The Willomet Charger

[1970RT]

Continued progress building out the chassis.

Front and rear "torque boxes" are burned in and now one continuous structural member from front to rear. I took my time with setup and welding so everything stayed level and square. I'll wire-wheel and blend all the MIG welds later.

Next up is the front frame expansion - looking to make a stronger connection between the front rails and the torque boxes, improving rigidity, and transferring loading to the (not yet built) inner rails and rockers. There's a lot of pock marks in the frame, so I'm filling with my TIG and smoothing as I go.

David

[1970RT]

Front rail expansion continues. One more plate goes to the interior and ties the shock tower to the torque box.

David

[1970RT]

Last night's progress - passenger side interior plate is in, and inner plate is mocked up. The passenger rail flange is trimmed and welded in preparation for fitting the interior rail plate.




Plate is fit and in. Working with the rails up close like this, it's easy to see the variations in assembly from left and right. It makes it impossible to reference and measure from features, and I have to rely on finding level and measuring from set points on the frame table.


Now, it's easier to see where we're going. The rails are about 7" tall at the crease, and the interface between the torque box and rail is a square 5". Recall that the boxes are 5" wide and 4" tall, so the interface is width matches the depth and the plates internal to the boxes also align with the overlay plates.






It's a lot of steel up front, but the improved stiffness should be worth the small amount of added weight. I'm looking to get back out there tonight.

David

[waynieZ]

Awesome job!

[1970RT]

Originally Posted by waynieZ

Awesome job!

Thanks! Learning a lot as I go.

David

[1970RT]

I'm not afraid to change a design when it isn't working. There was a part of the interior and inner frame where they overlapped and created a 1/4" thick segment of rail. While I acknowledge my offroad fabrication past, this isn't a stunt car and doesn't need 1/4" rails. I segmented the two plates and replanned my weld steps, and added about 1.5 lbs of lightness to this little bit of of the project.

Rev1 inner frame plates tacked and cleco'd. I'm building the top and lower plates today and this week.








David

[WSSix]

Looks good, David. Keep up the quality work!

[1970RT]

Originally Posted by WSSix

Looks good, David. Keep up the quality work!

Thanks! Fine fitting the rails and top plates is a slow process, but that’s the next milestone.

David

[1970RT]

Fine fitting the top plates, which consumes a crapload of time to get the open corner welds set just right.



On the plus side, I'm finally getting a feel for welding these original 14ga rails. It's been challenging finding the right setting without bringing up the contaminants on the inside of the rail where there's still some old corrosion and (now) Eastwood primer. I broke the process into two, and have used it successfully several times now.

First pass with .045 wire.


Cover pass with 1/16


More to come. It should only get up to 105 today.

David

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by Zoomin

I never cease to be amazed at how many botched sheet metal repairs there are out there.

David ---- just started at the beginning of your thread and after the quarter panel "reveal" post --- I saw this.....


Sorry guys --- this is an utter failure to understand not only the AGE of these cars -- but the simple truth that for many many years (decades) NOBODY WANTED THESE CARS....or '69 Camaro's either.

Body shops -- yes I worked at one --- were paid for insurance work -- and a bodyman gets about half the labor quote.... The faster he can get the car out of the shop and back on the road -- the more money HE makes..... We were in the era of "bondo" -- when I started -- we LEADED repairs..... that's right -- leaded.... with wood paddles etc. When sheetmetal came in wrinkled like this -- we'd pull on it - beat on it - stretch it - shrink it - use "crease pullers" and dent pullers -- and slathered it with mud.... I'm "ASSuming" this might have been an older repair that was deemed "okay" given the value of the auto at the time.... these weren't all $100,000 cars for their entire lifetime.


NICE PROJECT and fun to watch come together!