coming along nicely.

Brenden, I like teh weight savings of PVC but not sure how well it will do on a full rollover situation.





































:lol:

Kidding, great job man, I also mock suspension linkage, shocks, etc out of pvc and wood :) Add some more triangulation to the design and you should be good :D

Thank you! Oh yes, I will be adding triangles. My plan for that main hoop is one large diagonal bar (creating 2 triangles in the process) as well as a horizontal bar across for seat belt mounting. I will make and trim them, but not weld these two in yet as I may still need access to the interior while I'm building the car. I'll weld these in before painting. I'll also make gusset/ triangular braces for the rear down tubes as well as the bars that run along the side.

I'll also be making the plates to distribute the surface area/ load. Just takes time. I could only imagine how little time I'd have to work on this if I had kids.

Ok, I had some time to work on my car this weekend. First pic I have is actually from last week- I had only enough time to make a mock up of the side bar that will run along the doors. The cool thing is the door panel armrests have a nice radius that will allow the tubing to tuck underneath it. The only downside is they are not truly parallel (they angle up towards the front) So, this gives me a choice of either running the bar equal to the arm rest (which would have it angle upwards toward the front) or keep it parallel to the rocker panel. I'm choosing the latter to keep more legroom for ingress/ egress.

After making this model I ordered the DOM tubing from a local metal shop (they cut down the 20' lengths for me) and picked it up after work during the week and I thought I was all set to start bending tubing on Friday. I was wrong. My economy Eastwood bender just wasn't up to the task. The u shaped bracket wasn't strong enough. It didn't even have a chance. Trying to bend the 1.75" tubing ripped it apart like aluminum foil. So I spent the rest of the day building a new one out of stronger metal only to discover that even with that, the jack wasn't strong enough to bend the metal. So now I've used the thing 2x, and it has broke 2x. not happy.

Fast forward to today (Sunday) my neighbor Brett (Fab 53) was able to save the day. He helped bend the tubing for me with the proper equipment. It looks beautiful! I also had enough time to make some base plates for the rocker panels. Next weekend I hope to work on trimming the tubing and work on getting this thing installed.

Pretty cool neighborhood...:thumbsup:

Roll cage 4
 

I got a little work done on the car- I was able to weld some of the cage in. Using my cardboard panel template I trimmed the main hoop down, and then cut each down tube in back to fit. They were not easy, lots of complex angles, trimming, more trimming, etc. After getting the down tubes tacked in place I had to cut away the rocker panels to allow the cage to move forward so I could complete the welding. Then put them back together, weld in the plates along the rocker panels and weld the cage to the car. I added a couple of small gussets at the bottom of the main hoop for additional strength. I also had enough time to cut the door bars and fit them- they required a tricky cut in front to go around the bend. I have them mostly welding in, but I'll have to cut the sheet metal away behind the doors to gain enough access to fully weld them in. Then I can add more gussets/ braces for support and triangulation of the bars for increased strength. Until the next weekend...

Nice progress. It looks like it fits good.

Thanks, Wayne!

This weekend I was able to get some additional time on the 'cage. The weekend started out with one of the wheels breaking on my dolly- meaning I've exceeded the weight capacity of them and need to lighten the car up. So I got a little side tracked and took the engine & trans back out as I don't have to have those in right now. (After the cage build I'll be needing to install my brakes- more weight- so I can determine the rear wheel offset, which, when delivered, will tell me just how much I need to push out my qtr panels and then I can install those.) The car is now easier to move in/ out of my garage again...

I was able to add the gussets to the down tubes from the main hoop, as well as to the suspension crossmember. I also added a few bars under the door bars and a few plates to tie the car body to the cage.

I don't have a main diagonal cross brace in yet. My plan is to make this one removable, so I need to order some of those fancy "cage connector" pieces. This way I can add this in for an open track day, and save a few pounds when not needed.

Your progress looks good. Did you call AAA to get that flat fixed lol :thumbsup:

Yes, and I was on hold for only 3 hours....

During the week I got a little credit card happy and ordered some fancy "cage connectors", as well as more KBS paint for my car. I was able to add in my diagonal brace and make it bolt in/ removable so I can access the back and save a a few pounds while not at the track. I also cleaned my hubs- only to realize I don't have a matched set. D'oh! One has factory casting #'s, the other doesn't and is an obviously aftermarket turd. So I'll have to step up and get some better hubs, but these will have to do for now. I still cleaned them up, painted them, even baked them on my grille "carbeque", and threw in new Timken bearings/ races and placed it on my car so I could sethte rotors on (driver side only) and now I'll be able to calculate the offset for the wheels. Next week. I hope.

That is HUGE progress! Looking awesome, and coming out great! Where did you get the connectors from and $$? The cage looks awesome, looks stouter than a tiger cage!

Thank you!

While searching online I stumbled on this forum which shows several brands:

http://www.offroadfabnet.com/forums/...ead.php?t=7265

and chose the Ballistic Fabrication.

http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/...mp_p_1467.html

prices are dependant on size. I used the 1.75" OD / 1.5" ID

I hope this is helpful

Cage looks awesome

So what seats are you using

Thank you!

Good question- haven't decided yet. Currently, I'm leaning towards a street/ track seat like a Corbeau A4, etc. I have yet to sit in one though. I want something light, has good side support and won't take 20 minutes to get in or out of. Whatever it is it'll be black cloth. I have never liked leather. I need it to breathe.

I was able to squeeze in a few hours this weekend between dodging the rain we've had, servicing both my motorcycle and truck, taking time out to celebrate the St. Patrick's day, and helping a friend install a hood tach on his #'s matching '68 Firebird 400.

I was able to install the top of the dashboard on my car. I also filled in the speaker holes in the middle. Unfortunately, my camera was charging while I did that so the pics are limited this weekend.

Looks great! I like the idea of filling in that hole in the dash, why didn't I think of that:cheering:

Thank you! You know, it's not too late...

It might be.....already painted my dash, lol

quartered 1
 

Wow, feels like it's been forever since I've posted an update. This weekend I installed my (new to me) repro '69 T/A spoiler, installed (also new to me) some '69 Camaro Z-28 "short" steering arms (pic shows the one I had with the new, shorter one), played around with mocking up wheel sizes and installed the driver side quarter panel.

It looks like I'll be using 18x10 in front and 18x 12 in back and should have most, if not all complete suspension and steering travel. I ordered a set of Kore 3 billet hubs and will confirm final wheels measurements after installing those. I'm going to need to trim my wheel openings more to keep from hitting.

Wow, that quarter panel was a lot of work. It would have been a breeze had I just put it where GM did in '67. No, I had to be different. I had to flare it out ever so slightly to give it a more aggressive look. This resulted in a lot of adjusting , measuring, making sure the body lines look right, cutting, making patch parts, recycling what was left of my original quarter panel, blending into my custom tail panel, etc. And this was the easy side. all I had to do was make it look good. The other side will be much more difficult. I'll have to do all that again, as well as mirror the driver side. cool.

I have more plans for further customization for the wheel openings and quarter panels, too. Stay tuned.

quartered 2
 

more pics from this weekend including the little pieces I had to make to help fill in the rear area to the tail panel. This isn't all of them, just two. I think I had 3 other ones I made...

I think I have one "high spot" along the edge of the quarter panel. It can only be seen from the front view. I need to check (could be a reflection) if not, then I'll need to slightly trim it. No big deal.

Sick Bro. Quarter stretch in your driveway..:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

thanks!

Brendon awesome work! really dig how it is coming along! I was debating on a 69 rear pannel for the 68, seemed like it could work to help a bit with the width, but after seeing yours I am more inspired!

Killer work, keep it coming!

Gui

Thanks! Yeah, I prefer the earlier taillights over the '69 style. Another option is to get a second tail panel, and splice them together to make it wider. That was my alt plan to make the tail panel wider. The opportunity there is this allows you to move the taillights further apart...

Awsome Fab Work

I like how your quarters turned out:thumbsup:

Thank you! I just hope I make the other side match now....

Wow. I really need to learn how to weld. The stretched quarters are cool

Thanks! I never even welded before having this car. There's a lot I need to learn, too. The paragraph below speaks of one such example I should know already...

This weekend I was able to start on the outer half of the inner wheel housing. Again, not able to leave it alone I had to go and modify it for more room. I trimmed it all nice to fit inside flush to the quarter panel only to weld it in and then see it shrink away. Now I have a nice gap (albeit fairly consistent) so I'll need to fill this in. Hopefully I'll get that taken care of next weekend as well as the trunk extension for the driver side.

I also got the Kore 3 hubs- they look so sweet!

Nice job, keep at it it looks good.

Thanks, Wayne!

This week I got a little work done and was able to finish up the driver quarter. I added the quarter extension in, added material to the inner bumper structure, and trimmed and added the trunk floor extension.

I used '69 trunk floor extensions thinking they would have more material to work with. I flattened the curved area to maximize material and trimmed it to fit.

On the underside of the wheel well I ended up making a few trim pieces to fill in the gap. this gave me more area to attach to the quarter to. I also added a second wall to the inside of the fender edge for more strength (which I trimmed the recessed step away- I'll be doing this to the remaining ones also)

There is quite a gap on the inside where tail pipes once went. I won't be running my exhaust past the axle so I'm thinking of closing this area off.

Its coming out nice,plus it leaves you plenty of room on the other side to recess the battery into the floor if you decide to.

That's a cool idea! I like that. I just might have to do that now...

:thumbsup:

I got a little time in today to start on the pass side quarter panel installation. I spent a third of the day today just aligning my door and front fender first to get them aligned better for reference. Without it, I'd be guessing where the panel is going.

Till next weekend....

Another week, another project update. I worked on the passenger quarter today. Got a little more welding in and started on the back area. I got curious and pulled out the bumper I have. It's slightly dented, so I'll need to repair or replace it. What's interesting is it almost fits. It's very close. so, either I can modify the car to fit the bumper or the bumper to fit the car. There are advantages to both options, so I'll need to weigh them and run with one.

It looks good,nice progress. Its amazing that you spread the quarters that much and the bumper almost fits. I quess they left a lot of room to play with in them.

Yeah, I was quite surprised, too. I'm sure there's some tolerance built into them, considering the multiple plants, etc.

Part of me wants to leave the bumper alone and modify the car so, if I ever needed another bumper, I could just throw another one on. However, from the preliminary line up, it appears the angle of the bumper and panels don't align anymore- which will force me to modify the bumper instead.

OK, so I got a little time in on my car today. I was able to wrap up the back panel pieces/ installation. Next weekend I hope to get going on the wheel well assembly. June will be a non productive month for me :(

In other news I came across a local survivor '68 400 car. #'s matching, AC/ deluxe interior, black plates, etc. Very complete car. If I get it I'd tool around in it as a cruiser (roof is shot under that vinyl), but that would be $$/ time I'm not putting into my car. Decisions decisions...

Pretty nice car, thats exactly how my car came originally except the 400 ram air.

When I first saw the gap on the end of the tail panel I thought moving the light out was the way to go but I really like what you did, Nice Job it came out great.