The fabrication thread.

[blu808]

Thanks everyone.

the engine is a 500 ci donovan aluminum bbc, with a t56, supercharger, and efi.

[rhs13]

Originally Posted by atown 240

yeah, i'm from IL and i dont even know what a frame rail is supposto look like on a s13 lol

i think theyre supposed to look crumpled up and yellow (from 18 years of jacking it up from the frame rails, and 5 years of dragging a lowered car over speedbumps)... at least that's what all the s13's rails ive seen look like.

as far as the camaro build-up: mucho props on the impressive fab work, esp on the exhaust design (ground clearance).

[dirtdiggler666]

luke

you think the t56 can handle the power of a pro-charged 500ci ??

[blu808]

A fully cry treated, carbon fiber blocker ring, viper hardened main shaft t56 can.

[ryangreg]

Luke, that 12k exhaust you made is absolutley beutious.

you've inspired me, really.

[dirtdiggler666]

oh boy im sure that trans was cheap

so whats the cars intended purpose ??

[blu808]

To be a daily driver/showcar/trackday car.

It will have full interior, ac, stereo, etc.

[ThatGuy]

So what are the plans for the finish on the exhaust? Ceramic coated? Shiny? Dull?

[DJButton]

Originally Posted by ThatGuy

So what are the plans for the finish on the exhaust? Ceramic coated? Shiny? Dull?

Coated in pure gold woud be fitting. Simply beatiful, great work!

[blu808]

Thanks.

Barry.

It will be double ceramic coated matte black. For a gangsterish look.

[DUDEIDONTHAVEA240]

great work, ive been following the thread and they should rename it to Lukes fabrication thread :P

[blu808]

haha.


Ok back to work.

I was bored today since the exhaust was done.
I decided to put the fc up on the lift to build the down pipe, and crossover pipes. Then I was going to build the exhaust and be on my way.

Well once up on the lift I noticed that there was oil all over the place.
I traced it down to the rear seal on the tranny.



So after I ordered the new seal, I decided to tap the oil pan for the -10an fitting.

After some thought I decided it would be much easier with the pan out of the car.
So...

Off with everything.



Dirty ass t56 (thanks buttonwillow)



And out with the engine.





Then I threw the turbo and wg on to double check the fitment.









Looks pretty cool !

Tomorrow I will be cleaning the engine bay, repainting it, fixing all the little problems, adding ARP rod bolts to the ls1, cleaning the LS1, installing double valve springs with ti retainers, a new cam, clutch, Tig welding the AN fitting onto the pan, making the oil feed and return lines, then reinstalling the engine , tranny, and finishing the entire turbo kit.

Wish me luck.
lol

[GSXRJJordan]

Jeeez Luke, you're a busy boy. That LS1's gonna be feeling great after all that, I just hope that piston #7's ring land doesn't give ya any trouble (that seems to be where all the problems are with stock-block LSx's). Which cam are you going with? C6 Z06 or aftermarket grind?

In the mean time, lets see that fresh-ta-defff engine bay! Moarr pics tomorrow plezzze.

Edit: bolded my important question

[blu808]

Thanks alot.


Yea. If it has any problems with number 7 I will just build a real LSX block with a forged rotating assembly and put out 1400 hp at the crank.

lol

[steve_o1989]

Originally Posted by slw240sx

looks really good!!


i've got some good old midwest rust repair fabrication pictures coming up later tonight. it documents how to fix a 240 most would scrap out due to rust. haha

Dooooo iiiiiit...I don't want to have to fight you...

I am actually about to dive in and do a little frame repair on my car so this will be good to see before hand. I already know what I need to do but honestly, still would be cool to see.

[bardabe]

Originally Posted by blu808

Thanks alot.


Yea. If it has any problems with number 7 I will just build a real LSX block with a forged rotating assembly and put out 1400 hp at the crank.

lol

can the chassis by that i mean the FC handle that as of right now? im guessing you will be doing allot of bracing and re enforcement.

[BoostedCoupe]

Originally Posted by steve_o1989

Dooooo iiiiiit...I don't want to have to fight you...

I am actually about to dive in and do a little frame repair on my car so this will be good to see before hand. I already know what I need to do but honestly, still would be cool to see.

i am also wanting to see pics of the rust fixing. i have frame to that has to be repaired this summer. i searched for pics of someone fixing rust like mine but it seems everyone just scrapes the car instead.

[blu808]

Originally Posted by bardabe

can the chassis by that i mean the FC handle that as of right now? im guessing you will be doing allot of bracing and re enforcement.

If you take a good look at the fc underbody they are way overbuilt. I would say it can handle it as well as any other car. lol

Car will be stitch welded, caged, and gusseted in the next week or so.

[Devil Man]

nice stuff that everyone has here. blue great idea with the 55gl drums and the tubs, would have never thought of that. may i make a suggestion though on the exhast on that camaro, were the lowest part is and were the exhaust is right next to each other, i would liked to have seen that been a X pipe zone there. that way you could balance out the exhaust on the motor. just a though, still a very very very nice exhaust though. oh and i vote for the charcole/ black tips that you have there.

also can some more people post about the tubing on the s13's i am interested in this.

[blu808]

Thanks.

Yea we thought about making an X pipe in that area.

If you look closely there is a cross over pipe built in about half way down the exhaust.

[blu808]

Ok so here is another update.

I decided to go into work today to get some stuff done.

First I cleaned the T56.
Turned out pretty sweet.



Then I test fit the ls1 turbo kit finished manifold, and wastegate setup on the s14







Ok everything fits perfectly on the fc and the s14. I will be making the rest of the downpipe shortly.

At that point I decided to get back to work on the ls1.

It was time to pull the oil pan and install the -10 AN fitting for the turbo oil dump line.

first thing was to remove the pan.





Then I threw it in the parts washer, it will wash overnight.

Ok now for some actual fabrication.

Decided to build the Brake caliper brackets for the rx-7 viper brake kit.

I started by making a prototype out of some thin, easy to work with, steel.



Then I grabbed some 3/8" aluminum plate and sketched out the brackets.
Then bolted it down on the mill



then i went to work.





Drilled the holes.



Aww finished. What a good feeling.



Bolted it on.



Put on the new machined rotor.



Caliper.



Clears cobra wheels. If it clears these then it will clear most 17" wheels.



Clears the rotas with a few inches to spare.



Dont ask me how I made this picture. It just turned out this way. I guess the wheel was invisible for a split second.



Looks soo cool



Nice.






What a fun and tiring day.

What do you guys think? Want some for the S chassis?

[GSXRJJordan]

The larger rotors sure look better than Z32's... what's the brake pad surface area increase (approximately) on Z32s? I remember you saying how cheap you could find the viper brakes...

[blu808]

I dont remember atm. I will have to look at work.

These are a 12.9" rotor. and use the same pads as the evo, sti, f40, etc. Im sure whatever it is will work just fine.

[lazierhobo]

alright finally have something which i feel might be worthy of most of the work in this thread. most of the stuff being shown here is amazing...and i cant wait to be done with school so i can have more time to devote to building awesome shit.

needed to build some CV bearing girdles for the FSAE team. im not on the team (dont want to spend all my time building a car they wont let me drive)

got everything set up in mastercam, then threw it over to our HAAS VF2

i started with a slab of 4 inch diameter 7075 aluminum.

in order to test the critical dimensions, because we didnt have a 3 legged bore gauge i had to quickly lathe up go-nogo test piece.
here i cut three concentric diameters into this piece of scrap we had laying around. the dimension given on the part was 1.631 with a tolerance of +/- . 002. so the test section has diameters of 1.633, 1.631, and 1.629. this will enable me to fine tune the machine and dial it in to get tolerances of less than a thousandths by adjusting for tool wear.


from this i found that with the first cut, the center bore was .002 under dimension, so i went in and adjusted the tool wear accordingly, then since the part hadnt been removed from the machine all i had to do was run the program again, and it went back and took off that last two thousandths. now the test piece fits perfect.



after cutting a half inch deep version of the profile, i took it off the mill and chucked it up on a lathe so i could part it off.



all this yielded this.....

I ended up needing to make 4 of these...the material they gave me was only enough for 3, so i will have to go back and make one more tomorrow.

[blu808]

Wow that is baller. My hat is off to you sir for awesome machining skills.

I wish I knew how to do that.

[zoototheyork]

did you put numbers in a comp then it cut it out? if nottttt, more pics to little

[blu808]

Ok now for another fabrication update.

So today I decided to fab up the oil return fitting for my ls1.
First thing was to select the proper fitting.
I chose a -10 AN aluminum weld fitting.



Then chose the best location for it.



After I selected the spot. I cleaned the surface with a disk sander, then drilled the pilot hole.



After drilling the final hole, I tig welded the whole thing. Turned out sweet.



Then I had like 7 diffs to weld, so I sealed off the bearings and started to pre heat them for welding.



After that I wanted to start building a customers Alfa road race car.

First order of business was to remove all the sound deadening with dry ice and a hammer. The ice makes the tar brittle and it shatters like glass!







Sweet.

Then I started on the cage. The club the customer races in uses an odd size tubing. 1.5" x .120 . Anyways. I measured everything for the hoop 3 times. Always measure 2 or 3 times on everything. A hoop is hadr to make and really easy to mess up.

Made the first bend on my badass protools bender.



Then after I made the 4 bends it was time for a test fit.




Fitting was spot on with less than 1/4" clearance all around.

Now I wanted to build the diagonal bar.
Here I am measuring for the notch.



Once again gangster ass fitment.









Thats all for now. It is turning out awesome. I cant wait to see what the customer things.

What do you guys think?

[Wiisass]

1.5x0.120 wall is a normal size. For SCCA/NASA/NOPI/US Drift you can use either 1.5x0.120 wall or 1.75x0.095 for cars 2200-3000lbs.

Did you make base plates for it? Or is it just sitting on the chassis?

And since someone brought up rust and patching it, here are some pics from a car I did a couple weeks ago.


Here's what I found on the driver's side strut tower.


A little further down on the frame rail on the outside.


Engine bay side of frame rail and strut tower.


Here's what I found after I started cutting stuff out.


Had to cut part of the firewall out.


More frame rail rust.


And now it's all patched up. I used 16ga. pieces of steel.


Another shot.


Down the frame rail shot.


Shot of the patches from the engine bay side. You can also see some of the stitch welding.


Strut tower stitch welding and some of the patches.


The other side.


I also put a cage in the car. And no the diagonal isn't the wrong way, the customer is going to make the car right hand drive.


More cage pics.


Another one.

And here's the gallery with a bunch more pics:
http://www.theoryinpracticeengineeri...pwork/andys13/

Tim

[lazierhobo]

Originally Posted by blu808

what are you going to do to anchor the roll bar to the frame?

[blu808]

Right now it is just sitting in the holes I drilled into the bulkhead. It will be fully boxed in on the hoop and a pillar tubes, and plated everywhere else.


Come on. You think I would just weld a plate to the chassis and weld the hoop to it? lol