excuses excuses

Quick 6 Month update.. or something like that...

Well most of you know that I have a few serious passions, my family, my dogs, my projects and Jeeps. In September we bought a Jeep, the second that pulled into the drive way it became a distraction and this car project has suffered because of it. As well as being distracted, I've got a few other excuses but who cares, right?

Okay so for that update I mentioned... The past week or so I've been back to the project, the engine is now mounted and in place. I know it's not major progress but a lot of work went into it.

I think my last post was to get this thing rolling by the end of July. It may be obvious but that didn't happen. I still need wheels and tires, now that I have the correct steel for the suspension.

I promise that from now on I will update at least once a month, none of this 6 month crap.

Days until target debut: 165 days.

Updated with Picture

Damn, ran out of beer

Progress today was slower today than I would have liked. Started off by stopping in at the steel supplier, not only did they not have what I needed they also were being jerks abouts it. I was less than thrilled with them and I think it may be the last time I use them. Next up, and the second setback of the day, I had to cut off the rear end and redesign it on the fly. The plans I had were based on a live axle, as mines an Independent rear suspension (IRS) I needed to completely ditch the work I had done a few months ago... super lame but I worked it out.

Now for the really annoying part... After I had cut the steel to fabricate the new differential mount my welder crapped out on me. It refused to feed any wire and so I couldn't do anything with it. I cleaned up a bit, hopped in the car and ran to Harbor Freight. When I got there it was 7:02, any guesses on when they close??? I had to beg to get them to swap out my welder but they did so horay.

When I got back to working in the garage I had blown 2 hours of prime time work time. I persisted and got the rear end mounted and bolted into place. It all came out really well in the end and I believe it will be stronger in the end....

Differential mounted, remaining bit of threaded rod will be cut off once I'm happy with the placement.

Front end of differential with drive shaft mocked up in place

Back end of the differential 

My goal to get this thing rolling in a month is looking good, neighbor offered top push me around if I do!

Three beer kinda night

Good evening loyal readers 

I had a little time today after work and seemed to find myself in the garage early enough to make some progress on the build. There won't be any pictures in this post - there just wasn't much to look at...

Tonight's progress was mostly on suspension and rear end components. In the few times I've had a chance to get some work done this past week I removed the front suspension from the donor including the brakes and hubs. Tonight I got a good 3 hours in and pulled the differential, suspension, and brake from the back end. 

I put the differential up on the build table and kind of located it where I think it will go, next step will be to mock it up and tack weld it in place. The big hurdle will be trying to figure out how exactly I'll pull that part off.......

As a final note, the RX7 will never roll again, sad day.

yea yea I know...

Alright first off I'm sorry it's been 2 months since I've posted anything. It seems that the only time I have to update this I get distracted with something else and then just don't get back to it.

Well here's the update... I have the donor car, a 1988 Mazda RX7 all of 500 bucks, a buddy's truck, and some hillbilly engineering we got the thing back to my house. 

Some of the more amusing things I've had to work on since I got the car... 1) Removing the rat crap, grass and other junk 2) Stripping the interior 3) Removing a Rattlesnake's molted skin that I found in engine bay (picture below) 4) Oh and the huge rat that was living in the car... that was fun.

I've also worked a little to get the car up and running but found an electrical short caused by ReX (the rat) so decided to get the thing in my garage and put it up on jack stands. Once I got it up there I just chose to start ripping apart the front end. One of the surprises I found, is that I should be able to use the cast aluminum suspension arm off the RX7 and put it on my project car instead of fabing one up myself. Yay time saver or do it myself?

Anyway 2 months and progress has slowed, work's been busy, got a new TV which is stupid amazing and been working to get my edumikation back on track. And of course if balls hot.

Sorry for the weak excuses but I promise I'll get back to things when I get a chance. This project wasn't designed to be done in a few weeks anyway.

Minor update

I weighted the entire chassis today, came out to 105 lbs it's a little heavy due to the heavier 14 gauge steel I used. The plans called for 16 gauge but I felt I could work better with something a little thicker...

Chassis Complete!

Yea yea, sorry I knows its been nearly a week since I've posted any progress. This one won't be much to read either....

To be fair it hasn't been anything too exciting. Today was kind of a big day, the frame is finished as far as I can go until I can get acquire a donor car. Here's a few pictures of the completed frame.

This is the rear bulkhead and the "trunk" this is the area where the rear differential, fuel cell and maybe the battery.

Final welding and grinding still needs to be done but I won't deal with that until I after the car is built and torn back down for paint.

As far as the donor car is concerned... I contacted someone yesterday about one for sale on craiglist. We texted back and forth all day and when it came time for me to meet the guy he tells me his wife sold it earlier in the day. damn lame.

Chassis, day 2

Got a good 5 hours in today, feeling every minute of it now. I completed more of the frame but ran into a minor issue with the front end I fabricated yesterday. Seems my math was just a bit off and it was 3/4 of an inch too tall. When I added in the side rails it just didn't line up. Two hours later it was fixed. I was worried about my welds but when I cut off the tubes I checked and yea, I think they're stronger than the rest of the metal. I did complete the rear bulkhead which began to close off the driver and passenger area.

Rear Bulkhead:

Cockpit side rail (aka arm rest) Anyone other than me impressed it's level?

Where I am at the end of today: