SS100 “replica” Project Car

[CaddmannQ]

I’m making heavier panels for the battery floor.

I had a bad reaction when I tested the existing paint. I sprayed some rust-converting black primer on it and the edges curled instantly.

I spent a day making these and half a day removing every molecule of paint on them.

Sandpaper and wire brushes finally made it all ready to weld.

[CaddmannQ]

Today it’s pouring rain but yesterday it was beautiful and 74°.

I got the floor pans cleaned up and welded in from the top. Now I need to flip the chassis and weld them from the bottom.

I also extended the brake pushrod using this long SK socket, which was just the right size once I bored it out to 10 mm. That’s some tough steel and drilling through the quarter drive square and I had to sharpen my drill bit twice.

I also put some little Z brackets on the end of the frame to help tie the corners of the pan together.

[CaddmannQ]

The rain is over. For now.

I got the boatyard 99% dried up. It was over 65°F today.

I did Not do any welding, but I did start to cut and fit the new seat frame supports.

[CaddmannQ]

I believe it was Lord Admiral Nelson, who said to forget about tactics and just go straight at the enemy with everything you can muster.

In direct opposition to this theory I am always trying to think outside the box. But sometimes I should just go directly at a problem and solve in the most obvious way.

I wanted to reinforce this chassis a little bit and build some new and improved seat risers at the same time.

When I originally got this car the seats were kind of off location, because somehow the original kit had included four right seat risers and no lefts. They just buggered up the hole locations and made it work (sort of.)

In order to correct the seat locations (in a hurry) I had to “reverse” two of the seat risers. I reversed them with a large hammer, over my homemade anvil.

The first one turned out so ugly that I decided to do the second one by cutting it with a saw and welding it back together the opposite way. I did this with an oxy/ acetylene torch. It looks pretty crude, because it was one of the first things I torch welded in many years. I put those in the photographs for comparison.

Anyhow, here you can see me hammer new seat risers from some nice old 14 gauge steel. I spent some time making them as accurately as I could, considering that I don’t have a press, and had to use angle irons and a vice, and a bunch of clamps.

[CaddmannQ]

Today it's the dreaded Tule Fog. Highway visibility is naught. It might be damp all day.

There may be some welding but no sanding or painting. Everything is going to rust fast.

According to the forecast, Thursday should be the day to paint.

I did some more work on the seats, getting them set up to weld in the seat bases. There is an issue with fitment, as the floor pan rises at the rear inner corner of the seats.

I must modify two of the risers as necessary to fit the floor.

[CaddmannQ]

Instead of modding the risers, I just flattened the floor with hammer and dolly.

I got the seat risers installed and the seats fitted. Then the seats came back off during welding & paint.

The back of the seats bolt through the steel crossmember, but the fronts just bolt to the pan. This was flimsy & always needed its own crossmember.

This new crossmember tube is only 16ga so just enough to stiffen the floor.

[CaddmannQ]

I got the crossmember drilled and access holes drilled. It’s all bolted to the risers and welded down to the pan.

I did not weld it to the frame rails yet because there’s going to be some additional little gussets.

Also I ran out of time to make and weld those gussets, because I got a bad bottle of gas, and had to take it back to the welding shop after spoiling a couple of welds.

If you wanna give somebody a bad day, put MIG gas on their TIG welder.

That photograph shows the copes & new access holes for the seat riser bolts, but I had not done the welding yet.

[greywynd]

Originally Posted by CaddmannQ

I got the crossmember drilled and access holes drilled. It’s all bolted to the risers and welded down to the pan.

I did not weld it to the frame rails yet because there’s going to be some additional little gussets.

Also I ran out of time to make and weld those gussets, because I got a bad bottle of gas, and had to take it back to the welding shop after spoiling a couple of welds.

If you wanna give somebody a bad day, put MIG gas on their TIG welder.

That photograph shows the copes & new access holes for the seat riser bolts, but I had not done the welding yet.

So you got a ‘wrong’ bottle, not a bad bottle.

In today’s world I would be truly surprised if anyone actually got a ‘bad bottle’ of gas…..we go through countless bottles and rolls of wire in Fort Mac, and it’s very, very rare when there is actually an issue with the consumables.

And when I say countless, heck, most places are buying wire by the pallet.

We figure in the last couple years we’ve likely put over 100 rolls of .035 s6 through the bore welders alone. And those are the 12” rolls.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CaddmannQ]

Well you can look at it anyway you’d like, but what I got was an orange Argon bottle, labeled Argon, that was filled with something besides Argon.

The new bottle seem OK, so problem solved for now.

[digr]

I got a CO2 tank once that was made to be used upside down, the regulator would freeze up all most instantly.