheers John

Thank you Peter......................... Just gave me an additional project for the rear end now since Im turning mine into a T34

What is it about you "Jeffs" ? Well done

Nice, and very quick, Christ you make me feel slow.

Thanks Peter, Jeff, Peter and Jeff LMAO

Thanks Peter, Jeff and Peter

In case anyone is still following this thread. I've been cutting everything so far with a 1mm fibre dic on a hand held angle grinder, that is up until today when I picked up my custom laser cut gussets fish plates and LCA hangers. I redesigned the gearbox cross member set up AGAIN, and this should really stiffen up the ladder assy, I will now incorporate "X" braces forward and rearward of this assy. The plates were a perfect fit, so I drilled out the fish plates and plug welded them in place, there are still 2 more that need to be plug welded in on the opposite side of each chassis rail but will need to take it off the car first. The corner gussets really start to clean up the look of the assy as did the fish plates, and I am over the moon about the rear LCA hanger plates which I have just sat in place for the photo. Once all these plates and gussets are welded in, I can have all the edges tigged or migged by someone with far more skill than me. Cheers John

Looking sharp Peter Just need some kid skin driving gloves

Excellent info and upgrade

Only 1 photo today, managed to start on the "X" frame withing the chassis after a lot of measuring before hand. Seems I have plenty of room all around for the engine and transmission, however the top of the tunnel where the gear shift pokes though will need some minor alterations to get a bit more clearance and the ashtray pod will have to be deleted, guess its time to give up on the smokes Now I just have to wait for the laser cut gussets, fish plates and Rear LCA hanger brackets which should be ready for collection on Friday.

Congratulations, must feel good to have this gremlin finally sorted out

Im trying to find the YouTube tutorial, but I believe that what he was conveying was that the nozzle set up on a gas set up creates a chamber for the gas to shield the wire with the welding tip tucked inside the nozzle some 5mm. Reducing the nozzle length brings the welding tip closer to the weld area but still protects it from melt down. Effectively, the tip set up you have shown has the tip fully exposed The pic attached shows the set ups I was refering to. Still think you have done many on here a service with your tutorial, well done, its just that many will have a traditional nozzle set up and some fine tuning may be needed to get the right results, it was good that you clarified your set up. Cheers John

Well done Chris. Should be made into a sticky, by the way, I saw another tutorial on gasless some months back, and the welder advised that when a shielded gas wasnt being used, he trimmed the gun nozzle back 5mm so that the welding tip was aligned with the nozzle end and demonstrated that this produces a better weld with gasless wire. Any thoughts?

Yep both the one you posted and the 2014 I posted above. A lot of them were done especially in the late 70's.

Well Gav, you now know where HS30-00618 is.

I did see this a few years ago, and thought, yep that works for me. It was by Callaway in the States and was seriously being considered to go into production. One of the few if only attempts of converting a coupe to a wagon that worked in my books.

Hey George........ A bit late, but congratulations to you both, we are all expecting things to speed up on the build now with your new apprentice Cheers John

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

LMAO Same Same, but she thinks my focus should be on house improvements and I replied Ive done my share, the tools are in the shed if you want anymore.

Congrats Andrew She looks the goods and I'm sure you will do your remaining bucket list of tasks the attention and finish they deserve. Well done Buddy

Thanks Jeff And it all seems to be coming together now with each section I work on. Finished off all 8 crush tubes today, milled out 42mm holes in the new hanger plates so that the LCA tubes are aligned to the original LCA mount points and then set the lot in place and tacked it all up before taking diagonal measurements to check if the alignments were all in order. Just need to wait for the laser cut LCA and diff forward mount brackets that will slide over the tubes and then I can weld up the entire rear cradle. I placed the diff cap in position just to give an idea of where it will sit in the cradle. I know it looks agricultural, but its all unseen and has a purpose to fulfill, I will make sure the outside interior and engine bay are eye candy Cheers John

Nice work Jeff, nice to see I'm not the only 50+ year old suffering a mid life crisis LOL

A small amount of progress, but proof of concept and I believe a much better end result with the chassis now sectioned into 2 segments allowing the rear cradle to bolt to the main chassis. This will really help in the fit up as I will be able to mount the diff as a seperate unit but If i want to drop the entire drivetrain out as a complete unit I can still do that also.. One mount plate and 4 crush tubes knocked over, now the opposite side to do. Cheers John

Thanks Dave The other night I read your thread from start to end and am waiting to see the update from the beaters work. Your build doesn't just inspire the countless on this forum, but me personally also, helps pull my finger out and move on. Cheers John

Thanks for the words of encouragement Richard It's hard, as we all know, when you are one person with 2 hands trying to line everything up and build to a car that has some factory tolerences that really show up as being out a fair way. It gets lonely at times and frustrating but at least the time taken allows you to walk away for a week at a time on occasions and look back at what you have done and either really get a buzz out of it or ask yourself, "WHY ?" and start all over again. Today I came to the conclusion that the drivers side Mustache bar mount bolt is 4mm out of alignment forward compared to its passanger side twin, doesnt sound like much but when you are working with metal this rigid and trying to align it all without the benefit of factory brackets and mustache bar that have a fair bit of give you really have a task on your hands. The RHS is all 2mm apart from the new rear cradle section and front cross member that uses 5mm wall thickness. Yeah I know weight weight weight, but Im not building a drag car or track car and i dont want to adulterate the original body because in the end this car can be reversed back to standard in the future although I dont see it in my lifetime. My goal is high performance rather than insane performance and driveability first and foremost. The new motor and trans are about 30 kg's less than the original L6 and trans, the new diff is probably 5 kg's heavier and this chassis will come in around 40 kg's so I'm up around 15-20 kg's so far after going from an L6 with 160HP to 350HP (190 HP Increase) and 157 ft·lbf to 340 lb·ft (183 lb·ft Increase) Do I really care about weight? NO, I want to make sure that it all gets down to the ground the best way I can get it to and when I turn the wheel the suspension reacts and not torsional stress and a creaking body shell. As for all the additional mounts etc, once I have the motor trans and diff sitting in the car, I will start running preliminary brake lines, fuel lines, exhaust and so on just as David did with his M3 conversion and add whatever is needed as I go along. Long way off though, still need to add a lot of gussets, fish plates, "18 Crush tubes !" etc first. Really appreciate the word of encouragement Mate, If you get down to Melbourne, give me a heads up. Cheers John