Kuda progress

[GoodysGotaCuda]

Very nice! Whats the purpose of the pink paint on the right rear 1/4? Someone get bored, or checking something?

[Topcat]

 Looks good.

Whats the purpose of the pink paint on the right rear 1/4? Someone get bored, or checking something?

Same thing I was wondering.

[Beck]

I sprayed the day-glo pink on there so it's nice and visible and didn't get a forklift kissing the corner!
The car is in a big studio at Weta Workshop, and it can get pretty hectic in there with sculptures etc getting moved around.

[buddydog]

I sprayed the day-glo pink on there so it's nice and visible and didn't get a forklift kissing the corner!


The car is in a big studio at Weta Workshop, and it can get pretty hectic in there with sculptures etc getting moved around.

So are you putting time in on the car during breaks in assembling plastic chainmail armor?

[Topcat]

I sprayed the day-glo pink on there so it's nice and visible and didn't get a forklift kissing the corner!
The car is in a big studio at Weta Workshop, and it can get pretty hectic in there with sculptures etc getting moved around.

Good thinking.  Maybe they should paint the Forklifts Day Glo pink.

Last week, I was backing up into a garage for a delivery and ran into a forklift.
I couldn't see it backing up into a dark garage.

[Beck]

Finished the rotisserie. What a luxury to be able to wheel it round and spin the body!
Good for impressing work mates too, when you flip the car upside down.

[Beck]

Some of the latest work on the underside. I've added torque boxes front and rear, added braces from the torsion-bar crossmember to the front chassis rails, and stitch welded the subframes and other key points.


Here's one of the rear torque boxes. I've also added a plate to the leaf spring hanger mount inside the box section formed by the torque box plate, same as the factory hemi cars got.


I fabricated the front torque boxes as they were much simpler than the rears.


Welded in place.


Also picked up the CNC bent rollbar hoop.
Now to finish the rollbar...

So much work, so little time!

[GoodysGotaCuda]

The hoop custom, or from a particular vendor? What kind of cage are you planning?

[Beck]

Custom bent to my needs.
Here's the plan:



It's removable so I can easily add forward bars, side intrusion bars etc.

Cheers!

[Chryco Psycho]

Wild , now I want to take my car apart again !!

[GoodysGotaCuda]

Custom bent to my needs.
Here's the plan:



It's removable so I can easily add forward bars, side intrusion bars etc.

Cheers!

Very nice, if you have any drawings/plans/dimensions you would like to share I would appreciate it. I plan on building something similar myself when I tear my car down. I have had specific instruction to make sure the rear seat can obtain kid's car seats by upper management. 

Keeping those in the back seat's head out of the cage would be nice, I will have to work on that. Any plans for front harnesses/Harness bar? In my head I've thought of a hoop that would tie between subframe connectors. It'd be a piece of DOM running, pretty much over the trans hump with another piece of larger DOM over it. There would be a bushing in-between the tubes and use sort of a hitch pin to allow the bar to roll forward with the front seat. To allow easier access to the rear seats. It's not something I have spend any more time than that thinking about, so there can easily be some hangups in it.

[Beck]

No worries mate, if I have anything that could help you out I'd be more than happy to share!
The drawing above is not to scale, it was merely to send to MSNZ (the New Zealand governing body for motorsports) to get sign-off on the design.
I will most likely add a harness bar and forward bars at some stage in the future, in order to compete at the track, but initially I just wanted a street car/track day car with diagonal belts.

The diagonals would be the bars in the way for back seat passengers, but they are required by MSNZ regulations (well, at least one is).
And in NZ you can't have back seat passengers if you have roll protection in the car anyway...

But by my thinking and having played with the PVC pipe mockup I made, the rollbar should be easily removable. The front seats would have to removed but they come out easy enough, and aren't heavy.
Having the backstays bolt to the parcel tray is the key (obviously a brace underneath would have to be added, such as the one I've put in my car).

 

[Beck]

A little setback on the car, space ran out in the Weta Workshop studio I was set up in and I had to get rid of the car for at least a month.


So the car's a trailer again for now...


I made a jig so I can work on the rollbar out of the car.




Once I had one backstay fitting nice I transferred the scallop onto the other side with paper templates. Saved a lot of pissing round notching tubes. That **** can be tricky...


I mocked the diagonal up in alloy to make the job easier.


TIG welding practice.

[GranCuda1970]

She is going to be so fruggin sweeeet when you finish her!

[72cudamaan]

Aaron, you do very nice work. I just wish I had your talents.