The Roofus Special

[river1]

Through the frame looks best,my  $.02.

me too! looks like you got 4 cents now

later jim

[jaybee]

Me three.  If you can find a way to snake a long tailpipe out under the rear axle clear to the back of the car it'd be very much in the mold of the early sports cars you're using for inspiration.

[UGLY OLDS]

I like it also ....   Now you got 0.08 cents        Better mock up the second pipe to check out the "look" ... :?

Bob.....

[Flipper]

I went and played with it this past weekend.  I think I forked up more than I fixed...but I enjoyed the time with my folks and I figured out/rembered what I wanted to do a year ago......

I needed to figure out the transmission tunnel before I could figure out the transmission mount



I tried the jag tunnel again




I didn't fit as snug as I wanted it to, so I sliced and diced it...





I cut it a little more







There was too much air space between the sheetmetal and the bell housing...that space is needed for a gas pedal.

so I broke out the cop car kick panel sheet metal to build a beefy, close fitting tunnel (engine and trans shifted 1" to passenger side for more room).









I realized I didn't want to run it all the way behind the seats as one piece, so I added a center bulkhead to give it something solid to tie into in the middle of the cockpit.



I really didn't like that, so I cut it out



It needed to be straight across, so that it could be the start of the front of the seat.  I had to add verticals to weld to.



I ran out of time, but I figured out/remembered that I needed to have a bulkhead that doubled as a seat front and that the spring boxes need to extend to that bulkhead.

I don't like the new tunnel either....  I think I like the trans out in the open better.

I'm seriously thinking about leaving the trans exposed.  

The tailshaft/driveshaft will disappear under the bulkhead that will be the front of the seat.  The seat itself will be a bench seat of sorts (think two buckets and a center hump all fused together) and will be part of the structure of the car.

Air cooled VWs used some sort of rubber lip to seal the engine tin to the body sheetmetal.  I think I will take a closer look at how they did that.

[papastoyss]

The VW engine seal has a lip that fits into a channel in the body to hold it in place. IMHO it would be difficult to adapt to anything else.They are available on the aftermarket. Try Johnson Foreign Car, Decatur, Al.  #1 888 VWPARTS

[wayne petty]

hmm...

you might want to think about additional bracing before covering the sides with metal...




this is just an idea...  as i don't really think that vertical section at the firewall is going to survive the first hard dip in the road without breaking the back of the chassis..

 

and yes..  the red sections are at 2 angles .. as it looked stronger that way.. dividing the thrust angles...  at least in my head...

the more i look at it. the more i think it needs both red and green bars to spread the load to both the upper frame and lower frame rail..


the Dashed yellow is where my brain predicts its going to bend at..

i might have my head up somewhere..  if so.,, just ignore this and pass the charmin..

[GPster]

Because you're running a straight six rather than a Hemi why can't you triangulate from the top of the frame at the front axel hump to the top of the firewall and further on to the steering column support hoop. Might also add some support to the joints where the hood top and side panels meet in the future.  Might also add some side impact crash resistance for the engine and your knees and give some support for a future radiator mount. GPster

[Flipper]

The framework will get more tubes and gusseting once I figure out where motor mounts will be and what the outside front sheetmetal will look like.  There will be some sort of hoop at the radiator, a truss that runs from that hoop to the firewall near the bellhousing, and probably a truss that runs from the radiator hoop to the upper outside corners of the firewall.

The current thought on the front frame to body junction is to run the front frame outside boxing plate to the next verticle tube and have the body drop over that plate.  It will look like the body is channeled over a conventional frame and help tie the front to the back.

I have a lot of neat ideas for doing stuff, but getting them to play nice with each other...and be something that I am actually capable of building....and end up looking like it was supposed to be that way, is one heck of a hurdle.

[Flipper]

Logging in on Dad's dial-up internet connection ....so no pics for now, but I am making really good progress.

I made a trans mount...and figured out how to finish the front half of the spring boxes (driverside mostly done, cutting pieces for the passenger side) and also figured out the frame for the seat bottoms (driverside is already welded in, passenger side is formed). I must say, that I am REALLY proud of what I came up with. The drivers side seat feels great...even without seat foam. ....And looks like it belongs in a vintage racer.

Oh yeah, I think I figured out how to seal the exposed trans too....rubber hose. I am going to form a half round chanel (split tubing) that goes around the flange of the bellhousing. the hose will fill th gap. I just need to make some motor mounts that hold everything in place really well.

[Flipper]

OK, here's the picture post.

I started the weekend with a simple transmission mount

What Jag gave me to work with


Donor steel


One of the holes is chevy made


Second part


Welded and bolted in place on the trans with rubber pucks mocked up.  There will be a body side mounting surface where the silver washer is.

[Flipper]

Last time I tried a square crossmember and hated it.  I tried round this time and didn't really like it much either.



A plain bench seat just doesn't feel right.  It needed to be bucket-like.

Time to break out the Horrible Fright pipe bender








Better.  ...but I didn't like the tube just going over and tieing in to the frame on the outside







I didn't really know what to do with it back in the corner, so I just bent it down..it will disappear under the seat cushion

[Flipper]

realized that I really couldn't finish the seat frame without doing the front half of the spring boxes.  They had to be there before the seat gets welded in.

The U-shaped section is where the front of the leaf spring sits.





I doubled up on the spring holder




I went ahead and gusseted the tube that this piece welds to at the front...because I have no idea what kind of loads this suspension places on the frame.









I melted the rubber pad under the spring...oops!

[Flipper]

Now I could put the seat frame in place.







Time to make a second one.  ...that is a little skinnier (I offset the engine and the trans to the passenger side so that I have plenty of foot room).







For the heck of it, I propped up a 36 ford truck grill to see what it looked like.



I did more, but don't have pics ...my camera bit the dust at the Turkey Drags on Saturday.

...Oh yeah,  I replaced the melted rubber pads under the front of the leaf spring with a 3/4 eurothane pad (jeep body mount).  I put a jack under the rear axle and jacked up the back of the car.  The rear rim was about 3 inches below the frame rail without engine weight, gas tank or people.  I'm probably gonna have to tweak something to raise the rear enough to be driveable.

[Flipper]

After my camera died, I snapped a few pics with my phone. I just now figured out how to get them to my PC hard drive....  

This is where I put a cushion on my "seat" and mocked up the steering wheel again to see how much things had changed from the previous mock up.  The real seat puts me farther back than the bomber seat did (a good thing)









Hopefully I will get some quality time to work on stuff after Christmas.

[Flipper]

Where I started this trip.  I decided the drivetrain needed to be tucked up inside the car.  I pulled out thje 1.5" spacers that were under the frame.





I went ahead and mocked up the single chamber flowmaster where it would fit under the hood.




I made a hole in the firewall for the steering column




this neat little piece from the jag donor still fits


going from the column to the rack looks like it will be easy


It feels right


I decided that I really needed to know the body shape before I could mount the brake pedals (one of the things I needed to finalize the seat design)

Time for the "real mock-up".  I tried the cadillac track nose again...this time I turned the hood around.  The lower edge of the hood points toward the cowl now.  A front door skin is now the hood. a piece of the rear door skin is the cowl.








The grill looked like it would work.




Also, decided to find a use for the fenders