Brumby build with a difference

wrxer · Post by **wrxer** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:47 pm

man, thats awesome what you have done to the old brumby, with the floor out it must be tempting to channel it a couple of inches.
i will be in geraldton over xmas, maybe i can have a look in the flesh and share a beer or 2.

i cant believe the effort you have thrown at this car. truly inspiring. awesome work

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 12:03 am

wrxer wrote:man, thats awesome what you have done to the old brumby, with the floor out it must be tempting to channel it a couple of inches.
i will be in geraldton over xmas, maybe i can have a look in the flesh and share a beer or 2.

i cant believe the effort you have thrown at this car. truly inspiring. awesome work

mmmmm channelling hey ????? Nah that would be too much work......

although it would be nice - even with this way of doing the conversion its not going to sit as low as I wanted it

hmmmmm beeeeeeer

Oh hang on I don't drink beer

make it a bourbon or 12

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 6:42 pm

Came across my first problem

The chassis rails were pushed out wider than I thought and this has left a little bit of a gaping hole :

But not to worry - 3 hours playing with cardboard and then some decent 1.6mm steel resulted in this :

Should be plenty storng enough and still looks like a factory stamping (or at least it will once its welded in and all the gaps filled and smoothed.
Pretty stoked with that as it is my first attempt at something like this

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 10:13 am

Awesome work there Ken.. can't wait to see it in the flesh

wrxer · Post by **wrxer** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 10:30 pm

im not sure how you are drilling spot welds, but i use one of these:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HSS-3-8-10mm ... 519bc52c91

well worth the money. i use it with the cordless drill so you can slow it right and use plenty of pressure. it easy to just cut the top layer of steel, leaving a button of spot weld on the rear sheet.
i have a snapon drill as well like this:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3Pce-6mm-8mm ... 3f0ffd5557

but because it drills the weld hardened area, it goes blunt quick. the top one is pretty good and is still sharp after the 70 odd spots i have removed.

btw, how are you keeping everything aligned and positioned? plumb bob and tape measure? the alignment thing boggles me

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 10:40 pm

wrxer wrote:im not sure how you are drilling spot welds, but i use one of these:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HSS-3-8-10mm ... 519bc52c91

well worth the money. i use it with the cordless drill so you can slow it right and use plenty of pressure. it easy to just cut the top layer of steel, leaving a button of spot weld on the rear sheet.
i have a snapon drill as well like this:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3Pce-6mm-8mm ... 3f0ffd5557

but because it drills the weld hardened area, it goes blunt quick. the top one is pretty good and is still sharp after the 70 odd spots i have removed.

btw, how are you keeping everything aligned and positioned? plumb bob and tape measure? the alignment thing boggles me

Yeah got both of those types of cutter - prefer the drill bit type,

Aligned and positioned ? Hadn't even thought about - just putting it back where it looks right - hahahahaha

But seriously the frame rails are positioned by the Crossmember, LCA and gearbox mount - just made sure it was square once it was all bolted in tight. Then just need to make sure it the whole assembly is then square once its on the body. Probably won't be perfect but should be within a few mm.

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:27 pm

Small update :

Been trying to get that bracket from the chassis to the firewall perfect. Done about a dozen attempts in cardboard and half a dozen in steel and just can't quite get the shape and fit right. Even went to the trouble of filling the space with expanding foam and trimming that to exactly the right shape and I still can't replicate it in steel

1. Fill hole with foam :

2. Move chassis rail out of the way :

3. Cut away excess foam :

4. Final shape - guaranteed to be correct :

And on a positive note my engineer came over and gave me the big thumbs up for the work so far

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 10:22 pm

Spent the afternoon today transferring the foam shape into metal and finally got it right - YAY !! Photos tomorrow.......

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:02 pm

BOOOOOO !!!!

No pics yet cos I still didn't get it right - bloody compound curves grrrrrrr.

I think I've got it nailed now but back at work for the next week so won't be able to do any more till then. This has taken me about 60hours so far - ouch !!

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:26 pm

Yeah.. looks like you're on a winner there Ken

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:32 pm

OI thats enough sarcasm in my thread thank you very much..............

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 5:35 pm

niterida wrote:OI thats enough sarcasm in my thread thank you very much..............

What?? sarcasm.. me?? come on Ken, you know that's not I

But seriously.. I think that could work

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:04 pm

niterida wrote:BOOOOOO !!!!

No pics yet cos I still didn't get it right - bloody compound curves grrrrrrr.

I think I've got it nailed now but back at work for the next week so won't be able to do any more till then. This has taken me about 60hours so far - ouch !!

Could you do it in fibreglass so it holds its shape better? A couple of layers of chop over the foam should work...maybe?

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:01 pm

nachaluva wrote:Could you do it in fibreglass so it holds its shape better? A couple of layers of chop over the foam should work...maybe?

Its not the foam thats the problem. Because it bends in 3 or 4 different ways if you are a mm out with the angle or the size it completely throws it out of shape when done in steel. But I'm pretty sure I've got the template right now so tomorrow I may get time to have another crack at it.

Of course I could have made it easy on myself by doing it outof 2 or 3 different pices and just doing flat bends and welding it together with straight lines, but then it wouldn't look factory and wouldn't be half as much fun

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 6:08 pm

SUCCESS !!!!!!

What a bloody nightmare this has been getting one piddly little bracket made.
Now I have to make a template from this one and then make 2 proper ones - the one in the photo looks good but it is missing a couple of bits where you can't see it - the joys of trying to amke things fit.

So tomorrows job is to make 2 good ones and then hopefully Wednesday I will be able to tack weld them in place, tack the chassis rails on and then tack the Liberty floor in as well.

Then I have to find someone with real welding skills to weld everything in properly. But it will be all smooth fast sailing once this bit of the project is done. Downhill from here...........

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 9:24 am

niterida wrote:And on a positive note my engineer came over and gave me the big thumbs up for the work so far

That's great news mate! You must be stoked!!

niterida wrote:Then I have to find someone with real welding skills to weld everything in properly. But it will be all smooth fast sailing once this bit of the project is done. Downhill from here...........

Don't be going too fast now niterida - you want to make sure you've done it all properly so it is sweet as possible! It's all ready a sweet project, but I think the aim as been to go for "sweet az bro" status

Cheers

Bennie

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 10:56 am

lookin' pretty good

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 11:28 am

I could weld for you Ken but bit hard when you're in Gero

unless you know of a good welding machine up your way and put me up for a couple of days

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 11:40 am

RSR 555 wrote:I could weld for you Ken but bit hard when you're in Gero unless you know of a good welding machine up your way and put me up for a couple of days

Thanks for the offer Paul but it needs to be done properly

But seriously it does have to be done by a coded welder as they have to sign off on it for the engineering to be approved

Wouldn't want it falling apart in the middle of a 10sec 1/4

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 12:49 pm

Looks like a really good job you've done!

I agree with Scott, take your time & do it right..."measure twice & cut once"