The fabrication thread.

[KA-T_240]

I like getting CC. I do not do much fab work. Learning things is good.

I am not really aware of any other place to mount on the B-Pillar. There are some spots but not any that allow placement of a bolt that is of any decent size/able to bear any load with out adding metal and stuff...... I would rather start working on a cage then doing that.

I am confused by what you were trying to suggest for design.

[burnsauto]

about the harness bar...

it looks you put some genuine thought into it, and it came out pretty well...i only have once concern.

granted you used the same mounting points as lets say a cusco cage...its not a cage..and will flex differently..especially when in an accident. from the looks of the photo's, it looks as if you took a hard enough front end hit, it would just move forward..using the bolt on the b pillar as a pivot point.

i know you realized this, and you put the mount on the bottom near the back seat..but that can still pivot...not much...but it can still move.

what would make it work a little better was if the lower piece of flat stock, was welded up near where it meets with the harness bar..this will prevent it from swinging in an accident.

[KA-T_240]

I did not say it mounted to the same spots as a cusco cage. And was not compairing it at all to a cage. I was reffering to the harness bars that sparco and other companys make.

THe one my friend bought(cusco) for his STi, only has 1/4 peaces of like "ready rod" for the support to go down.

[blu808]

KA-T: You were correct with your design based on what sparco used. The other people were correct with their remarks about flat stock bending under load.

I would not worry about it too much. Looks like you have 1/8" thickness on the down bars, and since rotational angle of the harness bar would pull up in a crash, then it would only pull on the flat stock. This was also mentioned.

On that note good points from both parties, but we would prob all agree if we viewed this bar in person.


"No brawling, or its 15 days in the county jail."

[burnsauto]

yeah, its def. a good idea ka-t and the execution of it was pretty good as well

beats the hell out of what other people do (ex: bolting the harness down on the floor.....can we say spinal compression?)

[Xracer]

Some stuff ive made...

WRX Exhaust




IC piping


Cage


Back of my phone

[nissan240sxkid]

Originally Posted by Xracer

Some stuff ive made...

WRX Exhaust




IC piping


Cage


Back of my phone

your good

[blu808]

Very nice.

What were the specs on the welding process? Looks like tig on the exh but there is a mig gun sitting next to it.

[KA-T_240]

I know the cage and IC pipes are MIG welded from when I saw them. I can not remember if the WRX exhaust was MIG or TIG. I believe it was TIG though.

[Xracer]

exhaust is tig, cage is mig, ic piping is both (got frusterated with the tig so went back and forth)

I really dont know much about TIG welding i just play around untill it works, the WRX exhaust was DC 70-80amps. no idea what kind of electrode is in there or the size.

[blu808]

Thats cool. hard to tell in the pics but the exh looks cool. Remember when you tig to always sharpen your tungsten when welding steel.

[blu808]

Heres a sr20det tip if you guys dont know this allready.

The stock sr oil pickup is only tack welded in 4 small spots.


This leads to vibration breaking those tacks and the oil pickup falling off. The end result is a blown motor.



The correct way to solve this is to completely clean the metal on the pickup, then using a tig welder (no spatter), weld a thin non penatrive bead around the pickup tube.



Then since there was heat applied to the gasket surface it needs to be decked. You can do this with a file.



2 mins later.



Perfect flat surface for a strong pickup. Make sure to clean any dirt/shavings off before install.

Hope this might save a engine.


Heres a stock s13 seat my roomate fabricated into a bride seat.

[tt99ol]

wow i love this thread
Xracer, or anyone else who knows, how did you get that burnt tip look on the exhaust and on your phone cover, just a propane torch or something hotter? and on the exhaust how did you get it so perfect?

[blu808]

t99ol:

The answer to all fabrication questions is patience and not getting ahead of yourself.

[89singlecamnoob]

i know this is majorly off-topic, but it DOES have to do with fabrication...can someone kindly post the link to the build thread where the guy was doing the full S15 conversion to the S13 hatch? i remember he was using all-metal for the rear fenders and it was a really badass build, isn't finished yet though...should've subscribed to it but forgot :/


feel free to neg rep and shout at me all you want, but i DID search, just couldn't find it for the life of me.


*edit: preferably in PM so we don't cloud up this thread with unneeded junk*

[blu808]

No neg rep for you. That is a good post but his thread is more of body work than fab. Body work is like fab but involves too much bs. I would just like to see actual fab in this thread. Thanks. :-)

[Xracer]

i'll throw up some pics of the intake manifold im working on when im done with it

[burnsauto]

hey i remember that oil pickup trick from when you posted it up with the engine build (which was a sweet build up IMO!)

def. one of the better tricks i learned from you

[wannabe_drifter]

Great thread ! it's inspiring !

[slw240sx]

on that WRX exhaust was that 16Ga SS? if so 70-80amps is way too hot, try going down between 35-55amps. you might have to run slower, but you will get penetration.

We just lost the motor in one of our cars because of the oil pickup shearing off, but it sheared off at the bottom the tube was still attached. it looks like the motor was dropped on its pan from a forklift and they put a fresh pan on it to hide the damage. I will be welding the new pickup to be more sturdy.

Is that a Gas lenses your using or a normal cup? i used a #7 i think it is Gas lense for almost everything.

[blu808]

In the oil pickup pic it is just a standard number 5 cup.
I usually use a #6 with a gas lenses.

This is the current setup.
#6 with GL

[Swerv13]

Im Kinda new on these forums mostly cause i havnt posted much at all. But I had to post on this thread. LOVE all the work you guys did. hope you like mine too. This is the pix of my Cage construction among other things in the project. I copied and pasted this from my blog so I kinda worded it for anyone that could be reading it. Tell me what you think....this was my first time doing any serious fabrication work!

In this photo, i have removed most of the interior, next is the dash and carpeting.

Believe me, the dash was fun to remove. ahhh yes.





and now to remove this black tar looking stuff which is sound deadening material. or as i like to refer to it....Dead Weight.


Im going to use Dry Ice to remove this tar crap. it freezes it and makes it extremly easy to remove. great stuff!



and now to grind out the chassis seam sealer! this stuff is a messy pain! after i grinded top surface i used an acedline torch and scrapers to get the rest out of the crack. this way i can stitch weld the seams! (also notice the gas tank is removed, always remove this and the ECU before any welding on the car)


Ugh, that took a long time! ok now for something easy! stiffer engine and transmission mounts from MEGAN RACING JAPAN! They fit KA and SR. So when i find the sr front clip i want (i hope before end of april!) i can still use them!!!
first lift the car, and support the engine/transmission.....

here are the stock mounts....


and here are the MEGAN RACING mounts!


OK OK back to business! time to bend some Tubing for the Roll Cage! Im using 1.5" X .120" DOM Tubing. incase you dont know 1.5" is the outside diameter and .120" is the wall thickness.
drawing blueprints with measurments taken from the car, and using the bending die to find the tangent lines.


Time to start bending!!! (the dumbass next to the tubing bender isnt me, haha)


The Main Hoop is easy to bend! But the A Pillar down bars are the hardest! They are a compound bend! ahhh!

Okay, now its time to make the mounting plates for the main hoop. it needs to be mounted on a flat surface, so here we go!


and now to make the mounting plate to fit this spot perfectly!


does it fit? OH YES!


OK now to Do fitment of the main parts of the rollcage, and after some fine tuning, metal grinding and some positioning, im going to tack weld them in place. when i am happy with it, i will fully weld it all together!








ok now for the rear down bars, im taking them to the rear strut towers. and im going to use an exsisting hole to run them thru the chassis bracing. something like this...



Thats all the pix i have of this work right now. Ill have more up later. unfortunatly when the chassis was done and i was ready for the new engine the car got hit by a truck and now I have to start over. Next one should be better right?

[blu808]

Wow great work. Nice shop, and great approach. Cant wait to see the finished product.

Are you going to do any gusseting or any dimple died gusseting?

Luke

[Swerv13]

dimple died guesseting was def in the plans before the truck smashed that car. So that wont happen untill i start the next car.

that shop is the Wyotech Chassis Fabrication building in SAC, CA.

[blu808]

really? I didnt know wyotech did anything cool.

any other cool stuff they do?

[Xracer]

Whos got tips on welding aluminum. I get increasingly pissed off everytime i try to weld it. also how about 90 degree joints and aluminum pipe.

[nissan240sxkid]

whats happening when your tryin...I have a miller econo tig and when I use realy thick aluminum I have trouble but welder isnt the best for heavy fab and the duty cycle sucks so I have to go mad slow and let the machine cool.

[nissan240sxkid]

are you prepin the tungsten the right way for aluminum? just a question dont get offended

[Xracer]

i can make nice beads on just flat piece of aluminum but anything that is round (tube) or joints is another story. just getting 2 pieces to join together is the problem.

[slw240sx]

How many amps are you using on Aluminum tube? how are you cleaning it? how are you prepping your tungsten? how thick is your filler? how is your machine setup?

Aluminum can be very tricky to weld, and takes a little bit of time to learn how it reacts