Cross beams and body mounts

So with a couple of 4yr birthday parties on which I was able to get out of I had 4hr on both Saturday & Sunday to work on the RattyT.

So most of Saturday was working on the new cross beam that I have decided to add. There are a number of reasons for adding the cross beam.

• It tidies up the whole front end
• It adds strength
• The Certifier recommended that I have at least 4-5 cross beams
• I will use it to mount the radiator
  

So a number of compelling reasons. So I am now at the point where I can start adding back to the car. The new beam will be where the old mounts for the radiator were, before I cut them down. So I cut a tab out them back to allow the beam to rest on the remaining tab to give it added strength.

I removed the last of the brake lines and got ready to start work on the new beam.

So on to the new beam. It need to be curved so that once its welded into place I can still easily remove the bottom pulley and to allow clearance for the electric fan on the back of the radiator.

So I cut the length of box section 40mm over and then cut and measured the slots to allow me to bend the beam and get the right curve. I cut five slots, The middle on the center line and then moving out either side of that cut. I used a metal drop saw which gave nice clean straight cuts. After the cuts were made it was a simple task to bend the beam.

Once I got the bend I wanted I clamped it down and tacked it to allow for fitting.

After much cutting and grinding I got the beam in with close tolerances to allow for good welds.

Close up of the right hand side. You can see the notch at the rear where the tab from the old radiator mount is slotted in.

The mess on the concrete pad.

So that finished off a successful Saturday afternoon. Everything takes twice as long as you think. But I am much happier with how the front will look and having the radiator mounted off that beam will really tidy up the front end.

Sunday, a sunny but cold morning. Brrr it was cold. Got RattyT out and on the jack stands as I planned to tackle the current rear cross member. It was 8mm plate, but it wasn't welded in straight. It was about 30mm out of square. I also wanted to add strength to it as the inner seat belt mounts were to come off this.

The below shot gives you some idea how far out of square it was. From the look of it, it was added later on in the cars life, while the body was still on. With the body off you could see how out of square it was.

So the first big task was to cut it off. So I had to clammier under the car and try and us the angle grinder with a cutting blade and cut it off with out touching the chassis.

I was a prick of a job, but I finally got one side free. The other side was even worse to get free, but I finally did.

And there it is, So I squared up the ends and got it to the right shape to re-weld in.

I wanted to add some strength to the cross member so I used some 50mm angle iron and added that as an additional cross member, But it was primarily going to be used to mount the body.

The reason for the curve is the beam goes over the drive shaft. So it needed space to allow for suspension travel. I followed the exiting curve to cut a matching curve out of the angle iron. The plan is to have the two welded together which will give it greatly increase strength.

The ends and the chassis cleaned up of paint ready to tack in place. I used a 3M paint remover disc in the angle grinder. They work fantastic.

The new beam and the old one now square and tacked in place. The final welding will be done by the engineer.

Right now onto the other body mounts. I decided to give the body alot more support and also allow myself lots of flexibility on where I can mount not just the body but also other interior fixtures.

So I cleaned up the chassis rail and cut the 50mm angle iron into two lengths that run nearly the full length of where the body will sit. This increased the foot print on which the body will sit from 50mm to 100 each side, Plus all the other mounts that I have planned for the pedal box and on the passengers side.

Left side all tacked

Right side done and the start of mocking up where the pedal box mounts will go. The pedal box before was just bolted to the bottom of the plywood floor, Not very secure. So I have to make a proper steel frame / mount that it all bolts too.

Pedal box clamped in place to start on the mounts.

So all in all a successful weekends worth of work on the RattyT. Its nice to start putting things back on the poor girl.

Removing the brake lines

Ok, I had some time on Wednesday afternoon so decided to tackle some more of the mess on RattyT. So the first thing I needed to do was work out if I needed to move the brake booster. After talking to the certifier, I got the information about the lowest any part of the car can be and then looked under the car to see if it would comply. Doing a rough eye line, I believe it would be OK where it is. So at this stage I plan to just leave it where it is. One thing I do need to do is put a guard in front to protect the booster from stones and the such like.

So on with the days work ... cleaning up the mess.
Now since there is going to be welding going on, I though it best to get rid of the fuel tank. So it was a simple matter of first draining the tank, then unbolting it.

Got the jerry cans I had to capture the fuel.

One big bonus was that the previous owner had installed a fuel tap. So I was able to control the flow of fuel easily as I filled the jerry cans. It took much longer than I though it would, and of course I managed to spill fuel.

Finally got the tank off, I will need to investigate the options I have for changing the filler cap as its useless. I would like a motorcycle type lockable type.

So here is the mess I plan to tidy up, First the brakes and brake lines, then the wiring. But before I can do that I have to remove everything and start again.

As you can see the brake lines are random and all over the place, then they run on the underneath of the chassis which is illegal now, so I have to re-route them anyway. So since I have to do that I might as well use new tubing and route it how I want and tidy up the whole lot.

First some of the wiring needed to be removed, this main lead to the alternator was not in good condition and came apart as I removed it.

Another fix it job.

So on to the brakes, before I could remove the brake lines I have to get rid of the brake fluid. Now since the pedal box was removed it was hard work trying to pump the master cylinder. So I did it in reverse. I removed the tube on the brake master cylinder. This was then pointed into a catch tray, then with a piece of plactic tubing connected to the bleeder valve blow the brake fluid out. I did this for all 4 wheels (tubes). Now I have the lines clear I removed the master cylinder and emptied that.

Of course since this was my first time I made mistakes and a big mess. Next was the wiring that needed to be removed as It was routed over where the welding will be taking place. It was just a simple matter of un-threading it, and taking photos to make sure I remember where everything went.

Looks much better ... right ??
I can now get my head around what work I need to do... and the list just got longer again.

The next thing I needed to do was source the new brake parts, bundy tubing, connectors, tube cutter, tube bender, clips, oh and some vacuum tubing for the master cylinder. of course this took much longer than i expected and i spent 2 days after work running around tracking down the required parts.

Plan for the coming weekend is to tack in the peddle box, body mounts and get it to a point where I can take it to the engineer to do the final welding.

Brake lines

So the old RattyT brake lines are on the bottom of the chassis rails. This is now illegal, so I will have to move them. So I decided that if I have to move them I might as well replace them and route them how I want. And since I like to see all the mechanical "bits" i have my thinking cap on on how to route them. I have gone and got the 3/16 bundy tube, a flare kit and tube cutter.

My theory is that the money I spend on the tools to allow me to learn and do the job properly and would still be half the price of getting it done professionally. I get to learn and keeps the tools for later projects and I also get to put my personal touch to the car.

All positives. Except that I don't really know what I'm doing :)
Mind you that's never stopped me before.

Big weekend on the RattyT, body is now off.

I have had a very busy couple of days on the RattyT. So much for a buying a car that was on the road. But at least I will have put my "touch" to this old girl.

Anyway, the first job for last week was to get the steering wheel and assorted bits and pieces to start the trial fitting of the column. After alot searching and looking around at steering wheels with prices ranging from $80 to $500 or more if you when completely over the top. I decided on a good enough approach for the steering wheel. So ended up with a run of the mill SAAS from Repco. I though well if I get a fairly standard steering wheel now, if later on there is $$$ left in the budget I can change it. But at the moment I just needed one to work with, and one of a design I could live with.

So here is is, the next drama was getting a steering boss to fit the second hand column I have. Its from a Mitsubishi, that's was all I knew. So it was two days of running around after work to finally source the right one and get it all fitted.

 

 

So there it is all mocked up ready to for me to start the process of sorting out where it needs to go in the cabin. So with it tied to a broom I was able to get it pretty close to where I wanted it. This also included getting the seat height right as well. 

 

 

Overall I think it looks good, and an pretty happy with the "look" of it. It will make driving the Ratty much easier and fun to drive.
 

Then we roll into Saturday. I had one of my best men down visiting us, which was great and I took the opportunity of having an extra pair of hands to help with getting the body off. First thing was to go pick up some other new second hand bits. First up was some white wall tyres, I am hoping I can get the right rims to fit, but that can happen at any stage, they were at a good price so I grabbed them. They would also fit the VW project if I ever get back to that. The other pick up was some angle iron. I plan to use the angle iron to make the pedal box mounting and  to mount the body on the chassis properly.

The pedal box at the moment was only bolted to the plywood floor, not to the the chassis. I want to make it all self contained attached to the chassis. Just another job I have added to my growing list.

 

The white walls sitting against the jacked up car to give me some idea what it could look like. I like :)

 

The other tyres and the angle iron.

After these trips the big job ahead was to get the body off. This involved disconnecting the wiring, all mounting bolts, pedal box and other assorted bits.

First the wiring, the Tbucket had been rewired not that long ago and they had the forethought to use connectors to allow the body to be removed. they didn't do a particularly tidy job of it but it did make it easy to disconnect it all. So adding to my growing list is to tidy up all the wring and the location of the connections.

The tricky bit was that all the connectors were added after the wiring had been passed through the floor. So I had to cut out some more to allow the removal of the wires. So out with the hole cutter and cut a hole beside the wires to allowing me to slide them out. So after some careful chisel work, the wires were free.

 

 

Next stage was to just remove the rest of the wiring that was attached to the floor, headlight dimmer, kill switch, hand brake cables and seat belts.

 

Steve my helper for the day. As we tackled the pedal box. I was a tricky job, but with two set of hand it was much easier. What would have taken me over 4hours alone only took 1hr.

 

And there it is the body fully removed. It came off easily once we had everything disconnected. Molly checking it out, she calls it a coldrot, not a hotrod as it has no roof so it will be "cold" Daddy. To cute. :)

 

 

So here is the underbelly of the beast, and it anit pretty. Pandora's box I believe the term is. But might as well do it now. So this will mean new brake lines, re-route the hydraulic clutch line, tidy up all the wiring, moving the master cylinder, new pedal box mounting, new body mounts and of course seat belts. So the job list just gets longer.

 

When  I wasnt looking Molly got the camera and took a few shots, Hes the boys looking and going "oh gosh ... what a wee mess we have under here"

 

Another ... "Job well done mate"

 

Next job was to make a dolly for the body so I could move it and work on it alone without anybody needing to help me move it. So I got some wheels and quickly made up a frame out of spare timber I had lying around. 

 

So here it is, wheeled in its new little home

So overall some really good progress was made. Now I can get to all the underbelly and tidy and re-plumb the whole car. So next I have to learn how to do that :)