Project Schism - another offbeat '23 Ford T

[Kendall Burleson]

I like it what ride height are you setting up for?

[toddshotrods]

Originally Posted by Kendall Burleson

I like it what ride height are you setting up for?

Thanks Kendall Three inches between the frame and the ground at the front; four inches at the back, for a little hot rod attitude. That's going to be the actual ride height on coil-overs, no air.

[toddshotrods]

Swing low...




Packaging the electric front-drive system will be a challenge. This works (8 or 9" diameter motor) but raises the center of gravity. Probably still much lower than a gas engine would be up there though. Most of the mass is inside the axle center lines, and concentrated on the longitudinal axis.


I'm going to build a couple over-the-top resonators with these Supertrapp cans, to help tune the sound of the turbo four. Two of them will allow me to use enough baffling but still have the area of a 3-4" pipe that the big turbo will need. I'm looking for a European exhaust note.

[toddshotrods]

Engine and tranmission in the general vicinity. Once we finalize the location, mounts will be fabricated to lock it down. It's getting solid mounts, to go with an abundance of rod ends in the suspension. Better have good glue on those fillings.

[toddshotrods]

Gotta catch this thread up! I've been working out the suspension design in CAD. I was originally going to have the lower control arms brackets laser cut, but needed them faster than the local company could get them to me (plus, they would have taken a nice little chunk out of the project budget for such a low quantity). The little notches are position markers, that indicate where the bracket is located on the frame rails (positions 1 through 8 from front to rear, mirror image side-to-side).


So, we decided to hand cut them. We cut poster board patterns on our small laser (it won't cut steel or thick metals), and the process is underway now to make the sixteen brackets. We have the 16 suspension pivot holes measured, marked, and drilled, so far. Tomorrow, we will start cutting the other critical apsect - the right angle corners that actually mount on the frame - and then the outside profiles.




Later, I will box the tops of the mounts in with hammered steel pieces, like this. The bottom will get a normal boxing plate.




I'm also working on component layout, in Rhino. I did the suspension bracket design in Rhino as well, because they're just flat plates, with a couple critical dimensions. I will be doing some, more common, solid modeling in Pro/E soon too.

Please excuse the crude shapes - accuracy in modeling them wasn't important, where everything goes is. The stacked dark grey objects under the front diff and motor, and in the floor, are the battery modules. That theoretical pack has 333 volts/1800 amps = 800hp potential, but it wouldn't all be used. The controller I'm thinking about for this project (grey box over motor and diff) is rated for 1000amp max (also continuous power rating) and about 400hp. I'm actually only looking for 200-300hp at the front wheels. The excess in battery, controller and motor capability, is for reliability; and, in the case of electric propulsion, also means more range. It should have the typical hybrid type "all electric" range of 30-40 miles from that little battery pack, because it's small and lightweight. I don't care about that so much, because I can drive until gas stations won't sell me any more fuel.

The yellow boxes are the fuel tanks; about 7 gallons worth - good for 300-ish miles, enough for the solid mounted everything, and cramped quarters, to say get out for a while, anyway.

The chassis design was inspired by the old school underslung hot rods, where (as I understand it) they flipped the frame 180*, hanging it from the axles to get the car lower. In this modern, independent suspension, kit car, version the point was the flat frame. It allows us to easily mount a variety of drivetrains, and hang a lot of componentry on the frame rails, as low as possible. It pushes the engine and transmission up higher than it would normally be, but I am hoping that everything else being mounted so low will counter that. We'll see...

[toddshotrods]

Wow, I didn't realize it had been almost a month since I updated this thread!

Since the last post, I decided to stop wrestling with myself and trying to kill two birds with the same stone. I split the production needs from my personal needs and desires, so this car will be free to go where I want to go.

The first thing is the roof had to go, and the had to get down out of the stratosphere. So, from here on, it's like taking a production car (the kits we're developing) and building a customized hot rod with it. The new plan:


Now to catch the thread up. We cut the sixteen brackets and they're welded on. Worked perfectly.




We're in process of machining the front knuckles.

[IMG]http://toddperkinsdesign.com/images/schism/forums/buildpics/036
.jpg[/IMG]

And working out the rest of the chassis and suspension.

[toddshotrods]

Barely cleared a wimpy little 235 tire - gotta get some dish the other way on the rims later to get some meat back there.


Finally snipped the cage off, and have been working on the motor mounts - locking it down solid. The point is to make fabricated steel mounts that appear to be vintage castings.



Please ignore the lumpy welds, it's all going to be ground down and blended. I was pushing it to the max, on the edge of blowing holes, then building up enough weld to shape it. The camera flash actually hides the actual heat zone - had her nice and cherry red by the time I made it around the tubes.



I've just started scratching out a model for a slightly enhanced "T" grille shell.

[toddshotrods]

Wow, over a month since an update! First, I decided to push a little closer to the edge of insanity on the design. Back to the earliest, turn of the century, automobiles - when doors, and a lot of the other body panels, weren't so commonplace. Also, I nixed the Ferrari red for exposed carbon fiber. This rendering is the concept art pic, hotlinked from my site, so it will update as I update it - hopefully there won't be any more radical changes to make that description invalid.


To make the shifter work, with the engine in back, I am going to make a custom mount, with rocker arms that push and pull rods, that push and pull the factory Honda shift cables. No boot, no housing, no cover-up, so this whole assembly has to be a mechanical, performing, art piece.




We also started working on the rear upper control arm mounts. Machining holes in the tubing that will accept a fabricated assembly of the factory Honda mounting bushings, and a fabricated countersink for the nut. We broke the collet in the process, so that has been on hold for a bit. I also needed to re-think my plans for how the frame rails run back to them, so the brakes are on this for a bit.



The front knuckles have been cut off, machined, drilled, and tapped (.750-16) to allow us to use a .750" rod end in place of the upper balljoint. We can adjust the spindle height with spacers between the rod end and the knuckle. The goal here is to cost-effectively develop the specifications for what's really needed, and eventually machine or cast new knuckles - unless these happen to work well enough as they are.



I had to revise a lot of my plans because it was going to take longer to accomplish some of my original goals than I had hoped. The new plans are just about written in stone, and we should be back to work on it next week.

[toddshotrods]

The CAD grille shell is finally ready for some type of CNC process. I haven't decided what that process will be yet. The most elaborate would be to clamp a 6" thick piece of billet in a mill and whittle it down to about 5 pounds - I seriously doubt that's going to happen this time! Too many other things to do to spend that much money on billet, and that much time in front of a mill. The next option is to mill a plug out of wood, wax, or plastic, and have it cast - that's the most feasible plan. A third alternative is to print it in plastic and have it cast. We have a new 3D printer coming that would do a nice job, but it would have to be printed in, maybe four, sections and glued together.

The other problem with 3D printing is the transition between the outer rolled edge and the front panel is supposed to be a subtle concave rolled surface. I left the model as is, to save time, because the ball end mill will automatically leave that surface. If it's printed I need to either create that surface, or fill it in by hand after printing.

The little stand on the bottom is for the emblem. Rather than being perched on top, it's going to "float" in a recessed pocket in the grille.

Some suspension parts and composite supplies arrive Monday and Tuesday, and we get back to work on this puppy.

[Garage Dog 65]

Really enjoy watching your progress and creativeness Todd - Nice Stuff !

What's the planned finish on the grill shell ? Black chrome, black annodize - or painted ? If paint - wondering if you could do it in fiberglass or something non-metallic. Maybe print out paper cross-sections from your cad - spray glue those to plywood - cut them out and build a buck - then fill the openings with foam, sand/sculpt, add a layer of fiberglass and then bodywork like they do speaker surrounds ? Use that as a casting mold - or make a mold and do the finished part outta glass or carbon. Etc.

Maybe mill a mold outta tooling wax and pull a part directly outta that ?

Hope ya figure out a cost effective solution - that's always the challenge for us guys...

We'll be watching. Best of luck !

Jim