Black Pig Too

[Manky Monkey]

Being "Black Pig Too", I kinda assumed it would be black.

[brock]

   more than likley but maybe a bit flashier than the last one

[brock]

   picking up from where I left it last night, a brief spell of re measuring everything and cross checking the diagonals and the rear uprights were tacked in place.

[brock]

   Next on my list was the short uprights that separate the rails at the motorplate, these were a little awkward to cut as I don't really know the angle of the top tubes until they are in place and I can trial fit them, not a problem, back to the drawing and take both size and angle from it, cut a pair and tack them on making really sure that they match the angle of the motor plate. I don't have the plate yet but we have spaced the gearbox back to allow for it so it was easy to pass a couple of lengths of strap through the gap and establish the correct angle.   

[brock]

   About here is the point that we lay the top rail set into the housed tubes and sort out it's length and position. Now, when I started this series it wasn't in any ego boosting "look what I can do" type way but more of a "look, this is a piece of piss, just have a crack at it" fashion, so when it all goes a little awry you'll get that too. Anybody that might be offended by that should look away now. When I made up the rear uprights as a unit on the bench I started by cutting a pair of tubes, or rather I made one that fitted, cut the bottom housing on a second tube, layed them on the welding bench with an offcut through the joints to keep them aligned and marked the overall length onto the second tube. At this point I guess I wandered off, maybe to stoke the fire or put the kettle on or maybe just ponder the great questions of the universe, like, that Anastasia, you know, the singer, does she want me and is just playing hard to get or should I pay more attention to the evil press saying that she tours the world along with what they call her constant female companion ? Anyway, whenever I got back to the bench I marked and cut the housing and welded everything fully, the only bit so far that got that treatment. When I fitted the tubes on to the bottom rails all was fine but when I come to lay the top tubes in the levels were way out. I think that I had marked the longest length and then cut it as the shortest so making the tube longer by the depth of the housing. Bit of a bugger as it meant having to put a couple of tempory cross braces in whilst I set it out correctly and re-cut it. I tried it without but it was vibrating like a tuning fork. When that was done it was out with a magnet on a stick to retrieve all the debris that had fallen down inside the tube. All in all a major waste of time as by then I had lost confidence in what  I'd done and went back to checking everything all over again !  Still, could have been worse, at least it was too long, not short, and the error was at the top. 

[brock]

   After that little hiccup I went out for a while, made a call to Real Steel and ordered the bits to rebuild the short block, came back to find a rat had had lunch in my absence. Unfortunately it was my lunch. I have a little plan to deal with him tommorrow

[brock]

   getting back into it, I layed the top tubes in and sorted out their length, cut the splice, set it up (again) and tacked it all   

[brock]

   Once that was done there were only two tubes left to place in the perimeter frame, the upper front bastards. Awkward little buggers, needing to be clamshelled over the lower tubes as they meet the torsion bar. Time consuming rather than difficult, cut and try, cut and try, cut and try. Luckily I managed to stop cutting before the sweary stage. Put them in, check the front end is still square and tack. Call it a night whilst still winning 

[brock]

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[brock]

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[Manky Monkey]

Tis a thing of beauty & a joy to behold, big brother. 

[tbone]

What was that phrase? oh yes "annoyingly talented". Not only superb fabrication but an honest n humerous write up.

[brock]

  Thankyou gentlemen, although as I said, it's really not tricky, do the research, spend on the right materials and take your time, same as everything really.
   Still, onward. not a lot to see tonight but if it makes you feel better I have fought it every step of the way. Rear axle mounting, quite a simple concept, put a pair of big plates on the axle and a matching ones on the chassis and bolt them together. If I was doing this from nothing I would have made and fixed the chassis plates, then the axle plates, bolted them together on the car and then fitted the axle, however I am reusing our old axle which already has the plates on it and they are in the right place, a bit of a result. Not really, with hindsight I would have been better, or at least faster to cut them off and started again. First problem of the day was that the regs call for a single 1/4" plate each side, a quick check showed we had none, bugger. Further reading turned up an alternative in the SFI specs that allowed two 1/8" plates each side with 3/4" bosses through them, that's better we have heaps of 4 x 1/8 strip, we'll have it done in no time.
   I made a hardboard template and fired up the plasma, four plates, easy. Actually no. each plate has a different cut out as the axle tubes are tapered and different side to side. So, four more plates cut undersize and out with the die grinder.   

[Manky Monkey]

Looking rather spiffing Mr Field.

[brock]

   Ok, that's better. Mark the holes through the existing axle plate and pilot drill as sets, place in the chassis and tack. Measure and cut the tubular upright that holds it all together and fit, or rather not. As the top rails slope down the tube is longer than the opening I have to get it through and another thing, how am i going to weld all round it with the plates there, I think that's another bugger!
   So, cut it all back out, dress it all back to look like new and start again. This time it's tube first, fully weld, fit the plates being a bit careful about aligning the three sets of three holes and tack.