Build Project : Back Burner

[Landy_Andy]

Look much nicer then the links I just welded up with 0.040... It's all that was in the machine and friend didn't want to bring the other machine with 0.030 or 0.035. No grinding looks nice! Almost like tig.

Thanks, getting a really nice finish I'm finding is all about consistency of setup, especially the torch tip gap... that makes a big difference for just a small adjustment. I think if I were doing these all day, every day a fixture for the torch would be a must. Am really happy with them all, even the less than perfect ones... there not going to fall out, that's for sure !

 

[Landy_Andy]

Been working on getting the motor into a runnable condition so I can test out my uaEFI ECU & stand alone harness. Management banished me from using the kitchen oven to bake the VHT paint on the exhaust manifold, so I had to use the BBQ instead. Made a new wastegate actuator bracket to miss the oil drain line & got the downpipe wrapped... I hate that stuff, I now itch like crazy !



Finished linking out my ECU and got the wiring harness about 95% complete, just waiting on another GEP fuse/relay housing to add the engine start & alternator feeds. Assembled the dash into it's final enclosure, runs on a single CANBUS lead & has a RAM ball for mounting.



Picked up a couple of Fox 12" air shocks & the rest of the unit bearings, wheel base is bang in 112"



Pulled the fuel tank to pieces again, cut a new retainer ring and added thread inserts for easier assembly. Improved the pump mounting with an offcut of exhaust tubing as suggested here, it's way better now. I upgraded the feed line to 6AN and was going to replace the rubber line with a corrugated plastic one but it was too loose a fit on the pump to seal... so, the rubber one will have to do for now. Also switched out the fuel sender from a 33-240 ohm type to a 0-5V output one so it displays on the dash correctly.

 

[Landy_Andy]

Made a start on the rear storage rack / doggy corral, so our springer Molly can join us on epic adventures. Frame will be removable & tied into the chassis in 6 points.



Decided to put a wheel on & see how it looks at ride height... starting to get real now

 

[Landy_Andy]

Wasn't happy how the racking was turning out with the Pelican cases handle pointing forwards. Did some measuring & there is just enough room to flip it around, so out came the zip disc and the back half of the rack was no more. Added in a new back & side pieces along with shorter tabs & it's a huge improvement. Made a start on the doggy ride area, added the corner pieces and will make a top rail from some 1" DOM.



Next will be a hinged tray that sits on top of the Pelican case. That'll secure it & also give us a place to stand Molly when we get her in & out. Am thinking I'll add safety nets around her area & plenty of roll bar padding too.

Started to work on the mounting of the interior panels & skins, will be using Dzus 1/4 turn through out but the cost of the parts up here in the 'great white north' is ridiculous. So, will make my own mounting tabs in 1/8" as they'll be more rigid & easier for me to weld on... as well as saving lots of $'s... with 224 available from a 2' x 2' piece of material that should be plenty

 

[Landy_Andy]

So, yesterday was not a good day... after making a start on welding up the doggy area my Miller Multimatic 215 decided to throw a '8 pin trigger shorted' error, after giving it a good clean out & some simple fault diagnosis it looks like it's potentially a $1k repair or replace it with a new machine. Until then, this is where we stand, so close to getting all the major fabrication work completed....

 

[Landy_Andy]

After last weeks failure of my old Miller 215 machine I had a good look at all the options available, eventually decided to not bother spending the $1k+ on repairing it and just buy a new low budget machine, with what I saved I also got a AC/DC Tig machine to go with it. Got to work modifying my old cart to hold them both.



Now back to getting the doggy corral & storage rack welded out, used a mixture of Mig & Tig to test out the new machines & so far am impressed. Took a bit of getting used to having HF start after using lift start Tig for so long... still keep wanting to tap the tungsten from time to time.



Been cutting out a bunch of 1/8" Dzus tabs on the plasma table using up all the sheet remnants I've kept, ready to start installing them for the interior panels next.

Finally, I need to get some aluminum filler rods & some 1/8" strip stock to make some practice coupons so I'm ready to make my dash etc.

 

[Landy_Andy]

Decided to tie the the dash & instrument tubes into the seat base mounts as a tunnel. Had to trim out the old front 1.5" tube bridge first. Should make mounting the interior panels a little easier now.

 

[abrogate]

The pelican case/ rack turned out awesome!

 

[2 86s]

What's the tab for on the plate under your shifter base?

 

[mobil1syn]

that tunnel makes a great route for stainless fuel lines.

 

[Landy_Andy]

What's the tab for on the plate under your shifter base?

Two reasons, to adapt the hole pattern... and secondly to give me a point for a ratchet strap to hook onto when I lift the motor/gearbox out as an assembly.

 

[Landy_Andy]

that tunnel makes a great route for stainless fuel lines.

Was thinking of running the soft lines down the inside of the drivers frame rail, will add some TMR zip tie tabs to keep things simple.

 

[Landy_Andy]

The pelican case/ rack turned out awesome!

Thanks, still need to find a simple way of locking it down but that can wait a while whilst I get the interior Dzus tabs all installed. Can then make a spart on the interior panels then.

 

[abrogate]

Thanks, still need to find a simple way of locking it down but that can wait a while whilst I get the interior Dzus tabs all installed. Can then make a spart on the interior panels then.

First things that pop in my mind are the latching pull pins or destaco latches.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

Or

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

 

[Landy_Andy]

First things that pop in my mind are the latching pull pins or destaco latches.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

Or

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

I was thinking of an over centre style latch, unfortunately unless your an education establishment you can't purchase from McMaster here in Canada... we do have Amazon though.

 

[abrogate]

I was thinking of an over centre style latch, unfortunately unless your an education establishment you can't purchase from McMaster here in Canada... we do have Amazon though.

Bummer, didn’t realize they had limitations. Im sure you could get Destaco stuff up there, but that’s another yankee assumption!

 

[mobil1syn]

Was thinking of running the soft lines down the inside of the drivers frame rail, will add some TMR zip tie tabs to keep things simple.

stainless is better. one and done, never worry about it again.

 

[Landy_Andy]

stainless is better. one and done, never worry about it again.

Maybe so but unfortunately not in the budget....

 

[desertPOS]

Thanks, still need to find a simple way of locking it down but that can wait a while whilst I get the interior Dzus tabs all installed. Can then make a spart on the interior panels then.

Cable actuated rotary latches like what you've got on your tube doors might be pretty slick

 

[Landy_Andy]

Made progress on the quick'ish removable & adjustable seat mounts. Added 1/2" bar to the front & rear tabs of my PRP seats & designed some locating brackets to add to the seat support frame.



Once seat is installed I'll have a couple of 3/8" locking bolts through the front brackets to prevent the seats sliding forwards & detaching.



Cut & formed a tray for the engine ECU, it's associated fuse box & the critical circuit fuse box. Auxiliary circuits will get added later once I get the buggy up & running in their own separate fuse boxes... probably a couple more of the GEP 24 way ones or may a 72 way... will see how things go.



Back to adding Dzus tabs for the internal removable panels & some bolt tabs for the ones that will remain fixed like the rear fire wall.

 

[Landy_Andy]

Been knocking off some of the wiring jobs to hopefully get the motor running in the next month or so. Finished up the the main engine harness & installed it. Cut the dash panel & got to work wiring that with just the engine side stuff on that & the ECU/relay tray too.



Once they were done time to get some battery power to it all. I had a nice Bluesea isolated cable stud left over from another project so made a bracket & mounted it close to the starter motor. This will make adding a winch down the road easier, then got to work adding the main isolator on a temporary back panel along with the battery & other feeds.



Next to get a battery & build a mount for it under the doggy corral.

 

[Landy_Andy]

Made a simple box out of offcuts of angle for a group 34 battery, tested in the chassis & am thinking the driveshaft might hit at full stuff... need to order the mockup 9" pinion from Urban3D (Linky) before I burn it all in.



So, as all the snow has gone & we've got the post winter yardwork all done, pulled out the plasma table & cut the last set of parts for my remaining 2 beadlocks. Then got to work welding them out over a couple of days.



Now onto painting them.... will be sweet to see it with all 4 on the chassis

 

[Landy_Andy]

In between finishing the wheels, got the fuel lines installed & the fuel pump wired up... time to make some noise !

 

[Landy_Andy]

More small jobs figured out. Wasn't happy with the location of the clutch master cylinder (had it reverse mounted under the dash), relocated it to the side of the pedal box & just enough room to squeeze it in.



Just need to get a small remote reservoir now & 4AN hose to finish that off.



Next, got the battery box welded onto the doggy corral then ran out of flat strip, so that's waiting to get finished now. Got the dash drilled & mounted with some Dzus fasteners, love these for a neat solution. In the waiting game again for more parts arriving....

 

[Landy_Andy]

Exhaust muffler arrived today, got a straight through Flow Master... hopefully it won't be too loud with the turbo. Will be mounting the rear of it to the subframe x-member with some rubber isolators. Have moved the original offset I made to the rear & will make a new one for the front connection to the downpipe.



Am thinking I'll route the tailpipe to this location at the back, should keep the fumes away from the doggy corral some what without putting it in a place that'll get damaged in a drop-off situation.



Finally decided on a '05 Mishimoto Miata radiator, it's shallow enough to fit in the vertical space with just a slight lean back & with a OEM fan should give enough cooling... hopefully ! If it struggles I can add the OEM A/C fan with a separate relay to run it triggered off the main one.

 

[Landy_Andy]

Had some time to finish off the exhaust mid pipe & took the opportunity to shorten up the end of the down pipe as the V-band was too close to the new tunnel tubing. Made a mount up using some rubber anti-vibration dampers designed for small A/C compressors.



Been watching lots of videos on tuning turbo's and found a good one on preventing boost creep that's caused by an under sized waste gate hole on chinese copy turbos. So, whilst the exhaust was off pulled the housing apart & got to work with the die grinder. Definitely made a decent difference.



Still waiting on the radiator to arrive from Quebec.... hopefully be here in a few days... fingers crossed !

 

[Landy_Andy]

Finished up the exhaust tailpipe & made a small hanger for it using the same rubber isolators. Brought the exit to the end of the main frame rail to keep the fumes away from us & Molly.



Was going to get a 3D printed mockup 9" pinion but decided to just make my own. Can now get to work on making some driveshafts & the front steady bearing mount without the cost of building out 3rd's at the moment.



Lastly, found a larger reservoir of a GSXR1100, should work nice for the clutch master cylinder.

 

[Landy_Andy]

New radiator arrived, used one off a 2005 Miata as it was a good fit & the connections matched the motor. Added a OE fan & hopefully that'll be enough, if not will get the A/C fan for the other side.



Now I have it mocked up, was time to check full bump & flex. Unfortunately, the 12" Fox air shocks I had were too short collapsed & caused the axle upper link mounts to get into the bottom of the radiator. So, looking around & found the 12" Profender 2.5's have a different ratio of open to closed lengths. This has given me the clearance needed & a decent cross axle flex of 22" whilst keeping my UJ's within there operating envelopes. They also have a significantly higher load capacity over the 2.0's so a win all round.

 

[Landy_Andy]

Wasn't happy with how low the axle was at full stuff due to the Profenders collapsed length of 23". So, looked around at alternative air shocks and the 14" Carbon Shock Tech 2.5's have a slightly shorter collapsed length & the same extended as the Profenders giving me a bit more cross axle articulation. Which is always nice and it still keeps my driveline angles sensible for just using U/J's.



Now needed to figure out the mounting of the radiator as the upper axle links are getting into the same space, after some adjustments we ended up with a good compromise. Now am waiting on some poly mounting bushes to make the lower mounts, then onto the tops. This does give me some nice space for headlights & the steering cooler now.

 

[Landy_Andy]

Drew up, then cut the upper & lower mounting brackets for the radiator. Have it tilted back 25 degrees leaving about 1/2" between the fan motor housing & the PAS pulley. Found some poly shock bushings that were the correct size to fit the mounting pins once cut in half. A lot cheaper than the OEM ones & they should last longer too.



Only down side is I dropped one of the bent brackets on the core & made a hole in it....



I guess I get to have a go at brazing it up now, once the low melting temp filler rods arrive. Advice of the day.... don't forget to put cardboard on your radiator core faces when mocking things up !