Hackster's Autocross Track Day Truck (Garage Build)

[waynieZ]

They look like a great solution.

[SBDave]

Brakes look good! Funny I mentioned be interested in what seats you were going to choose and you went with the one I'm currently most interested in. Did you get the padding for it? My concern is I'll be doing some longer drives (5hrs) so I need something comfortable for that length of time.

You might wanna try these seats with the 3 point and see how that works out for you unless the series you plan to compete in requires more. Harness bar could be a non-issue.

Good luck!

[hackster]

Originally Posted by SBDave

Brakes look good! Funny I mentioned be interested in what seats you were going to choose and you went with the one I'm currently most interested in. Did you get the padding for it? My concern is I'll be doing some longer drives (5hrs) so I need something comfortable for that length of time.

You might wanna try these seats with the 3 point and see how that works out for you unless the series you plan to compete in requires more. Harness bar could be a non-issue.

Good luck!

I did order the padded cover for it and to be honest its pretty comfortable. I am not sure about a 5 hour drive comfortable but Ill know more after this weekend.

I want to be safe in the seats and held in place really well. This thing has a lot of traction and it throws you around the cab pretty good. Good Seat and good harness are worth its weight in gold for this stuff.

Had a little time in the shop last night, well enough to get frustrated with a few things then get over it. I really want to get some harnesses to hold me into the seat for track days but I also dont want this to turn into a track truck only and a full cage gets pretty hard to live with on a day to day basis.

So here is the aftermath.







The plan is to run some support rods from the center of the bar down next to the seats and tie into the floor to add some triangulation. All mounts will be double shear and it should be more than sufficient to hold me in place and deal with the forces of any crash. The tube is 1.75 .120 wall DOM not some lightweight weenie stuff that I have seen other bars built from.

Also since I was going gung ho on the Brakes, I figured the rear needs an upgrade as well. So I ordered the rear caliper brackets for the GT500 rear brakes and some new rear rotors for the GT500 stuff. Rear will be 13.8" now.

Hope to get this wrapped up tonight and get the truck back road worthy with the seat bolted in and the harness bar in place.

Sean

[dhanks]

How far off the ground do you plan on making this?

[hackster]

Originally Posted by dhanks

How far off the ground do you plan on making this?

The truck itself?

It has about 3.5" of ground clearance to the lowest point and that is the bottom of the cross member and the bottom of the old radius arm mounts. Bigger tires are going to raise it up a little bit too.

Sean

[hackster]

Worked on this a little bit more last night, just kind of tinkering but realizing I need to have this **** done in a day or two for Sundays track day.









I did a lot of reading on harness bars before building this, and saw a few of them that had actually collapsed in the center from an impact. I do not want that to happen and want to be safe so I built this to tie in the center to the floor boards.

I think it turned out really well, is very unobtrusive into the passenger area and is still keeping it classy.

I got everything welded out last night and even got a few things painted. I need to get the main bar painted and install everything. I need to break in the brakes and make sure all is still functional and the damn thing stops.

I got some brake ducting from Summit last night, probably will not be permanent but should have something rigged up for the front brakes.

Sean

[DBasher]

Looks great! With the new seat and harness you'll be more comfortable and confident out on track.

Do me a favor....bring an extra ps belt, maybe two.

[waynieZ]

It looks good, that should stiffen it up.

[hackster]

Managed to get everything painted up and installed with new hardware.

Turned out pretty good in my opinion.





Well good news and bad news. I got the pads bed in last night and holy **** does this thing stop, and that is with the stock rear rotors on it, should get a little better with the 14's on the back. I have to adjust some rear bias as the fronts were able to lock up pretty easy now but not going to adjust it until I get the rears on there.

The pedal feel is actually quite a bit improved from before, a little stiffer a little higher off the floor so all around pretty damn happy.

Hanging out between runs after letting the pads cool down.



The bad news is that I cannot keep a damn power steering belt on this bitch. This time it just flew off, there was no evidence of any kind of damage to it other than the chew marks where it hit the stock belt.

Apparently Ford offers a tensioner kit and pulley to work with the AC pump, so I ordered that, hope it shows up tomorrow, if not I think I am screwed for the weekend.

Handling and braking on this old turd is incredible, you would never know you were in an old truck unless you got out and looked at the inside.

Seating is much better, I am lower in the cab with more leg room and its pretty comfy too. Not sure I am ever going to take it out.

Sean

[grendel]

I really like that harness bar. I may have to do something like it in my truck.

Was it a kit?