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My chassis out of the garage!
Jesus-Ninja - 21/9/08 at 05:21 PM

Thought it was time I posted some pics of my creativity!












mr henderson - 21/9/08 at 05:28 PM

Hadn't realised you were having front struts. Excellent work.

How did you get the positions for the strut tops, off a shell?

John

zilspeed - 21/9/08 at 05:30 PM

blakep82 - 21/9/08 at 05:32 PM

looks amazing!

Triton - 21/9/08 at 05:33 PM

Neat.

clairetoo - 21/9/08 at 05:55 PM

That looks good

Jesus-Ninja - 21/9/08 at 06:10 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mr henderson
Hadn't realised you were having front struts. Excellent work.

How did you get the positions for the strut tops, off a shell?

John


Yeah, I built a jig in the engine bay of my S14 (see avatar) which picked up on the topmounts and the lower suspension points.

I'll put up some pics of it when I get a moment.

CRAIGR - 21/9/08 at 06:25 PM

Nice work

:{THC}:YosamiteSam - 21/9/08 at 06:29 PM

that looks like a real good peice of work.. impressed - while its at this stage i would defo add some roll bar struts - that isnt strong enough.. have any pics of one finished?

Miks15 - 21/9/08 at 08:28 PM

looks amazing, top work!

Jesus-Ninja - 21/9/08 at 08:30 PM

quote:
Originally posted by :{THC}:YosamiteSam
that looks like a real good peice of work.. impressed - while its at this stage i would defo add some roll bar struts - that isnt strong enough.. have any pics of one finished?


How do you mean one finished? This is the only one in the world! I'll show you some pics in about a year!

Yes, there will be 3mm wall tubes running backward from the roll hoop, but not yet. The car is mid engined, so to allow for the engine to be removed, the entire cage over the the engine, including the rear stays, will be bolt in affairs.

Jesus-Ninja - 21/9/08 at 08:31 PM

Someone on another forum commented that they thought the arches wouldn't allow for clearance of the wheels and it kinda made me think, and then you know it would have eaten away at me....

...so I got home from church "just got to go into the garage for 20 minutes, babe...." didn't stop to wait for an answer

Am I as happy as a pig in his own excrement right now...? What do you think?

















william - 21/9/08 at 09:03 PM

where abouts does the engine go is it behind the struts i cannot see the area to fit it thanks william

Jesus-Ninja - 21/9/08 at 09:30 PM

quote:
Originally posted by william
where abouts does the engine go is it behind the struts i cannot see the area to fit it thanks william


Damn! I knew I'd forgotten something!



It's mid engined

It goes here




[Edited on 21/9/08 by Jesus-Ninja]

william - 21/9/08 at 09:49 PM

So i see know so it will not be the s14 engine then what engine will you use

Jesus-Ninja - 21/9/08 at 09:56 PM

quote:
Originally posted by william
So i see know so it will not be the s14 engine then what engine will you use


I have a Saab 2.3 turbo lump to drop in the back, transversely

Jesus-Ninja - 22/9/08 at 09:41 AM

As promised, some pictures of the jig








Jesus-Ninja - 22/9/08 at 09:46 AM

I then "dropped" the location of the top mounts down by 100mm on each side.




The top mounts had previously been made using 25mm angle, of all things!










mr henderson - 22/9/08 at 09:48 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Jesus-Ninja


Very interesting. Looked like it might have been a bit tricky to get it out of the shell, though?

What's the rationale for doing the spaceframe? Obviously it's going to make it easier to mount the mid engine, but are there any other particular advantages? I presume you will be using a lot of the original body (or glass fibre versions) so do you think there will be much of a weight saving?

This is all very interesting stuff

John

Jesus-Ninja - 22/9/08 at 11:09 AM

quote:
Originally posted by mr henderson
quote:
Originally posted by Jesus-Ninja


Very interesting. Looked like it might have been a bit tricky to get it out of the shell, though?

What's the rationale for doing the spaceframe? Obviously it's going to make it easier to mount the mid engine, but are there any other particular advantages? I presume you will be using a lot of the original body (or glass fibre versions) so do you think there will be much of a weight saving?

This is all very interesting stuff

John


No, I have no intention of using any of the body shell. The original plan, before I even started was to spaceframe what I already had, including power train. I wanted it to be lighter of course, but also I wanted things where I wanted them, instead of being bound by the limitations of the monocoque. The mid engined thing came later, after I bought saab with the notion of using the engine in my omega. I decided that two projects was too much, so I started looking at how I could widen the track to accomodate the engine at the rear.

And here we are!

the jig was easy to remove from the engine bay, as it was in two pieces that bolted together. The "tree" came out as one, and then the lower subframe and suspension points came out in one.

Jesus-Ninja - 22/9/08 at 11:11 AM

quote:
Originally posted by mr henderson
quote:
Originally posted by Jesus-Ninja


Very interesting. Looked like it might have been a bit tricky to get it out of the shell, though?

What's the rationale for doing the spaceframe? Obviously it's going to make it easier to mount the mid engine, but are there any other particular advantages? I presume you will be using a lot of the original body (or glass fibre versions) so do you think there will be much of a weight saving?

This is all very interesting stuff

John


Oh, and in terms of body panels, my iuntention is to build the surface using no compound curves. I can then easily make a symetrical plug to produce a very thin body skin, which I will strengthen by filling with expanding foam.

mr henderson - 22/9/08 at 11:56 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Jesus-Ninja

Oh, and in terms of body panels, my iuntention is to build the surface using no compound curves. I can then easily make a symetrical plug to produce a very thin body skin, which I will strengthen by filling with expanding foam.


So presumably it isn't going to look like an S14 when it's finished? I had thought maybe that was the original idea, especially as you have retained the front struts?

John

Jesus-Ninja - 22/9/08 at 12:11 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mr henderson
quote:
Originally posted by Jesus-Ninja

Oh, and in terms of body panels, my iuntention is to build the surface using no compound curves. I can then easily make a symetrical plug to produce a very thin body skin, which I will strengthen by filling with expanding foam.


So presumably it isn't going to look like an S14 when it's finished? I had thought maybe that was the original idea, especially as you have retained the front struts?

John


No - what it looks like is not really an issue, provided it looks decent and functions. The idea behind keeping the susypension was to preserve some of the character of the car (although going mid engined will change a lot of that!). I did know that I didn't want to build a 7, and I already had all the parts to spaceframe what I had, although granted that kind of changed when I went mid engined.

I suppose it just kind of happend that way. There is not much out there in terms of formal plans for mid engined, so I figured that rather than poorly copy someone elses and work completely in the unknown - I'd retain the suspension brakes etc and wok within known boundaries.

Jesus-Ninja - 23/9/08 at 07:49 AM

Did more welding tonight - if I'm honest, it's getting a bit boring there's so much! Just when you think your on top of it, you look at it from another angle and unveil more

Still, not too much more now. Should finish it tomorrow evening. Then I can get onto the serious issue of making my chassis a rolling chassis, the first step of which is to fit the steering rack mounting. I've made so much for that car, that I feel like I ought to make this, but it's not the simplest thing in the world, and as I have one there already from the donor....

Once it's on four wheels, there's the challenge of the rear shocker / strut units. Unlike the front McPhersons, these don't form part of the geometry, and so the alignment of them is not as critical. My current thinking is to look at using a push rod and bell crank to allow them to be used horizontally - lowering their CofG and putting their weight further forward. It would also preserve what lines of the car are there are such, and will require less "extra" chassis to be put in to enable them to be fitted.

Jesus-Ninja - 27/9/08 at 03:51 PM

My old S14 shell went toda - which was really quite sad

But then I also did this, which mad e me happy!















Jesus-Ninja - 27/9/08 at 07:14 PM

Well, it fits in the garage - but only just

I'll not be doing anything that requires a wheel taking off....



gaza 47 - 28/9/08 at 08:26 AM

Very interesting: COOLText