Project Schism - another offbeat '23 Ford T

[preston]

I appreciate you sharing all this stuff with us Todd. Interesting design and lots of twists and turns.

I would not one thing - T style roadsters and such are usually built on a lightweight theme, all of the closeups of your brackets and stuff everything seems to be made of .125-.250 thick steel ! Reminds me of the first scratch built car I put together. I wonder if you could downsize some of the thicknesses and add a little more gusseting and fabrication ? Maybe i"m off base just something I noticed.

I do like your designs though.

[toddshotrods]

Originally Posted by preston

I appreciate you sharing all this stuff with us Todd. Interesting design and lots of twists and turns...

...I do like your designs though.

Thanks Preston, it's a fun project to design and work on. I'm happy that it's interesting and entertaining to others.

Originally Posted by preston

...I would not one thing - T style roadsters and such are usually built on a lightweight theme, all of the closeups of your brackets and stuff everything seems to be made of .125-.250 thick steel ! Reminds me of the first scratch built car I put together. I wonder if you could downsize some of the thicknesses and add a little more gusseting and fabrication ? Maybe i"m off base just something I noticed...

Your observations have merit. I am usually a fan of lighter is better, and as light as possible is golden (I actually prefer aluminum and composites over steel), but I decided to have a little fun with heavy steel for a change of pace. The final goal is to make all of these parts look like vintage cast iron, with rolled edges and blended welds, which will help them at least not "look" so heavy. All those parts are actually also much smaller, in real life, than they appear on screen.

Physically, I have also concentrated the heavy stuff in strategic areas where I also needed to build strength. I think the overall vehicle is going to be a lot lighter than it would seem. I do pay attention to how much weight I am adding with the heavy steel parts - so far, probably an extra 75-100lbs - and even being a hybrid, with two complete drivetrains, I am still shooting for around 1500lbs, max. Not too much of a pig.

If I even hit half of my ultimate power goals, and stay at or under 1500lbs, I will have a 3:1 weight-to-power ratio - that should be fun!



The electric motor is finally in place. The saddle mount is not welded yet, because I want to walk around it and stare at it for a while, then patiently position and align it, before tacking the mount in.

[toddshotrods]

I have the roof split and ready to machine from four sheets of 2" foam.



And, I have started on the "fitted luggage". I had originally intended to have them upholstered with leather to match whatever goes on the seats, but now that I see them, out of my head, in "CAD-life", that's going to be hard to do. I'm thinking exposed carbon fiber, with a big leather strap and my Bat-T logo on a big metal buckle...

[GregWeld]

How do you get the luggage "off" the car Todd?? And when you do - how do you pack it? Or am I missing something?

[toddshotrods]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

How do you get the luggage "off" the car Todd?? And when you do - how do you pack it? Or am I missing something?

Hey Greg! It's not really luggage, they're cases for the engine and motor controls, and electric drive batteries.

I just started working on the models earlier today, so there isn't much detail yet. The backs will be aluminum panels that bolt to the roll cage rear bars, and the cases will snap or buckle onto those plates. All the internal goodies will be mounted on the plates, so what you see here are the covers.

As for real luggage or storage space - there ain't none! Should be able to stuff a fresh pair of underwear and a jacket on the floor in front of the seat, for weekend trips!

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by toddshotrods

As for real luggage or storage space - there ain't none! Should be able to stuff a fresh pair of underwear and a jacket on the floor in front of the seat, for weekend trips!

Oh yeah! I have a car like that! It's called an R8!!

[toddshotrods]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Oh yeah! I have a car like that! It's called an R8!!

I ended up keeping Schism because it was moving beyond being a teaching tool for the typical skill level of the interns coming in, and I didn't want to back the project down to match their needs - it's easier to just start a purposed project for them. I do, however, have a handful of talented individuals that will still work on this car, where I can continue to hone their skills. Amanda is one of them. She was out of town last week, but was back this evening. I asked her to locate the center and machine the recesses for the (preferably stainless) selector arm pivot mounts.




It's just rough-cut right now, and will be finished after the pivot mounts are fabricated, so everything can be machined to fit precisely together.

[toddshotrods]

A little more work on the suspension.

[toddshotrods]

I have two active projects that are my personal responsibility to fund and finish, Schism and an electric motorcycle project named Scrape. I have been wrestling with making a decision on which one was going to be my "flagship" project (getting the bigger percentage of my resources) for months now, and finally decided that it would be the bike. That's a good thing, actually, for Schism because it means it doesn't bear the weight of carrying my most ambitious ideas. That means I can focus on just making it run and drive, and enjoying it for whatever it happens to be. Considering the fact that it should only weigh about 1500lbs, handle like a kart, and that hot rods are usually an evolutionary journey - I'm comfortable and confident in the fact that it should be a nice little hot rod, that gets better and better with time...

I like my rounded roof but when I count up the cost of actually producing it, it looks a little out of balance for the less intense of the two projects. I had already modeled the ragtop version, so I decided to see if I like it. Compared to finishing the rounded roof to paint quality and then giving it a layer of exposed cosmetic carbon fiber, the rag top would just require stretching fabric over ribs, resin coating it, then laying up the composites - which wouldn't have to be paint quality final finish (speaking of waves and ripples, not fabric texture), because it's supposed to look like it's fabric stretched over ribs...


No final decision on which one yet, but this makes more sense on paper and would help me get to Goodguys (Columbus) easier.

[toddshotrods]

Most of the interns' work I have been posting is the lower end eductional program, where I start off by building basic tool skills and familiarity, and assess the intern's abilities and natural skill sets, to determine where to go with them. Amanda is on the other end of the spectrum of our (currently developing) educational programs. She already has the skills, and my goal is to challenge her, by creating situations that initiate creative thinking and problem solving, then help her most effectively use her skills to reach her goals. The majority of what I have been doing with her, thus far, has been for my own assessment needs. She's pretty awesome...

Yesterday's project was to figure out her own way to turn the ends of the lower control arm ends to fit in the tubing. The four-jaw chuck is missing for the lathe, which set the stage for her to come up with her own solution. There is no right or wrong, and points are given for creative excellence. She used a rotary table on the mill, which let her use the digital readout to precisely hone in on the desired final dimension. Granted, the rotary table still has a three-jaw chuck, but you have to admit this was a much more creative, innovative, solution (that also allowed more precision in a "production line" like environment than simply turning on the lathe and checking frequently with a caliper or micrometer...)






The end result? Spot on. These will be pressed into the tubes, kinked to get them aimed at the frame mounts, and then notched to fit sections of tubing that will hold the bushings. I realized that the plan I was following was a oil-n-water mix of two different ideas, and wouldn't work as intended, with floppy rod ends. We're going to turn our own UHMW polyethylene bushings (quieter than Delrin, and self-lubing).