79 Olds Cutlass Wagon school project...

[SRD Art]

Here are some shots of the Speedway tubing notcher. It's ultra simple and very easy to use. Only 2 complaints- the numbers are a sticker. Human error shows it's placed about 2 degrees off, but that's easy enough to compensate for when measuring. But also, just the fact that it's a sticker and the WD-40 I use to lube the saw as its cutting soaked right into it. I know eventually it'll peel off so at some point I need to get the dremel tool out and grind all the marks permanent.

Cutting the tubing this way went so well. The first few cuts were off slightly but still weldable. After I got a good feel for how to use it resulted in some real nice snug fitment. I LIKE IT! One of the best $100 I've spent.





Here's the mock up of the cage so far. The back half is all welded as a unit as is the main hoop. I started on the front bars today and by Thursday I should have all the sections in the car and welded together. Because of pipe limitation I decided to triangulate the braces instead of doing an x brace. Should still be pretty stiff. I've decided to paint it Krylon aluminum with a satin clear to match the silver accents on the black and orange interior. The photo shows it in bare metal.



I should have the rotisserie to the school by Friday so early next week I'll have the frame out and then the fun really begins!

[waynieZ]

Ben its looking great,you got some talent man! Very Nice.

[youthpastor]

Originally Posted by SRD Art

This past Friday I went by the junk yard to grab some parts I scouted out earlier in the week. I definitely scored some great deals.

First off I'd like to thank the previous owner of this early 90s Camaro for installing Edelbrock rear lower control arms before the car made it to the wrecking yard. New price is $205 from Summit, only $10 (!) for the pair from the wrecking yard. Fighting a rusted bolt and 3 very tight ones was absolutely worth the effort.



They have a little surface rust and the paint is beat up but other than that they're in great shape, no dents or other issues mechanical issues.

Nice Score! I love hearing about these deals!

[SRD Art]

A few more photos...

Here's the complete roll bar mocked up in the car. Again I wasn't necessarily after conforming to any particular type/ class of racing, although I think if I did the correct door bars it would be legal for under 11.90s at the strip. The biggest reasons for building it were 1. To learn how to build one from scratch, 2. To stiffen up the car, and 3. To create something that didn't look like a mass produced unit yet still have the strength of one, and 4. add a cool element of design.

I didn't want to weld the bar to the frame, mostly because I wanted the bars in the car for strength when I put the body on the rotisserie so I can start strengthening the chassis and building the rear suspension. While I'm in there welding up the bars I will weld them to 1/8" thick plates which will be welded to the floor. When it's all back together bolts will go through the floor and down through the frame to tie it all together.

Without the seats in...









Notice in the photos above that the cage sits on a ledge from the main hoop forward. I knew once I got the rear section welded to the hoop welding the last little bit on the top was going to be difficult, especially since I've never done anything like this before. I know its typical to cut the floor out and drop the cage down but it's so tight to the roof I didn't think there'd be enough room since the frame is not far from the floor here. Several of the older guys in the program suggested cutting a couple holes in the roof, weld up the bars and then welding roof patches in. I didn't want to do that so a hunch said cut the body seam on the floor and bend it down (red arrow), bang the top seam out of the way (green arrow) then tugging on the partially welded cage would allow access to the top as it dropped out of the car on one side and down into the feet well on the other side. I got it within 1/8" of dropping down and it was pretty much stuck. Not willing to give up I gave the side that would drop into the feet well a little kick and the bar had enough flex to drop down and it fell right out of the car on the other side. This allowed plenty of welding access and it didn't take that much effort to get it back into place. I did the same on the opposite side, a little kick and it popped right out.

[SRD Art]

One problem I ran into while making the front bars was I ran out of bar. The last bar to bend was the floor bar for the passenger side and it was about 6 or 7" too short. So I grabbed piece of scrap practice tubing and carefully stitch welded them together. In the second photo you can see the end result, it came out pretty nice. There was some mild warpage and you can still feel where the weld was but I think it's good enough that if I didn't say anything it won't be noticed. Although I originally was going to have plain painted bars I may cover these floor bars with some vinyl that matches the seats. The rest of these photos are pre-welding, testing fit with the seats in. I need to oblong the driver's seat bolt holes a little to move the seat inward about 1/4" for door bar clearance, but other than that everything fits great.

[OOCustoms]

your project is looking great! If I were you though, I would have put an insert where you butt welded the bar on your last photos. The way I was trained on something like that is to do an insert with three plug welds around the pipe on either end if the weld. This will prevent the tube from pulling apart and bending at the weld because of the added inner tube. other then that looks great man!

[SRD Art]

You're right, and that's good advice for anyone that may need to do this on their car. I didn't have any scraps that would fit inside but also I was in a bit of a hurry and didn't think of it until after it was done. Adding an insert will also help strengthen the bar. Since this isn't really a support bar I think I can get away with it. Thanks for the compliments!

[67goatman455]

wow this is looking great!

[SRD Art]

A few more pics-

To weld the cage into the car I used our platform mounted plasma cutter on manual mode to cut out some 1/8" thick 4x4" plates and bent them with the metal brake to contour the floor pan.



For the back two bars I had to make custom plates that contoured around the body bushing bumps in the sheet metal. To do this I first cut out the shape I needed from white poster board. The light beam follows the lines of the cutout...



...and transfers that to the cutter.



Maybe not as precise as processes like cnc water jetting but it did a great job. I used the machine again to fabricate some brackets for the trailer hitch, more coming on that soon.



Originally I started to rattle can the roll cage satin aluminum but it was too bright and shiny and showed all the nicks and imperfections in the tubing. I decided to go with a more traditional satin black instead. The paint in this photo is fresh so it still looks fairly shiny, but it dulls down a bit as it dries. It should be just about the same sheen as the dash, console, and door panels when dry.

[SRD Art]

Updates- Trailer hitch is in!

A couple pages ago I mentioned that I scored a $25 g-body El Camino trailer hitch from the junkyard. I'll be using it to tow my street/strip Nova to Georgia when I relocate in a few months and to the track when I get the itch to go drag racing again. Two problems with a hitch is there's no room because I will be running the exhaust tips right under the center of the rear bumper and I also don't want an ugly trailer receiver visible from behind. So I decided to figure out how to hide it behind the bumper....

The hitch...



Here's the original bumper shock/ mount. I used a die grinder to cut a small slit in the body (not visible, it extends about 8" into the frame) to drain the oil. I did this pointed away from me inside the trash can because the oil is a bit under pressure and sprays out. (I learned this by accident practicing on one of the front bumper mounts. Lol, it sprayed about 10 feet in the air and got oil everywhere in about a 4 foot radius!) After the oil was drained I welded up the slit and sand blasted them.



I then cut off the factory Draw-tite brackets. Using the bumper shocks to help make a poster board template I plasma cut out some C shape brackets from the 1/8" steel sheet and some C shape brackets from the left over hitch brackets. For strength I drilled out all the holes from the smaller metric to 3/8" and used grade 8 bolts. Here it is all welded and in place.



For clearance I had to persuade the spare tire well a little with a small sledge.





I then cut off the ends of the bumper support bracket and bolted them on.





Here is the first test fit with the bumper. It looks like a large gap but once the tailgate and the plastic piece that fills the rest of the gap is installed it looks better. Once all back together I will actually tuck the bumper closer to the body, another reason for draining the oil.



Measuring out a rectangle in the center of the bumper I cut it out with a die grinder. The cut out piece will be welded to some square tubing that will insert into the receiver when the race tow hook or the trailer ball is not being used. The panel will hide everything except the small gap outline around the rectangle. The bumper will be black so it shouldn't be very noticeable. I got the tow hook from Harbor Freight on sale for $10. Not sure yet if it's SCCA legal but for the price I figured I'd grab it.



Next I need to build support brackets that will be welded to the hitch and bolted to the frame about 10" inward. More on that soon. Overall I think it turned out great and really ads to the car's versatility without sacrificing a clean look out back.