Not sure if there is a class for this, low budget Father Son Build '79 E21

[OLD MAN]

I know - I think my problem is "I Thinks - too much"

Build plan foundation is to work on the idea/thinking of a tubular chassis configuration, my plans are more along the lines of building a tubular chassis inside the body shell. So I am looking at it from the point of attaching the body to the Chassis/Cage unit more then attaching the cage to the car.


Does that make any sense?
Or am I way off the mark?


I have talked with some Drag Car builders and this is how they "get around" some of the no tubular chassis' rules in some classes. I am hoping that when we are done with it all I can cut out/off a lot more of the unibody body parts to loss more weight this way.


By the way Carlos and All, keep the input coming, I always need other eyes and ways of looking at things. Can you say tunnel vision?
LOL - Daryl

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***OK: This was suppose to be a new post - but it got done as a Edit?????




Jay I took your advice to heart and did Plan 2 for the down tubes. I cut and re-fit them so that about 60% or so of them will get welded to the strut towers now. I also got the one piece diagonal fit into place – what a pain!

HELP – anyone who has built a cage – How do you get the diagonal into the cage?

I mean – to be able to weld all the way around both down tubes top and bottom, you have to put them in first and weld them into place, right? Then you would put the diagonal into place, but you can not do that. I have to put the diagonal in and then side the driver’s side down tube into place up against it to get the good tight fit of the three tubes together that I fit up. At least that is how I fit them to go together. “?”



So here are some pictures of the re-fitting of the tubes I did today:

Driver's side down tube .................................................. .................................................. .... Passenger side with diagonal in place










The strap is to get the main loop in place, everytime I pushed the second down tube in the first one would fall out

[bmw1602.com]

nice work....

[OLD MAN]

Thanks, how is your car coming?

[Hugo D]

Nice cage

[Zan320]

Looking good!! Nice work!

[Delphin Metalic]

Nice keep it up
next BMWCCA autoX here is May 16th, 17th Sat, Sun.
Hope you can make it. I had a blast at the last one.
should be gettin H&R Race springs installed next payday
Also this time my father wants to sign up to drive my car as well. lol
(2 old men and one old car)
dont think my daughters are old enough yet

[OLD MAN]

Nice keep it up
next BMWCCA autoX here is May 16th, 17th Sat, Sun.
Hope you can make it. I had a blast at the last one.
should be gettin H&R Race springs installed next payday
Also this time my father wants to sign up to drive my car as well. lol
(2 old men and one old car)
dont think my daughters are old enough yet

I hope to have it running by then, it will not be done but drivable.
Sounds like you are going to have fun in May.

Looking forward to being there.

[Smilez]

looking really good

[OLD MAN]

We have been working away so I thought I would post an up date for you all.


We have spent a lot of time the last two weeks or so scraping and scraping.

Because I decided before I welded any more of the cage in the car, to do some cleaning up and patching of holes. I figured having more tubes in the car would just make the patching harder to do. So Adam and I have been scraping off the Zolatone paint from the interior and also somemore of the sound proofing/body seam gunk. Not much to really show but we are both pretty sore from the job.


First picture shows some cleaned area and some not yet cleaned area side by side. We also got out the industrial strength heat gun for the sound proofing, some of that stuff is thickkkkkk.....








To take a break from the scraping through the week, I came home one night and test fit the seat - to mark the location for it..Also looking at a wood seat mounting idea....remember we are on a budget....



What do you think some 6" long carage bolts and nylock nuts?



Ok so I am not going to use wood, I went and bent up some 1" x .083 chrome molly tubing after working out the shape and postion. Tubing not pictured you will have to wait till I get it welded in.

Well we did a lot more scraping and cleaning - filled a 14 gallon shop vac bagin the last three weeks.

Then it was time to patch some holes and fix some rust spots..



and from this to this




And put out some more Fires!








Then today I cleaned some more and painted - I ran out of Argon yesterday so I could not do any welding and I wanted to do something.










Also while we were patching holes yesterday and doing all that weldeing -- I just had to do something different so I used the Sawsall a little...

We cut out the trunk lid (boot) hinge mounting locations in the trunk area.

The piece in................................................ .................................................. ....................................it gone.

[Smilez]

addicted to the sawzall hug? lol

[OLD MAN]

Hay Ray - you know's I loves my Saw's'ALL by now.. Just wish I could find a Fix'S'ALL to use after it...

[E21Adam]

Hay Ray - you know's I loves my Saw's'ALL by now.. Just wish I could find a Fix'S'ALL to use after it...

duct tape, man, duct tape

[OLD MAN]

duct tape, man, duct tape

It is good for those pesky little leaks too.. back at ya Adam

And I am formally trained in the use of Duct Tape and Duck Seal for water proofing electronic equipment and such, for river crossings.

Old Corp/USMC certified, at least I was back, just after God created dirt.


OK - on the subject of the Track Car Build, we're still plugging away at it - but the train is running out of steam..! I hope to finish up the cage by May 8 or so. I would like to throw some wires and the fuel cell in it so we can make the San Diego Auto-X on May 15-16th - but it is not looking good. Oh well it will run again! someday.

[OLD MAN]

Been working away “somewhat” the last few weeks:

Working on –

1) Seat mounting, actually did a lot on this, want to have a slider on the drivers seat, because we need it. Not much to show yet but pieces cut bolts bought and lots of measuring and re-measuring. Also I am working on attaching it to the cage and not just the sheet metal floor so this has been troublesome at times.
2) Did some sheet metal work on the interior as far as new rear shelf and trunk divider wall mounting points
3) Added more tubes to the roll cage – chassis points –finished the “X” in the rear down tubes and got the diagonal in the main loop.
4) Did some sheet metal repair and clean up to the rear window frame lower line and put a new coat of rattle can white on it all
5) Added some rear trunk tubes and chassis cross tube. Then I also started a wing mounting system off of these tubes. After looking through some threads and such I decided it would be a good idea, it is out of .060” mild steel 1.5” tubing to save some weight.
6) Test fit the fuel cell mount while doing the rear cross tube – I am going to have to adjust it’s position a little – move it forward about 1.5 to 2” or so. Not really a bad thing, as I have material in the mount to do this if needed.
7) Capped off the open upright tubes at the rear end mounting points
8) Started bending and fitting the “A” post tubes back to the Main “B” loop.
9) Did some more cleaning “always” and did some more painting – tried of the rust starting on the raw metal and wanted to play around with a finished interior color skim.
10) Bought some fuel lines – bent the replacement hard line. I’m going to run a steel line in the stock position for now till I get more things worked out.
11) Of course I did a little more cutting off of un-needed body parts.
12) We started the work of mounting the fiberglass trunk lid, got the Dzus mounting tabs on and did some priming and painting.

Confession to the professional welders, my weld has not improved much. But the welds are good just a little thick in places. I blame it on my old body not being as nimble as it once was, the more tubes I get into this small car the harder it is to get to and see what the hack I am welding. If there ever is a next one I want to use a tig welder!

Anyway here are some pictures for those of you who care……

More tubes and interior clean up - first where it was the last time I posted:



Now some of what I added - Tubes & playing with paint colors




Sheet Metal -





Some sheet metal work for the rear divider:



Finishing the "X" and the main loop Diagonal





Then I did some rear window frame work -







Then there are the trunk cross brace and down tubes - first the holes drilled into the rear frame channels -



Then the cross tube and down tubes - Passenger side has a 5/16" stud welded into it for the Battery ground cable. Also added some 1/2" EMT tubing to brace the rear window lower frame.





Also put the Fuel Cell mount in place to see if I need to modify it, I do.



And the start of the Wing Mount -



Trunk mounting Tabs -



I will take more pictures and post later... 24 is on!!!

[Smilez]

any update over the weekend ?

[OLD MAN]

Hi Ray

I did work on few things this weekend and but ran out of gas for the welder early on, so attaching parts was limited.

To me the biggest thing was, finishing up the Driver Seat mounting system and getting it welded into the car before the gas ran out. I have been working on this for about a month on and off, buying hardware getting tubing and bending it. But most of my time was really just spent on looking at, thinking about and working details on how to get the sliders mounted to the seat adjusters and then on how to get that assembly mounted to the car.

Details:
1). Seat is an aluminum Kirkey high back drag seat
2). With adjustable aluminum mounts not sure who made them, they did not fit the seat so I had to bend and space them to fit. Also made some aluminum spacer/washers out of sheet aluminum I had by using my drill press and hole saw set.
3). Used stock E21 Racaro Sliders - Adam and I are different enough in height that we could not mount the seat stationary in one place
4). “U” loop mount is 1” .063” wall chrome molly tubing
5). Plate steel is 1/8” on the open ends and 1/16” on the bent end.
6). Center bar (5 point belt mount) is the same 1” chrome molly with 3/32” thick bent mount – 7/16” fine thread (Distorted Thread) steel lock nut welded to the bottom side. I will be adding a second one a little further back for my seat position.
7). So far all the bolts are 3/8” or 5/16” button heads with distorted thread steel locking nuts.

Still need to work out the in-broad tunnel lap belt mounting point. I know where to put it just not sure how to attach it to the car. I am thinking of maybe adding to the 1” chrome molly and mounting a tab to that?

Aluminum washers



I cleaned up the ones I used on the belt sander

Then worked on getting pieces mounted on the seat - about a period of two weeks spent on this



Then came positioning the 1" loop, most have done this about 10 times in the past two weeks and double checked the seat on it just as many times. But there comes a time to trust what you have measured and tested and make some welds - so:



Loop mounting points on the door side, 1/8" plate welded to the cage bar and floor.



This is the 5 point belt attachment point



Welding in the loop - this is it - hope it is right!



Finished mount in car






Also did some more cleaning in the trunk area and heat gunned off the last of the sound proofing, cleaned out welding mess and did some painting. Adam and I also finished up the mounting of the "HDX" FiberGlass trunk lid, I will post pictures of it later. I should be ready to put the fuel cell mount in this week along with the Battery mount.

Maybe even start running fuel lines. -- - - ---More later......

[Silver///M]

Nice, can't wait to see it DONE

[Rickysbmw320i]

Damn DaryL!!! How did I miss this? Great work! hope to see you next year at b'fest!

[OLD MAN]

Damn DaryL!!! How did I miss this? Great work! hope to see you next year at b'fest!

Not Sure.....Thanks

It has been to long with it not running, hope to get it started this month. Started ordering some wiring stuff yesterday and I am real close to being ready to weld in the fuel cell mount - maybe this week end.

When I get it running I will post up some pictures on the E21 section - Adam wants to fix his new-used "M" Coupe, so I need to move the race car to do that.

[cheechthechi]

Awesome job! I really like the way its turning out. Almost looks like you have a full tube frame car in the works.. or is that the next project .

[stealthbeam]

Man looks great! Love the attention to detail on the cage work. Not too shabby MIG work also. Keep up the good work!

[OLD MAN]

Thanks Cheechthechi & Stealthbeam, it has turned into a real love / hate relationship! But it is all my fault, , I am the one who keep bring out the Sawzall and adding more and more tubes!!!

Cheechthechi it is going to pretty much be a tube chassis car when we are done with it, assuming that time ever comes???!

[OLD MAN]

We have been slugging away at our little toy - so here is a quick update:

* Fuel cell mount is in
* Fuel cell in and out - fitting and number 3
* Working on filling in the missing trunk floor
* New battery mount in - it is a bolt in piece I got from a mail order Circle track supplier. Great prices on things.
* Half of the future wing mount done
* All of the Cage/Chassis from the Main loop back is Done!!!
* Everything behind the Main Loop back has been painted - growing tried of the surface rust...
* Drivers Side seat mount is done
* Starting to install fuel lines - most of these will be new stock replacement style steel lines for now - budget thing.
* HDX Fiberglass trunk lid install is done
* Installed new Polyurathane steering rack bushings
* most likely more little things I have forgotten about..







Parts in place:





Making templates



Trunk lid on

[autox320]

looks tits! can't wait to build mine one day

[TOOLEAN]

Extremely Clean. It would be interesting to roll that thing accross a scale.